Listing each branch and its last revision's date in Git

I need to delete old and unmaintained branches from our remote repository. I'm trying to find a way with which to list the remote branches by their last modified date, and I can't.

Is there an easy way to list remote branches this way?

Solution 1:

commandlinefu has 2 interesting propositions:

for k in `git branch | perl -pe s/^..//`; do echo -e `git show --pretty=format:"%Cgreen%ci %Cblue%cr%Creset" $k -- | head -n 1`\\t$k; done | sort -r

or:

for k in `git branch | sed s/^..//`; do echo -e `git log -1 --pretty=format:"%Cgreen%ci %Cblue%cr%Creset" $k --`\\t"$k";done | sort

That is for local branches, in a Unix syntax. Using git branch -r, you can similarly show remote branches:

for k in `git branch -r | perl -pe 's/^..(.*?)( ->.*)?$/\1/'`; do echo -e `git show --pretty=format:"%Cgreen%ci %Cblue%cr%Creset" $k -- | head -n 1`\\t$k; done | sort -r

Michael Forrest mentions in the comments that zsh requires escapes for the sed expression:

for k in git branch | perl -pe s\/\^\.\.\/\/; do echo -e git show --pretty=format:"%Cgreen%ci %Cblue%cr%Creset" $k -- | head -n 1\\t$k; done | sort -r 

kontinuity adds in the comments:

If you want to add it your zshrc the following escape is needed.

alias gbage='for k in `git branch -r | perl -pe '\''s/^..(.*?)( ->.*)?$/\1/'\''`; do echo -e `git show --pretty=format:"%Cgreen%ci %Cblue%cr%Creset" $k -- | head -n 1`\\t$k; done | sort -r'

In multiple lines:

alias gbage='for k in `git branch -r | \
  perl -pe '\''s/^..(.*?)( ->.*)?$/\1/'\''`; \
  do echo -e `git show --pretty=format:"%Cgreen%ci %Cblue%cr%Creset" $k -- | \
     head -n 1`\\t$k; done | sort -r'

Note: n8tr's answer, based on git for-each-ref refs/heads is cleaner. And faster.
See also "Name only option for git branch --list?"

More generally, tripleee reminds us in the comments:

• Prefer modern $(command substitution) syntax over obsolescent backtick syntax.

(I illustrated that point in 2014 with "What is the difference between $(command) and `command` in shell programming?")

• Don't read lines with for.
• Probably switch to git for-each-ref refs/remote to get remote branch names in machine-readable format

Solution 2:

Here is what I use:

git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate:iso8601 --format= %(committerdate:iso8601)%09%(refname) refs/heads

This is the output:

2014-01-22 11:43:18 +0100       refs/heads/master
2014-01-22 11:43:18 +0100       refs/heads/a
2014-01-17 12:34:01 +0100       refs/heads/b
2014-01-14 15:58:33 +0100       refs/heads/maint
2013-12-11 14:20:06 +0100       refs/heads/d/e
2013-12-09 12:48:04 +0100       refs/heads/f

For remote branches, just use "refs/remotes" instead of "refs/heads":

git for-each-ref --sort='-committerdate:iso8601' --format=' %(committerdate:iso8601)%09%(refname)' refs/remotes

Building on n8tr's answer, if you are also interested in the last author on the the branch, and if you have the "column" tool available, you can use:

git for-each-ref --sort='-committerdate:iso8601' --format='%(committerdate:relative)|%(refname:short)|%(committername)' refs/remotes/ | column -s '|' -t

Which will give you:

21 minutes ago  refs/remotes/a        John Doe
6 hours ago     refs/remotes/b        Jane Doe
6 days ago      refs/remotes/master   John Doe

You may want to call "git fetch --prune" before to have the latest information.

Solution 3:

Building off of Olivier Croquette, I like using a relative date and shortening the branch name like this:

git for-each-ref --sort='-authordate:iso8601' --format=' %(authordate:relative)%09%(refname:short)' refs/heads

Which gives you output:

21 minutes ago  nathan/a_recent_branch
6 hours ago        master
27 hours ago    nathan/some_other_branch
29 hours ago    branch_c
6 days ago      branch_d

I recommend making a Bash file for adding all your favorite aliases and then sharing the script out to your team. Here's an example to add just this one:

#!/bin/sh

git config --global alias.branches "!echo ' ------------------------------------------------------------' && git for-each-ref --sort='-authordate:iso8601' --format=' %(authordate:relative)%09%(refname:short)' refs/heads && echo ' ------------------------------------------------------------'"

Then you can just do this to get a nicely formatted and sorted local branch list:

git branches

Solution 4:

Just to add to the comment by @VonC, take your preferred solution and add it to your ~/.gitconfig alias list for convenience:

[alias]  
    branchdate = !git for-each-ref --sort='-authordate' --format='%(refname)%09%(authordate)' refs/heads | sed -e 's-refs/heads/--'

Then a simple "git branchdate" prints the list for you...