Ask HN: Best way to view a repo's Git history quickly?
I normally fork a repo, and open it into VScode. There's two well known extensions called (1) git history and (2) gitLens. But I don't know how to configure it the way I want easily. Youtube didn't have an answer either.
What I want to do is the following:
(A) Quickly see all changes and commits to one file
(B) See normal commit history to master branch for everything
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For (A), I want the following workflow
- Pick a file of interest.
- Run a command
- Pick the first commit done on file
- Left side, see previous commit, right side see changes
- Hit →
- This shows next commit / diffchange
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For (B), I want the following workflow
1. Show git history of entire master branch, similar to stackoverflow.
2. Freeze the commit-history pane at the top, kind of like what you do to microsoft-excel header-rows.*
3. Click a commit date, organized with most recent commits down bottom
4. Git diff log is shown, similar to what you view in github commit normally.* *
5. Hit →
6. Autofocus on current item in commit-history pane
* This shows commit message / history overview only. Fills up 10% of screen, with it's own vertical scrollbar. I want the first commits done on a repo at the very top, b/c I want to see how it was created and the rationalization behind each commit.
* * Fills up 90% of screen. Shows file changes top to bottom, left shows previous file, right side changes
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Side note as well, if anyone knows how to do this or knows of a service
I want to subscribe / watch a github repo, but only see commit changes only to master + a small preview of changes right in the email itself. As of now github shows you issue / PR requests, and just a commit name overview change.
This way I can just learn things faster since github is just a massive learning resource that I haven't really used properly