GITK(1) Git Manual GITK(1) # [NAME](#NAME) gitk - The Git repository browser # [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS) ``` gitk [] [] [--] [...] ``` # [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION) Displays changes in a repository or a selected set of commits. This includes visualizing the commit graph, showing information related to each commit, and the files in the trees of each revision. # [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS) To control which revisions to show, gitk supports most options applicable to the *git rev-list* command. It also supports a few options applicable to the *git diff-\** commands to control how the changes each commit introduces are shown. Finally, it supports some gitk-specific options. gitk generally only understands options with arguments in the *stuck* form (see [**gitcli**(7)](/man/os/git/gitcli.7)) due to limitations in the command-line parser. ## [rev-list options and arguments](#rev) This manual page describes only the most frequently used options. See [**git-rev-list**(1)](/man/os/git/git-rev-list.1) for a complete list. --all Show all refs (branches, tags, etc.). --branches\[=<pattern>], --tags\[=<pattern>], --remotes\[=<pattern>] Pretend as if all the branches (tags, remote branches, resp.) are listed on the command line as *<commit>*. If *<pattern>* is given, limit refs to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks *?*, *\**, or *[*, */\** at the end is implied. --since=<date> Show commits more recent than a specific date. --until=<date> Show commits older than a specific date. --date-order Sort commits by date when possible. --merge After an attempt to merge stops with conflicts, show the commits on the history between two branches (i.e. the HEAD and the MERGE\_HEAD) that modify the conflicted files and do not exist on all the heads being merged. --left-right Mark which side of a symmetric difference a commit is reachable from. Commits from the left side are prefixed with a < symbol and those from the right with a > symbol. --full-history When filtering history with *<path>...*, does not prune some history. (See "History simplification" in [**git-log**(1)](/man/os/git/git-log.1) for a more detailed explanation.) --simplify-merges Additional option to **--full-history** to remove some needless merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected commits contributing to this merge. (See "History simplification" in [**git-log**(1)](/man/os/git/git-log.1) for a more detailed explanation.) --ancestry-path When given a range of commits to display (e.g. *commit1..commit2* or *commit2 ^commit1*), only display commits that exist directly on the ancestry chain between the *commit1* and *commit2*, i.e. commits that are both descendants of *commit1*, and ancestors of *commit2*. (See "History simplification" in [**git-log**(1)](/man/os/git/git-log.1) for a more detailed explanation.) **-L<start>,<end>:<file>**, **-L:<funcname>:<file>** Trace the evolution of the line range given by *<start>,<end>*, or by the function name regex *<funcname>*, within the *<file>*. You may not give any pathspec limiters. This is currently limited to a walk starting from a single revision, i.e., you may only give zero or one positive revision arguments, and *<start>* and *<end>* (or *<funcname>*) must exist in the starting revision. You can specify this option more than once. Implies **--patch**. Patch output can be suppressed using **--no-patch**. Non-patch diff formats **--raw**, **--name-only**, **--name-status**, and **--summary** are supported. Diff stat formats (**--stat**, **--numstat**, **--shortstat**, **--dirstat**) are not currently implemented. Patch formatting options such as **--word-diff**, **--color-moved**, **--no-prefix**, and whitespace options (**-w**, **-b**) are supported, as are pickaxe options (**-S**, **-G**) and **--diff-filter**. *<start>* and *<end>* can take one of these forms: • *<number>* If *<start>* or *<end>* is a number, it specifies an absolute line number (lines count from 1). • **/<regex>/** This form will use the first line matching the given POSIX *<regex>*. If *<start>* is a regex, it will search from the end of the previous **-L** range, if any, otherwise from the start of file. If *<start>* is **^/<regex>/**, it will search from the start of file. If *<end>* is a regex, it will search starting at the line given by *<start>*. • **+<offset>** or **-<offset>** This is only valid for *<end>* and will specify a number of lines before or after the line given by *<start>*. If **:<funcname>** is given in place of *<start>* and *<end>*, it is a regular expression that denotes the range from the first funcname line that matches *<funcname>*, up to the next funcname line. **:<funcname>** searches from the end of the previous **-L** range, if any, otherwise from the start of file. **^:<funcname>** searches from the start of file. The function names are determined in the same way as **git** **diff** works out patch hunk headers (see *Defining a custom hunk-header* in [**gitattributes**(5)](/man/os/git/gitattributes.5)). <revision range> Limit the revisions to show. This can be either a single revision meaning show from the given revision and back, or it can be a range in the form "*<from>*..*<to>*" to show all revisions between *<from>* and back to *<to>*. Note, more advanced revision selection can be applied. For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see [**gitrevisions**(7)](/man/os/git/gitrevisions.7). <path>... Limit commits to the ones touching files in the given paths. Note, to avoid ambiguity with respect to revision names use "--" to separate the paths from any preceding options. ## [gitk-specific options](#gitk) --argscmd=<command> Command to be run each time gitk has to determine the revision range to show. The command is expected to print on its standard output a list of additional revisions to be shown, one per line. Use this instead of explicitly specifying a *<revision-range>* if the set of commits to show may vary between refreshes. --select-commit=<ref> Select the specified commit after loading the graph. Default behavior is equivalent to specifying *--select-commit=HEAD*. # [EXAMPLES](#EXAMPLES) gitk v2.6.12.. include/scsi drivers/scsi Show the changes since version *v2.6.12* that changed any file in the include/scsi or drivers/scsi subdirectories gitk --since="2 weeks ago" -- gitk Show the changes during the last two weeks to the file *gitk*. The "--" is necessary to avoid confusion with the **branch** named *gitk* gitk --max-count=100 --all -- Makefile Show at most 100 changes made to the file *Makefile*. Instead of only looking for changes in the current branch look in all branches. # [FILES](#FILES) User configuration and preferences are stored at: • **$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/git/gitk** if it exists, otherwise • **$HOME/.gitk** if it exists If neither of the above exist then **$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/git/gitk** is created and used by default. If *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME* is not set it defaults to **$HOME/.config** in all cases. # [HISTORY](#HISTORY) Gitk was the first graphical repository browser, written by Paul Mackerras in Tcl/Tk. *gitk* is actually maintained as an independent project, but stable versions are distributed as part of the Git suite for the convenience of end users. **gitk-git/** comes from Johannes Sixt’s gitk project: ``` https://github.com/j6t/gitk ``` # [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO) [*qgit(1)*](/man/os/git/qgit.1) A repository browser written in C++ using Qt. [*tig(1)*](/man/os/git/tig.1) A minimal repository browser and Git tool output highlighter written in C using Ncurses. # [GIT](#GIT) Part of the [**git**(1)](/man/os/git/git.1) suite 2026-06-29 Git 2.55.0 --- Document: gitk(1) from git 2.55.0-r9 (Chainguard OS) Source: https://kernel.googlesource.com/pub/scm/git/git.git