Re: Getting the "message" given a branch designation and conversely

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Sun, Aug 14, 2016 at 07:58:14AM -0700, norm@dad.org wrote:

> I am learning how to use git. I would like to know how:
> 
> Given a branch's designation, such as "master~4", how can I see the message I
> furnished when I created the branch using "git commit"?

Somebody already pointed you at "git log", which is the right tool for
looking at commit messages (or perhaps "git show" if you only want to
see a single entry).

> Conversely, given the message I furnished to "git commit", when I created a
> branch, how can I see the branch's designation?

Try "git log --grep=some.regex" to find a particular commit. Usually we
refer to commits by their sha1 id, which will be shown by git-log.
However, you can use git-describe to generate a name for any commit that
is based on traversing from a tag. Try:

  git describe --contains --all <sha1>

for example. Using "--all" tells git to consider names based on branches
as well as tags. Using "--contains" will generate a name based on
traversing backwards from the tags and branches (like "master~4") rather
than basing the name on a tag that you build off of.

-Peff