You can use a range to do that.

git log master..

If you've checked out your my_experiment branch. This will compare where master is at to HEAD (the tip of my_experiment).

Answer from alex on Stack Overflow
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Git
git-scm.com › book › en › v2 › Git-Basics-Viewing-the-Commit-History
Git - Viewing the Commit History
As you can see, this command lists each commit with its SHA-1 checksum, the author’s name and email, the date written, and the commit message. A huge number and variety of options to the git log command are available to show you exactly what you’re looking for.
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Warp
warp.dev › terminus by warp › git › git commit history
View Commit History - git log, git reflog, and git show | Warp
December 1, 2023 - If you have not checked out a branch, this will show you the commit history of the entire repository. git log <branch-name>: shows the commit history for the specified branch and any commits shared by it's parent branches
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Salesforce
trailhead.salesforce.com › learn › git and github basics › work with your history in git
Understand Your Git History and Version Control
View your project history and changes with Git. Use Git commands that let you undo previous changes. Summarize how rebase is related to common merge strategies. When we previously discussed commits, we identified them as snapshots of your project. Each snapshot contains a lot of information.
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W3Schools
w3schools.com › GIT › git_history.asp
Git History
Git .gitignore Git .gitattributes Git Large File Storage (LFS) Git Signing Commits/Tags Git Cherrypick & Patch Git Merge Conflicts Git CI/CD Git Hooks Git Submodules Git Remote Advanced ... Git keeps a detailed record of every change made to your project. You can use history commands to see what changed, when, and who made the change.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › what is the best way to view a repo's git history quickly?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: What is the best way to view a repo's git history quickly?
November 10, 2018 -

I find a lot of value in looking at how other's organize their codebase via digging through their commit history. Especially if I know how that person thinks already

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

For (A), I want the following workflow

  1. Pick a file of interest.

  2. Run a command

  3. Pick the first commit done on file

  4. Left side, see previous commit, right side see changes

  5. Hit →

  6. This shows next commit / diffchange

For (B), I want the following workflow

    1. Show git history of entire master branch, similar to stackoverflow.

  • 2. Freeze the pane at the top, kind of like what you do to microsoft-excel header-rows.

      • This shows commit message / history overview only. Fills up 10% of screen, with it's own vertical scrollbar.

  • 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.

      • Fills up 90% of screen. Shows file changes top to bottom, left shows previous file, right side changes

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

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Microsoft Learn
learn.microsoft.com › en-us › devops › develop › git › understand-git-history
Understand Git history - Azure DevOps | Microsoft Learn
Git stores history as a graph of snapshots of the entire repository. These snapshots, called commits in Git, can have multiple parents, creating a history that looks like a graph instead of a straight line.
Find elsewhere
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GitProtect.io
gitprotect.io › strona główna › navigating git history
Navigating Git History - Blog | GitProtect.io
December 11, 2024 - In Git, commits are rather important. Git commits are like a history of your repo. As your project grows, and you add new features or fix bugs, commit messages are what you can refer to in order to see what changes were made and how. Provided that your commits are well organized, purposeful, and documented you can use your Git history to your advantage.
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GitHub
docs.github.com › articles › differences-between-commit-views
Differences between commit views - GitHub Docs
The history for a single file may omit commits found on the repository's commit history. Git has several different ways of showing the history of a repository. When Git shows the history of a single file, it simplifies history by omitting commits that did not change the file.
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Atlassian
confluence.atlassian.com › bitbucketserver › commit-history-1107630823.html
Commit history | Bitbucket Data Center 10.3 | Atlassian Documentation
July 3, 2024 - Select History. On the commit details page, you can also check if a commit has been signed and verified.
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GitLab
docs.gitlab.com › user › project › repository › files › git_history
Git file history | GitLab Docs
GitLab retrieves the user name ... project. In the left sidebar, select Code > Repository. Go to your desired file in the repository. In the last commit block, select History....
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Atlassian
atlassian.com › git › tutorials › rewriting history
Git commit --amend and other methods of rewriting history
December 16, 2025 - To modify older or multiple commits, you can use git rebase to combine a sequence of commits into a new base commit. In standard mode, git rebase allows you to literally rewrite history — automatically applying commits in your current working branch to the passed branch head.
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Git
git-scm.com › book › en › v2 › Git-Tools-Rewriting-History
Git - Rewriting History
To modify a commit that is farther back in your history, you must move to more complex tools. Git doesn’t have a modify-history tool, but you can use the rebase tool to rebase a series of commits onto the HEAD that they were originally based on instead of moving them to another one.
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Codefinity
codefinity.com › courses › v2 › 7533d91f-0a23-44a3-afc7-c84d5072e189 › 5aa6942a-dab9-4c0a-a3c4-4e21b6f8fd1b › 2a272930-e4a8-4fdd-8112-602604e96829
Learn Viewing Commit History | Introduction to Git
Despite the output taking rather few lines, it contains quite a lot of information for each commit. Here are these elements (from top to bottom): ... Commit message. You can limit the number of commits displayed with the git log -n command.
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DEV Community
dev.to › ayushn21 › how-i-manage-my-git-history-236e
How I manage my git history - DEV Community
May 26, 2023 - While I'm building out a feature, my git history is a complete mess. It's usually something like: ... Yeah, really. That's definitely not shippable, so I run: ... This will reset the state of the branch to main and retain all my changes in the working copy (the branch needs to be up to date with main before this, use rebase or merge). I'll then commit them in a logical order to produce something like:
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CodeChef
codechef.com › learn › course › git-github › SFPTKH › problems › GITPROB21
Viewing Commit History in Git in Git/Github
Test your Git/Github knowledge with our Viewing Commit History in Git practice problem. Dive into the world of git-github challenges at CodeChef.
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Hcldoc
model-realtime.hcldoc.com › help › topic › com.ibm.xtools.rsarte.webdoc › Articles › Integrations › Git Integration › Git History › index.html
Git History
To investigate a specific commit, select it in the version history and view the details using the File List and Commit Details sections. To examine changes for a particular file in the selected commit, use the Compare commands in the context menu. Compare With Previous Version: Compares the ...
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Afneville
docs.afneville.com › dev › vcs › commit-history.html
The Git Commit History
March 15, 2023 - $ git log --grep="LICENSE\|license" --stat commit 06a00edd58d65bcee1d70b0cb45a8acdc0543cd1 (HEAD -> main) Author: Alexander Neville <git@afneville.com> Date: Wed Mar 15 14:34:14 2023 +0000 change LICENSE LICENSE | 27 ++++++++++++++++----------- ...