Tracking the number of commits in your Git repository can provide insights into the development progress, team activity, and overall project health. Whether you want to get the total commit count or see the number of commits by each contributor, Git offers several ways to retrieve this information. This article will guide you through various methods to get the Git commit count using both command-line tools and graphical interfaces.

Approach 1: Using git rev-list Command

The git rev-list command is a powerful tool that can be used to list commit objects in reverse chronological order. To get the commit count, you can use the following command:

git rev-list --count HEAD

• Open a terminal or command prompt.
• Navigate to your Git repository using the cd command.
• Run the command git rev-list –count HEAD.

This command will output the total number of commits in the current branch.

git rev-list Command

Approach 2: Using git shortlog Command

The git shortlog command is used to summarize the commit history. It can be used to count commits by author or overall.

git shortlog -sn --all

• Open a terminal or command prompt.
• Navigate to your Git repository using the cd command.
• Run the command git shortlog -sn –all.

This will output a list of authors and the number of commits they have made, which can be summed up for the total count.

git shortlog Command

Approach 3: Using a GUI Tool or IDE

Many GUI tools and IDEs that support Git will display the commit count in their interface. Examples include:

• GitKraken: Displays the commit count in the repository view.
• SourceTree: Shows the commit count in the branch view.
• Visual Studio Code: With the GitLens extension, you can see the commit count in the status bar.