How can I view the Git history in Visual Studio Code?

Question

I can execute various Git commands from Visual Studio Code, however I couldn't find a way to visualize the history.

Answer 1

I recommend you this extension, Git History by Don Jayamanne

It does exactly what you need and has these features:

• View the details of a commit, such as author name / email / date, committer name / email / date and comments.
• View a previous copy of the file or compare it against the local workspace version or a previous version.
• View the changes to the active line in the editor (Git Blame).
• Configure the information displayed in the list
• Use keyboard shortcuts to view history of a file or line
• View the Git log (along with details of a commit, such as author name, email, comments and file changes).

repo: https://github.com/DonJayamanne/gitHistoryVSCode

Answer 2

I strongly recommend using a combination of GitLens & GitGraph.

Below snapshot highlights how gitlens is showing commit over time

And the below picture is for the the amazing vivid GitGraph

Answer 3

You will find the right icon to click, when you open a file or the welcome page, in the upper right corner.

And you can add a keyboard shortcut:

Answer 4

You don't need an extension to do this, you can just go to Explorer and then Timeline.

If you don't want it in Explorer, you can drag and drop it to the Sidebar, or Source Control or anywhere you want!

If you want more fancy features like visualizing and all that stuff you need an extension.

Answer 5

GitLens has a nice Git history browser. Install GitLens from the extensions marketplace, and then run "Show GitLens Explorer" from the command palette.

Answer 6

There's another comfortable way to navigate the commit history for a file in Visual Studio Code by using the Gitlens extension.

That provides two functionalities, "File history" and "Line history", that are accessible from the VCS menu once Gitlens is installed.

Full explanations with example and doc reference provided in this answer.

Answer 7

You won't need a plugin to see commit history with Visual Studio Code 1.44 or more.

Timeline view

This is a unified view for visualizing time-series events (for example, Git commits, file saves, test runs, etc.) for a file. The Timeline view automatically updates showing the timeline for the currently active editor, by default. You can control this default behavior by toggling the eye icon in the view toolbar. Also, similar to other views, the Timeline view supports find or filter as you type.

The Timeline view is collapsed by default at the bottom of the File Explorer. Selecting the Timeline sash will expand the Timeline view.

[...]

Here is the Timeline view in action:

Answer 8

It is evident to me that GitLens is the most popular extension for Git history.

What I like the most it can provide you side annotations when some line has been changed the last time and by whom.

Answer 9

Git Graph seems like a decent extension. After installing, you can open the graph view from the bottom status bar.

Answer 10

I would recommend using Git Graph extension.