--- name: "gitk" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "git" version: "2.56.0-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/gitk" --- # gitk(1) The Git repository browser ## NAME gitk - The Git repository browser ## SYNOPSIS ``` gitk [] [] [--] [...] ``` ## 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 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)](/gitcli/7.md)) due to limitations in the command-line parser. ### rev-list options and arguments This manual page describes only the most frequently used options. See [**git-rev-list**(1)](/git-rev-list/1.md) for a complete list. - \--all Show all refs (branches, tags, etc.). - \--branches\[=\\], --tags\[=\\], --remotes\[=\\] Pretend as if all the branches (tags, remote branches, resp.) are listed on the command line as *\*. If *\* is given, limit refs to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks *?*, *\**, or *\[*, */\** at the end is implied. - \--since=\ Show commits more recent than a specific date. - \--until=\ 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 *\...*, does not prune some history. (See "History simplification" in [**git-log**(1)](/git-log/1.md) 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)](/git-log/1.md) 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)](/git-log/1.md) for a more detailed explanation.) **-L***\***,***\***:***\*, **-L:***\***:***\* Trace the evolution of the line range given by *\***,***\*, or by the function name regex *\*, within the *\*. 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 *\* and *\* (or *\*) 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**. *\* and *\* can take one of these forms: • *\* If *\* or *\* is a number, it specifies an absolute line number (lines count from 1). • **/***\***/** This form will use the first line matching the given POSIX *\*. If *\* is a regex, it will search from the end of the previous **-L** range, if any, otherwise from the start of file. If *\* is **^/***\***/**, it will search from the start of file. If *\* is a regex, it will search starting at the line given by *\*. • **+***\* or **-***\* This is only valid for *\* and will specify a number of lines before or after the line given by *\*. If **:***\* is given in place of *\* and *\*, it is a regular expression that denotes the range from the first funcname line that matches *\*, up to the next funcname line. **:***\* searches from the end of the previous **-L** range, if any, otherwise from the start of file. **^:***\* 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)](/gitattributes/5.md)). \ 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 "*\*..*\*" to show all revisions between *\* and back to *\*. Note, more advanced revision selection can be applied. For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see [**gitrevisions**(7)](/gitrevisions/7.md). \... 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 - \--argscmd=\ 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 *\* if the set of commits to show may vary between refreshes. - \--select-commit=\ Select the specified commit after loading the graph. Default behavior is equivalent to specifying *--select-commit=HEAD*. ## 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 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 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 *[qgit(1)](/qgit/1.md)* A repository browser written in C++ using Qt. *[tig(1)](/tig/1.md)* A minimal repository browser and Git tool output highlighter written in C using Ncurses. ## GIT Part of the [**git**(1)](/git/1.md) suite