git-reflog(1)

# git-reflog(1) Manual Page

## NAME

git-reflog - Manage reflog information

## SYNOPSIS

    git reflog <subcommand> <options>

## DESCRIPTION

The command takes various subcommands, and different options depending on the subcommand:

    git reflog [show] [log-options] [<ref>]
    git reflog expire [--expire=<time>] [--expire-unreachable=<time>]
            [--rewrite] [--updateref] [--stale-fix]
            [--dry-run | -n] [--verbose] [--all | <refs>…]
    git reflog delete [--rewrite] [--updateref]
            [--dry-run | -n] [--verbose] ref@{specifier}…
    git reflog exists <ref>

Reference logs, or "reflogs", record when the tips of branches and other references were updated in the local repository. Reflogs are useful in various Git commands, to specify the old value of a reference. For example, `HEAD@{2}` means "where HEAD used to be two moves ago", `master@{one.week.ago}` means "where master used to point to one week ago in this local repository", and so on. See gitrevisions(7) for more details.

This command manages the information recorded in the reflogs.

The "show" subcommand (which is also the default, in the absence of any subcommands) shows the log of the reference provided in the command-line (or `HEAD`, by default). The reflog covers all recent actions, and in addition the `HEAD` reflog records branch switching. `git reflog show` is an alias for `git log -g --abbrev-commit --pretty=oneline`; see git-log(1) for more information.

The "expire" subcommand prunes older reflog entries. Entries older than `expire` time, or entries older than `expire-unreachable` time and not reachable from the current tip, are removed from the reflog. This is typically not used directly by end users — instead, see git-gc(1).

The "delete" subcommand deletes single entries from the reflog. Its argument must be an exact entry (e.g. "`git reflog delete master@{2}`"). This subcommand is also typically not used directly by end users.

The "exists" subcommand checks whether a ref has a reflog. It exits with zero status if the reflog exists, and non-zero status if it does not.

## OPTIONS

### Options for `show`

`git reflog show` accepts any of the options accepted by `git log`.

### Options for `expire`

--all

  Process the reflogs of all references.

--expire=<time>

  Prune entries older than the specified time. If this option is not specified, the expiration time is taken from the configuration setting `gc.reflogExpire`, which in turn defaults to 90 days. `--expire=all` prunes entries regardless of their age; `--expire=never` turns off pruning of reachable entries (but see `--expire-unreachable`).

--expire-unreachable=<time>

  Prune entries older than `<time>` that are not reachable from the current tip of the branch. If this option is not specified, the expiration time is taken from the configuration setting `gc.reflogExpireUnreachable`, which in turn defaults to 30 days. `--expire-unreachable=all` prunes unreachable entries regardless of their age; `--expire-unreachable=never` turns off early pruning of unreachable entries (but see `--expire`).

--updateref

  Update the reference to the value of the top reflog entry (i.e. <ref>@{0}) if the previous top entry was pruned. (This option is ignored for symbolic references.)

--rewrite

  If a reflog entry’s predecessor is pruned, adjust its "old" SHA-1 to be equal to the "new" SHA-1 field of the entry that now precedes it.

--stale-fix

  Prune any reflog entries that point to "broken commits". A broken commit is a commit that is not reachable from any of the reference tips and that refers, directly or indirectly, to a missing commit, tree, or blob object.

  This computation involves traversing all the reachable objects, i.e. it has the same cost as git prune. It is primarily intended to fix corruption caused by garbage collecting using older versions of Git, which didn’t protect objects referred to by reflogs.

-n
--dry-run

  Do not actually prune any entries; just show what would have been pruned.

--verbose

  Print extra information on screen.

### Options for `delete`

`git reflog delete` accepts options `--updateref`, `--rewrite`, `-n`, `--dry-run`, and `--verbose`, with the same meanings as when they are used with `expire`.

## GIT

Part of the git(1) suite