git rev-list Command: Count Commits in CI

git rev-list enumerates commits reachable from given refs, with powerful filtering.

rev-list is the plumbing behind log. In CI its most common use is --count to turn the number of commits into a build number or to measure how far ahead a branch is.

Common flags

--count - print the number of matching commits instead of listing them
HEAD - count commits reachable from HEAD
<from>..<to> - count commits in a range (e.g. commits since a tag)
--first-parent - follow only the first parent of merges
--no-merges - exclude merge commits from the count
--all - consider all refs

Example

shell

# Derive a monotonic build number from commit count
BUILD_NUMBER="$(git rev-list --count HEAD)"
# How many commits since the last tag?
git rev-list --count "$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD"

In CI

git rev-list --count HEAD gives an ever-increasing build number that needs full history, so do not run it on a shallow clone. Use a tag..HEAD range to count commits in a release for changelog stats.

Key takeaways

git rev-list --count HEAD yields a monotonic build number from commit history.
It requires full history, so deepen shallow CI clones before counting.
A tag..HEAD range counts exactly the commits in a release.

Related guides

git log Command: Inspect History in CIgit log shows commit history. Reference for --oneline, -n, and --format to extract commit messages and author… git describe Command: Version Strings in CIgit describe builds a human-readable version from tags. Reference for --tags and --always to derive build ver… git rev-parse Command: Resolve Refs in CIgit rev-parse resolves refs to SHAs and prints repo metadata. Reference for HEAD, --short, and --abbrev-ref t… git shortlog Command: Summarize Authors in CIgit shortlog groups commits by author. Reference for -s, -n, and ranges to build contributor summaries and re…