git show Command: Inspect Objects in CI

git show prints the details of a Git object: a commit and its diff, a tag, or a file at a revision.

CI uses git show to extract a commit message for a release note or to read a file as it existed at another ref without checking it out.

Common flags

• <commit> - show a commit message and its diff
• -s / --no-patch - suppress the diff and show only the message
• --format=<fmt> / --pretty=<fmt> - control the output format
• <rev>:<path> - print the contents of a file as of a revision
• --stat - summarize changed files instead of the full patch
• --name-only - list only the files a commit touched

Example

# Grab the subject line of the triggering commit
SUBJECT="$(git show -s --format=%s HEAD)"
# Read a config file as it was on main, without checkout
git show origin/main:config/app.yaml

In CI

git show -s --format=%s HEAD is the compact way to pull a commit subject for notifications. The <rev>:<path> form lets a step compare or read a file from another branch without switching the working tree.

Key takeaways

• git show -s --format=%s extracts just a commit message for release notes or alerts.
• The <rev>:<path> syntax reads a file from any ref without a checkout.
• Add --stat or --name-only when you only need the list of touched files.

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