How do I get the name of the parent branch?

2 messages, 2 authors, 2016-06-15 · open the first message on its own page

How do I get the name of the parent branch?

From: Bruce Korb <hidden>
Date: 2016-06-15 22:51:32

Google results point to how to get to commits that have gone into
parent branches, but fundamentally I just want to have a script
that constructs a diff of what has changed since the latest branch
without having to do manual research to figure out the name.

As best as I can tell, you use:

    git format-patch -o pdir --ignore-if-in-upstream $branch

the hard part seems to be (but ought not be) figuring out
the value for "$branch".

Re: How do I get the name of the parent branch?

From: Jay Soffian <hidden>
Date: 2016-06-15 22:51:32

On Sun, Jul 3, 2011 at 12:49 PM, Bruce Korb [off-list ref] wrote:
Google results point to how to get to commits that have gone into
parent branches, but fundamentally I just want to have a script
that constructs a diff of what has changed since the latest branch
without having to do manual research to figure out the name.

As best as I can tell, you use:

  git format-patch -o pdir --ignore-if-in-upstream $branch

the hard part seems to be (but ought not be) figuring out
the value for "$branch".
Depending upon how you created the currently checked out branch, git
recorded the parent (which is usually referred to as the "upstream"
branch these days) in .git/config, and you can get this information
thusly:

  $ git rev-parse --abbrev-ref @{upstream}

(But you should not be afraid to look at .git/config and see where
this information is recorded. Look for a section named [branch
"$branch].)

Of course, you can use @{upstream} directly:

  $ git log @{u}..  # @{u} is a synonym for @{upstream}
  $ git diff @{u}

j.
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