Show full Git commit message in console
pagers to the rescue
git log | lessMake sure you don't have -S on an alias for less
Also, it is generally considered good practice to limit the width for commit messages. I believe a common standard is 78 chars (IIRC), and most texteditors do a good job of ensuring such style rules (auto formatting your message).
Update: As a reference data point, git-config lists:
gui.commitmsgwidth
Defines how wide the commit message window is in the git-gui(1). "75" is the default.
You can also use
git log --format=<format> [hash|HEAD]where <format> can be one of the following:
The placeholders are:
# see man git-log PRETTY FORMATS section%H: commit hash%h: abbreviated commit hash%T: tree hash%t: abbreviated tree hash%P: parent hashes%p: abbreviated parent hashes%an: author name%aN: author name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))%ae: author email%aE: author email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))%ad: author date (format respects --date= option)%aD: author date, RFC2822 style%ar: author date, relative%at: author date, UNIX timestamp%ai: author date, ISO 8601-like format%aI: author date, strict ISO 8601 format%cn: committer name%cN: committer name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))%ce: committer email%cE: committer email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))%cd: committer date (format respects --date= option)%cD: committer date, RFC2822 style%cr: committer date, relative%ct: committer date, UNIX timestamp%ci: committer date, ISO 8601-like format%cI: committer date, strict ISO 8601 format%d: ref names, like the --decorate option of git-log(1)%D: ref names without the " (", ")" wrapping.%e: encoding%s: subject%f: sanitized subject line, suitable for a filename%b: body%B: raw body (unwrapped subject and body)%N: commit notes%GG: raw verification message from GPG for a signed commit%G?: show "G" for a good (valid) signature, "B" for a bad signature, "U" for a good signature with unknown validity, "X" for a good signature that has expired, "Y" for a good signature made by an expired key, "R" for a good signature made by a revoked key, "E" if the signature cannot be checked (e.g. missing key) and "N" for no signature%GS: show the name of the signer for a signed commit%GK: show the key used to sign a signed commit%gD: reflog selector, e.g., refs/stash@{1} or refs/stash@{2 minutes ago}; the format follows the rules described for the -g option. The portion before the @ is the refname as given on the command line (so git log -g refs/heads/master would yield refs/heads/master@{0}).%gd: shortened reflog selector; same as %gD, but the refname portion is shortened for human readability (so refs/heads/master becomes just master).%gn: reflog identity name%gN: reflog identity name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))%ge: reflog identity email%gE: reflog identity email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))%gs: reflog subject%Cred: switch color to red%Cgreen: switch color to green%Cblue: switch color to blue%Creset: reset color%C(...): color specification, as described under Values in the "CONFIGURATION FILE" section of git-config(1); adding auto, at the beginning will emit color only when colors are enabled for log output (by color.diff, color.ui, or --color, and respecting the auto settings of the former if we are going to a terminal). auto alone (i.e. %C(auto)) will turn on auto coloring on the next placeholders until the color is switched again.%m: left (<), right (>) or boundary (-) mark%n: newline%%: a raw %%x00: print a byte from a hex code%w([<w>[,<i1>[,<i2>]]]): switch line wrapping, like the -w option of git-shortlog(1).%<(<N>[,trunc|ltrunc|mtrunc]): make the next placeholder take at least N columns, padding spaces on the right if necessary. Optionally truncate at the beginning (ltrunc), the middle (mtrunc) or the end (trunc) if the output is longer than N columns. Note that truncating only works correctly with N >= 2.%<|(<N>): make the next placeholder take at least until Nth columns, padding spaces on the right if necessary%>(<N>), %>|(<N>): similar to %<(<N>), %<|(<N>) respectively, but padding spaces on the left%>>(<N>), %>>|(<N>): similar to %>(<N>), %>|(<N>) respectively, except that if the next placeholder takes more spaces than given and there are spaces on its left, use those spaces%><(<N>), %><|(<N>): similar to % <(<N>), %<|(<N>) respectively, but padding both sides (i.e. the text is centered) -%(trailers): display the trailers of the body as interpreted by git-interpret-trailers(1)This gives you so much more control over what to extract. For example in my use-case I'm interested in the actual commit message so that I can run a post-commit hook.
# get the raw body of the commitgit log --format=%B HEAD