[Tex/LaTex] How to produce the history graph of a Git repository in LaTeX

gitgitdagsgraphs

Is there a relatively simple way to produce the history graph of a git repository in LaTeX? I'm looking for something nicer-looking than the verbatim output of

git log --graph --oneline

Best Answer

I have begun an attempt at an answer here. It would involve piping the output of $ git log --graph --oneline to a text file and having LaTeX parse that for information. We'd need to determine the nest level of the asterisk (branch level), which is what I'm not sure how to accomplish.

Here is a MWE using a section of the tree from one of my projects:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{filecontents}
% gitgraph.txt contains raw output of: $ git log --graph --oneline
\begin{filecontents}{gitgraph.txt}
* d764b48 added plaintext version in markdown
* 54ba4b2 release 2014-01-25
*   c589395 Merge branch 'master'
|\
| * 9f9c652 Remove holdover from kjh gh-pages branch
* | b3bd158 exclude font files
|/
* 63268c1 micro-typography
\end{filecontents}

\newcommand\commit[2]{\node[commit] (#1) {}; \node[clabel] at (#1) {\texttt{#1}: #2};}
\newcommand\ghost[1]{\coordinate (#1);}
\newcommand\connect[2]{\path (#1) to[out=90,in=-90] (#2);}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\tikzstyle{commit}=[draw,circle,fill=white,inner sep=0pt,minimum size=5pt]
\tikzstyle{clabel}=[right,outer sep=1em]
\tikzstyle{every path}=[draw]
\matrix [column sep={1em,between origins},row sep=\lineskip]
{
\commit{d764b48}{added plaintext version in markdown} & \\
\commit{54ba4b2}{release 2014-01-25} & \\
\commit{c589395}{Merge branch `master'} & \\
 & \commit{9f9c652}{Remove holdover from kjh gh-pages branch} \\
\commit{b3bd158}{exclude font files} & \ghost{branch1} \\
\commit{63268c1}{micro-typography} & \\
};
\connect{63268c1}{b3bd158};
\connect{63268c1}{branch1};
\connect{branch1}{9f9c652};
\connect{b3bd158}{c589395};
\connect{9f9c652}{c589395};
\connect{c589395}{54ba4b2};
\connect{54ba4b2}{d764b48};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Which produces the output: example output

This could be easily stylized in whatever way you wish. Of course the main issue is going to be finding a solution to parse the commit tree. Maybe pgfplotstable could be used?

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