Question

I want to use git log to get a list of changes starting with a tag and going back, say 6 commits

git log --format="%h %ad %d %an: %s" --tags -n 6 --date=short

this will give me the last 6 commits, but ideally I would like to get a range that is in the past;
given the following

            x---y(tag101)---z---branch
           /
aa---bb---a---b---c---d---e---f---g(tag102)---h---HEAD

is it possible to get logs for tag101 and back 6 commits

y(tag101)
x
a
bb
aa

or for tag102

g(tag102)
f
e
d
c
b

most of the time when I am trying to get this information I am actually checkout on a tag and in detached HEAD state

I’ve tried a few different things, such as

git log tags/tag101..96c06be --format="%h %ad %d %an: %s" --tags -n 6 --date=short

this just seems to return commits starting from the last one made, ignoring the specified tag

Answer 1

Try git log --first-parent --oneline -n 6 yourtag, modified to suit your needs. From the Git log manual:

–first-parent

Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge commit. This option can give a better overview when viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch, because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and this option allows you to ignore the individual commits brought in to your history by such a merge.