COMPUTERS · VERSION CONTROL

GIT TIME MACHINE

Every commit a star, every branch a lane. Commit, branch, merge, fight a conflict, rebase — or drag time backwards and stand on an old commit.

WORKING TREE 17ca9d2 main

1site: north-point
2fog_horn: off
3night_mode: auto
4log_level: info
5backup_lamp: yes

git log --oneline --graph

  *  6d843fc (feature) fix(beam): longer flash, easier to see
* |  17ca9d2 (HEAD -> main) docs: add a maintainer
* |  56a2cf2 Merge branch 'feature' into main
|\|
* |  006d31a docs: describe the new beam
| *  f802f4a feat(beam): a fog period
| *  41d11e5 feat(beam): two flashes per period
|/
*  c8ec15f docs: we are in beta
*  5bbb61b chore: note where fog mode will go
*  91e96bb initial commit: lighthouse

~/lighthouse — a small repo with some history. Try the buttons, or type git help.

what am I looking at

A real, small model of what git stores. Commits point at their parents, so history is a graph, not a list; branches are just names pointing at a commit; HEAD is where you are standing. Merges are real three-way merges against the common ancestor, line by line, and the conflict is what git does when the same line changed two ways. A rebase replays the same changes on a new parent, which is why the commits come out with new ids — the old ones fade out behind them. The ids are SHA-1s of each commit's content and parents, like git's, but not of git's exact byte format. The layout is the same rows and columns as the git log --graph printed beside it. The project, lighthouse, is invented. Drag to turn it, pinch or scroll to zoom, double-tap to reset, tap a commit to open it.