gitlog

A GTK4 tool to inspect the git history of a project.

Build

./build.sh

Installs the Rust toolchain if missing, then runs cargo build --release. Fails with a hint if the GTK4 development libraries (libgtk-4-dev) are not installed; add --install-system-deps to install them via apt (needs sudo):

./build.sh --install-system-deps

Install (binaries + Nemo context menu)

./install.sh

Builds the project (arguments are passed to build.sh, e.g. ./install.sh --install-system-deps), then installs:

• gitlog / gitcommit / gitpush / gitrebase → ~/.local/bin
• gitlog.nemo_action / gitcommit.nemo_action / gitpush.nemo_action / check-git-dir.sh → ~/.local/share/nemo/actions

The Nemo context menu actions (right-click a directory) run gitlog %F, gitcommit %F and gitpush %F. They only show up on directories that contain a .git entry, checked by check-git-dir.sh via the actions' exec condition. Make sure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH and restart Nemo (e.g. log out/in) after installing.

Run

target/release/gitlog [/path/to/project]      # commit history (default: current folder)
target/release/gitcommit [/path/to/project]   # commit window
target/release/gitpush [/path/to/project]     # push window
target/release/gitrebase [/path/to/project] <commit-hash>   # edit commit details

gitrebase is also opened from gitlog by double-clicking a commit in the commit list.

Features

• Three vertically stacked, resizable panes:
  • Commit list: abbreviated hash, first line of the message, committer, author and date (locale-aware, incl. week day), current branch on top, and a filter box for commit messages.
  • Commit message: full message, selectable and copyable.
  • Changed files: file name, lines added/deleted, file size at that commit, and the action (added / modified / deleted / renamed).
• Opens the window immediately with a loading indicator; history is parsed in a background thread from a single git log --raw --numstat pass.
• Press F5 to refresh the commit list (picks up new commits and branch movements; the old load is cancelled first).
• Closing the window while the history is still loading cancels the load safely.

Implementation

• Rust, gtk4 (4.x) + glib crates; plain git is used via CLI (no libgit2 dependency).
• Four binaries share a lib target (src/lib.rs):
  • gitlog (src/main.rs): the history viewer.
  • gitcommit (src/bin/gitcommit.rs): the commit window (see dev/commit-concept.md) with a stageable file list and an "amend last commit" mode; unchecking a file while amending removes it from the amended commit and leaves it as an unstaged file.
  • gitpush (src/bin/gitpush.rs): the push window (see dev/push-concept.md): remote dropdown (first item: all remotes), local/remote branch names, and force / force-with-lease / tags / set-upstream / all-branches options; pushes run in a background thread and errors are shown in a dialog with a selectable text view.
  • gitrebase (src/bin/gitrebase.rs): the rebase window (see dev/rebase-concept.md): edits author/committer (name, e-mail, date) and the message of one commit; HEAD commits are amended, other commits are rewritten via a stopped non-interactive git rebase -i. Opened from the gitlog commit list by double-clicking a commit.
• File sizes are fetched lazily per selected commit via git ls-tree -r -l and cached.
• Unit-tested git parsers: cargo test.