Some of the settings to make git log better.

Decorate commit

The --decorate option will show references to your commit. For example, where your HEAD is, where your master points to etc. To use --decorate by default:

git config --global log.decorate true

Show short commit hash

By default, git shows long commit hash for each commit. To show a short commit hash, we can use the --abbrev-commit option. To use --abbrev-commit by default:

git config --global log.abbrevCommit true

Show commit graph

To show a graphical representation of commit, which is handy when we have merged commit or multiple branches, we can use --graph option:

git log --graph

Use color for log output

Use color to differentiate different part of log message:

git config format.pretty "%C(magenta)%h%Creset -%C(red)%d%Creset %s %C(green)(%cr) %C(cyan)<%an>%Creset"

After this setup, git-log output will be like the following:

Refs