Synopsis

svn log [PATH]

svn log URL [PATH...]

svn log URL[@REV] [PATH...]

Description

Shows log messages from the repository. If no arguments are supplied, svn log shows the log messages for all files and directories inside of (and including) the current working directory of your working copy. You can refine the results by specifying a path, one or more revisions, or any combination of the two. The default revision range for a local path is BASE:1.

If you specify a URL alone, then it prints log messages for everything that the URL contains. If you add paths past the URL, only messages for those paths under that URL will be printed. The default revision range for a URL is HEAD:1.

With --verbose, svn log will also print all affected paths with each log message. With --quiet, svn log will not print the log message body itself (this is compatible with --verbose).

Each log message is printed just once, even if more than one of the affected paths for that revision were explicitly requested. Logs follow copy history by default. Use --stop-on-copy to disable this behavior, which can be useful for determining branch points.

Alternate Names

None

Changes

Nothing

Accesses Repository

Yes

Options

--revision (-r) REV
--quiet (-q)
--verbose (-v)
--targets FILENAME
--stop-on-copy
--incremental
--limit NUM
--xml
--username USER
--password PASS
--no-auth-cache
--non-interactive
--config-dir DIR

Examples

You can see the log messages for all the paths that changed in your working copy by running svn log from the top:

$ svn log
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r20 | harry | 2003-01-17 22:56:19 -0600 (Fri, 17 Jan 2003) | 1 line

Tweak.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r17 | sally | 2003-01-16 23:21:19 -0600 (Thu, 16 Jan 2003) | 2 lines
∦

Examine all log messages for a particular file in your working copy:

$ svn log foo.c
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r32 | sally | 2003-01-13 00:43:13 -0600 (Mon, 13 Jan 2003) | 1 line

Added defines.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r28 | sally | 2003-01-07 21:48:33 -0600 (Tue, 07 Jan 2003) | 3 lines
∦

If you don't have a working copy handy, you can log a URL:

$ svn log http://svn.red-bean.com/repos/test/foo.c
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r32 | sally | 2003-01-13 00:43:13 -0600 (Mon, 13 Jan 2003) | 1 line

Added defines.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r28 | sally | 2003-01-07 21:48:33 -0600 (Tue, 07 Jan 2003) | 3 lines
∦

If you want several distinct paths underneath the same URL, you can use the URL [PATH...] syntax.

$ svn log http://svn.red-bean.com/repos/test/ foo.c bar.c
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r32 | sally | 2003-01-13 00:43:13 -0600 (Mon, 13 Jan 2003) | 1 line

Added defines.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r31 | harry | 2003-01-10 12:25:08 -0600 (Fri, 10 Jan 2003) | 1 line

Added new file bar.c
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r28 | sally | 2003-01-07 21:48:33 -0600 (Tue, 07 Jan 2003) | 3 lines
∦

When you're concatenating the results of multiple calls to the log command, you may want to use the --incremental option. svn log normally prints out a dashed line at the beginning of a log message, after each subsequent log message, and following the final log message. If you ran svn log on a range of two revisions, you would get this:

$ svn log -r 14:15
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r14 | ∦

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r15 | ∦

------------------------------------------------------------------------

However, if you wanted to gather 2 non-sequential log messages into a file, you might do something like this:

$ svn log -r 14 > mylog
$ svn log -r 19 >> mylog
$ svn log -r 27 >> mylog
$ cat mylog
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r14 | ∦

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r19 | ∦

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r27 | ∦

------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can avoid the clutter of the double dashed lines in your output by using the incremental option:

$ svn log --incremental -r 14 > mylog
$ svn log --incremental -r 19 >> mylog
$ svn log --incremental -r 27 >> mylog
$ cat mylog
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r14 | ∦

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r19 | ∦

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r27 | ∦

The --incremental option provides similar output control when using the --xml option.

$ svn log -r 20 http://svn.red-bean.com/untouched.txt
------------------------------------------------------------------------

$ svn log -r 20 touched.txt 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r20 | sally | 2003-01-17 22:56:19 -0600 (Fri, 17 Jan 2003) | 1 line

Made a change.
------------------------------------------------------------------------