INTRODUCTION

This is a small script to visualize the time when commits are committed in a git repository. The idea is stolen from Github's punchcard picture(Kudos to Github)!

SCREENSHOTS

Here's the generated picture from MongoDB project:

USAGE

Basic Usage

$ ./git-punchcard

Provides the punchcard of the git repository at .

Supply a path to the git repository

$ ./git-punchcard path=/media/username/code/project

Supply an output file name

$ ./git-punchcard file=output-1.png

Supply a width of the output file

$ ./git-punchcard width=2000

Opacity of the punch marks

$ ./git-punchcard opaque=0

In the normal mode, the opacity of the punch marks is dependent on the size of the punch mark. If you set opaque=0, then all the punches will be the same color. The size will be the only indication of the number of commits in that particular range.

Supply output timezone

$ ./git-punchcard timezone=+8.5

Convert all the commit times to UTC+8.5. This is useful if the project has contributors across the world and you want to find a common window of time when all contributors are working.

Git Options

You can pipe git options to the script using the flag gitopts

Following are only examples, any valid options that can be given to log can be piped to git-punchcard

# Show a punchcard of commits from 1st January
$ ./git-punchcard gitopts="--since='1st January 2017'"

# Show a punchcard of commits from the last month
$ ./git-punchcard gitopts="--since='1 month ago'"

# Show a punchcard of commits before a particular date
$ ./git-punchcard gitopts="--before='2nd January 2016'"

# Show a punch of commits before some period
$ ./git-punchcard gitopts="--before='1 month ago'"

WHY IS IT INTERESTING

It shows how this repository is developed in developer's time. As I see it, I can get a simple clue whether a project is a spare time project or this project is totally under a company's control, thus resulting in commits from 8AM to 6PM, Monday to Friday.

PREREQUISITES

---

• python (of course!)
• pycairo module
• git

Then you're free to go!

USAGE

• cp git-punchcard /usr/local/bin
• make sure that /usr/local/bin is in your $PATH environment variable.
• invoke git punchcard
• in the same folder, you should see a file named output.png, that's the generated image.

If you want a different name, then simply invoke git punchcard file=<another-name.png>. The default width of a picture is 1100px. If you'd like to have a higher resolution, you can run git punchcard file=<another-name.png> width=<new-width>.

If you would like to filter by a particular author then do so as follows. (all parameters are available) git punchcard author=<authorname>

The image gets scaled automatically.

LICENSE

This project is under public domain, you can do whatever you want ;) However, if you're improving this tool a bit, you can freely fork it and then send me back a pull request. I would be very glad to integrate it.