git name-rev [--tags] [--refs=<pattern>] ( --all | --stdin | <committish>... )
Finds symbolic names suitable for human digestion for revisions given in any format parsable by git-rev-parse.
--tags
--refs=<pattern>
--all
--stdin
--name-only
--no-undefined
--always
Given a commit, find out where it is relative to the local refs. Say somebody wrote you about that fantastic commit 33db5f4d9027a10e477ccf054b2c1ab94f74c85a. Of course, you look into the commit, but that only tells you what happened, but not the context.
Enter git-name-rev:
% git name-rev 33db5f4d9027a10e477ccf054b2c1ab94f74c85a 33db5f4d9027a10e477ccf054b2c1ab94f74c85a tags/v0.99~940
Now you are wiser, because you know that it happened 940 revisions before v0.99.
Another nice thing you can do is:
% git log | git name-rev --stdin
Written by Johannes Schindelin <m[blue]Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.dem[][1]>
Documentation by Johannes Schindelin.
Part of the git(1) suite