Commits

Learn and practice the functionalities of commits in GitHub API.

We'll cover the following

Overview

Commits are a version history of our repository. Snapshots of our repository are taken from time to time which show how the changes were made. Whenever we make any logical changes, we should make a new commit. Authors and timestamps are also included in the commits alongside the message and content. Git commits are made in the branch from which we are checked out. Therefore, it’s recommended to check git status before running a commit. Any new changes should be staged before running a commit.

List commits

First, let's try to fetch all commits form the specified repository:

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headers = {
    'Authorization': 'token {{ACCESS_TOKEN}}',
    'Accept': 'application/vnd.github.v3+json'
}
url='https://api.github.com/repos/{{USERNAME}}/{{REPOSITORY}}/commits'
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
print(json.dumps(response.json(), indent=4))

Get a commit

This endpoint can be used to get a particular commit of the branch, tag, or SHA. Read access to the repository is required to get the commit. The ref parameter in the URL in the code below refers to the SHA of a commit. We can get the SHA of a commit from our GitHub account or it can be copied from the output of the "List commits" endpoint above.

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headers = {
    'Authorization': 'token {{ACCESS_TOKEN}}',
    'Accept': 'application/vnd.github.v3+json'
}
url='https://api.github.com/repos/{{USERNAME}}/{{REPOSITORY}}/commits/<ref>'
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
print(json.dumps(response.json(), indent=4))

Compare two commits

The basehead parameter in the URL specifies the name of the two commits to compare. This parameter expects these names in the {base}...{head} format. An example of the value of this parameter is given below:

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abcd1234efgh5678ijkl9012mnop3456qrst7890...1234abcd5678efgh9012ijkl3456mnop7890qrst
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headers = {
    'Authorization': 'token {{ACCESS_TOKEN}}',
    'Accept': 'application/vnd.github.v3+json'
}
url='https://api.github.com/repos/{{USERNAME}}/{{REPOSITORY}}/compare/<basehead>'
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
print(json.dumps(response.json(), indent=4))