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This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2023-07-06. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

About commits

In this article

You can save small groups of meaningful changes as commits.

About commits

Similar to saving a file that's been edited, a commit records changes to one or more files in your branch. Git assigns each commit a unique ID, called a SHA or hash, that identifies:

  • The specific changes
  • When the changes were made
  • Who created the changes

When you make a commit, you must include a commit message that briefly describes the changes.

You can add a co-author on any commits you collaborate on. For more information, see "Creating a commit with multiple authors."

Rebasing allows you to change a series of commits and can modify the order of the commits in your timeline. For more information, see "About Git rebase."

About commit branches and tag labels

You can see which branch a commit is on by looking at the labels beneath the commit on the commit page.

  1. On your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, navigate to the main page of the repository.

  2. On the main page of the repository, above the file list, click commits.

    Screenshot of the main page for a repository. A clock icon and "178 commits" is highlighted with an orange outline.

  3. To navigate to a specific commit, click the commit message for that commit.

    Screenshot of a commit in the commit list for a repository. "Update README.md" is highlighted with an orange outline.

  4. To see what branch the commit is on, check the label below the commit message.

    Screenshot of a commit summary. A branch icon and "main" are highlighted with an orange outline.

If your commit is not on the default branch (main), the label will show the branches which contain the commit. If the commit is part of an unmerged pull request, you can click the link to go to the pull request.

Once the commit is on the default branch, any tags that contain the commit will be shown and the default branch will be the only branch listed. For more information on tags, see "Git Basics - Tagging" in the Git documentation.

Screenshot of a commit summary. The tag icon and "v2.3.4" are highlighted with an orange outline.

Further reading