Understanding changes in source code with commits in Amazon CodeCatalyst

Commits are snapshots of the contents and changes to the contents of your repository. Every time a user commits and pushes a change to a branch, that information is saved. Git commit information includes the commit author, the person who committed the change, the date and time, and the changes made. Similar information is automatically included when you create or edit a file in the Amazon CodeCatalyst console, but the author name is your CodeCatalyst user name. You can also add Git tags to commits to help you identify specific commits.

In Amazon CodeCatalyst, you can:

• View a list of commits for a branch.

• View individual commits, including the changes made in a commit when compared to its parent or parents.

You can also view files and folders. For more information, see Managing source code files in Amazon CodeCatalyst.

Viewing commits to a branch

You can view the history of changes made to a branch by reviewing the branch's commits in the CodeCatalyst console. This helps you understand who made changes to the branch and when. You can also review the changes made in a specific commit.

Tip

You can also view the history of commits that made changes to a specific file. For more information see Viewing a file.

You can also view commits by using your Git client. For more information, see your Git documentation.

To view commits (console)

1. Navigate to the project that contains the source repository where you want to view commits.

2. Choose the name of the repository from the list of source repositories for the project. Alternatively, in the navigation pane, choose Code, and then choose Source repositories.

   Choose the repository where you want to view commits to a branch.

3. The default branch of the repository is displayed, including information about the most recent commit to the branch. Choose Commits. Alternatively, choose More, and then choose View commits.

4. To view commits for a different branch, choose the branch selector, and then choose the name of the branch.

5. To view details about a particular commit, choose its title from Commit title. Details of the commit are displayed, including information about its parent commit and the changes made to the code by comparing the parent commit to the specified commit.

   Tip

   If a commit has more than one parent, you can choose which parent commit to view information and display changes for by choosing the drop-down icon next to the parent commit ID.

Changing how commits are displayed (CodeCatalyst console)

You can change what information is displayed in the Commits view. You can choose to hide or display columns such as author and commit ID.

To change how commits are displayed (console)

1. Navigate to the project that contains the source repository where you want to view commits.

2. Choose the name of the repository from the list of source repositories for the project. Alternatively, in the navigation pane, choose Code, and then choose Source repositories.

   Choose the repository where you want to change how you view commits.

3. The default branch of the repository is displayed, including information about the most recent commit to the branch. Choose Commits.

4. Choose the gear icon.

5. In Preferences, choose the number of commits to display, and choose whether to display information about commit author, commit date, and the commit ID.

   Note

   You can't hide the commit title in the display of information.

6. When you have made your changes, choose Save to save them, or Cancel to discard them.