Git: Get first line of commit message from shell

You should have an empty line after the first line to separate title from body of the message, like:

this is my commit message title

some details
go here
yadda yadda

If you did that, then this should work for you:

$ git log --oneline -n 1 HEAD

d53468c this is my commit message title

But say you didn’t. So, for the commit message:

getting one line git commit msg
second
third line 

fifth line 

You get:

$ git log --oneline -n 1 HEAD

c43b68c getting one line git commit msg second third line

Or, if you don’t want the hash (you want the message only):

$ git log --oneline --format=%B -n 1 HEAD

getting one line git commit msg
second
third line

fifth line

But, ladies and gentlemen, if you just want the first line of the message, do:

$ git log --oneline --format=%B -n 1 HEAD | head -n 1

getting one line git commit msg