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show

Decoded git show for encoded commits.

Overview

mx show decodes the output of git show the same way mx log decodes git log. Because mx commit encodes every commit message through a randomly selected base-d dictionary, raw git show displays unreadable glyphs where the commit message should be. mx show reverses the encoding and displays your original message while passing everything else – diffs, stats, file content – through unchanged.

It is a drop-in replacement for git show. Every flag that git show accepts works with mx show.

NOTE: Always use mx show to inspect commits. Raw git show will show encoded noise for any commit made with mx commit.

Basic usage

Show the most recent commit with its diff:

mx show

Show a specific commit:

mx show abc1234

Show a commit with diffstat instead of the full diff:

mx show --stat

Show only the commit message (no diff):

mx show --no-patch

Show only filenames changed:

mx show --name-only

How it works

mx show uses a two-pass approach:

  1. Pass 1 runs git show with --no-patch and a structured format to retrieve commit metadata (hash, author, date, parent hashes) and the encoded message body. The body is decoded using the same pipeline as mx log – the footer tag identifies the dictionary and compression algorithm, and the body is decompressed back to your original message.

  2. Pass 2 runs git show with an empty format string to retrieve just the diff output. This is streamed to your terminal as-is, identical to what git show would produce.

The result looks exactly like git show output, except the commit message is readable.

Passthrough modes

In certain cases, mx show skips decoding entirely and runs raw git show:

  • File content (ref:path syntax) – when you use mx show HEAD:src/main.rs to view a file at a specific revision, there is no commit message to decode. The command passes through to git show directly.

  • Custom format (--format or --pretty) – when you control the output format yourself, decoding would interfere. The command passes through unchanged.

Fallback behavior

If decoding fails for any reason – the commit was not made with mx commit, the footer is missing, or the dictionary lookup fails – mx show falls back to displaying the raw message exactly as git show would. It is always safe to use mx show in place of git show, even in repositories with a mix of encoded and non-encoded commits.

Merge commits

Merge commits display a Merge: line showing the parent hashes, matching the default git show format:

commit abc1234def5678...
Merge:  aaa1111 bbb2222
Author: Charlie <charlie@example.com>
Date:   Wed May 7 2026

    the decoded merge commit message

Multiple refs

You can pass multiple refs and mx show will decode each one:

mx show HEAD HEAD~1 HEAD~2

Tags

When showing a tag, mx show displays the tag metadata followed by the decoded commit it points to. If the tag object itself is not a commit (e.g. an annotated tag preamble), its content is printed as-is.

Flags reference

mx show accepts all flags that git show accepts. There are no mx-specific flags – the command is designed to be a transparent wrapper.

Common flags:

Flag

Description

--stat

Show a diffstat summary instead of the full diff.

--no-patch

Show only the commit header and message, no diff.

-s

Shorthand for --no-patch.

--name-only

Show only the names of changed files.

--name-status

Show names and status (added, modified, deleted) of changed files.

--raw

Show the diff in raw format.

--format=<fmt>

Custom format string (passthrough – skips decoding).

--pretty=<fmt>

Alias for --format (passthrough – skips decoding).

Any arguments not listed here are passed directly to git show.

Relationship to mx log and mx commit

mx commit, mx log, and mx show form a complete encoding round-trip:

  1. mx commit encodes your message and writes it as an encoded git commit.

  2. mx log decodes the commit history (replaces git log).

  3. mx show decodes individual commit details (replaces git show).

Both mx log and mx show have full parity with their git counterparts. Every flag that git log or git show accepts works with the mx versions, with transparent decoding applied to encoded messages. mx log supports --oneline, --stat, -p, format presets (short, medium, full, fuller), and all git log filter flags (--author, --since, -- <path>, etc.). Non-encoded commits pass through unchanged in all three commands.

For the full encoding specification, see commit. For the full flag reference and architecture details, see log.