<div id="readability-page-1" class="page"><div id="main" role="main">
 <article>
 <div>
 
 
 

<h2 id="environment-and-prerequisite">Environment and Prerequisite</h2>

<ul>
 <li>GitHub Actions</li>
</ul>



<h2 id="background">Background</h2>

<ul>
 <li>While using GitHub Actions, I needed to load past commit history in a job, so I looked into it and decided to write about it.</li>
</ul>



<h2 id="github-actions-checkout-fetch-depth">GitHub Actions Checkout fetch-depth</h2>

<h3 id="usage">Usage</h3>

<ul>
 <li>By default, only one commit is fetched (depth = 1). If you want to retrieve more commits, use the option below.</li>
</ul>

<div><pre><code>- uses: actions/checkout@v4
 with:
 # Number of commits to fetch. 0 indicates all history for all branches and tags.
 # Default: 1
 fetch-depth: 0
</code></pre></div>



<h3 id="example">Example</h3>

<h4 id="workflow-file">Workflow File</h4>

<ul>
 <li>Set <code>fetch-depth</code> to 5 and fetch five commits.</li>
</ul>

<div><pre><code>name: Test Git Log Workflow

on:
 workflow_dispatch:
 inputs:
 CHECKOUT_REF:
 required: false
 type: string
 default: main

jobs:
 print_git_commit_log_without_fetch_depth:
 name: job name 1
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 steps:
 - name: Checkout Repository
 uses: actions/checkout@v4
 - name: Print Commit Hash
 run: echo $GITHUB_SHA
 - name: Print Git Log
 run: git log
 print_git_commit_log_with_fetch_depth:
 name: job name 2
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 steps:
 - name: Checkout Repository
 with:
 fetch-depth: 5 # fetch recent five commits
 uses: actions/checkout@v4
 - name: Print Commit Hash
 run: echo $GITHUB_SHA
 - name: Print Git Log
 run: git log
</code></pre></div>

<h4 id="result">Result</h4>

<ul>
 <li>As you can see from the result below, it fetched 5 commits, not just one.</li>
</ul>

<div><pre><code> git log
 shell: /usr/bin/bash -e {0}
commit 5d9dfa3701670b5ac034829d2e421202b9eebc11
Author: Taewoo Lee &lt;TWpower@users.noreply.github.com&gt;
Date: Thu May 1 13:57:08 2025 +0900

 Update test-git-log.yml
</code></pre></div>

<div><pre><code> git log
 shell: /usr/bin/bash -e {0}
commit 5d9dfa3701670b5ac034829d2e421202b9eebc11
Author: Taewoo Lee &lt;TWpower@users.noreply.github.com&gt;
Date: Thu May 1 13:57:08 2025 +0900

 Update test-git-log.yml

commit 78bbeaf925e2f4ec0d17c32d84d7cebcfcce0fcf
Author: Taewoo Lee &lt;TWpower@users.noreply.github.com&gt;
Date: Thu May 1 13:55:07 2025 +0900

 Update and rename test-git-log to test-git-log.yml

commit 2de68ba14ebe93aa444b701350ae4a44f81d9c5b
Author: Taewoo Lee &lt;TWpower@users.noreply.github.com&gt;
Date: Thu May 1 13:54:02 2025 +0900

 Update test-git-log

commit 17bc45af78267dfc634b30d24358c2c878b660f8
Author: Taewoo Lee &lt;TWpower@users.noreply.github.com&gt;
Date: Thu May 1 13:52:48 2025 +0900

 Create test-git-log

commit 9c9a2a3e7c58bfa02c4c024186757a721d40e9ee
Author: Taewoo Lee &lt;TWpower@users.noreply.github.com&gt;
Date: Fri Nov 15 18:22:07 2024 +0900

 Merge pull request #55 from TWpower/workflow-complete-event-release-7cef35c
 
 release(devops): Update Workflow Complete Event Workflows
</code></pre></div>



<h2 id="opinion">Opinion</h2>

<ul>
 <li>While setting up CI/CD, there was a code that fetched past commits, but it kept throwing errors, which led me to look into it. Thinking about it, fetching everything could be wasteful, so it makes sense to have an option like this. Just like the concept of pagination, there are cases where it’s better not to load everything at once.</li>
</ul>



<h2 id="reference">Reference</h2>

<ul>
 <li><a href="https://github.com/actions/checkout">https://github.com/actions/checkout</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://github.com/actions/checkout?tab=readme-ov-file#fetch-all-history-for-all-tags-and-branches">https://github.com/actions/checkout?tab=readme-ov-file#fetch-all-history-for-all-tags-and-branches</a></li>
</ul>

 
 
 
 </div>
 
 
 

 </article>
</div></div>

TWpower’s Tech Blog

Environment and Prerequisite
GitHub Actions
Background
While using GitHub Actions, I needed to load past commit history in a job, so I looked into it and decided to write about it.
GitHub Actions Checkout fetch-depth
Usage
By default, only one commit is fetched (depth = 1). If you want to retrieve more commits, use the option below.
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
 with:
 # Number of commits to fetch. 0 indicates all history for all branches and tags.
 # Default: 1
 fetch-depth: 0
Example
Workflow File
Set fetch-depth to 5 and fetch five commits.
name: Test Git Log Workflow
on:
 workflow_dispatch:
 inputs:
 CHECKOUT_REF:
 required: false
 type: string
 default: main
jobs:
 print_git_commit_log_without_fetch_depth:
 name: job name 1
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 steps:
 - name: Checkout Repository
 uses: actions/checkout@v4
 - name: Print Commit Hash
 run: echo $GITHUB_SHA
 - name: Print Git Log
 run: git log
 print_git_commit_log_with_fetch_depth:
 name: job name 2
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 steps:
 - name: Checkout Repository
 with:
 fetch-depth: 5 # fetch recent five commits
 uses: actions/checkout@v4
 - name: Print Commit Hash
 run: echo $GITHUB_SHA
 - name: Print Git Log
 run: git log
Result
As you can see from the result below, it fetched 5 commits, not just one.
 git log
 shell: /usr/bin/bash -e {0}
commit 5d9dfa3701670b5ac034829d2e421202b9eebc11
Author: Taewoo Lee <TWpower@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu May 1 13:57:08 2025 +0900
 Update test-git-log.yml
 git log
 shell: /usr/bin/bash -e {0}
commit 5d9dfa3701670b5ac034829d2e421202b9eebc11
Author: Taewoo Lee <TWpower@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu May 1 13:57:08 2025 +0900
 Update test-git-log.yml
commit 78bbeaf925e2f4ec0d17c32d84d7cebcfcce0fcf
Author: Taewoo Lee <TWpower@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu May 1 13:55:07 2025 +0900
 Update and rename test-git-log to test-git-log.yml
commit 2de68ba14ebe93aa444b701350ae4a44f81d9c5b
Author: Taewoo Lee <TWpower@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu May 1 13:54:02 2025 +0900
 Update test-git-log
commit 17bc45af78267dfc634b30d24358c2c878b660f8
Author: Taewoo Lee <TWpower@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu May 1 13:52:48 2025 +0900
 Create test-git-log
commit 9c9a2a3e7c58bfa02c4c024186757a721d40e9ee
Author: Taewoo Lee <TWpower@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri Nov 15 18:22:07 2024 +0900
 Merge pull request #55 from TWpower/workflow-complete-event-release-7cef35c
 
 release(devops): Update Workflow Complete Event Workflows
Opinion
While setting up CI/CD, there was a code that fetched past commits, but it kept throwing errors, which led me to look into it. Thinking about it, fetching everything could be wasteful, so it makes sense to have an option like this. Just like the concept of pagination, there are cases where it’s better not to load everything at once.
Reference
https://github.com/actions/checkout
https://github.com/actions/checkout?tab=readme-ov-file#fetch-all-history-for-all-tags-and-branches

[GitHub Actions](EN) Fetch more than one commit using fetch-depth

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