gource
Animated version control history visualization
TLDR
Visualize current repo
$ gource
Visualize specific repo$ gource [/path/to/repo]
Run in fullscreen mode$ gource -f
Output PPM stream and pipe to ffmpeg for video$ gource -1280x720 -o - | ffmpeg -y -r 60 -f image2pipe -vcodec ppm -i - -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p [output.mp4]
Set time scale$ gource --seconds-per-day [0.1]
Hide specific elements$ gource --hide filenames,mouse,progress
Visualize with a date range$ gource --start-date "[2024-01-01]" --stop-date "[2024-12-31]"
SYNOPSIS
gource [options] [path]
DESCRIPTION
gource visualizes version control history as an animated tree. Developers appear as avatars making changes, with files and directories branching from the center in a real-time animation.
The tool supports Git, SVN, Mercurial, and Bazaar repositories. Output can be piped to video encoders like ffmpeg for creating shareable recordings of project history.
PARAMETERS
PATH
Repository path (defaults to current directory).-o, --output-ppm-stream FILE
Output PPM image stream to file ('-' for stdout). Used with ffmpeg for video creation.-r, --output-framerate FPS
Framerate of output (25, 30, 60). Used with --output-ppm-stream.-WIDTHxHEIGHT, --viewport WIDTHxHEIGHT
Set viewport size (e.g., 1280x720).--seconds-per-day SEC
Time in seconds for each day of history (default: 10).--hide ELEMENTS
Hide display elements (comma-separated): bloom, date, dirnames, files, filenames, mouse, progress, root, tree, users, usernames.--start-date DATE
Start at a date (YYYY-MM-DD format).--stop-date DATE
Stop at a date.-f, --fullscreen
Fullscreen mode.--title TITLE
Set a title.--load-config FILE
Load a configuration file.--save-config FILE
Save current options to a configuration file.-h, --help
Display help information.
CAVEATS
Requires OpenGL. Large repositories with many files or commits may be slow to render. The output stream uses uncompressed PPM format, so piped video files can be very large before encoding. Use --seconds-per-day and --hide to optimize for large repos.
HISTORY
gource was created by Andrew Caudwell to visualize software development history as engaging animations.
