Filtering History by Author with git log --author

This lesson covers narrowing history down by author with git log --author. It's for anyone searching "git log --author usage."

git log --author filters history down to just the commits made by a specific author. Handy when you want to check a specific team member's work.

In Try It, run git log --author="Alice". Only the history for commits recorded under the name "Alice" is shown.

A common early mistake is not realizing the name is matched by partial string, not an exact match — any name that contains the given text will match, so commits you didn't intend to include can slip in. In real teams, this option gets used during code review to trace one member's changes, or to gauge each member's contribution volume when checking on progress.