[dalore]

For the lazy:

  git config --global alias.lg "log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset'"

[garborg]

We must have started from the same source. I've since added displaying message bodies by default, but similar otherwise:

lg = log --graph --date=relative --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset%n%w(0,4,4)%-b%n%n%-N'

[knux]

You can still add color when not piping or writing to a file with `--color=auto`.

      git config --global alias.lg "log --color=auto --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset'"

[yes_or_gnome]

This is likely to be said, "`--color=auto` is the default setting, so it's not needed." However, it's good to include it here because some users may have changed their default configuration to disable colors. This way `git log` works as their standard workflow and `git lg` for when they need a bit of color.