Install GitQL on Ubuntu 24.04

GitQL (Git Query Language) is a command line tool that lets you query Git repositories using a familiar SQL-like syntax. It transforms the Git commit history into a virtual table, allowing you to filter, search, and analyze commits with simple statements like SELECT, WHERE, ORDER BY, LIMIT, etc. This tutorial shows how to install GitQL on Ubuntu 24.04.

Install GitQL

Download the archive to the /usr/local/bin directory:

sudo wget -qO /usr/local/bin/gitql.gz https://github.com/AmrDeveloper/GQL/releases/latest/download/gql-x86_64-linux.gz

Decompress the archive to obtain the executable:

sudo gunzip /usr/local/bin/gitql.gz

Enable execution permissions on the file:

sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/gitql

Use the following command to verify the installed GitQL version:

gitql --version

Testing GitQL

For testing purpose, clone the repository and navigate to it:

git clone https://github.com/AmrDeveloper/GQL && cd GQL

Once inside the repository, you can run a GitQL query to retrieve structured commit data. For example, the following command fetches the earliest 5 commits, showing their titles and timestamps in ascending order:

gitql -q "SELECT title, datetime FROM commits LIMIT 5 ORDER BY datetime ASC"

This will output something like:

╭───────────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────╮
│ title                                         ┆ datetime                │
╞═══════════════════════════════════════════════╪═════════════════════════╡
│ GQL First commit                              ┆ 2023-06-02 16:20:22.000 │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Implement base structure and select statement ┆ 2023-06-02 18:13:58.000 │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Implement limit statement                     ┆ 2023-06-02 18:20:43.000 │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Implement offset statement                    ┆ 2023-06-02 18:25:52.000 │
├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
│ Improve the structure of GQL parser           ┆ 2023-06-02 18:38:54.000 │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────╯

Uninstall GitQL

Remove the corresponding file to uninstall GitQL:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/gitql