The issue

For quite a while, I had an older version of an alias for a short and readable oneline-per-commit git log:

t log --abbrev-commit --date=short --pretty=format:'%x00%h%x00%cd%x00%s%x00%an%x00%d' | gawk -F '\\0' '{ printf \"%s\\033[31m%s\\033[0 …

First, this assume you use fugitive.vim. You don't? I really think you should. If you're still not convinced, have a quick look at the readme, take some time to go over one of the screencast linked there. I personally understood a lot about git index by watching the screencast …