If you supply a non-standard format to the date configuration for git log, something like: [log] date = format:%Y-%m-%d %H:%M then, when you run 'git log' inside a script, or when using gitk (anywhere), it fails on decoding the format. fatal: unknown date format format: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M However, that format works correctly on the command line. I do not have a patch to address this issue. -Shaun