0058bd42aac473e157b4a2a7c22187249f457934
   1git-cat-file(1)
   2===============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-cat-file - Provide content or type and size information for repository objects
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git cat-file' (-t [--allow-unknown-type]| -s [--allow-unknown-type]| -e | -p | <type> | --textconv ) <object>
  13'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) [--follow-symlinks] < <list-of-objects>
  14
  15DESCRIPTION
  16-----------
  17In its first form, the command provides the content or the type of an object in
  18the repository. The type is required unless '-t' or '-p' is used to find the
  19object type, or '-s' is used to find the object size, or '--textconv' is used
  20(which implies type "blob").
  21
  22In the second form, a list of objects (separated by linefeeds) is provided on
  23stdin, and the SHA-1, type, and size of each object is printed on stdout.
  24
  25OPTIONS
  26-------
  27<object>::
  28        The name of the object to show.
  29        For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see
  30        the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7].
  31
  32-t::
  33        Instead of the content, show the object type identified by
  34        <object>.
  35
  36-s::
  37        Instead of the content, show the object size identified by
  38        <object>.
  39
  40-e::
  41        Suppress all output; instead exit with zero status if <object>
  42        exists and is a valid object.
  43
  44-p::
  45        Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type.
  46
  47<type>::
  48        Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking
  49        for a type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given
  50        <object> is also permitted.  An example is to ask for a
  51        "tree" with <object> being a commit object that contains it,
  52        or to ask for a "blob" with <object> being a tag object that
  53        points at it.
  54
  55--textconv::
  56        Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case,
  57        <object> has be of the form <tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path> in order
  58        to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at <path>.
  59
  60--batch::
  61--batch=<format>::
  62        Print object information and contents for each object provided
  63        on stdin.  May not be combined with any other options or arguments.
  64        See the section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details.
  65
  66--batch-check::
  67--batch-check=<format>::
  68        Print object information for each object provided on stdin.  May
  69        not be combined with any other options or arguments.  See the
  70        section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details.
  71
  72--buffer::
  73        Normally batch output is flushed after each object is output, so
  74        that a process can interactively read and write from
  75        `cat-file`. With this option, the output uses normal stdio
  76        buffering; this is much more efficient when invoking
  77        `--batch-check` on a large number of objects.
  78
  79--allow-unknown-type::
  80        Allow -s or -t to query broken/corrupt objects of unknown type.
  81
  82--follow-symlinks::
  83        With --batch or --batch-check, follow symlinks inside the
  84        repository when requesting objects with extended SHA-1
  85        expressions of the form tree-ish:path-in-tree.  Instead of
  86        providing output about the link itself, provide output about
  87        the linked-to object.  If a symlink points outside the
  88        tree-ish (e.g. a link to /foo or a root-level link to ../foo),
  89        the portion of the link which is outside the tree will be
  90        printed.
  91+
  92This option does not (currently) work correctly when an object in the
  93index is specified (e.g. `:link` instead of `HEAD:link`) rather than
  94one in the tree.
  95+
  96This option cannot (currently) be used unless `--batch` or
  97`--batch-check` is used.
  98+
  99For example, consider a git repository containing:
 100+
 101--
 102        f: a file containing "hello\n"
 103        link: a symlink to f
 104        dir/link: a symlink to ../f
 105        plink: a symlink to ../f
 106        alink: a symlink to /etc/passwd
 107--
 108+
 109For a regular file `f`, `echo HEAD:f | git cat-file --batch` would print
 110+
 111--
 112        ce013625030ba8dba906f756967f9e9ca394464a blob 6
 113--
 114+
 115And `echo HEAD:link | git cat-file --batch --follow-symlinks` would
 116print the same thing, as would `HEAD:dir/link`, as they both point at
 117`HEAD:f`.
 118+
 119Without `--follow-symlinks`, these would print data about the symlink
 120itself.  In the case of `HEAD:link`, you would see
 121+
 122--
 123        4d1ae35ba2c8ec712fa2a379db44ad639ca277bd blob 1
 124--
 125+
 126Both `plink` and `alink` point outside the tree, so they would
 127respectively print:
 128+
 129--
 130        symlink 4
 131        ../f
 132
 133        symlink 11
 134        /etc/passwd
 135--
 136
 137
 138OUTPUT
 139------
 140If '-t' is specified, one of the <type>.
 141
 142If '-s' is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes.
 143
 144If '-e' is specified, no output.
 145
 146If '-p' is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed.
 147
 148If <type> is specified, the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object>
 149will be returned.
 150
 151BATCH OUTPUT
 152------------
 153
 154If `--batch` or `--batch-check` is given, `cat-file` will read objects
 155from stdin, one per line, and print information about them. By default,
 156the whole line is considered as an object, as if it were fed to
 157linkgit:git-rev-parse[1].
 158
 159You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom
 160`<format>`. The `<format>` is copied literally to stdout for each
 161object, with placeholders of the form `%(atom)` expanded, followed by a
 162newline. The available atoms are:
 163
 164`objectname`::
 165        The 40-hex object name of the object.
 166
 167`objecttype`::
 168        The type of of the object (the same as `cat-file -t` reports).
 169
 170`objectsize`::
 171        The size, in bytes, of the object (the same as `cat-file -s`
 172        reports).
 173
 174`objectsize:disk`::
 175        The size, in bytes, that the object takes up on disk. See the
 176        note about on-disk sizes in the `CAVEATS` section below.
 177
 178`deltabase`::
 179        If the object is stored as a delta on-disk, this expands to the
 180        40-hex sha1 of the delta base object. Otherwise, expands to the
 181        null sha1 (40 zeroes). See `CAVEATS` below.
 182
 183`rest`::
 184        If this atom is used in the output string, input lines are split
 185        at the first whitespace boundary. All characters before that
 186        whitespace are considered to be the object name; characters
 187        after that first run of whitespace (i.e., the "rest" of the
 188        line) are output in place of the `%(rest)` atom.
 189
 190If no format is specified, the default format is `%(objectname)
 191%(objecttype) %(objectsize)`.
 192
 193If `--batch` is specified, the object information is followed by the
 194object contents (consisting of `%(objectsize)` bytes), followed by a
 195newline.
 196
 197For example, `--batch` without a custom format would produce:
 198
 199------------
 200<sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF
 201<contents> LF
 202------------
 203
 204Whereas `--batch-check='%(objectname) %(objecttype)'` would produce:
 205
 206------------
 207<sha1> SP <type> LF
 208------------
 209
 210If a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object in
 211the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format and print:
 212
 213------------
 214<object> SP missing LF
 215------------
 216
 217If --follow-symlinks is used, and a symlink in the repository points
 218outside the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format
 219and print:
 220
 221------------
 222symlink SP <size> LF
 223<symlink> LF
 224------------
 225
 226The symlink will either be absolute (beginning with a /), or relative
 227to the tree root.  For instance, if dir/link points to ../../foo, then
 228<symlink> will be ../foo.  <size> is the size of the symlink in bytes.
 229
 230If --follow-symlinks is used, the following error messages will be
 231displayed:
 232
 233------------
 234<object> SP missing LF
 235------------
 236is printed when the initial symlink requested does not exist.
 237
 238------------
 239dangling SP <size> LF
 240<object> LF
 241------------
 242is printed when the initial symlink exists, but something that
 243it (transitive-of) points to does not.
 244
 245------------
 246loop SP <size> LF
 247<object> LF
 248------------
 249is printed for symlink loops (or any symlinks that
 250require more than 40 link resolutions to resolve).
 251
 252------------
 253notdir SP <size> LF
 254<object> LF
 255------------
 256is printed when, during symlink resolution, a file is used as a
 257directory name.
 258
 259CAVEATS
 260-------
 261
 262Note that the sizes of objects on disk are reported accurately, but care
 263should be taken in drawing conclusions about which refs or objects are
 264responsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object may be
 265much larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but the
 266choice of which object is the base and which is the delta is arbitrary
 267and is subject to change during a repack.
 268
 269Note also that multiple copies of an object may be present in the object
 270database; in this case, it is undefined which copy's size or delta base
 271will be reported.
 272
 273GIT
 274---
 275Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite