Documentation / git-commit.txton commit Merge branch 'rt/commentchar-fmt-merge-msg' into maint (0222bc9)
   1git-commit(1)
   2=============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-commit - Record changes to the repository
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git commit' [-a | --interactive | --patch] [-s] [-v] [-u<mode>] [--amend]
  12           [--dry-run] [(-c | -C | --fixup | --squash) <commit>]
  13           [-F <file> | -m <msg>] [--reset-author] [--allow-empty]
  14           [--allow-empty-message] [--no-verify] [-e] [--author=<author>]
  15           [--date=<date>] [--cleanup=<mode>] [--status | --no-status]
  16           [-i | -o] [-S[<keyid>]] [--] [<file>...]
  17
  18DESCRIPTION
  19-----------
  20Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along
  21with a log message from the user describing the changes.
  22
  23The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
  24
  251. by using 'git add' to incrementally "add" changes to the
  26   index before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
  27   files must be "added");
  28
  292. by using 'git rm' to remove files from the working tree
  30   and the index, again before using the 'commit' command;
  31
  323. by listing files as arguments to the 'commit' command, in which
  33   case the commit will ignore changes staged in the index, and instead
  34   record the current content of the listed files (which must already
  35   be known to Git);
  36
  374. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically
  38   "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
  39   listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
  40   that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
  41   actual commit;
  42
  435. by using the --interactive or --patch switches with the 'commit' command
  44   to decide one by one which files or hunks should be part of the commit,
  45   before finalizing the operation. See the ``Interactive Mode'' section of
  46   linkgit:git-add[1] to learn how to operate these modes.
  47
  48The `--dry-run` option can be used to obtain a
  49summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
  50commit by giving the same set of parameters (options and paths).
  51
  52If you make a commit and then find a mistake immediately after
  53that, you can recover from it with 'git reset'.
  54
  55
  56OPTIONS
  57-------
  58-a::
  59--all::
  60        Tell the command to automatically stage files that have
  61        been modified and deleted, but new files you have not
  62        told Git about are not affected.
  63
  64-p::
  65--patch::
  66        Use the interactive patch selection interface to chose
  67        which changes to commit. See linkgit:git-add[1] for
  68        details.
  69
  70-C <commit>::
  71--reuse-message=<commit>::
  72        Take an existing commit object, and reuse the log message
  73        and the authorship information (including the timestamp)
  74        when creating the commit.
  75
  76-c <commit>::
  77--reedit-message=<commit>::
  78        Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that
  79        the user can further edit the commit message.
  80
  81--fixup=<commit>::
  82        Construct a commit message for use with `rebase --autosquash`.
  83        The commit message will be the subject line from the specified
  84        commit with a prefix of "fixup! ".  See linkgit:git-rebase[1]
  85        for details.
  86
  87--squash=<commit>::
  88        Construct a commit message for use with `rebase --autosquash`.
  89        The commit message subject line is taken from the specified
  90        commit with a prefix of "squash! ".  Can be used with additional
  91        commit message options (`-m`/`-c`/`-C`/`-F`). See
  92        linkgit:git-rebase[1] for details.
  93
  94--reset-author::
  95        When used with -C/-c/--amend options, or when committing after a
  96        a conflicting cherry-pick, declare that the authorship of the
  97        resulting commit now belongs of the committer. This also renews
  98        the author timestamp.
  99
 100--short::
 101        When doing a dry-run, give the output in the short-format. See
 102        linkgit:git-status[1] for details. Implies `--dry-run`.
 103
 104--branch::
 105        Show the branch and tracking info even in short-format.
 106
 107--porcelain::
 108        When doing a dry-run, give the output in a porcelain-ready
 109        format. See linkgit:git-status[1] for details. Implies
 110        `--dry-run`.
 111
 112--long::
 113        When doing a dry-run, give the output in a the long-format.
 114        Implies `--dry-run`.
 115
 116-z::
 117--null::
 118        When showing `short` or `porcelain` status output, terminate
 119        entries in the status output with NUL, instead of LF. If no
 120        format is given, implies the `--porcelain` output format.
 121
 122-F <file>::
 123--file=<file>::
 124        Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
 125        read the message from the standard input.
 126
 127--author=<author>::
 128        Override the commit author. Specify an explicit author using the
 129        standard `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format. Otherwise <author>
 130        is assumed to be a pattern and is used to search for an existing
 131        commit by that author (i.e. rev-list --all -i --author=<author>);
 132        the commit author is then copied from the first such commit found.
 133
 134--date=<date>::
 135        Override the author date used in the commit.
 136
 137-m <msg>::
 138--message=<msg>::
 139        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
 140        If multiple `-m` options are given, their values are
 141        concatenated as separate paragraphs.
 142
 143-t <file>::
 144--template=<file>::
 145        When editing the commit message, start the editor with the
 146        contents in the given file.  The `commit.template` configuration
 147        variable is often used to give this option implicitly to the
 148        command.  This mechanism can be used by projects that want to
 149        guide participants with some hints on what to write in the message
 150        in what order.  If the user exits the editor without editing the
 151        message, the commit is aborted.  This has no effect when a message
 152        is given by other means, e.g. with the `-m` or `-F` options.
 153
 154-s::
 155--signoff::
 156        Add Signed-off-by line by the committer at the end of the commit
 157        log message.
 158
 159-n::
 160--no-verify::
 161        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 162        See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 163
 164--allow-empty::
 165        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 166        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 167        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 168        is primarily for use by foreign SCM interface scripts.
 169
 170--allow-empty-message::
 171       Like --allow-empty this command is primarily for use by foreign
 172       SCM interface scripts. It allows you to create a commit with an
 173       empty commit message without using plumbing commands like
 174       linkgit:git-commit-tree[1].
 175
 176--cleanup=<mode>::
 177        This option determines how the supplied commit message should be
 178        cleaned up before committing.  The '<mode>' can be `strip`,
 179        `whitespace`, `verbatim`, or `default`.
 180+
 181--
 182strip::
 183        Strip leading and trailing empty lines, trailing whitespace, and
 184        #commentary and collapse consecutive empty lines.
 185whitespace::
 186        Same as `strip` except #commentary is not removed.
 187verbatim::
 188        Do not change the message at all.
 189default::
 190        Same as `strip` if the message is to be edited.
 191        Otherwise `whitespace`.
 192--
 193+
 194The default can be changed by the 'commit.cleanup' configuration
 195variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
 196
 197-e::
 198--edit::
 199        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 200        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 201        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 202        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 203
 204--no-edit::
 205        Use the selected commit message without launching an editor.
 206        For example, `git commit --amend --no-edit` amends a commit
 207        without changing its commit message.
 208
 209--amend::
 210        Replace the tip of the current branch by creating a new
 211        commit. The recorded tree is prepared as usual (including
 212        the effect of the `-i` and `-o` options and explicit
 213        pathspec), and the message from the original commit is used
 214        as the starting point, instead of an empty message, when no
 215        other message is specified from the command line via options
 216        such as `-m`, `-F`, `-c`, etc.  The new commit has the same
 217        parents and author as the current one (the `--reset-author`
 218        option can countermand this).
 219+
 220--
 221It is a rough equivalent for:
 222------
 223        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 224        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 225        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 226
 227------
 228but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 229--
 230+
 231You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you
 232amend a commit that has already been published.  (See the "RECOVERING
 233FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1].)
 234
 235--no-post-rewrite::
 236        Bypass the post-rewrite hook.
 237
 238-i::
 239--include::
 240        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 241        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 242        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 243        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 244
 245-o::
 246--only::
 247        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 248        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 249        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 250        'git commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 251        in which case this option can be omitted.
 252        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 253        no paths need to be specified, which can be used to amend
 254        the last commit without committing changes that have
 255        already been staged.
 256
 257-u[<mode>]::
 258--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 259        Show untracked files.
 260+
 261The mode parameter is optional (defaults to 'all'), and is used to
 262specify the handling of untracked files; when -u is not used, the
 263default is 'normal', i.e. show untracked files and directories.
 264+
 265The possible options are:
 266+
 267        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 268        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 269        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 270+
 271The default can be changed using the status.showUntrackedFiles
 272configuration variable documented in linkgit:git-config[1].
 273
 274-v::
 275--verbose::
 276        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 277        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 278        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 279        lines prefixed with '#'.
 280
 281-q::
 282--quiet::
 283        Suppress commit summary message.
 284
 285--dry-run::
 286        Do not create a commit, but show a list of paths that are
 287        to be committed, paths with local changes that will be left
 288        uncommitted and paths that are untracked.
 289
 290--status::
 291        Include the output of linkgit:git-status[1] in the commit
 292        message template when using an editor to prepare the commit
 293        message.  Defaults to on, but can be used to override
 294        configuration variable commit.status.
 295
 296--no-status::
 297        Do not include the output of linkgit:git-status[1] in the
 298        commit message template when using an editor to prepare the
 299        default commit message.
 300
 301-S[<keyid>]::
 302--gpg-sign[=<keyid>]::
 303        GPG-sign commit.
 304
 305\--::
 306        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 307
 308<file>...::
 309        When files are given on the command line, the command
 310        commits the contents of the named files, without
 311        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 312        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 313        of what have been staged before.
 314
 315:git-commit: 1
 316include::date-formats.txt[]
 317
 318EXAMPLES
 319--------
 320When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 321your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 322called the "index" with 'git add'.  A file can be
 323reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 324to that of the last commit with `git reset HEAD -- <file>`,
 325which effectively reverts 'git add' and prevents the changes to
 326this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 327the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 328`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 329has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 330command.  An example:
 331
 332------------
 333$ edit hello.c
 334$ git rm goodbye.c
 335$ git add hello.c
 336$ git commit
 337------------
 338
 339Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 340tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 341contents are tracked in
 342your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 343for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 344example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 345
 346------------
 347$ edit hello.c
 348$ rm goodbye.c
 349$ git commit -a
 350------------
 351
 352The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 353notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 354and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 355
 356After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 357changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 358When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 359only records the changes made to the named paths:
 360
 361------------
 362$ edit hello.c hello.h
 363$ git add hello.c hello.h
 364$ edit Makefile
 365$ git commit Makefile
 366------------
 367
 368This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 369The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 370in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 371they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 372sequence, if you do:
 373
 374------------
 375$ git commit
 376------------
 377
 378this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 379`hello.h` as expected.
 380
 381After a merge (initiated by 'git merge' or 'git pull') stops
 382because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 383paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 384conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 385check which paths are conflicting with 'git status'
 386and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 387stage the result as usual with 'git add':
 388
 389------------
 390$ git status | grep unmerged
 391unmerged: hello.c
 392$ edit hello.c
 393$ git add hello.c
 394------------
 395
 396After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 397would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 398run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 399
 400------------
 401$ git commit
 402------------
 403
 404As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 405option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 406resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 407alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 408should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 409refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 410
 411
 412DISCUSSION
 413----------
 414
 415Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 416with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 417change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 418The text up to the first blank line in a commit message is treated
 419as the commit title, and that title is used throughout Git.
 420For example, linkgit:git-format-patch[1] turns a commit into email, and it uses
 421the title on the Subject line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 422
 423include::i18n.txt[]
 424
 425ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 426---------------------------------------
 427The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 428GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 429VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 430order).  See linkgit:git-var[1] for details.
 431
 432HOOKS
 433-----
 434This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 435and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
 436information.
 437
 438FILES
 439-----
 440
 441`$GIT_DIR/COMMIT_EDITMSG`::
 442        This file contains the commit message of a commit in progress.
 443        If `git commit` exits due to an error before creating a commit,
 444        any commit message that has been provided by the user (e.g., in
 445        an editor session) will be available in this file, but will be
 446        overwritten by the next invocation of `git commit`.
 447
 448SEE ALSO
 449--------
 450linkgit:git-add[1],
 451linkgit:git-rm[1],
 452linkgit:git-mv[1],
 453linkgit:git-merge[1],
 454linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 455
 456GIT
 457---
 458Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite