Documentation / git-commit.txton commit Merge branch 'jc/commit-unedited-template' (091df17)
   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] [--] [<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--porcelain::
 105        When doing a dry-run, give the output in a porcelain-ready
 106        format. See linkgit:git-status[1] for details. Implies
 107        `--dry-run`.
 108
 109-z::
 110        When showing `short` or `porcelain` status output, terminate
 111        entries in the status output with NUL, instead of LF. If no
 112        format is given, implies the `--porcelain` output format.
 113
 114-F <file>::
 115--file=<file>::
 116        Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
 117        read the message from the standard input.
 118
 119--author=<author>::
 120        Override the commit author. Specify an explicit author using the
 121        standard `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format. Otherwise <author>
 122        is assumed to be a pattern and is used to search for an existing
 123        commit by that author (i.e. rev-list --all -i --author=<author>);
 124        the commit author is then copied from the first such commit found.
 125
 126--date=<date>::
 127        Override the author date used in the commit.
 128
 129-m <msg>::
 130--message=<msg>::
 131        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
 132
 133-t <file>::
 134--template=<file>::
 135        When editing the commit message, start the editor with the
 136        contents in the given file.  The `commit.template` configuration
 137        variable is often used to give this option implicitly to the
 138        command.  This mechanism can be used by projects that want to
 139        guide participants with some hints on what to write in the message
 140        in what order.  If the user exits the editor without editing the
 141        message, the commit is aborted.  This has no effect when a message
 142        is given by other means, e.g. with the `-m` or `-F` options.
 143
 144-s::
 145--signoff::
 146        Add Signed-off-by line by the committer at the end of the commit
 147        log message.
 148
 149-n::
 150--no-verify::
 151        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 152        See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 153
 154--allow-empty::
 155        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 156        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 157        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 158        is primarily for use by foreign SCM interface scripts.
 159
 160--allow-empty-message::
 161       Like --allow-empty this command is primarily for use by foreign
 162       SCM interface scripts. It allows you to create a commit with an
 163       empty commit message without using plumbing commands like
 164       linkgit:git-commit-tree[1].
 165
 166--cleanup=<mode>::
 167        This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
 168        The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
 169        and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
 170        trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
 171        only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
 172        removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
 173        'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
 174        and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 175
 176-e::
 177--edit::
 178        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 179        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 180        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 181        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 182
 183--amend::
 184        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
 185        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
 186        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
 187        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
 188        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
 189        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
 190        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
 191        discarded.
 192+
 193--
 194It is a rough equivalent for:
 195------
 196        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 197        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 198        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 199
 200------
 201but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 202--
 203+
 204You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you
 205amend a commit that has already been published.  (See the "RECOVERING
 206FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1].)
 207
 208-i::
 209--include::
 210        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 211        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 212        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 213        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 214
 215-o::
 216--only::
 217        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 218        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 219        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 220        'git commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 221        in which case this option can be omitted.
 222        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 223        no paths need to be specified, which can be used to amend
 224        the last commit without committing changes that have
 225        already been staged.
 226
 227-u[<mode>]::
 228--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 229        Show untracked files.
 230+
 231The mode parameter is optional (defaults to 'all'), and is used to
 232specify the handling of untracked files; when -u is not used, the
 233default is 'normal', i.e. show untracked files and directories.
 234+
 235The possible options are:
 236+
 237        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 238        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 239        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 240+
 241The default can be changed using the status.showUntrackedFiles
 242configuration variable documented in linkgit:git-config[1].
 243
 244-v::
 245--verbose::
 246        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 247        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 248        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 249        lines prefixed with '#'.
 250
 251-q::
 252--quiet::
 253        Suppress commit summary message.
 254
 255--dry-run::
 256        Do not create a commit, but show a list of paths that are
 257        to be committed, paths with local changes that will be left
 258        uncommitted and paths that are untracked.
 259
 260--status::
 261        Include the output of linkgit:git-status[1] in the commit
 262        message template when using an editor to prepare the commit
 263        message.  Defaults to on, but can be used to override
 264        configuration variable commit.status.
 265
 266--no-status::
 267        Do not include the output of linkgit:git-status[1] in the
 268        commit message template when using an editor to prepare the
 269        default commit message.
 270
 271\--::
 272        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 273
 274<file>...::
 275        When files are given on the command line, the command
 276        commits the contents of the named files, without
 277        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 278        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 279        of what have been staged before.
 280
 281:git-commit: 1
 282include::date-formats.txt[]
 283
 284EXAMPLES
 285--------
 286When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 287your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 288called the "index" with 'git add'.  A file can be
 289reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 290to that of the last commit with `git reset HEAD \-- <file>`,
 291which effectively reverts 'git add' and prevents the changes to
 292this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 293the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 294`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 295has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 296command.  An example:
 297
 298------------
 299$ edit hello.c
 300$ git rm goodbye.c
 301$ git add hello.c
 302$ git commit
 303------------
 304
 305Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 306tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 307contents are tracked in
 308your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 309for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 310example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 311
 312------------
 313$ edit hello.c
 314$ rm goodbye.c
 315$ git commit -a
 316------------
 317
 318The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 319notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 320and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 321
 322After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 323changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 324When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 325only records the changes made to the named paths:
 326
 327------------
 328$ edit hello.c hello.h
 329$ git add hello.c hello.h
 330$ edit Makefile
 331$ git commit Makefile
 332------------
 333
 334This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 335The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 336in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 337they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 338sequence, if you do:
 339
 340------------
 341$ git commit
 342------------
 343
 344this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 345`hello.h` as expected.
 346
 347After a merge (initiated by 'git merge' or 'git pull') stops
 348because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 349paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 350conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 351check which paths are conflicting with 'git status'
 352and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 353stage the result as usual with 'git add':
 354
 355------------
 356$ git status | grep unmerged
 357unmerged: hello.c
 358$ edit hello.c
 359$ git add hello.c
 360------------
 361
 362After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 363would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 364run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 365
 366------------
 367$ git commit
 368------------
 369
 370As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 371option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 372resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 373alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 374should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 375refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 376
 377
 378DISCUSSION
 379----------
 380
 381Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 382with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 383change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 384Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
 385on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 386
 387include::i18n.txt[]
 388
 389ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 390---------------------------------------
 391The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 392GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 393VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 394order).  See linkgit:git-var[1] for details.
 395
 396HOOKS
 397-----
 398This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 399and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
 400information.
 401
 402
 403SEE ALSO
 404--------
 405linkgit:git-add[1],
 406linkgit:git-rm[1],
 407linkgit:git-mv[1],
 408linkgit:git-merge[1],
 409linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 410
 411GIT
 412---
 413Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite