Documentation / git-for-each-ref.txton commit validate_headref: use get_oid_hex for detached HEADs (0bca165)
   1git-for-each-ref(1)
   2===================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-for-each-ref - Output information on each ref
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git for-each-ref' [--count=<count>] [--shell|--perl|--python|--tcl]
  12                   [(--sort=<key>)...] [--format=<format>] [<pattern>...]
  13                   [--points-at <object>] [(--merged | --no-merged) [<object>]]
  14                   [--contains [<object>]] [--no-contains [<object>]]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18
  19Iterate over all refs that match `<pattern>` and show them
  20according to the given `<format>`, after sorting them according
  21to the given set of `<key>`.  If `<count>` is given, stop after
  22showing that many refs.  The interpolated values in `<format>`
  23can optionally be quoted as string literals in the specified
  24host language allowing their direct evaluation in that language.
  25
  26OPTIONS
  27-------
  28<count>::
  29        By default the command shows all refs that match
  30        `<pattern>`.  This option makes it stop after showing
  31        that many refs.
  32
  33<key>::
  34        A field name to sort on.  Prefix `-` to sort in
  35        descending order of the value.  When unspecified,
  36        `refname` is used.  You may use the --sort=<key> option
  37        multiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primary
  38        key.
  39
  40<format>::
  41        A string that interpolates `%(fieldname)` from a ref being shown
  42        and the object it points at.  If `fieldname`
  43        is prefixed with an asterisk (`*`) and the ref points
  44        at a tag object, use the value for the field in the object
  45        which the tag object refers to (instead of the field in the tag object).
  46        When unspecified, `<format>` defaults to
  47        `%(objectname) SPC %(objecttype) TAB %(refname)`.
  48        It also interpolates `%%` to `%`, and `%xx` where `xx`
  49        are hex digits interpolates to character with hex code
  50        `xx`; for example `%00` interpolates to `\0` (NUL),
  51        `%09` to `\t` (TAB) and `%0a` to `\n` (LF).
  52
  53<pattern>...::
  54        If one or more patterns are given, only refs are shown that
  55        match against at least one pattern, either using fnmatch(3) or
  56        literally, in the latter case matching completely or from the
  57        beginning up to a slash.
  58
  59--shell::
  60--perl::
  61--python::
  62--tcl::
  63        If given, strings that substitute `%(fieldname)`
  64        placeholders are quoted as string literals suitable for
  65        the specified host language.  This is meant to produce
  66        a scriptlet that can directly be `eval`ed.
  67
  68--points-at <object>::
  69        Only list refs which points at the given object.
  70
  71--merged [<object>]::
  72        Only list refs whose tips are reachable from the
  73        specified commit (HEAD if not specified),
  74        incompatible with `--no-merged`.
  75
  76--no-merged [<object>]::
  77        Only list refs whose tips are not reachable from the
  78        specified commit (HEAD if not specified),
  79        incompatible with `--merged`.
  80
  81--contains [<object>]::
  82        Only list refs which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not
  83        specified).
  84
  85--no-contains [<object>]::
  86        Only list refs which don't contain the specified commit (HEAD
  87        if not specified).
  88
  89--ignore-case::
  90        Sorting and filtering refs are case insensitive.
  91
  92FIELD NAMES
  93-----------
  94
  95Various values from structured fields in referenced objects can
  96be used to interpolate into the resulting output, or as sort
  97keys.
  98
  99For all objects, the following names can be used:
 100
 101refname::
 102        The name of the ref (the part after $GIT_DIR/).
 103        For a non-ambiguous short name of the ref append `:short`.
 104        The option core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict
 105        abbreviation mode. If `lstrip=<N>` (`rstrip=<N>`) is appended, strips `<N>`
 106        slash-separated path components from the front (back) of the refname
 107        (e.g. `%(refname:lstrip=2)` turns `refs/tags/foo` into `foo` and
 108        `%(refname:rstrip=2)` turns `refs/tags/foo` into `refs`).
 109        If `<N>` is a negative number, strip as many path components as
 110        necessary from the specified end to leave `-<N>` path components
 111        (e.g. `%(refname:lstrip=-2)` turns
 112        `refs/tags/foo` into `tags/foo` and `%(refname:rstrip=-1)`
 113        turns `refs/tags/foo` into `refs`). When the ref does not have
 114        enough components, the result becomes an empty string if
 115        stripping with positive <N>, or it becomes the full refname if
 116        stripping with negative <N>.  Neither is an error.
 117+
 118`strip` can be used as a synomym to `lstrip`.
 119
 120objecttype::
 121        The type of the object (`blob`, `tree`, `commit`, `tag`).
 122
 123objectsize::
 124        The size of the object (the same as 'git cat-file -s' reports).
 125
 126objectname::
 127        The object name (aka SHA-1).
 128        For a non-ambiguous abbreviation of the object name append `:short`.
 129        For an abbreviation of the object name with desired length append
 130        `:short=<length>`, where the minimum length is MINIMUM_ABBREV. The
 131        length may be exceeded to ensure unique object names.
 132
 133upstream::
 134        The name of a local ref which can be considered ``upstream''
 135        from the displayed ref. Respects `:short`, `:lstrip` and
 136        `:rstrip` in the same way as `refname` above.  Additionally
 137        respects `:track` to show "[ahead N, behind M]" and
 138        `:trackshort` to show the terse version: ">" (ahead), "<"
 139        (behind), "<>" (ahead and behind), or "=" (in sync). `:track`
 140        also prints "[gone]" whenever unknown upstream ref is
 141        encountered. Append `:track,nobracket` to show tracking
 142        information without brackets (i.e "ahead N, behind M").  Has
 143        no effect if the ref does not have tracking information
 144        associated with it.  All the options apart from `nobracket`
 145        are mutually exclusive, but if used together the last option
 146        is selected.
 147
 148push::
 149        The name of a local ref which represents the `@{push}`
 150        location for the displayed ref. Respects `:short`, `:lstrip`,
 151        `:rstrip`, `:track`, and `:trackshort` options as `upstream`
 152        does. Produces an empty string if no `@{push}` ref is
 153        configured.
 154
 155HEAD::
 156        '*' if HEAD matches current ref (the checked out branch), ' '
 157        otherwise.
 158
 159color::
 160        Change output color. Followed by `:<colorname>`, where color
 161        names are described under Values in the "CONFIGURATION FILE"
 162        section of linkgit:git-config[1].  For example,
 163        `%(color:bold red)`.
 164
 165align::
 166        Left-, middle-, or right-align the content between
 167        %(align:...) and %(end). The "align:" is followed by
 168        `width=<width>` and `position=<position>` in any order
 169        separated by a comma, where the `<position>` is either left,
 170        right or middle, default being left and `<width>` is the total
 171        length of the content with alignment. For brevity, the
 172        "width=" and/or "position=" prefixes may be omitted, and bare
 173        <width> and <position> used instead.  For instance,
 174        `%(align:<width>,<position>)`. If the contents length is more
 175        than the width then no alignment is performed. If used with
 176        `--quote` everything in between %(align:...) and %(end) is
 177        quoted, but if nested then only the topmost level performs
 178        quoting.
 179
 180if::
 181        Used as %(if)...%(then)...%(end) or
 182        %(if)...%(then)...%(else)...%(end).  If there is an atom with
 183        value or string literal after the %(if) then everything after
 184        the %(then) is printed, else if the %(else) atom is used, then
 185        everything after %(else) is printed. We ignore space when
 186        evaluating the string before %(then), this is useful when we
 187        use the %(HEAD) atom which prints either "*" or " " and we
 188        want to apply the 'if' condition only on the 'HEAD' ref.
 189        Append ":equals=<string>" or ":notequals=<string>" to compare
 190        the value between the %(if:...) and %(then) atoms with the
 191        given string.
 192
 193symref::
 194        The ref which the given symbolic ref refers to. If not a
 195        symbolic ref, nothing is printed. Respects the `:short`,
 196        `:lstrip` and `:rstrip` options in the same way as `refname`
 197        above.
 198
 199In addition to the above, for commit and tag objects, the header
 200field names (`tree`, `parent`, `object`, `type`, and `tag`) can
 201be used to specify the value in the header field.
 202
 203For commit and tag objects, the special `creatordate` and `creator`
 204fields will correspond to the appropriate date or name-email-date tuple
 205from the `committer` or `tagger` fields depending on the object type.
 206These are intended for working on a mix of annotated and lightweight tags.
 207
 208Fields that have name-email-date tuple as its value (`author`,
 209`committer`, and `tagger`) can be suffixed with `name`, `email`,
 210and `date` to extract the named component.
 211
 212The complete message in a commit and tag object is `contents`.
 213Its first line is `contents:subject`, where subject is the concatenation
 214of all lines of the commit message up to the first blank line.  The next
 215line is 'contents:body', where body is all of the lines after the first
 216blank line.  The optional GPG signature is `contents:signature`.  The
 217first `N` lines of the message is obtained using `contents:lines=N`.
 218Additionally, the trailers as interpreted by linkgit:git-interpret-trailers[1]
 219are obtained as 'contents:trailers'.
 220
 221For sorting purposes, fields with numeric values sort in numeric order
 222(`objectsize`, `authordate`, `committerdate`, `creatordate`, `taggerdate`).
 223All other fields are used to sort in their byte-value order.
 224
 225There is also an option to sort by versions, this can be done by using
 226the fieldname `version:refname` or its alias `v:refname`.
 227
 228In any case, a field name that refers to a field inapplicable to
 229the object referred by the ref does not cause an error.  It
 230returns an empty string instead.
 231
 232As a special case for the date-type fields, you may specify a format for
 233the date by adding `:` followed by date format name (see the
 234values the `--date` option to linkgit:git-rev-list[1] takes).
 235
 236Some atoms like %(align) and %(if) always require a matching %(end).
 237We call them "opening atoms" and sometimes denote them as %($open).
 238
 239When a scripting language specific quoting is in effect, everything
 240between a top-level opening atom and its matching %(end) is evaluated
 241according to the semantics of the opening atom and only its result
 242from the top-level is quoted.
 243
 244
 245EXAMPLES
 246--------
 247
 248An example directly producing formatted text.  Show the most recent
 2493 tagged commits:
 250
 251------------
 252#!/bin/sh
 253
 254git for-each-ref --count=3 --sort='-*authordate' \
 255--format='From: %(*authorname) %(*authoremail)
 256Subject: %(*subject)
 257Date: %(*authordate)
 258Ref: %(*refname)
 259
 260%(*body)
 261' 'refs/tags'
 262------------
 263
 264
 265A simple example showing the use of shell eval on the output,
 266demonstrating the use of --shell.  List the prefixes of all heads:
 267------------
 268#!/bin/sh
 269
 270git for-each-ref --shell --format="ref=%(refname)" refs/heads | \
 271while read entry
 272do
 273        eval "$entry"
 274        echo `dirname $ref`
 275done
 276------------
 277
 278
 279A bit more elaborate report on tags, demonstrating that the format
 280may be an entire script:
 281------------
 282#!/bin/sh
 283
 284fmt='
 285        r=%(refname)
 286        t=%(*objecttype)
 287        T=${r#refs/tags/}
 288
 289        o=%(*objectname)
 290        n=%(*authorname)
 291        e=%(*authoremail)
 292        s=%(*subject)
 293        d=%(*authordate)
 294        b=%(*body)
 295
 296        kind=Tag
 297        if test "z$t" = z
 298        then
 299                # could be a lightweight tag
 300                t=%(objecttype)
 301                kind="Lightweight tag"
 302                o=%(objectname)
 303                n=%(authorname)
 304                e=%(authoremail)
 305                s=%(subject)
 306                d=%(authordate)
 307                b=%(body)
 308        fi
 309        echo "$kind $T points at a $t object $o"
 310        if test "z$t" = zcommit
 311        then
 312                echo "The commit was authored by $n $e
 313at $d, and titled
 314
 315    $s
 316
 317Its message reads as:
 318"
 319                echo "$b" | sed -e "s/^/    /"
 320                echo
 321        fi
 322'
 323
 324eval=`git for-each-ref --shell --format="$fmt" \
 325        --sort='*objecttype' \
 326        --sort=-taggerdate \
 327        refs/tags`
 328eval "$eval"
 329------------
 330
 331
 332An example to show the usage of %(if)...%(then)...%(else)...%(end).
 333This prefixes the current branch with a star.
 334
 335------------
 336git for-each-ref --format="%(if)%(HEAD)%(then)* %(else)  %(end)%(refname:short)" refs/heads/
 337------------
 338
 339
 340An example to show the usage of %(if)...%(then)...%(end).
 341This prints the authorname, if present.
 342
 343------------
 344git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)%(if)%(authorname)%(then) Authored by: %(authorname)%(end)"
 345------------
 346
 347SEE ALSO
 348--------
 349linkgit:git-show-ref[1]
 350
 351GIT
 352---
 353Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite