1git-format-patch(1) 2=================== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-format-patch - Prepare patches for e-mail submission 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git-format-patch' [-k] [-o <dir> | --stdout] [--thread] 13 [--attach[=<boundary>] | --inline[=<boundary>]] 14 [-s | --signoff] [<common diff options>] 15 [-n | --numbered | -N | --no-numbered] 16 [--start-number <n>] [--numbered-files] 17 [--in-reply-to=Message-Id] [--suffix=.<sfx>] 18 [--ignore-if-in-upstream] 19 [--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix] 20 [--cc=<email>] 21 [--cover-letter] 22 [ <since> | <revision range> ] 23 24DESCRIPTION 25----------- 26 27Prepare each commit with its patch in 28one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format. 29The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or 30for use with linkgit:git-am[1]. 31 32There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on. 33 341. A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading 35 to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history 36 that leads to the <since> to be output. 37 382. Generic <revision range> expression (see "SPECIFYING 39 REVISIONS" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]) means the 40 commits in the specified range. 41 42A single commit, when interpreted as a <revision range> 43expression, means "everything that leads to that commit", but 44if you write 'git format-patch <commit>', the previous rule 45applies to that command line and you do not get "everything 46since the beginning of the time". If you want to format 47everything since project inception to one commit, say "git 48format-patch \--root <commit>" to make it clear that it is the 49latter case. 50 51By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the 52first line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as 53the filename. With the --numbered-files option, the output file names 54will only be numbers, without the first line of the commit appended. 55The names of the output files are printed to standard 56output, unless the --stdout option is specified. 57 58If -o is specified, output files are created in <dir>. Otherwise 59they are created in the current working directory. 60 61If -n is specified, instead of "[PATCH] Subject", the first line 62is formatted as "[PATCH n/m] Subject". 63 64If given --thread, git-format-patch will generate In-Reply-To and 65References headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear 66as replies to the first mail; this also generates a Message-Id header to 67reference. 68 69OPTIONS 70------- 71:git-format-patch: 1 72include::diff-options.txt[] 73 74-<n>:: 75 Limits the number of patches to prepare. 76 77-o|--output-directory <dir>:: 78 Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the 79 current working directory. 80 81-n|--numbered:: 82 Name output in '[PATCH n/m]' format. 83 84-N|--no-numbered:: 85 Name output in '[PATCH]' format. 86 87--start-number <n>:: 88 Start numbering the patches at <n> instead of 1. 89 90--numbered-files:: 91 Output file names will be a simple number sequence 92 without the default first line of the commit appended. 93 Mutually exclusive with the --stdout option. 94 95-k|--keep-subject:: 96 Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the 97 commit log message. 98 99-s|--signoff:: 100 Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using 101 the committer identity of yourself. 102 103--stdout:: 104 Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, 105 instead of creating a file for each one. 106 107--attach[=<boundary>]:: 108 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 109 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 110 second part, with "Content-Disposition: attachment". 111 112--inline[=<boundary>]:: 113 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 114 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 115 second part, with "Content-Disposition: inline". 116 117--thread:: 118 Add In-Reply-To and References headers to make the second and 119 subsequent mails appear as replies to the first. Also generates 120 the Message-Id header to reference. 121 122--in-reply-to=Message-Id:: 123 Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a 124 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to 125 provide a new patch series. 126 127--ignore-if-in-upstream:: 128 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in 129 <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable 130 from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the 131 patches being generated, and any patch that matches is 132 ignored. 133 134--subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: 135 Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject 136 line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This 137 allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be 138 combined with the --numbered option. 139 140--cc=<email>:: 141 Add a "Cc:" header to the email headers. This is in addition 142 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 143 144--cover-letter:: 145 Generate a cover letter template. You still have to fill in 146 a description, but the shortlog and the diffstat will be 147 generated for you. 148 149--suffix=.<sfx>:: 150 Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated 151 filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is 152 `--suffix=.txt`. 153+ 154Note that you would need to include the leading dot `.` if you 155want a filename like `0001-description-of-my-change.patch`, and 156the first letter does not have to be a dot. Leaving it empty would 157not add any suffix. 158 159--no-binary:: 160 Don't output contents of changes in binary files, just take note 161 that they differ. Note that this disable the patch to be properly 162 applied. By default the contents of changes in those files are 163 encoded in the patch. 164 165CONFIGURATION 166------------- 167You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message 168in the repository configuration, new defaults for the subject prefix 169and file suffix, and number patches when outputting more than one. 170 171------------ 172[format] 173 headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" 174 subjectprefix = CHANGE 175 suffix = .txt 176 numbered = auto 177 cc = <email> 178------------ 179 180 181EXAMPLES 182-------- 183 184* Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of 185the current branch using `git-am` to cherry-pick them: 186+ 187------------ 188$ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git-am -3 -k 189------------ 190 191* Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the 192origin branch: 193+ 194------------ 195$ git format-patch origin 196------------ 197+ 198For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory. 199 200* Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the inception of the 201project: 202+ 203------------ 204$ git format-patch \--root origin 205------------ 206 207* The same as the previous one: 208+ 209------------ 210$ git format-patch -M -B origin 211------------ 212+ 213Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites 214intelligently to produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces 215the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review it. 216Note that the "patch" program does not understand renaming patches, so 217use it only when you know the recipient uses git to apply your patch. 218 219* Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them 220as e-mailable patches: 221+ 222------------ 223$ git format-patch -3 224------------ 225 226See Also 227-------- 228linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1] 229 230 231Author 232------ 233Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 234 235Documentation 236-------------- 237Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 238 239GIT 240--- 241Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite