Documentation / git-commit.txton commit Use a temporary index for git commit --interactive (1020d08)
   1git-commit(1)
   2=============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-commit - Record changes to the repository
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git commit' [-a | --interactive] [-s] [-v] [-u<mode>] [--amend] [--dry-run]
  12           [(-c | -C | --fixup | --squash) <commit>] [-F <file> | -m <msg>]
  13           [--reset-author] [--allow-empty] [--allow-empty-message] [--no-verify]
  14           [-e] [--author=<author>] [--date=<date>] [--cleanup=<mode>]
  15           [--status | --no-status] [-i | -o] [--] [<file>...]
  16
  17DESCRIPTION
  18-----------
  19Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along
  20with a log message from the user describing the changes.
  21
  22The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
  23
  241. by using 'git add' to incrementally "add" changes to the
  25   index before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
  26   files must be "added");
  27
  282. by using 'git rm' to remove files from the working tree
  29   and the index, again before using the 'commit' command;
  30
  313. by listing files as arguments to the 'commit' command, in which
  32   case the commit will ignore changes staged in the index, and instead
  33   record the current content of the listed files (which must already
  34   be known to git);
  35
  364. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically
  37   "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
  38   listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
  39   that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
  40   actual commit;
  41
  425. by using the --interactive switch with the 'commit' command to decide one
  43   by one which files should be part of the commit, before finalizing the
  44   operation.  Currently, this is done by invoking 'git add --interactive'
  45   on a temporary index.
  46
  47The `--dry-run` option can be used to obtain a
  48summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
  49commit by giving the same set of parameters (options and paths).
  50
  51If you make a commit and then find a mistake immediately after
  52that, you can recover from it with 'git reset'.
  53
  54
  55OPTIONS
  56-------
  57-a::
  58--all::
  59        Tell the command to automatically stage files that have
  60        been modified and deleted, but new files you have not
  61        told git about are not affected.
  62
  63-C <commit>::
  64--reuse-message=<commit>::
  65        Take an existing commit object, and reuse the log message
  66        and the authorship information (including the timestamp)
  67        when creating the commit.
  68
  69-c <commit>::
  70--reedit-message=<commit>::
  71        Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that
  72        the user can further edit the commit message.
  73
  74--fixup=<commit>::
  75        Construct a commit message for use with `rebase --autosquash`.
  76        The commit message will be the subject line from the specified
  77        commit with a prefix of "fixup! ".  See linkgit:git-rebase[1]
  78        for details.
  79
  80--squash=<commit>::
  81        Construct a commit message for use with `rebase --autosquash`.
  82        The commit message subject line is taken from the specified
  83        commit with a prefix of "squash! ".  Can be used with additional
  84        commit message options (`-m`/`-c`/`-C`/`-F`). See
  85        linkgit:git-rebase[1] for details.
  86
  87--reset-author::
  88        When used with -C/-c/--amend options, or when committing after a
  89        a conflicting cherry-pick, declare that the authorship of the
  90        resulting commit now belongs of the committer. This also renews
  91        the author timestamp.
  92
  93--short::
  94        When doing a dry-run, give the output in the short-format. See
  95        linkgit:git-status[1] for details. Implies `--dry-run`.
  96
  97--porcelain::
  98        When doing a dry-run, give the output in a porcelain-ready
  99        format. See linkgit:git-status[1] for details. Implies
 100        `--dry-run`.
 101
 102-z::
 103        When showing `short` or `porcelain` status output, terminate
 104        entries in the status output with NUL, instead of LF. If no
 105        format is given, implies the `--porcelain` output format.
 106
 107-F <file>::
 108--file=<file>::
 109        Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
 110        read the message from the standard input.
 111
 112--author=<author>::
 113        Override the commit author. Specify an explicit author using the
 114        standard `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format. Otherwise <author>
 115        is assumed to be a pattern and is used to search for an existing
 116        commit by that author (i.e. rev-list --all -i --author=<author>);
 117        the commit author is then copied from the first such commit found.
 118
 119--date=<date>::
 120        Override the author date used in the commit.
 121
 122-m <msg>::
 123--message=<msg>::
 124        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
 125
 126-t <file>::
 127--template=<file>::
 128        Use the contents of the given file as the initial version
 129        of the commit message. The editor is invoked and you can
 130        make subsequent changes. If a message is specified using
 131        the `-m` or `-F` options, this option has no effect. This
 132        overrides the `commit.template` configuration variable.
 133
 134-s::
 135--signoff::
 136        Add Signed-off-by line by the committer at the end of the commit
 137        log message.
 138
 139-n::
 140--no-verify::
 141        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 142        See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 143
 144--allow-empty::
 145        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 146        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 147        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 148        is primarily for use by foreign SCM interface scripts.
 149
 150--allow-empty-message::
 151       Like --allow-empty this command is primarily for use by foreign
 152       SCM interface scripts. It allows you to create a commit with an
 153       empty commit message without using plumbing commands like
 154       linkgit:git-commit-tree[1].
 155
 156--cleanup=<mode>::
 157        This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
 158        The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
 159        and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
 160        trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
 161        only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
 162        removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
 163        'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
 164        and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 165
 166-e::
 167--edit::
 168        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 169        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 170        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 171        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 172
 173--amend::
 174        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
 175        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
 176        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
 177        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
 178        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
 179        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
 180        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
 181        discarded.
 182+
 183--
 184It is a rough equivalent for:
 185------
 186        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 187        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 188        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 189
 190------
 191but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 192--
 193+
 194You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you
 195amend a commit that has already been published.  (See the "RECOVERING
 196FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1].)
 197
 198-i::
 199--include::
 200        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 201        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 202        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 203        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 204
 205-o::
 206--only::
 207        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 208        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 209        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 210        'git commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 211        in which case this option can be omitted.
 212        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 213        no paths need to be specified, which can be used to amend
 214        the last commit without committing changes that have
 215        already been staged.
 216
 217-u[<mode>]::
 218--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 219        Show untracked files.
 220+
 221The mode parameter is optional (defaults to 'all'), and is used to
 222specify the handling of untracked files; when -u is not used, the
 223default is 'normal', i.e. show untracked files and directories.
 224+
 225The possible options are:
 226+
 227        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 228        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 229        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 230+
 231The default can be changed using the status.showUntrackedFiles
 232configuration variable documented in linkgit:git-config[1].
 233
 234-v::
 235--verbose::
 236        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 237        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 238        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 239        lines prefixed with '#'.
 240
 241-q::
 242--quiet::
 243        Suppress commit summary message.
 244
 245--dry-run::
 246        Do not create a commit, but show a list of paths that are
 247        to be committed, paths with local changes that will be left
 248        uncommitted and paths that are untracked.
 249
 250--status::
 251        Include the output of linkgit:git-status[1] in the commit
 252        message template when using an editor to prepare the commit
 253        message.  Defaults to on, but can be used to override
 254        configuration variable commit.status.
 255
 256--no-status::
 257        Do not include the output of linkgit:git-status[1] in the
 258        commit message template when using an editor to prepare the
 259        default commit message.
 260
 261\--::
 262        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 263
 264<file>...::
 265        When files are given on the command line, the command
 266        commits the contents of the named files, without
 267        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 268        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 269        of what have been staged before.
 270
 271:git-commit: 1
 272include::date-formats.txt[]
 273
 274EXAMPLES
 275--------
 276When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 277your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 278called the "index" with 'git add'.  A file can be
 279reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 280to that of the last commit with `git reset HEAD -- <file>`,
 281which effectively reverts 'git add' and prevents the changes to
 282this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 283the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 284`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 285has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 286command.  An example:
 287
 288------------
 289$ edit hello.c
 290$ git rm goodbye.c
 291$ git add hello.c
 292$ git commit
 293------------
 294
 295Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 296tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 297contents are tracked in
 298your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 299for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 300example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 301
 302------------
 303$ edit hello.c
 304$ rm goodbye.c
 305$ git commit -a
 306------------
 307
 308The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 309notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 310and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 311
 312After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 313changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 314When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 315only records the changes made to the named paths:
 316
 317------------
 318$ edit hello.c hello.h
 319$ git add hello.c hello.h
 320$ edit Makefile
 321$ git commit Makefile
 322------------
 323
 324This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 325The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 326in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 327they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 328sequence, if you do:
 329
 330------------
 331$ git commit
 332------------
 333
 334this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 335`hello.h` as expected.
 336
 337After a merge (initiated by 'git merge' or 'git pull') stops
 338because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 339paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 340conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 341check which paths are conflicting with 'git status'
 342and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 343stage the result as usual with 'git add':
 344
 345------------
 346$ git status | grep unmerged
 347unmerged: hello.c
 348$ edit hello.c
 349$ git add hello.c
 350------------
 351
 352After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 353would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 354run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 355
 356------------
 357$ git commit
 358------------
 359
 360As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 361option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 362resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 363alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 364should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 365refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 366
 367
 368DISCUSSION
 369----------
 370
 371Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 372with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 373change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 374Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
 375on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 376
 377include::i18n.txt[]
 378
 379ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 380---------------------------------------
 381The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 382GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 383VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 384order).  See linkgit:git-var[1] for details.
 385
 386HOOKS
 387-----
 388This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 389and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
 390information.
 391
 392
 393SEE ALSO
 394--------
 395linkgit:git-add[1],
 396linkgit:git-rm[1],
 397linkgit:git-mv[1],
 398linkgit:git-merge[1],
 399linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 400
 401GIT
 402---
 403Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite