Documentation / git-rev-list.txton commit Update git-pack-objects documentation. (12ea5be)
   1git-rev-list(1)
   2===============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-rev-list - Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11'git-rev-list' [ \--max-count=number ]
  12        [ \--max-age=timestamp ]
  13        [ \--min-age=timestamp ]
  14        [ \--sparse ]
  15        [ \--no-merges ]
  16        [ \--all ]
  17        [ [ \--merge-order [ \--show-breaks ] ] | [ \--topo-order ] | ]
  18        [ \--parents ]
  19        [ \--objects [ \--unpacked ] ]
  20        [ \--pretty | \--header | ]
  21        [ \--bisect ]
  22        <commit>... [ \-- <paths>... ]
  23
  24DESCRIPTION
  25-----------
  26Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order starting at the
  27given commit(s), taking ancestry relationship into account.  This is
  28useful to produce human-readable log output.
  29
  30Commits which are stated with a preceding '{caret}' cause listing to stop at
  31that point. Their parents are implied. "git-rev-list foo bar {caret}baz" thus
  32means "list all the commits which are included in 'foo' and 'bar', but
  33not in 'baz'".
  34
  35A special notation <commit1>..<commit2> can be used as a
  36short-hand for {caret}<commit1> <commit2>.
  37
  38
  39OPTIONS
  40-------
  41--pretty::
  42        Print the contents of the commit changesets in human-readable form.
  43
  44--header::
  45        Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each
  46        record is separated with a NUL character.
  47
  48--objects::
  49        Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed commits.
  50        'git-rev-list --objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me all object IDs
  51        which I need to download if I have the commit object 'bar', but
  52        not 'foo'".
  53
  54--unpacked::
  55        Only useful with `--objects`; print the object IDs that
  56        are not in packs.
  57
  58--bisect::
  59        Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway
  60        between the included and excluded commits. Thus, if 'git-rev-list
  61        --bisect foo ^bar ^baz' outputs 'midpoint', the output
  62        of 'git-rev-list foo ^midpoint' and 'git-rev-list midpoint
  63        ^bar ^baz' would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change
  64        which introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search:
  65        repeatedly generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain
  66        is of length one.
  67
  68--max-count::
  69        Limit the number of commits output.
  70
  71--max-age=timestamp, --min-age=timestamp::
  72        Limit the commits output to specified time range.
  73
  74--sparse::
  75        When optional paths are given, the command outputs only
  76        the commits that changes at least one of them.  This
  77        flag makes the command ignore the paths, outputting all
  78        eligible commits (still subject to count and age
  79        limitation).
  80
  81--all::
  82        Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/` are
  83        listed on the command line as <commit>.
  84
  85--topo-order::
  86        By default, the commits are shown in reverse
  87        chronological order.  This option makes them appear in
  88        topological order (i.e. descendant commits are shown
  89        before their parents).
  90
  91--merge-order::
  92        When specified the commit history is decomposed into a unique
  93        sequence of minimal, non-linear epochs and maximal, linear epochs.
  94        Non-linear epochs are then linearised by sorting them into merge
  95        order, which is described below.
  96+
  97Maximal, linear epochs correspond to periods of sequential development.
  98Minimal, non-linear epochs correspond to periods of divergent development
  99followed by a converging merge. The theory of epochs is described in more
 100detail at
 101link:http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/[http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/].
 102+
 103The merge order for a non-linear epoch is defined as a linearisation for which
 104the following invariants are true:
 105+
 106    1. if a commit P is reachable from commit N, commit P sorts after commit N
 107       in the linearised list.
 108    2. if Pi and Pj are any two parents of a merge M (with i < j), then any
 109       commit N, such that N is reachable from Pj but not reachable from Pi,
 110       sorts before all commits reachable from Pi.
 111+
 112Invariant 1 states that later commits appear before earlier commits they are
 113derived from.
 114+
 115Invariant 2 states that commits unique to "later" parents in a merge, appear
 116before all commits from "earlier" parents of a merge.
 117
 118--show-breaks::
 119        Each item of the list is output with a 2-character prefix consisting
 120        of one of: (|), (^), (=) followed by a space.
 121+
 122Commits marked with (=) represent the boundaries of minimal, non-linear epochs
 123and correspond either to the start of a period of divergent development or to
 124the end of such a period.
 125+
 126Commits marked with (|) are direct parents of commits immediately preceding
 127the marked commit in the list.
 128+
 129Commits marked with (^) are not parents of the immediately preceding commit.
 130These "breaks" represent necessary discontinuities implied by trying to
 131represent an arbtirary DAG in a linear form.
 132+
 133`--show-breaks` is only valid if `--merge-order` is also specified.
 134
 135
 136Author
 137------
 138Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 139
 140Original *--merge-order* logic by Jon Seymour <jon.seymour@gmail.com>
 141
 142Documentation
 143--------------
 144Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 145
 146GIT
 147---
 148Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 149