Documentation / rev-list-options.txton commit simplify-merges: drop merge from irrelevant side branch (143f1ea)
   1Commit Limiting
   2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   3
   4Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the
   5special notations explained in the description, additional commit
   6limiting may be applied.
   7
   8Using more options generally further limits the output (e.g.
   9`--since=<date1>` limits to commits newer than `<date1>`, and using it
  10with `--grep=<pattern>` further limits to commits whose log message
  11has a line that matches `<pattern>`), unless otherwise noted.
  12
  13Note that these are applied before commit
  14ordering and formatting options, such as `--reverse`.
  15
  16--
  17
  18-<number>::
  19-n <number>::
  20--max-count=<number>::
  21
  22        Limit the number of commits to output.
  23
  24--skip=<number>::
  25
  26        Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
  27
  28--since=<date>::
  29--after=<date>::
  30
  31        Show commits more recent than a specific date.
  32
  33--until=<date>::
  34--before=<date>::
  35
  36        Show commits older than a specific date.
  37
  38ifdef::git-rev-list[]
  39--max-age=<timestamp>::
  40--min-age=<timestamp>::
  41
  42        Limit the commits output to specified time range.
  43endif::git-rev-list[]
  44
  45--author=<pattern>::
  46--committer=<pattern>::
  47
  48        Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
  49        header lines that match the specified pattern (regular
  50        expression).  With more than one `--author=<pattern>`,
  51        commits whose author matches any of the given patterns are
  52        chosen (similarly for multiple `--committer=<pattern>`).
  53
  54--grep-reflog=<pattern>::
  55
  56        Limit the commits output to ones with reflog entries that
  57        match the specified pattern (regular expression). With
  58        more than one `--grep-reflog`, commits whose reflog message
  59        matches any of the given patterns are chosen.  It is an
  60        error to use this option unless `--walk-reflogs` is in use.
  61
  62--grep=<pattern>::
  63
  64        Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
  65        matches the specified pattern (regular expression).  With
  66        more than one `--grep=<pattern>`, commits whose message
  67        matches any of the given patterns are chosen (but see
  68        `--all-match`).
  69+
  70When `--show-notes` is in effect, the message from the notes as
  71if it is part of the log message.
  72
  73--all-match::
  74        Limit the commits output to ones that match all given --grep,
  75        instead of ones that match at least one.
  76
  77-i::
  78--regexp-ignore-case::
  79
  80        Match the regexp limiting patterns without regard to letters case.
  81
  82--basic-regexp::
  83
  84        Consider the limiting patterns to be basic regular expressions;
  85        this is the default.
  86
  87-E::
  88--extended-regexp::
  89
  90        Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
  91        instead of the default basic regular expressions.
  92
  93-F::
  94--fixed-strings::
  95
  96        Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
  97        pattern as a regular expression).
  98
  99--perl-regexp::
 100
 101        Consider the limiting patterns to be Perl-compatible regexp.
 102        Requires libpcre to be compiled in.
 103
 104--remove-empty::
 105
 106        Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
 107
 108--merges::
 109
 110        Print only merge commits. This is exactly the same as `--min-parents=2`.
 111
 112--no-merges::
 113
 114        Do not print commits with more than one parent. This is
 115        exactly the same as `--max-parents=1`.
 116
 117--min-parents=<number>::
 118--max-parents=<number>::
 119--no-min-parents::
 120--no-max-parents::
 121
 122        Show only commits which have at least (or at most) that many
 123        commits. In particular, `--max-parents=1` is the same as `--no-merges`,
 124        `--min-parents=2` is the same as `--merges`.  `--max-parents=0`
 125        gives all root commits and `--min-parents=3` all octopus merges.
 126+
 127`--no-min-parents` and `--no-max-parents` reset these limits (to no limit)
 128again.  Equivalent forms are `--min-parents=0` (any commit has 0 or more
 129parents) and `--max-parents=-1` (negative numbers denote no upper limit).
 130
 131--first-parent::
 132        Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
 133        commit.  This option can give a better overview when
 134        viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
 135        because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
 136        adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
 137        this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
 138        brought in to your history by such a merge.
 139
 140--not::
 141
 142        Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
 143        for all following revision specifiers, up to the next '--not'.
 144
 145--all::
 146
 147        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the
 148        command line as '<commit>'.
 149
 150--branches[=<pattern>]::
 151
 152        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
 153        on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
 154        branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
 155        '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 156
 157--tags[=<pattern>]::
 158
 159        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
 160        on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
 161        tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
 162        or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 163
 164--remotes[=<pattern>]::
 165
 166        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
 167        on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
 168        remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
 169        If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 170
 171--glob=<glob-pattern>::
 172        Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob '<glob-pattern>'
 173        are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/',
 174        is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
 175        or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 176
 177--ignore-missing::
 178
 179        Upon seeing an invalid object name in the input, pretend as if
 180        the bad input was not given.
 181
 182ifndef::git-rev-list[]
 183--bisect::
 184
 185        Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
 186        was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
 187        bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
 188        line.
 189endif::git-rev-list[]
 190
 191--stdin::
 192
 193        In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
 194        line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is
 195        seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the
 196        result.
 197
 198ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 199--quiet::
 200
 201        Don't print anything to standard output.  This form
 202        is primarily meant to allow the caller to
 203        test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
 204        connected (or not).  It is faster than redirecting stdout
 205        to /dev/null as the output does not have to be formatted.
 206endif::git-rev-list[]
 207
 208--cherry-mark::
 209
 210        Like `--cherry-pick` (see below) but mark equivalent commits
 211        with `=` rather than omitting them, and inequivalent ones with `+`.
 212
 213--cherry-pick::
 214
 215        Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
 216        another commit on the "other side" when the set of
 217        commits are limited with symmetric difference.
 218+
 219For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
 220to list all commits on only one side of them is with
 221`--left-right` (see the example below in the description of
 222the `--left-right` option).  It however shows the commits that were cherry-picked
 223from the other branch (for example, "3rd on b" may be cherry-picked
 224from branch A).  With this option, such pairs of commits are
 225excluded from the output.
 226
 227--left-only::
 228--right-only::
 229
 230        List only commits on the respective side of a symmetric range,
 231        i.e. only those which would be marked `<` resp. `>` by
 232        `--left-right`.
 233+
 234For example, `--cherry-pick --right-only A...B` omits those
 235commits from `B` which are in `A` or are patch-equivalent to a commit in
 236`A`. In other words, this lists the `+` commits from `git cherry A B`.
 237More precisely, `--cherry-pick --right-only --no-merges` gives the exact
 238list.
 239
 240--cherry::
 241
 242        A synonym for `--right-only --cherry-mark --no-merges`; useful to
 243        limit the output to the commits on our side and mark those that
 244        have been applied to the other side of a forked history with
 245        `git log --cherry upstream...mybranch`, similar to
 246        `git cherry upstream mybranch`.
 247
 248-g::
 249--walk-reflogs::
 250
 251        Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
 252        reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
 253        When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
 254        exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
 255        nor 'commit1\...commit2' notations cannot be used).
 256+
 257With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons),
 258this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
 259taken from the reflog.  By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
 260used in the output.  When the starting commit is specified as
 261'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
 262instead.  Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is
 263prefixed with this information on the same line.
 264This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'.
 265See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
 266
 267--merge::
 268
 269        After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
 270        conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
 271
 272--boundary::
 273
 274        Output excluded boundary commits. Boundary commits are
 275        prefixed with `-`.
 276
 277--
 278
 279History Simplification
 280~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 281
 282Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
 283commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
 284'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
 285is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
 286
 287The following options select the commits to be shown:
 288
 289<paths>::
 290
 291        Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
 292
 293--simplify-by-decoration::
 294
 295        Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
 296
 297Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
 298
 299The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
 300
 301Default mode::
 302
 303        Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
 304        final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
 305        branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
 306        with the same content)
 307
 308--full-history::
 309
 310        Same as the default mode, but does not prune some history.
 311
 312--dense::
 313
 314        Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
 315        meaningful history.
 316
 317--sparse::
 318
 319        All commits in the simplified history are shown.
 320
 321--simplify-merges::
 322
 323        Additional option to '--full-history' to remove some needless
 324        merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
 325        commits contributing to this merge.
 326
 327--ancestry-path::
 328
 329        When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2'
 330        or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist
 331        directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and
 332        'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1',
 333        and ancestors of 'commit2'.
 334
 335A more detailed explanation follows.
 336
 337Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>.  We shall call commits
 338that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME.  (In a diff
 339filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
 340
 341In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
 342illustrate the differences between simplification settings.  We assume
 343that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
 344-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 345          .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
 346         /     /   /   /   /   /
 347        I     B   C   D   E   Y
 348         \   /   /   /   /   /
 349          `-------------'   X
 350-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 351The horizontal line of history A---Q is taken to be the first parent of
 352each merge.  The commits are:
 353
 354* `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
 355  "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux".  Initial
 356  commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
 357
 358* In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo".
 359
 360* `B` contains the same change as `A`.  Its merge `M` is trivial and
 361  hence TREESAME to all parents.
 362
 363* `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar",
 364  so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
 365
 366* `D` sets `foo` to "baz".  Its merge `O` combines the strings from
 367  `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
 368
 369* `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the
 370  strings to "quux xyzzy".  `P` is TREESAME to `O`, but not to `E`.
 371
 372* `X` is an indpendent root commit that added a new file `side`, and `Y`
 373  modified it. `Y` is TREESAME to `X`. Its merge `Q` added `side` to `P`, and
 374  `Q` is TREESAME to `P`, but not to `Y`.
 375
 376'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding
 377commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting
 378(via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used.  The following settings
 379are available.
 380
 381Default mode::
 382
 383        Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
 384        (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).  If the
 385        commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
 386        only that parent.  (Even if there are several TREESAME
 387        parents, follow only one of them.)  Otherwise, follow all
 388        parents.
 389+
 390This results in:
 391+
 392-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 393          .-A---N---O
 394         /     /   /
 395        I---------D
 396-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 397+
 398Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
 399available, removed `B` from consideration entirely.  `C` was
 400considered via `N`, but is TREESAME.  Root commits are compared to an
 401empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
 402+
 403Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does
 404not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
 405parent lines.
 406
 407--full-history without parent rewriting::
 408
 409        This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
 410        all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
 411        Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
 412        included, this does not imply that the merge itself is!  In
 413        the example, we get
 414+
 415-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 416        I  A  B  N  D  O  P  Q
 417-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 418+
 419`M` was excluded because it is TREESAME to both parents.  `E`,
 420`C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
 421do not appear.
 422+
 423Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
 424about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
 425them disconnected.
 426
 427--full-history with parent rewriting::
 428
 429        Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
 430        (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).
 431+
 432Merges are always included.  However, their parent list is rewritten:
 433Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
 434themselves.  This results in
 435+
 436-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 437          .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
 438         /     /   /   /   /
 439        I     B   /   D   /
 440         \   /   /   /   /
 441          `-------------'
 442-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 443+
 444Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above.  Note that `E`
 445was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
 446rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`.  The same happened for `C` and
 447`N`, and `X`, `Y` and `Q`.
 448
 449In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
 450affects inclusion:
 451
 452--dense::
 453
 454        Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
 455        to any parent.
 456
 457--sparse::
 458
 459        All commits that are walked are included.
 460+
 461Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if
 462one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
 463sides of the merge are never walked.
 464
 465--simplify-merges::
 466
 467        First, build a history graph in the same way that
 468        '\--full-history' with parent rewriting does (see above).
 469+
 470Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
 471history according to the following rules:
 472+
 473--
 474* Set `C'` to `C`.
 475+
 476* Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`.  In
 477  the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents or that are
 478  root commits TREESAME to an empty tree, and remove duplicates, but take care
 479  to never drop all parents that we are TREESAME to.
 480+
 481* If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
 482  zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
 483  Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
 484--
 485+
 486The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
 487'\--full-history' with parent rewriting.  The example turns into:
 488+
 489-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 490          .-A---M---N---O
 491         /     /       /
 492        I     B       D
 493         \   /       /
 494          `---------'
 495-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 496+
 497Note the major differences in `N`, `P` and `Q` over '--full-history':
 498+
 499--
 500* `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
 501  other parent `M`.  Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
 502+
 503* `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed.  `P` was then
 504  removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
 505+
 506* `Q`'s parent list had `Y` simplified to `X`. `X` was then removed, because it
 507  was a TREESAME root. `Q` was then removed completely, because it had one
 508  parent and is TREESAME.
 509--
 510
 511Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available:
 512
 513--ancestry-path::
 514
 515        Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry
 516        chain between the "from" and "to" commits in the given commit
 517        range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the "to"
 518        commit, and descendants of the "from" commit.
 519+
 520As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
 521+
 522-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 523            D---E-------F
 524           /     \       \
 525          B---C---G---H---I---J
 526         /                     \
 527        A-------K---------------L--M
 528-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 529+
 530A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`,
 531but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see
 532what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense
 533that "what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`". The result in this
 534example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself,
 535of course).
 536+
 537When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the
 538bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view
 539only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e.
 540excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the '--ancestry-path'
 541option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in:
 542+
 543-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 544                E-------F
 545                 \       \
 546                  G---H---I---J
 547                               \
 548                                L--M
 549-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 550
 551The '\--simplify-by-decoration' option allows you to view only the
 552big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
 553that are not referenced by tags.  Commits are marked as !TREESAME
 554(in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
 555above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
 556contents of the paths given on the command line.  All other
 557commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
 558
 559ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 560Bisection Helpers
 561~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 562
 563--bisect::
 564
 565Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
 566included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
 567`refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
 568exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
 569added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
 570are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
 571
 572-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 573        $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
 574-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 575
 576outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
 577
 578-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 579        $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
 580        $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
 581-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 582
 583would be of roughly the same length.  Finding the change which
 584introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
 585generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
 586one.
 587
 588--bisect-vars::
 589
 590This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
 591`refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
 592text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
 593name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
 594expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
 595to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if
 596`bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected
 597number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
 598`bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to
 599`bisect_all`.
 600
 601--bisect-all::
 602
 603This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
 604commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
 605commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
 606from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
 607`--bisect`.)
 608+
 609This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
 610test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
 611may not compile for example).
 612+
 613This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
 614after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
 615`--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
 616endif::git-rev-list[]
 617
 618
 619Commit Ordering
 620~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 621
 622By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
 623
 624--date-order::
 625        Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
 626        otherwise show commits in the commit timestamp order.
 627
 628--topo-order::
 629        Show no parents before all of its children are shown, and
 630        avoid showing commits on multiple lines of history
 631        intermixed.
 632+
 633For example, in a commit history like this:
 634+
 635----------------------------------------------------------------
 636
 637    ---1----2----4----7
 638        \              \
 639         3----5----6----8---
 640
 641----------------------------------------------------------------
 642+
 643where the numbers denote the order of commit timestamps, `git
 644rev-list` and friends with `--date-order` show the commits in the
 645timestamp order: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.
 646+
 647With `--topo-order`, they would show 8 6 5 3 7 4 2 1 (or 8 7 4 2 6 5
 6483 1); some older commits are shown before newer ones in order to
 649avoid showing the commits from two parallel development track mixed
 650together.
 651
 652--reverse::
 653
 654        Output the commits in reverse order.
 655        Cannot be combined with '\--walk-reflogs'.
 656
 657Object Traversal
 658~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 659
 660These options are mostly targeted for packing of Git repositories.
 661
 662--objects::
 663
 664        Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
 665        commits.  '--objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me
 666        all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
 667        object 'bar', but not 'foo'".
 668
 669--objects-edge::
 670
 671        Similar to '--objects', but also print the IDs of excluded
 672        commits prefixed with a "-" character.  This is used by
 673        linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build "thin" pack, which records
 674        objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
 675        excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
 676
 677--unpacked::
 678
 679        Only useful with '--objects'; print the object IDs that are not
 680        in packs.
 681
 682--no-walk[=(sorted|unsorted)]::
 683
 684        Only show the given commits, but do not traverse their ancestors.
 685        This has no effect if a range is specified. If the argument
 686        "unsorted" is given, the commits are show in the order they were
 687        given on the command line. Otherwise (if "sorted" or no argument
 688        was given), the commits are show in reverse chronological order
 689        by commit time.
 690
 691--do-walk::
 692
 693        Overrides a previous --no-walk.
 694
 695Commit Formatting
 696~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 697
 698ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 699Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
 700more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
 701linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
 702endif::git-rev-list[]
 703
 704include::pretty-options.txt[]
 705
 706--relative-date::
 707
 708        Synonym for `--date=relative`.
 709
 710--date=(relative|local|default|iso|rfc|short|raw)::
 711
 712        Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such
 713        as when using "--pretty". `log.date` config variable sets a default
 714        value for log command's --date option.
 715+
 716`--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
 717e.g. "2 hours ago".
 718+
 719`--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local timezone.
 720+
 721`--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format.
 722+
 723`--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
 724format, often found in E-mail messages.
 725+
 726`--date=short` shows only date but not time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
 727+
 728`--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw Git format `%s %z` format.
 729+
 730`--date=default` shows timestamps in the original timezone
 731(either committer's or author's).
 732
 733ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 734--header::
 735
 736        Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
 737        separated with a NUL character.
 738endif::git-rev-list[]
 739
 740--parents::
 741
 742        Print also the parents of the commit (in the form "commit parent...").
 743        Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
 744
 745--children::
 746
 747        Print also the children of the commit (in the form "commit child...").
 748        Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
 749
 750ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 751--timestamp::
 752        Print the raw commit timestamp.
 753endif::git-rev-list[]
 754
 755--left-right::
 756
 757        Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from.
 758        Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
 759        the right with `>`.  If combined with `--boundary`, those
 760        commits are prefixed with `-`.
 761+
 762For example, if you have this topology:
 763+
 764-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 765             y---b---b  branch B
 766            / \ /
 767           /   .
 768          /   / \
 769         o---x---a---a  branch A
 770-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 771+
 772you would get an output like this:
 773+
 774-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 775        $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
 776
 777        >bbbbbbb... 3rd on b
 778        >bbbbbbb... 2nd on b
 779        <aaaaaaa... 3rd on a
 780        <aaaaaaa... 2nd on a
 781        -yyyyyyy... 1st on b
 782        -xxxxxxx... 1st on a
 783-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 784
 785--graph::
 786
 787        Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
 788        on the left hand side of the output.  This may cause extra lines
 789        to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
 790        to be drawn properly.
 791+
 792This enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
 793+
 794This implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the
 795'--date-order' option may also be specified.
 796
 797ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 798--count::
 799        Print a number stating how many commits would have been
 800        listed, and suppress all other output.  When used together
 801        with '--left-right', instead print the counts for left and
 802        right commits, separated by a tab. When used together with
 803        '--cherry-mark', omit patch equivalent commits from these
 804        counts and print the count for equivalent commits separated
 805        by a tab.
 806endif::git-rev-list[]
 807
 808
 809ifndef::git-rev-list[]
 810Diff Formatting
 811~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 812
 813Below are listed options that control the formatting of diff output.
 814Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
 815options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
 816
 817-c::
 818
 819        With this option, diff output for a merge commit
 820        shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
 821        simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
 822        and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
 823        which were modified from all parents.
 824
 825--cc::
 826
 827        This flag implies the '-c' option and further compresses the
 828        patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
 829        the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
 830        one of them without modification.
 831
 832-m::
 833
 834        This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
 835        regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
 836        and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
 837        the first parent is shown when '--first-parent' option is given;
 838        in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
 839        brought _into_ the then-current branch.
 840
 841-r::
 842
 843        Show recursive diffs.
 844
 845-t::
 846
 847        Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies '-r'.
 848
 849-s::
 850        Suppress diff output.
 851endif::git-rev-list[]