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|--output-directory) <dir> | --stdout] 13 [--no-thread | --thread[=<style>]] 14 [(--attach|--inline)[=<boundary>] | --no-attach] 15 [-s | --signoff] 16 [--signature=<signature> | --no-signature] 17 [-n | --numbered | -N | --no-numbered] 18 [--start-number <n>] [--numbered-files] 19 [--in-reply-to=Message-Id] [--suffix=.<sfx>] 20 [--ignore-if-in-upstream] 21 [--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix] 22 [--to=<email>] [--cc=<email>] 23 [--cover-letter] 24 [<common diff options>] 25 [ <since> | <revision range> ] 26 27DESCRIPTION 28----------- 29 30Prepare each commit with its patch in 31one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format. 32The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or 33for use with 'git am'. 34 35There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on. 36 371. A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading 38 to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history 39 that leads to the <since> to be output. 40 412. Generic <revision range> expression (see "SPECIFYING 42 REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7]) means the 43 commits in the specified range. 44 45The first rule takes precedence in the case of a single <commit>. To 46apply the second rule, i.e., format everything since the beginning of 47history up until <commit>, use the '\--root' option: `git format-patch 48\--root <commit>`. If you want to format only <commit> itself, you 49can do this with `git format-patch -1 <commit>`. 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 61By default, the subject of a single patch is "[PATCH] First Line" and 62the subject when multiple patches are output is "[PATCH n/m] First 63Line". To force 1/1 to be added for a single patch, use `-n`. To omit 64patch numbers from the subject, use `-N`. 65 66If given `--thread`, `git-format-patch` will generate `In-Reply-To` and 67`References` headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear 68as replies to the first mail; this also generates a `Message-Id` header to 69reference. 70 71OPTIONS 72------- 73:git-format-patch: 1 74include::diff-options.txt[] 75 76-<n>:: 77 Prepare patches from the topmost <n> commits. 78 79-o <dir>:: 80--output-directory <dir>:: 81 Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the 82 current working directory. 83 84-n:: 85--numbered:: 86 Name output in '[PATCH n/m]' format, even with a single patch. 87 88-N:: 89--no-numbered:: 90 Name output in '[PATCH]' format. 91 92--start-number <n>:: 93 Start numbering the patches at <n> instead of 1. 94 95--numbered-files:: 96 Output file names will be a simple number sequence 97 without the default first line of the commit appended. 98 99-k:: 100--keep-subject:: 101 Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the 102 commit log message. 103 104-s:: 105--signoff:: 106 Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using 107 the committer identity of yourself. 108 109--stdout:: 110 Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, 111 instead of creating a file for each one. 112 113--attach[=<boundary>]:: 114 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 115 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 116 second part, with `Content-Disposition: attachment`. 117 118--no-attach:: 119 Disable the creation of an attachment, overriding the 120 configuration setting. 121 122--inline[=<boundary>]:: 123 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 124 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 125 second part, with `Content-Disposition: inline`. 126 127--thread[=<style>]:: 128--no-thread:: 129 Controls addition of `In-Reply-To` and `References` headers to 130 make the second and subsequent mails appear as replies to the 131 first. Also controls generation of the `Message-Id` header to 132 reference. 133+ 134The optional <style> argument can be either `shallow` or `deep`. 135'shallow' threading makes every mail a reply to the head of the 136series, where the head is chosen from the cover letter, the 137`\--in-reply-to`, and the first patch mail, in this order. 'deep' 138threading makes every mail a reply to the previous one. 139+ 140The default is `--no-thread`, unless the 'format.thread' configuration 141is set. If `--thread` is specified without a style, it defaults to the 142style specified by 'format.thread' if any, or else `shallow`. 143+ 144Beware that the default for 'git send-email' is to thread emails 145itself. If you want `git format-patch` to take care of threading, you 146will want to ensure that threading is disabled for `git send-email`. 147 148--in-reply-to=Message-Id:: 149 Make the first mail (or all the mails with `--no-thread`) appear as a 150 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to 151 provide a new patch series. 152 153--ignore-if-in-upstream:: 154 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in 155 <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable 156 from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the 157 patches being generated, and any patch that matches is 158 ignored. 159 160--subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: 161 Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject 162 line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This 163 allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be 164 combined with the `--numbered` option. 165 166--to=<email>:: 167 Add a `To:` header to the email headers. This is in addition 168 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 169 170--cc=<email>:: 171 Add a `Cc:` header to the email headers. This is in addition 172 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 173 174--add-header=<header>:: 175 Add an arbitrary header to the email headers. This is in addition 176 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 177 For example, `--add-header="Organization: git-foo"` 178 179--cover-letter:: 180 In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file 181 containing the shortlog and the overall diffstat. You can 182 fill in a description in the file before sending it out. 183 184--[no]-signature=<signature>:: 185 Add a signature to each message produced. Per RFC 3676 the signature 186 is separated from the body by a line with '-- ' on it. If the 187 signature option is omitted the signature defaults to the git version 188 number. 189 190--suffix=.<sfx>:: 191 Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated 192 filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is 193 `--suffix=.txt`. Leaving this empty will remove the `.patch` 194 suffix. 195+ 196Note that the leading character does not have to be a dot; for example, 197you can use `--suffix=-patch` to get `0001-description-of-my-change-patch`. 198 199--no-binary:: 200 Do not output contents of changes in binary files, instead 201 display a notice that those files changed. Patches generated 202 using this option cannot be applied properly, but they are 203 still useful for code review. 204 205--root:: 206 Treat the revision argument as a <revision range>, even if it 207 is just a single commit (that would normally be treated as a 208 <since>). Note that root commits included in the specified 209 range are always formatted as creation patches, independently 210 of this flag. 211 212CONFIGURATION 213------------- 214You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message, 215defaults for the subject prefix and file suffix, number patches when 216outputting more than one patch, add "To" or "Cc:" headers, configure 217attachments, and sign off patches with configuration variables. 218 219------------ 220[format] 221 headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" 222 subjectprefix = CHANGE 223 suffix = .txt 224 numbered = auto 225 to = <email> 226 cc = <email> 227 attach [ = mime-boundary-string ] 228 signoff = true 229------------ 230 231 232DISCUSSION 233---------- 234 235The patch produced by 'git format-patch' is in UNIX mailbox format, 236with a fixed "magic" time stamp to indicate that the file is output 237from format-patch rather than a real mailbox, like so: 238 239------------ 240From 8f72bad1baf19a53459661343e21d6491c3908d3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 241From: Tony Luck <tony.luck@intel.com> 242Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:42:54 -0700 243Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?[IA64]=20Put=20ia64=20config=20files=20on=20the=20?= 244 =?UTF-8?q?Uwe=20Kleine-K=C3=B6nig=20diet?= 245MIME-Version: 1.0 246Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 247Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit 248 249arch/arm config files were slimmed down using a python script 250(See commit c2330e286f68f1c408b4aa6515ba49d57f05beae comment) 251 252Do the same for ia64 so we can have sleek & trim looking 253... 254------------ 255 256Typically it will be placed in a MUA's drafts folder, edited to add 257timely commentary that should not go in the changelog after the three 258dashes, and then sent as a message whose body, in our example, starts 259with "arch/arm config files were...". On the receiving end, readers 260can save interesting patches in a UNIX mailbox and apply them with 261linkgit:git-am[1]. 262 263When a patch is part of an ongoing discussion, the patch generated by 264'git format-patch' can be tweaked to take advantage of the 'git am 265--scissors' feature. After your response to the discussion comes a 266line that consists solely of "`-- >8 --`" (scissors and perforation), 267followed by the patch with unnecessary header fields removed: 268 269------------ 270... 271> So we should do such-and-such. 272 273Makes sense to me. How about this patch? 274 275-- >8 -- 276Subject: [IA64] Put ia64 config files on the Uwe Kleine-König diet 277 278arch/arm config files were slimmed down using a python script 279... 280------------ 281 282When sending a patch this way, most often you are sending your own 283patch, so in addition to the "`From $SHA1 $magic_timestamp`" marker you 284should omit `From:` and `Date:` lines from the patch file. The patch 285title is likely to be different from the subject of the discussion the 286patch is in response to, so it is likely that you would want to keep 287the Subject: line, like the example above. 288 289 290EXAMPLES 291-------- 292 293* Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of 294the current branch using 'git am' to cherry-pick them: 295+ 296------------ 297$ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git am -3 -k 298------------ 299 300* Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the 301origin branch: 302+ 303------------ 304$ git format-patch origin 305------------ 306+ 307For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory. 308 309* Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the inception of the 310project: 311+ 312------------ 313$ git format-patch --root origin 314------------ 315 316* The same as the previous one: 317+ 318------------ 319$ git format-patch -M -B origin 320------------ 321+ 322Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites 323intelligently to produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces 324the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review. 325Note that non-git "patch" programs won't understand renaming patches, so 326use it only when you know the recipient uses git to apply your patch. 327 328* Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them 329as e-mailable patches: 330+ 331------------ 332$ git format-patch -3 333------------ 334 335SEE ALSO 336-------- 337linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1] 338 339GIT 340--- 341Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite