1git-notes(1) 2============ 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-notes - Add or inspect object notes 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git notes' [list [<object>]] 12'git notes' add [-f] [--allow-empty] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>] 13'git notes' copy [-f] ( --stdin | <from-object> <to-object> ) 14'git notes' append [--allow-empty] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>] 15'git notes' edit [--allow-empty] [<object>] 16'git notes' show [<object>] 17'git notes' merge [-v | -q] [-s <strategy> ] <notes-ref> 18'git notes' merge --commit [-v | -q] 19'git notes' merge --abort [-v | -q] 20'git notes' remove [--ignore-missing] [--stdin] [<object>...] 21'git notes' prune [-n | -v] 22'git notes' get-ref 23 24 25DESCRIPTION 26----------- 27Adds, removes, or reads notes attached to objects, without touching 28the objects themselves. 29 30By default, notes are saved to and read from `refs/notes/commits`, but 31this default can be overridden. See the OPTIONS, CONFIGURATION, and 32ENVIRONMENT sections below. If this ref does not exist, it will be 33quietly created when it is first needed to store a note. 34 35A typical use of notes is to supplement a commit message without 36changing the commit itself. Notes can be shown by 'git log' along with 37the original commit message. To distinguish these notes from the 38message stored in the commit object, the notes are indented like the 39message, after an unindented line saying "Notes (<refname>):" (or 40"Notes:" for `refs/notes/commits`). 41 42Notes can also be added to patches prepared with `git format-patch` by 43using the `--notes` option. Such notes are added as a patch commentary 44after a three dash separator line. 45 46To change which notes are shown by 'git log', see the 47"notes.displayRef" configuration in linkgit:git-log[1]. 48 49See the "notes.rewrite.<command>" configuration for a way to carry 50notes across commands that rewrite commits. 51 52 53SUBCOMMANDS 54----------- 55 56list:: 57 List the notes object for a given object. If no object is 58 given, show a list of all note objects and the objects they 59 annotate (in the format "<note object> <annotated object>"). 60 This is the default subcommand if no subcommand is given. 61 62add:: 63 Add notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). Abort if the 64 object already has notes (use `-f` to overwrite existing notes). 65 However, if you're using `add` interactively (using an editor 66 to supply the notes contents), then - instead of aborting - 67 the existing notes will be opened in the editor (like the `edit` 68 subcommand). 69 70copy:: 71 Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object. 72 Abort if the second object already has notes, or if the first 73 object has none (use -f to overwrite existing notes to the 74 second object). This subcommand is equivalent to: 75 `git notes add [-f] -C $(git notes list <from-object>) <to-object>` 76+ 77In `--stdin` mode, take lines in the format 78+ 79---------- 80<from-object> SP <to-object> [ SP <rest> ] LF 81---------- 82+ 83on standard input, and copy the notes from each <from-object> to its 84corresponding <to-object>. (The optional `<rest>` is ignored so that 85the command can read the input given to the `post-rewrite` hook.) 86 87append:: 88 Append to the notes of an existing object (defaults to HEAD). 89 Creates a new notes object if needed. 90 91edit:: 92 Edit the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). 93 94show:: 95 Show the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). 96 97merge:: 98 Merge the given notes ref into the current notes ref. 99 This will try to merge the changes made by the given 100 notes ref (called "remote") since the merge-base (if 101 any) into the current notes ref (called "local"). 102+ 103If conflicts arise and a strategy for automatically resolving 104conflicting notes (see the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section) is not given, 105the "manual" resolver is used. This resolver checks out the 106conflicting notes in a special worktree (`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), 107and instructs the user to manually resolve the conflicts there. 108When done, the user can either finalize the merge with 109'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with 110'git notes merge --abort'. 111 112remove:: 113 Remove the notes for given objects (defaults to HEAD). When 114 giving zero or one object from the command line, this is 115 equivalent to specifying an empty note message to 116 the `edit` subcommand. 117 118prune:: 119 Remove all notes for non-existing/unreachable objects. 120 121get-ref:: 122 Print the current notes ref. This provides an easy way to 123 retrieve the current notes ref (e.g. from scripts). 124 125OPTIONS 126------- 127-f:: 128--force:: 129 When adding notes to an object that already has notes, 130 overwrite the existing notes (instead of aborting). 131 132-m <msg>:: 133--message=<msg>:: 134 Use the given note message (instead of prompting). 135 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values 136 are concatenated as separate paragraphs. 137 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a 138 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out. 139 140-F <file>:: 141--file=<file>:: 142 Take the note message from the given file. Use '-' to 143 read the note message from the standard input. 144 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a 145 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out. 146 147-C <object>:: 148--reuse-message=<object>:: 149 Take the given blob object (for example, another note) as the 150 note message. (Use `git notes copy <object>` instead to 151 copy notes between objects.) 152 153-c <object>:: 154--reedit-message=<object>:: 155 Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that 156 the user can further edit the note message. 157 158--allow-empty:: 159 Allow an empty note object to be stored. The default behavior is 160 to automatically remove empty notes. 161 162--ref <ref>:: 163 Manipulate the notes tree in <ref>. This overrides 164 'GIT_NOTES_REF' and the "core.notesRef" configuration. The ref 165 is taken to be in `refs/notes/` if it is not qualified. 166 167--ignore-missing:: 168 Do not consider it an error to request removing notes from an 169 object that does not have notes attached to it. 170 171--stdin:: 172 Also read the object names to remove notes from from the standard 173 input (there is no reason you cannot combine this with object 174 names from the command line). 175 176-n:: 177--dry-run:: 178 Do not remove anything; just report the object names whose notes 179 would be removed. 180 181-s <strategy>:: 182--strategy=<strategy>:: 183 When merging notes, resolve notes conflicts using the given 184 strategy. The following strategies are recognized: "manual" 185 (default), "ours", "theirs", "union" and "cat_sort_uniq". 186 This option overrides the "notes.mergeStrategy" configuration setting. 187 See the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section below for more 188 information on each notes merge strategy. 189 190--commit:: 191 Finalize an in-progress 'git notes merge'. Use this option 192 when you have resolved the conflicts that 'git notes merge' 193 stored in .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. This amends the partial 194 merge commit created by 'git notes merge' (stored in 195 .git/NOTES_MERGE_PARTIAL) by adding the notes in 196 .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. The notes ref stored in the 197 .git/NOTES_MERGE_REF symref is updated to the resulting commit. 198 199--abort:: 200 Abort/reset a in-progress 'git notes merge', i.e. a notes merge 201 with conflicts. This simply removes all files related to the 202 notes merge. 203 204-q:: 205--quiet:: 206 When merging notes, operate quietly. 207 208-v:: 209--verbose:: 210 When merging notes, be more verbose. 211 When pruning notes, report all object names whose notes are 212 removed. 213 214 215DISCUSSION 216---------- 217 218Commit notes are blobs containing extra information about an object 219(usually information to supplement a commit's message). These blobs 220are taken from notes refs. A notes ref is usually a branch which 221contains "files" whose paths are the object names for the objects 222they describe, with some directory separators included for performance 223reasons footnote:[Permitted pathnames have the form 224'ab'`/`'cd'`/`'ef'`/`'...'`/`'abcdef...': a sequence of directory 225names of two hexadecimal digits each followed by a filename with the 226rest of the object ID.]. 227 228Every notes change creates a new commit at the specified notes ref. 229You can therefore inspect the history of the notes by invoking, e.g., 230`git log -p notes/commits`. Currently the commit message only records 231which operation triggered the update, and the commit authorship is 232determined according to the usual rules (see linkgit:git-commit[1]). 233These details may change in the future. 234 235It is also permitted for a notes ref to point directly to a tree 236object, in which case the history of the notes can be read with 237`git log -p -g <refname>`. 238 239 240NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES 241---------------------- 242 243The default notes merge strategy is "manual", which checks out 244conflicting notes in a special work tree for resolving notes conflicts 245(`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), and instructs the user to resolve the 246conflicts in that work tree. 247When done, the user can either finalize the merge with 248'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with 249'git notes merge --abort'. 250 251Users may select an automated merge strategy from among the following using 252either -s/--strategy option or configuring notes.mergeStrategy accordingly: 253 254"ours" automatically resolves conflicting notes in favor of the local 255version (i.e. the current notes ref). 256 257"theirs" automatically resolves notes conflicts in favor of the remote 258version (i.e. the given notes ref being merged into the current notes 259ref). 260 261"union" automatically resolves notes conflicts by concatenating the 262local and remote versions. 263 264"cat_sort_uniq" is similar to "union", but in addition to concatenating 265the local and remote versions, this strategy also sorts the resulting 266lines, and removes duplicate lines from the result. This is equivalent 267to applying the "cat | sort | uniq" shell pipeline to the local and 268remote versions. This strategy is useful if the notes follow a line-based 269format where one wants to avoid duplicated lines in the merge result. 270Note that if either the local or remote version contain duplicate lines 271prior to the merge, these will also be removed by this notes merge 272strategy. 273 274 275EXAMPLES 276-------- 277 278You can use notes to add annotations with information that was not 279available at the time a commit was written. 280 281------------ 282$ git notes add -m 'Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>' 72a144e2 283$ git show -s 72a144e 284[...] 285 Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 286 287Notes: 288 Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org> 289------------ 290 291In principle, a note is a regular Git blob, and any kind of 292(non-)format is accepted. You can binary-safely create notes from 293arbitrary files using 'git hash-object': 294 295------------ 296$ cc *.c 297$ blob=$(git hash-object -w a.out) 298$ git notes --ref=built add --allow-empty -C "$blob" HEAD 299------------ 300 301(You cannot simply use `git notes --ref=built add -F a.out HEAD` 302because that is not binary-safe.) 303Of course, it doesn't make much sense to display non-text-format notes 304with 'git log', so if you use such notes, you'll probably need to write 305some special-purpose tools to do something useful with them. 306 307 308CONFIGURATION 309------------- 310 311core.notesRef:: 312 Notes ref to read and manipulate instead of 313 `refs/notes/commits`. Must be an unabbreviated ref name. 314 This setting can be overridden through the environment and 315 command line. 316 317notes.mergeStrategy:: 318 Which merge strategy to choose by default when resolving notes 319 conflicts. Must be one of `manual`, `ours`, `theirs`, `union`, or 320 `cat_sort_uniq`. Defaults to `manual`. See "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" 321 section above for more information on each strategy. 322+ 323This setting can be overridden by passing the `--strategy` option. 324 325notes.<name>.mergeStrategy:: 326 Which merge strategy to choose when doing a notes merge into 327 refs/notes/<name>. This overrides the more general 328 "notes.mergeStrategy". See the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section above 329 for more information on each available strategy. 330 331notes.displayRef:: 332 Which ref (or refs, if a glob or specified more than once), in 333 addition to the default set by `core.notesRef` or 334 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit 335 messages with the 'git log' family of commands. 336 This setting can be overridden on the command line or by the 337 'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF' environment variable. 338 See linkgit:git-log[1]. 339 340notes.rewrite.<command>:: 341 When rewriting commits with <command> (currently `amend` or 342 `rebase`), if this variable is `false`, git will not copy 343 notes from the original to the rewritten commit. Defaults to 344 `true`. See also "`notes.rewriteRef`" below. 345+ 346This setting can be overridden by the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' 347environment variable. 348 349notes.rewriteMode:: 350 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target 351 commit already has a note. Must be one of `overwrite`, 352 `concatenate`, `cat_sort_uniq`, or `ignore`. Defaults to 353 `concatenate`. 354+ 355This setting can be overridden with the `GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE` 356environment variable. 357 358notes.rewriteRef:: 359 When copying notes during a rewrite, specifies the (fully 360 qualified) ref whose notes should be copied. May be a glob, 361 in which case notes in all matching refs will be copied. You 362 may also specify this configuration several times. 363+ 364Does not have a default value; you must configure this variable to 365enable note rewriting. 366+ 367Can be overridden with the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' environment variable. 368 369 370ENVIRONMENT 371----------- 372 373'GIT_NOTES_REF':: 374 Which ref to manipulate notes from, instead of `refs/notes/commits`. 375 This overrides the `core.notesRef` setting. 376 377'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF':: 378 Colon-delimited list of refs or globs indicating which refs, 379 in addition to the default from `core.notesRef` or 380 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit 381 messages. 382 This overrides the `notes.displayRef` setting. 383+ 384A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist, but a glob that 385does not match any refs is silently ignored. 386 387'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE':: 388 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target 389 commit already has a note. 390 Must be one of `overwrite`, `concatenate`, `cat_sort_uniq`, or `ignore`. 391 This overrides the `core.rewriteMode` setting. 392 393'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF':: 394 When rewriting commits, which notes to copy from the original 395 to the rewritten commit. Must be a colon-delimited list of 396 refs or globs. 397+ 398If not set in the environment, the list of notes to copy depends 399on the `notes.rewrite.<command>` and `notes.rewriteRef` settings. 400 401GIT 402--- 403Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite