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 <dir> | --stdout] [--thread] 13 [--attach[=<boundary>] | --inline[=<boundary>]] 14 [-s | --signoff] [<common diff options>] 15 [-n | --numbered | -N | --no-numbered] 16 [--start-number <n>] [--numbered-files] 17 [--in-reply-to=Message-Id] [--suffix=.<sfx>] 18 [--ignore-if-in-upstream] 19 [--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix] 20 [--cc=<email>] 21 [--cover-letter] 22 [ <since> | <revision range> ] 23 24DESCRIPTION 25----------- 26 27Prepare each commit with its patch in 28one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format. 29The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or 30for use with 'git-am'. 31 32There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on. 33 341. A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading 35 to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history 36 that leads to the <since> to be output. 37 382. Generic <revision range> expression (see "SPECIFYING 39 REVISIONS" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]) means the 40 commits in the specified range. 41 42A single commit, when interpreted as a <revision range> 43expression, means "everything that leads to that commit", but 44if you write 'git format-patch <commit>', the previous rule 45applies to that command line and you do not get "everything 46since the beginning of the time". If you want to format 47everything since project inception to one commit, say "git 48format-patch \--root <commit>" to make it clear that it is the 49latter case. If you want to format a single commit, you can do 50this with "git format-patch -1 <commit>". 51 52By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the 53first line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as 54the filename. With the --numbered-files option, the output file names 55will only be numbers, without the first line of the commit appended. 56The names of the output files are printed to standard 57output, unless the --stdout option is specified. 58 59If -o is specified, output files are created in <dir>. Otherwise 60they are created in the current working directory. 61 62By default, the subject of a single patch is "[PATCH] First Line" and 63the subject when multiple patches are output is "[PATCH n/m] First 64Line". To force 1/1 to be added for a single patch, use -n. To omit 65patch numbers from the subject, use -N 66 67If given --thread, 'git-format-patch' will generate In-Reply-To and 68References headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear 69as replies to the first mail; this also generates a Message-Id header to 70reference. 71 72OPTIONS 73------- 74:git-format-patch: 1 75include::diff-options.txt[] 76 77-<n>:: 78 Limits the number of patches to prepare. 79 80-o <dir>:: 81--output-directory <dir>:: 82 Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the 83 current working directory. 84 85-n:: 86--numbered:: 87 Name output in '[PATCH n/m]' format, even with a single patch. 88 89-N:: 90--no-numbered:: 91 Name output in '[PATCH]' format. 92 93--start-number <n>:: 94 Start numbering the patches at <n> instead of 1. 95 96--numbered-files:: 97 Output file names will be a simple number sequence 98 without the default first line of the commit appended. 99 Mutually exclusive with the --stdout option. 100 101-k:: 102--keep-subject:: 103 Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the 104 commit log message. 105 106-s:: 107--signoff:: 108 Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using 109 the committer identity of yourself. 110 111--stdout:: 112 Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, 113 instead of creating a file for each one. 114 115--attach[=<boundary>]:: 116 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 117 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 118 second part, with "Content-Disposition: attachment". 119 120--inline[=<boundary>]:: 121 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 122 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 123 second part, with "Content-Disposition: inline". 124 125--thread:: 126 Add In-Reply-To and References headers to make the second and 127 subsequent mails appear as replies to the first. Also generates 128 the Message-Id header to reference. 129 130--in-reply-to=Message-Id:: 131 Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a 132 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to 133 provide a new patch series. 134 135--ignore-if-in-upstream:: 136 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in 137 <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable 138 from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the 139 patches being generated, and any patch that matches is 140 ignored. 141 142--subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: 143 Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject 144 line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This 145 allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be 146 combined with the --numbered option. 147 148--cc=<email>:: 149 Add a "Cc:" header to the email headers. This is in addition 150 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 151 152--cover-letter:: 153 In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file 154 containing the shortlog and the overall diffstat. You can 155 fill in a description in the file before sending it out. 156 157--suffix=.<sfx>:: 158 Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated 159 filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is 160 `--suffix=.txt`. 161+ 162Note that you would need to include the leading dot `.` if you 163want a filename like `0001-description-of-my-change.patch`, and 164the first letter does not have to be a dot. Leaving it empty would 165not add any suffix. 166 167--no-binary:: 168 Don't output contents of changes in binary files, just take note 169 that they differ. Note that this disable the patch to be properly 170 applied. By default the contents of changes in those files are 171 encoded in the patch. 172 173CONFIGURATION 174------------- 175You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message 176in the repository configuration, new defaults for the subject prefix 177and file suffix, and number patches when outputting more than one. 178 179------------ 180[format] 181 headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" 182 subjectprefix = CHANGE 183 suffix = .txt 184 numbered = auto 185 cc = <email> 186------------ 187 188 189EXAMPLES 190-------- 191 192* Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of 193the current branch using 'git-am' to cherry-pick them: 194+ 195------------ 196$ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git am -3 -k 197------------ 198 199* Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the 200origin branch: 201+ 202------------ 203$ git format-patch origin 204------------ 205+ 206For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory. 207 208* Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the inception of the 209project: 210+ 211------------ 212$ git format-patch --root origin 213------------ 214 215* The same as the previous one: 216+ 217------------ 218$ git format-patch -M -B origin 219------------ 220+ 221Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites 222intelligently to produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces 223the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review it. 224Note that the "patch" program does not understand renaming patches, so 225use it only when you know the recipient uses git to apply your patch. 226 227* Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them 228as e-mailable patches: 229+ 230------------ 231$ git format-patch -3 232------------ 233 234SEE ALSO 235-------- 236linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1] 237 238 239Author 240------ 241Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 242 243Documentation 244-------------- 245Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 246 247GIT 248--- 249Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite