Documentation / git-for-each-ref.txton commit Git 2.6-rc0 (16ffa64)
   1git-for-each-ref(1)
   2===================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-for-each-ref - Output information on each ref
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git for-each-ref' [--count=<count>] [--shell|--perl|--python|--tcl]
  12                   [(--sort=<key>)...] [--format=<format>] [<pattern>...]
  13
  14DESCRIPTION
  15-----------
  16
  17Iterate over all refs that match `<pattern>` and show them
  18according to the given `<format>`, after sorting them according
  19to the given set of `<key>`.  If `<count>` is given, stop after
  20showing that many refs.  The interpolated values in `<format>`
  21can optionally be quoted as string literals in the specified
  22host language allowing their direct evaluation in that language.
  23
  24OPTIONS
  25-------
  26<count>::
  27        By default the command shows all refs that match
  28        `<pattern>`.  This option makes it stop after showing
  29        that many refs.
  30
  31<key>::
  32        A field name to sort on.  Prefix `-` to sort in
  33        descending order of the value.  When unspecified,
  34        `refname` is used.  You may use the --sort=<key> option
  35        multiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primary
  36        key.
  37
  38<format>::
  39        A string that interpolates `%(fieldname)` from the
  40        object pointed at by a ref being shown.  If `fieldname`
  41        is prefixed with an asterisk (`*`) and the ref points
  42        at a tag object, the value for the field in the object
  43        tag refers is used.  When unspecified, defaults to
  44        `%(objectname) SPC %(objecttype) TAB %(refname)`.
  45        It also interpolates `%%` to `%`, and `%xx` where `xx`
  46        are hex digits interpolates to character with hex code
  47        `xx`; for example `%00` interpolates to `\0` (NUL),
  48        `%09` to `\t` (TAB) and `%0a` to `\n` (LF).
  49
  50<pattern>...::
  51        If one or more patterns are given, only refs are shown that
  52        match against at least one pattern, either using fnmatch(3) or
  53        literally, in the latter case matching completely or from the
  54        beginning up to a slash.
  55
  56--shell::
  57--perl::
  58--python::
  59--tcl::
  60        If given, strings that substitute `%(fieldname)`
  61        placeholders are quoted as string literals suitable for
  62        the specified host language.  This is meant to produce
  63        a scriptlet that can directly be `eval`ed.
  64
  65
  66FIELD NAMES
  67-----------
  68
  69Various values from structured fields in referenced objects can
  70be used to interpolate into the resulting output, or as sort
  71keys.
  72
  73For all objects, the following names can be used:
  74
  75refname::
  76        The name of the ref (the part after $GIT_DIR/).
  77        For a non-ambiguous short name of the ref append `:short`.
  78        The option core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict
  79        abbreviation mode.
  80
  81objecttype::
  82        The type of the object (`blob`, `tree`, `commit`, `tag`).
  83
  84objectsize::
  85        The size of the object (the same as 'git cat-file -s' reports).
  86
  87objectname::
  88        The object name (aka SHA-1).
  89        For a non-ambiguous abbreviation of the object name append `:short`.
  90
  91upstream::
  92        The name of a local ref which can be considered ``upstream''
  93        from the displayed ref. Respects `:short` in the same way as
  94        `refname` above.  Additionally respects `:track` to show
  95        "[ahead N, behind M]" and `:trackshort` to show the terse
  96        version: ">" (ahead), "<" (behind), "<>" (ahead and behind),
  97        or "=" (in sync).  Has no effect if the ref does not have
  98        tracking information associated with it.
  99
 100push::
 101        The name of a local ref which represents the `@{push}` location
 102        for the displayed ref. Respects `:short`, `:track`, and
 103        `:trackshort` options as `upstream` does. Produces an empty
 104        string if no `@{push}` ref is configured.
 105
 106HEAD::
 107        '*' if HEAD matches current ref (the checked out branch), ' '
 108        otherwise.
 109
 110color::
 111        Change output color.  Followed by `:<colorname>`, where names
 112        are described in `color.branch.*`.
 113
 114In addition to the above, for commit and tag objects, the header
 115field names (`tree`, `parent`, `object`, `type`, and `tag`) can
 116be used to specify the value in the header field.
 117
 118Fields that have name-email-date tuple as its value (`author`,
 119`committer`, and `tagger`) can be suffixed with `name`, `email`,
 120and `date` to extract the named component.
 121
 122The complete message in a commit and tag object is `contents`.
 123Its first line is `contents:subject`, where subject is the concatenation
 124of all lines of the commit message up to the first blank line.  The next
 125line is 'contents:body', where body is all of the lines after the first
 126blank line.  Finally, the optional GPG signature is `contents:signature`.
 127
 128For sorting purposes, fields with numeric values sort in numeric
 129order (`objectsize`, `authordate`, `committerdate`, `taggerdate`).
 130All other fields are used to sort in their byte-value order.
 131
 132In any case, a field name that refers to a field inapplicable to
 133the object referred by the ref does not cause an error.  It
 134returns an empty string instead.
 135
 136As a special case for the date-type fields, you may specify a format for
 137the date by adding one of `:default`, `:relative`, `:short`, `:local`,
 138`:iso8601`, `:rfc2822` or `:raw` to the end of the fieldname; e.g.
 139`%(taggerdate:relative)`.
 140
 141
 142EXAMPLES
 143--------
 144
 145An example directly producing formatted text.  Show the most recent
 1463 tagged commits:
 147
 148------------
 149#!/bin/sh
 150
 151git for-each-ref --count=3 --sort='-*authordate' \
 152--format='From: %(*authorname) %(*authoremail)
 153Subject: %(*subject)
 154Date: %(*authordate)
 155Ref: %(*refname)
 156
 157%(*body)
 158' 'refs/tags'
 159------------
 160
 161
 162A simple example showing the use of shell eval on the output,
 163demonstrating the use of --shell.  List the prefixes of all heads:
 164------------
 165#!/bin/sh
 166
 167git for-each-ref --shell --format="ref=%(refname)" refs/heads | \
 168while read entry
 169do
 170        eval "$entry"
 171        echo `dirname $ref`
 172done
 173------------
 174
 175
 176A bit more elaborate report on tags, demonstrating that the format
 177may be an entire script:
 178------------
 179#!/bin/sh
 180
 181fmt='
 182        r=%(refname)
 183        t=%(*objecttype)
 184        T=${r#refs/tags/}
 185
 186        o=%(*objectname)
 187        n=%(*authorname)
 188        e=%(*authoremail)
 189        s=%(*subject)
 190        d=%(*authordate)
 191        b=%(*body)
 192
 193        kind=Tag
 194        if test "z$t" = z
 195        then
 196                # could be a lightweight tag
 197                t=%(objecttype)
 198                kind="Lightweight tag"
 199                o=%(objectname)
 200                n=%(authorname)
 201                e=%(authoremail)
 202                s=%(subject)
 203                d=%(authordate)
 204                b=%(body)
 205        fi
 206        echo "$kind $T points at a $t object $o"
 207        if test "z$t" = zcommit
 208        then
 209                echo "The commit was authored by $n $e
 210at $d, and titled
 211
 212    $s
 213
 214Its message reads as:
 215"
 216                echo "$b" | sed -e "s/^/    /"
 217                echo
 218        fi
 219'
 220
 221eval=`git for-each-ref --shell --format="$fmt" \
 222        --sort='*objecttype' \
 223        --sort=-taggerdate \
 224        refs/tags`
 225eval "$eval"
 226------------
 227
 228SEE ALSO
 229--------
 230linkgit:git-show-ref[1]
 231
 232GIT
 233---
 234Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite