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. 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 67References 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 Limits the number of patches to prepare. 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 Mutually exclusive with the --stdout option. 99 100-k:: 101--keep-subject:: 102 Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the 103 commit log message. 104 105-s:: 106--signoff:: 107 Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using 108 the committer identity of yourself. 109 110--stdout:: 111 Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, 112 instead of creating a file for each one. 113 114--attach[=<boundary>]:: 115 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 116 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 117 second part, with "Content-Disposition: attachment". 118 119--inline[=<boundary>]:: 120 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 121 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 122 second part, with "Content-Disposition: inline". 123 124--thread:: 125 Add In-Reply-To and References headers to make the second and 126 subsequent mails appear as replies to the first. Also generates 127 the Message-Id header to reference. 128 129--in-reply-to=Message-Id:: 130 Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a 131 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to 132 provide a new patch series. 133 134--ignore-if-in-upstream:: 135 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in 136 <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable 137 from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the 138 patches being generated, and any patch that matches is 139 ignored. 140 141--subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: 142 Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject 143 line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This 144 allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be 145 combined with the --numbered option. 146 147--cc=<email>:: 148 Add a "Cc:" header to the email headers. This is in addition 149 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 150 151--cover-letter:: 152 In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file 153 containing the shortlog and the overall diffstat. You can 154 fill in a description in the file before sending it out. 155 156--suffix=.<sfx>:: 157 Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated 158 filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is 159 `--suffix=.txt`. 160+ 161Note that you would need to include the leading dot `.` if you 162want a filename like `0001-description-of-my-change.patch`, and 163the first letter does not have to be a dot. Leaving it empty would 164not add any suffix. 165 166--no-binary:: 167 Don't output contents of changes in binary files, just take note 168 that they differ. Note that this disable the patch to be properly 169 applied. By default the contents of changes in those files are 170 encoded in the patch. 171 172CONFIGURATION 173------------- 174You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message 175in the repository configuration, new defaults for the subject prefix 176and file suffix, and number patches when outputting more than one. 177 178------------ 179[format] 180 headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" 181 subjectprefix = CHANGE 182 suffix = .txt 183 numbered = auto 184 cc = <email> 185------------ 186 187 188EXAMPLES 189-------- 190 191* Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of 192the current branch using 'git-am' to cherry-pick them: 193+ 194------------ 195$ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git am -3 -k 196------------ 197 198* Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the 199origin branch: 200+ 201------------ 202$ git format-patch origin 203------------ 204+ 205For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory. 206 207* Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the inception of the 208project: 209+ 210------------ 211$ git format-patch --root origin 212------------ 213 214* The same as the previous one: 215+ 216------------ 217$ git format-patch -M -B origin 218------------ 219+ 220Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites 221intelligently to produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces 222the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review it. 223Note that the "patch" program does not understand renaming patches, so 224use it only when you know the recipient uses git to apply your patch. 225 226* Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them 227as e-mailable patches: 228+ 229------------ 230$ git format-patch -3 231------------ 232 233SEE ALSO 234-------- 235linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1] 236 237 238Author 239------ 240Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 241 242Documentation 243-------------- 244Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 245 246GIT 247--- 248Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite