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