Documentation / git-commit.txton commit glossary: Add definitions for dangling and unreachable objects (2aa54fa)
   1git-commit(1)
   2=============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-commit - Record changes to the repository
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git-commit' [-a] [-s] [-v] [(-c | -C) <commit> | -F <file> | -m <msg> |
  12            --amend] [--no-verify] [-e] [--author <author>]
  13           [--] [[-i | -o ]<file>...]
  14
  15DESCRIPTION
  16-----------
  17Use 'git commit' when you want to record your changes into the repository
  18along with a log message describing what the commit is about. All changes
  19to be committed must be explicitly identified using one of the following
  20methods:
  21
  221. by using gitlink:git-add[1] to incrementally "add" changes to the
  23   next commit before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
  24   files must be "added");
  25
  262. by using gitlink:git-rm[1] to identify content removal for the next
  27   commit, again before using the 'commit' command;
  28
  293. by directly listing files containing changes to be committed as arguments
  30   to the 'commit' command, in which cases only those files alone will be
  31   considered for the commit;
  32
  334. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically "add"
  34   changes from all known files i.e. files that have already been committed
  35   before, and to automatically "rm" files that have been
  36   removed from the working tree, and perform the actual commit.
  37
  38The gitlink:git-status[1] command can be used to obtain a
  39summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
  40commit by giving the same set of parameters you would give to
  41this command.
  42
  43If you make a commit and then found a mistake immediately after
  44that, you can recover from it with gitlink:git-reset[1].
  45
  46
  47OPTIONS
  48-------
  49-a|--all::
  50        Tell the command to automatically stage files that have
  51        been modified and deleted, but new files you have not
  52        told git about are not affected.
  53
  54-c or -C <commit>::
  55        Take existing commit object, and reuse the log message
  56        and the authorship information (including the timestamp)
  57        when creating the commit.  With '-C', the editor is not
  58        invoked; with '-c' the user can further edit the commit
  59        message.
  60
  61-F <file>::
  62        Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
  63        read the message from the standard input.
  64
  65--author <author>::
  66        Override the author name used in the commit.  Use
  67        `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format.
  68
  69-m <msg>::
  70        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
  71
  72-s|--signoff::
  73        Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message.
  74
  75--no-verify::
  76        This option bypasses the pre-commit hook.
  77        See also link:hooks.html[hooks].
  78
  79-e|--edit::
  80        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
  81        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
  82        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
  83        further edit the message taken from these sources.
  84
  85--amend::
  86
  87        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
  88        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
  89        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
  90        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
  91        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
  92        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
  93        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
  94        discarded.
  95+
  96--
  97It is a rough equivalent for:
  98------
  99        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 100        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 101        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 102
 103------
 104but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 105--
 106
 107-i|--include::
 108        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 109        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 110        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 111        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 112
 113-q|--quiet::
 114        Suppress commit summary message.
 115
 116\--::
 117        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 118
 119<file>...::
 120        When files are given on the command line, the command
 121        commits the contents of the named files, without
 122        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 123        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 124        of what have been staged before.
 125
 126
 127EXAMPLES
 128--------
 129When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 130your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 131called the "index" with gitlink:git-add[1].  Removal
 132of a file is staged with gitlink:git-rm[1].  After building the
 133state to be committed incrementally with these commands, `git
 134commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 135has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 136command.  An example:
 137
 138------------
 139$ edit hello.c
 140$ git rm goodbye.c
 141$ git add hello.c
 142$ git commit
 143------------
 144
 145Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 146tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 147contents are tracked in
 148your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 149for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 150example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 151
 152------------
 153$ edit hello.c
 154$ rm goodbye.c
 155$ git commit -a
 156------------
 157
 158The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 159notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 160and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 161
 162After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 163changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 164When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 165only records the changes made to the named paths:
 166
 167------------
 168$ edit hello.c hello.h
 169$ git add hello.c hello.h
 170$ edit Makefile
 171$ git commit Makefile
 172------------
 173
 174This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 175The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 176in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 177they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 178sequence, if you do:
 179
 180------------
 181$ git commit
 182------------
 183
 184this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 185`hello.h` as expected.
 186
 187After a merge (initiated by either gitlink:git-merge[1] or
 188gitlink:git-pull[1]) stops because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 189paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 190conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 191check which paths are conflicting with gitlink:git-status[1]
 192and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 193stage the result as usual with gitlink:git-add[1]:
 194
 195------------
 196$ git status | grep unmerged
 197unmerged: hello.c
 198$ edit hello.c
 199$ git add hello.c
 200------------
 201
 202After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 203would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 204run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 205
 206------------
 207$ git commit
 208------------
 209
 210As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 211option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 212resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 213alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 214should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 215refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 216
 217
 218DISCUSSION
 219----------
 220
 221Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 222with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 223change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 224Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
 225on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 226
 227include::i18n.txt[]
 228
 229ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
 230---------------------
 231The command specified by either the VISUAL or EDITOR environment
 232variables is used to edit the commit log message.
 233
 234HOOKS
 235-----
 236This command can run `commit-msg`, `pre-commit`, and
 237`post-commit` hooks.  See link:hooks.html[hooks] for more
 238information.
 239
 240
 241SEE ALSO
 242--------
 243gitlink:git-add[1],
 244gitlink:git-rm[1],
 245gitlink:git-mv[1],
 246gitlink:git-merge[1],
 247gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]
 248
 249Author
 250------
 251Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
 252Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
 253
 254
 255GIT
 256---
 257Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite