Documentation / git-commit.txton commit Merge branch 'ew/abbrev' into next (35a9f5d)
   1git-commit(1)
   2=============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-commit - Record your changes
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git-commit' [-a] [-s] [-v] [(-c | -C) <commit> | -F <file> | -m <msg>]
  12           [-e] [--author <author>] [--] [[-i | -o ]<file>...]
  13
  14DESCRIPTION
  15-----------
  16Updates the index file for given paths, or all modified files if
  17'-a' is specified, and makes a commit object.  The command
  18VISUAL and EDITOR environment variables to edit the commit log
  19message.
  20
  21This command can run `commit-msg`, `pre-commit`, and
  22`post-commit` hooks.  See link:hooks.html[hooks] for more
  23information.
  24
  25OPTIONS
  26-------
  27-a|--all::
  28        Update all paths in the index file.  This flag notices
  29        files that have been modified and deleted, but new files
  30        you have not told git about are not affected.
  31
  32-c or -C <commit>::
  33        Take existing commit object, and reuse the log message
  34        and the authorship information (including the timestamp)
  35        when creating the commit.  With '-C', the editor is not
  36        invoked; with '-c' the user can further edit the commit
  37        message.
  38
  39-F <file>::
  40        Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
  41        read the message from the standard input.
  42
  43--author <author>::
  44        Override the author name used in the commit.  Use
  45        `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format.
  46
  47-m <msg>::
  48        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
  49
  50-s|--signoff::
  51        Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message.
  52
  53-v|--verify::
  54        Look for suspicious lines the commit introduces, and
  55        abort committing if there is one.  The definition of
  56        'suspicious lines' is currently the lines that has
  57        trailing whitespaces, and the lines whose indentation
  58        has a SP character immediately followed by a TAB
  59        character.  This is the default.
  60
  61-n|--no-verify::
  62        The opposite of `--verify`.
  63
  64-e|--edit::
  65        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
  66        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
  67        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
  68        further edit the message taken from these sources.
  69
  70-i|--include::
  71        Instead of committing only the files specified on the
  72        command line, update them in the index file and then
  73        commit the whole index.  This is the traditional
  74        behaviour.
  75
  76-o|--only::
  77        Commit only the files specified on the command line.
  78        This format cannot be used during a merge, nor when the
  79        index and the latest commit does not match on the
  80        specified paths to avoid confusion.
  81
  82--::
  83        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
  84
  85<file>...::
  86        Files to be committed.  The meaning of these is
  87        different between `--include` and `--only`.  Without
  88        either, it defaults `--only` semantics.
  89
  90If you make a commit and then found a mistake immediately after
  91that, you can recover from it with gitlink:git-reset[1].
  92
  93
  94Discussion
  95----------
  96
  97`git commit` without _any_ parameter commits the tree structure
  98recorded by the current index file.  This is a whole-tree commit
  99even the command is invoked from a subdirectory.
 100
 101`git commit --include paths...` is equivalent to
 102
 103        git update-index --remove paths...
 104        git commit
 105
 106That is, update the specified paths to the index and then commit
 107the whole tree.
 108
 109`git commit paths...` largely bypasses the index file and
 110commits only the changes made to the specified paths.  It has
 111however several safety valves to prevent confusion.
 112
 113. It refuses to run during a merge (i.e. when
 114  `$GIT_DIR/MERGE_HEAD` exists), and reminds trained git users
 115  that the traditional semantics now needs -i flag.
 116
 117. It refuses to run if named `paths...` are different in HEAD
 118  and the index (ditto about reminding).  Added paths are OK.
 119  This is because an earlier `git diff` (not `git diff HEAD`)
 120  would have shown the differences since the last `git
 121  update-index paths...` to the user, and an inexperienced user
 122  may mistakenly think that the changes between the index and
 123  the HEAD (i.e. earlier changes made before the last `git
 124  update-index paths...` was done) are not being committed.
 125
 126. It reads HEAD commit into a temporary index file, updates the
 127  specified `paths...` and makes a commit.  At the same time,
 128  the real index file is also updated with the same `paths...`.
 129
 130`git commit --all` updates the index file with _all_ changes to
 131the working tree, and makes a whole-tree commit, regardless of
 132which subdirectory the command is invoked in.
 133
 134
 135Author
 136------
 137Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
 138Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
 139
 140
 141GIT
 142---
 143Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite