1Commit Formatting 2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3 4ifdef::git-rev-list[] 5Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the 6more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1], 7linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1] 8endif::git-rev-list[] 9 10include::pretty-options.txt[] 11 12--relative-date:: 13 14 Synonym for `--date=relative`. 15 16--date={relative,local,default,iso,rfc,short,raw}:: 17 18 Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such 19 as when using "--pretty". `log.date` config variable sets a default 20 value for log command's --date option. 21+ 22`--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time, 23e.g. "2 hours ago". 24+ 25`--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local timezone. 26+ 27`--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format. 28+ 29`--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822 30format, often found in E-mail messages. 31+ 32`--date=short` shows only date but not time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format. 33+ 34`--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw git format `%s %z` format. 35+ 36`--date=default` shows timestamps in the original timezone 37(either committer's or author's). 38 39ifdef::git-rev-list[] 40--header:: 41 42 Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is 43 separated with a NUL character. 44endif::git-rev-list[] 45 46--parents:: 47 48 Print the parents of the commit. Also enables parent 49 rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below. 50 51--children:: 52 53 Print the children of the commit. Also enables parent 54 rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below. 55 56ifdef::git-rev-list[] 57--timestamp:: 58 Print the raw commit timestamp. 59endif::git-rev-list[] 60 61--left-right:: 62 63 Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from. 64 Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from 65 the right with `>`. If combined with `--boundary`, those 66 commits are prefixed with `-`. 67+ 68For example, if you have this topology: 69+ 70----------------------------------------------------------------------- 71 y---b---b branch B 72 / \ / 73 / . 74 / / \ 75 o---x---a---a branch A 76----------------------------------------------------------------------- 77+ 78you would get an output like this: 79+ 80----------------------------------------------------------------------- 81 $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B 82 83 >bbbbbbb... 3rd on b 84 >bbbbbbb... 2nd on b 85 <aaaaaaa... 3rd on a 86 <aaaaaaa... 2nd on a 87 -yyyyyyy... 1st on b 88 -xxxxxxx... 1st on a 89----------------------------------------------------------------------- 90 91--graph:: 92 93 Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history 94 on the left hand side of the output. This may cause extra lines 95 to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history 96 to be drawn properly. 97+ 98This implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the 99'--date-order' option may also be specified. 100 101ifndef::git-rev-list[] 102Diff Formatting 103~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 104 105Below are listed options that control the formatting of diff output. 106Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff 107options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options. 108 109-c:: 110 111 With this option, diff output for a merge commit 112 shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result 113 simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent 114 and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files 115 which were modified from all parents. 116 117--cc:: 118 119 This flag implies the '-c' options and further compresses the 120 patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in 121 the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks 122 one of them without modification. 123 124-m:: 125 126 This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like 127 regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry 128 and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against 129 the first parent is shown when '--first-parent' option is given; 130 in that case, the output represents the changes the merge 131 brought _into_ the then-current branch. 132 133-r:: 134 135 Show recursive diffs. 136 137-t:: 138 139 Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies '-r'. 140endif::git-rev-list[] 141 142Commit Limiting 143~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 144 145Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the 146special notations explained in the description, additional commit 147limiting may be applied. 148 149-- 150 151-n 'number':: 152--max-count=<number>:: 153 154 Limit the number of commits output. 155 156--skip=<number>:: 157 158 Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output. 159 160--since=<date>:: 161--after=<date>:: 162 163 Show commits more recent than a specific date. 164 165--until=<date>:: 166--before=<date>:: 167 168 Show commits older than a specific date. 169 170ifdef::git-rev-list[] 171--max-age=<timestamp>:: 172--min-age=<timestamp>:: 173 174 Limit the commits output to specified time range. 175endif::git-rev-list[] 176 177--author=<pattern>:: 178--committer=<pattern>:: 179 180 Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer 181 header lines that match the specified pattern (regular expression). 182 183--grep=<pattern>:: 184 185 Limit the commits output to ones with log message that 186 matches the specified pattern (regular expression). 187 188--all-match:: 189 Limit the commits output to ones that match all given --grep, 190 --author and --committer instead of ones that match at least one. 191 192-i:: 193--regexp-ignore-case:: 194 195 Match the regexp limiting patterns without regard to letters case. 196 197-E:: 198--extended-regexp:: 199 200 Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions 201 instead of the default basic regular expressions. 202 203-F:: 204--fixed-strings:: 205 206 Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret 207 pattern as a regular expression). 208 209--remove-empty:: 210 211 Stop when a given path disappears from the tree. 212 213--merges:: 214 215 Print only merge commits. 216 217--no-merges:: 218 219 Do not print commits with more than one parent. 220 221--first-parent:: 222 Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge 223 commit. This option can give a better overview when 224 viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch, 225 because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about 226 adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and 227 this option allows you to ignore the individual commits 228 brought in to your history by such a merge. 229 230--not:: 231 232 Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof) 233 for all following revision specifiers, up to the next '--not'. 234 235--all:: 236 237 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the 238 command line as '<commit>'. 239 240--branches[=pattern]:: 241 242 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed 243 on the command line as '<commit>'. If `pattern` is given, limit 244 branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', 245 '*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied. 246 247--tags[=pattern]:: 248 249 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed 250 on the command line as '<commit>'. If `pattern` is given, limit 251 tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '*', 252 or '[', '/*' at the end is implied. 253 254--remotes[=pattern]:: 255 256 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed 257 on the command line as '<commit>'. If `pattern`is given, limit 258 remote tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob. 259 If pattern lacks '?', '*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied. 260 261--glob=glob-pattern:: 262 Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob `glob-pattern` 263 are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/', 264 is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '*', 265 or '[', '/*' at the end is implied. 266 267 268ifndef::git-rev-list[] 269--bisect:: 270 271 Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad` 272 was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good 273 bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command 274 line. 275endif::git-rev-list[] 276 277--stdin:: 278 279 In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command 280 line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is 281 seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the 282 result. 283 284ifdef::git-rev-list[] 285--quiet:: 286 287 Don't print anything to standard output. This form 288 is primarily meant to allow the caller to 289 test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully 290 connected (or not). It is faster than redirecting stdout 291 to /dev/null as the output does not have to be formatted. 292endif::git-rev-list[] 293 294--cherry-pick:: 295 296 Omit any commit that introduces the same change as 297 another commit on the "other side" when the set of 298 commits are limited with symmetric difference. 299+ 300For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way 301to list all commits on only one side of them is with 302`--left-right`, like the example above in the description of 303that option. It however shows the commits that were cherry-picked 304from the other branch (for example, "3rd on b" may be cherry-picked 305from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are 306excluded from the output. 307 308-g:: 309--walk-reflogs:: 310 311 Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk 312 reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones. 313 When this option is used you cannot specify commits to 314 exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2', 315 nor 'commit1...commit2' notations cannot be used). 316+ 317With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons), 318this causes the output to have two extra lines of information 319taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is 320used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as 321'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation 322instead. Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is 323prefixed with this information on the same line. 324This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'. 325See also linkgit:git-reflog[1]. 326 327--merge:: 328 329 After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a 330 conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge. 331 332--boundary:: 333 334 Output uninteresting commits at the boundary, which are usually 335 not shown. 336 337-- 338 339History Simplification 340~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 341 342Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the 343commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of 344'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other 345is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history. 346 347The following options select the commits to be shown: 348 349<paths>:: 350 351 Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected. 352 353--simplify-by-decoration:: 354 355 Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected. 356 357Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history. 358 359The following options affect the way the simplification is performed: 360 361Default mode:: 362 363 Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the 364 final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side 365 branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches 366 with the same content) 367 368--full-history:: 369 370 As the default mode but does not prune some history. 371 372--dense:: 373 374 Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a 375 meaningful history. 376 377--sparse:: 378 379 All commits in the simplified history are shown. 380 381--simplify-merges:: 382 383 Additional option to '--full-history' to remove some needless 384 merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected 385 commits contributing to this merge. 386 387--ancestry-path:: 388 389 When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2' 390 or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist 391 directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and 392 'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1', 393 and ancestors of 'commit2'. 394 395A more detailed explanation follows. 396 397Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits 398that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff 399filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.) 400 401In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to 402illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume 403that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph: 404----------------------------------------------------------------------- 405 .-A---M---N---O---P 406 / / / / / 407 I B C D E 408 \ / / / / 409 `-------------' 410----------------------------------------------------------------------- 411The horizontal line of history A--P is taken to be the first parent of 412each merge. The commits are: 413 414* `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents 415 "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux". Initial 416 commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME. 417 418* In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo". 419 420* `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and 421 hence TREESAME to all parents. 422 423* `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar", 424 so it is not TREESAME to any parent. 425 426* `D` sets `foo` to "baz". Its merge `O` combines the strings from 427 `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent. 428 429* `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the 430 strings to "quux xyzzy". Despite appearing interesting, `P` is 431 TREESAME to all parents. 432 433'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding 434commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting 435(via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used. The following settings 436are available. 437 438Default mode:: 439 440 Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent 441 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). If the 442 commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow 443 only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME 444 parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all 445 parents. 446+ 447This results in: 448+ 449----------------------------------------------------------------------- 450 .-A---N---O 451 / / / 452 I---------D 453----------------------------------------------------------------------- 454+ 455Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is 456available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was 457considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an 458empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME. 459+ 460Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does 461not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the 462parent lines. 463 464--full-history without parent rewriting:: 465 466 This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow 467 all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them. 468 Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are 469 included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In 470 the example, we get 471+ 472----------------------------------------------------------------------- 473 I A B N D O 474----------------------------------------------------------------------- 475+ 476`P` and `M` were excluded because they are TREESAME to a parent. `E`, 477`C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others 478do not appear. 479+ 480Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk 481about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show 482them disconnected. 483 484--full-history with parent rewriting:: 485 486 Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME 487 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). 488+ 489Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten: 490Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included 491themselves. This results in 492+ 493----------------------------------------------------------------------- 494 .-A---M---N---O---P 495 / / / / / 496 I B / D / 497 \ / / / / 498 `-------------' 499----------------------------------------------------------------------- 500+ 501Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above. Note that `E` 502was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was 503rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and 504`N`. Note also that `P` was included despite being TREESAME. 505 506In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME 507affects inclusion: 508 509--dense:: 510 511 Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME 512 to any parent. 513 514--sparse:: 515 516 All commits that are walked are included. 517+ 518Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if 519one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other 520sides of the merge are never walked. 521 522--simplify-merges:: 523 524 First, build a history graph in the same way that 525 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting does (see above). 526+ 527Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final 528history according to the following rules: 529+ 530-- 531* Set `C'` to `C`. 532+ 533* Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`. In 534 the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents, and 535 remove duplicates. 536+ 537* If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has 538 zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains. 539 Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent. 540-- 541+ 542The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to 543'\--full-history' with parent rewriting. The example turns into: 544+ 545----------------------------------------------------------------------- 546 .-A---M---N---O 547 / / / 548 I B D 549 \ / / 550 `---------' 551----------------------------------------------------------------------- 552+ 553Note the major differences in `N` and `P` over '\--full-history': 554+ 555-- 556* `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the 557 other parent `M`. Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME. 558+ 559* `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed. `P` was then 560 removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME. 561-- 562 563Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available: 564 565--ancestry-path:: 566 567 Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry 568 chain between the "from" and "to" commits in the given commit 569 range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the "to" 570 commit, and descendants of the "from" commit. 571+ 572As an example use case, consider the following commit history: 573+ 574----------------------------------------------------------------------- 575 D---E-------F 576 / \ \ 577 B---C---G---H---I---J 578 / \ 579 A-------K---------------L--M 580----------------------------------------------------------------------- 581+ 582A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`, 583but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see 584what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense 585that "what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`". The result in this 586example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself, 587of course). 588+ 589When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the 590bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view 591only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e. 592excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the '\--ancestry-path' 593option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in: 594+ 595----------------------------------------------------------------------- 596 E-------F 597 \ \ 598 G---H---I---J 599 \ 600 L--M 601----------------------------------------------------------------------- 602 603The '\--simplify-by-decoration' option allows you to view only the 604big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits 605that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME 606(in other words, kept after history simplification rules described 607above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the 608contents of the paths given on the command line. All other 609commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away). 610 611ifdef::git-rev-list[] 612Bisection Helpers 613~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 614 615--bisect:: 616 617Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between 618included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref 619`refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it 620exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are 621added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there 622are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if 623 624----------------------------------------------------------------------- 625 $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz 626----------------------------------------------------------------------- 627 628outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands 629 630----------------------------------------------------------------------- 631 $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint 632 $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz 633----------------------------------------------------------------------- 634 635would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which 636introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly 637generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length 638one. 639 640--bisect-vars:: 641 642This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in 643`refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs 644text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the 645name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the 646expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested 647to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if 648`bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected 649number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to 650`bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to 651`bisect_all`. 652 653--bisect-all:: 654 655This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded 656commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded 657commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest 658from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by 659`--bisect`.) 660+ 661This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to 662test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they 663may not compile for example). 664+ 665This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case, 666after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if 667`--bisect-vars` had been used alone. 668endif::git-rev-list[] 669 670 671Commit Ordering 672~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 673 674By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order. 675 676--topo-order:: 677 678 This option makes them appear in topological order (i.e. 679 descendant commits are shown before their parents). 680 681--date-order:: 682 683 This option is similar to '--topo-order' in the sense that no 684 parent comes before all of its children, but otherwise things 685 are still ordered in the commit timestamp order. 686 687--reverse:: 688 689 Output the commits in reverse order. 690 Cannot be combined with '\--walk-reflogs'. 691 692Object Traversal 693~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 694 695These options are mostly targeted for packing of git repositories. 696 697--objects:: 698 699 Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed 700 commits. '--objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me 701 all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit 702 object 'bar', but not 'foo'". 703 704--objects-edge:: 705 706 Similar to '--objects', but also print the IDs of excluded 707 commits prefixed with a "-" character. This is used by 708 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build "thin" pack, which records 709 objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these 710 excluded commits to reduce network traffic. 711 712--unpacked:: 713 714 Only useful with '--objects'; print the object IDs that are not 715 in packs. 716 717--no-walk:: 718 719 Only show the given revs, but do not traverse their ancestors. 720 721--do-walk:: 722 723 Overrides a previous --no-walk.