Documentation / git-commit.txton commit Change xdl_merge to generate output even for null merges (5719db9)
   1git-commit(1)
   2=============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-commit - Record changes to the repository
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git commit' [-a | --interactive] [-s] [-v] [-u<mode>] [--amend]
  12           [(-c | -C) <commit>] [-F <file> | -m <msg>]
  13           [--allow-empty] [--no-verify] [-e] [--author=<author>]
  14           [--cleanup=<mode>] [--] [[-i | -o ]<file>...]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along
  19with a log message from the user describing the changes.
  20
  21The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
  22
  231. by using 'git-add' to incrementally "add" changes to the
  24   index before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
  25   files must be "added");
  26
  272. by using 'git-rm' to remove files from the working tree
  28   and the index, again before using the 'commit' command;
  29
  303. by listing files as arguments to the 'commit' command, in which
  31   case the commit will ignore changes staged in the index, and instead
  32   record the current content of the listed files;
  33
  344. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically
  35   "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
  36   listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
  37   that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
  38   actual commit;
  39
  405. by using the --interactive switch with the 'commit' command to decide one
  41   by one which files should be part of the commit, before finalizing the
  42   operation.  Currently, this is done by invoking 'git-add --interactive'.
  43
  44The 'git-status' command can be used to obtain a
  45summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
  46commit by giving the same set of parameters you would give to
  47this command.
  48
  49If you make a commit and then find a mistake immediately after
  50that, you can recover from it with 'git-reset'.
  51
  52
  53OPTIONS
  54-------
  55-a::
  56--all::
  57        Tell the command to automatically stage files that have
  58        been modified and deleted, but new files you have not
  59        told git about are not affected.
  60
  61-C <commit>::
  62--reuse-message=<commit>::
  63        Take an existing commit object, and reuse the log message
  64        and the authorship information (including the timestamp)
  65        when creating the commit.
  66
  67-c <commit>::
  68--reedit-message=<commit>::
  69        Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that
  70        the user can further edit the commit message.
  71
  72-F <file>::
  73--file=<file>::
  74        Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
  75        read the message from the standard input.
  76
  77--author=<author>::
  78        Override the author name used in the commit.  Use
  79        `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format.
  80
  81-m <msg>::
  82--message=<msg>::
  83        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
  84
  85-t <file>::
  86--template=<file>::
  87        Use the contents of the given file as the initial version
  88        of the commit message. The editor is invoked and you can
  89        make subsequent changes. If a message is specified using
  90        the `-m` or `-F` options, this option has no effect. This
  91        overrides the `commit.template` configuration variable.
  92
  93-s::
  94--signoff::
  95        Add Signed-off-by line by the committer at the end of the commit
  96        log message.
  97
  98-n::
  99--no-verify::
 100        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 101        See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 102
 103--allow-empty::
 104        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 105        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 106        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 107        is primarily for use by foreign scm interface scripts.
 108
 109--cleanup=<mode>::
 110        This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
 111        The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
 112        and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
 113        trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
 114        only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
 115        removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
 116        'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
 117        and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 118
 119-e::
 120--edit::
 121        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 122        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 123        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 124        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 125
 126--amend::
 127        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
 128        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
 129        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
 130        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
 131        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
 132        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
 133        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
 134        discarded.
 135+
 136--
 137It is a rough equivalent for:
 138------
 139        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 140        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 141        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 142
 143------
 144but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 145--
 146
 147-i::
 148--include::
 149        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 150        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 151        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 152        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 153
 154-o::
 155--only::
 156        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 157        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 158        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 159        'git-commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 160        in which case this option can be omitted.
 161        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 162        no paths need to be specified, which can be used to amend
 163        the last commit without committing changes that have
 164        already been staged.
 165
 166-u[<mode>]::
 167--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 168        Show untracked files (Default: 'all').
 169+
 170The mode parameter is optional, and is used to specify
 171the handling of untracked files. The possible options are:
 172+
 173--
 174        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 175        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 176        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 177--
 178+
 179See linkgit:git-config[1] for configuration variable
 180used to change the default for when the option is not
 181specified.
 182
 183-v::
 184--verbose::
 185        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 186        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 187        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 188        lines prefixed with '#'.
 189
 190-q::
 191--quiet::
 192        Suppress commit summary message.
 193
 194\--::
 195        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 196
 197<file>...::
 198        When files are given on the command line, the command
 199        commits the contents of the named files, without
 200        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 201        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 202        of what have been staged before.
 203
 204
 205EXAMPLES
 206--------
 207When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 208your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 209called the "index" with 'git-add'.  A file can be
 210reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 211to that of the last commit with `git reset HEAD -- <file>`,
 212which effectively reverts 'git-add' and prevents the changes to
 213this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 214the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 215`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 216has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 217command.  An example:
 218
 219------------
 220$ edit hello.c
 221$ git rm goodbye.c
 222$ git add hello.c
 223$ git commit
 224------------
 225
 226Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 227tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 228contents are tracked in
 229your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 230for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 231example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 232
 233------------
 234$ edit hello.c
 235$ rm goodbye.c
 236$ git commit -a
 237------------
 238
 239The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 240notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 241and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 242
 243After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 244changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 245When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 246only records the changes made to the named paths:
 247
 248------------
 249$ edit hello.c hello.h
 250$ git add hello.c hello.h
 251$ edit Makefile
 252$ git commit Makefile
 253------------
 254
 255This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 256The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 257in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 258they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 259sequence, if you do:
 260
 261------------
 262$ git commit
 263------------
 264
 265this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 266`hello.h` as expected.
 267
 268After a merge (initiated by 'git-merge' or 'git-pull') stops
 269because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 270paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 271conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 272check which paths are conflicting with 'git-status'
 273and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 274stage the result as usual with 'git-add':
 275
 276------------
 277$ git status | grep unmerged
 278unmerged: hello.c
 279$ edit hello.c
 280$ git add hello.c
 281------------
 282
 283After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 284would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 285run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 286
 287------------
 288$ git commit
 289------------
 290
 291As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 292option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 293resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 294alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 295should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 296refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 297
 298
 299DISCUSSION
 300----------
 301
 302Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 303with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 304change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 305Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
 306on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 307
 308include::i18n.txt[]
 309
 310ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 311---------------------------------------
 312The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 313GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 314VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 315order).
 316
 317HOOKS
 318-----
 319This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 320and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
 321information.
 322
 323
 324SEE ALSO
 325--------
 326linkgit:git-add[1],
 327linkgit:git-rm[1],
 328linkgit:git-mv[1],
 329linkgit:git-merge[1],
 330linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 331
 332Author
 333------
 334Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
 335Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
 336
 337
 338GIT
 339---
 340Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite