1git-format-patch(1) 2=================== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-format-patch - Prepare patches for e-mail submission 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git format-patch' [-k] [(-o|--output-directory) <dir> | --stdout] 13 [--no-thread | --thread[=<style>]] 14 [(--attach|--inline)[=<boundary>] | --no-attach] 15 [-s | --signoff] 16 [--signature=<signature> | --no-signature] 17 [--signature-file=<file>] 18 [-n | --numbered | -N | --no-numbered] 19 [--start-number <n>] [--numbered-files] 20 [--in-reply-to=Message-Id] [--suffix=.<sfx>] 21 [--ignore-if-in-upstream] 22 [--rfc] [--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix] 23 [(--reroll-count|-v) <n>] 24 [--to=<email>] [--cc=<email>] 25 [--[no-]cover-letter] [--quiet] [--notes[=<ref>]] 26 [--interdiff=<previous>] 27 [--progress] 28 [<common diff options>] 29 [ <since> | <revision range> ] 30 31DESCRIPTION 32----------- 33 34Prepare each commit with its patch in 35one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format. 36The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or 37for use with 'git am'. 38 39There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on. 40 411. A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading 42 to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history 43 that leads to the <since> to be output. 44 452. Generic <revision range> expression (see "SPECIFYING 46 REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7]) means the 47 commits in the specified range. 48 49The first rule takes precedence in the case of a single <commit>. To 50apply the second rule, i.e., format everything since the beginning of 51history up until <commit>, use the `--root` option: `git format-patch 52--root <commit>`. If you want to format only <commit> itself, you 53can do this with `git format-patch -1 <commit>`. 54 55By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the 56first line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as 57the filename. With the `--numbered-files` option, the output file names 58will only be numbers, without the first line of the commit appended. 59The names of the output files are printed to standard 60output, unless the `--stdout` option is specified. 61 62If `-o` is specified, output files are created in <dir>. Otherwise 63they are created in the current working directory. The default path 64can be set with the `format.outputDirectory` configuration option. 65The `-o` option takes precedence over `format.outputDirectory`. 66To store patches in the current working directory even when 67`format.outputDirectory` points elsewhere, use `-o .`. 68 69By default, the subject of a single patch is "[PATCH] " followed by 70the concatenation of lines from the commit message up to the first blank 71line (see the DISCUSSION section of linkgit:git-commit[1]). 72 73When multiple patches are output, the subject prefix will instead be 74"[PATCH n/m] ". To force 1/1 to be added for a single patch, use `-n`. 75To omit patch numbers from the subject, use `-N`. 76 77If given `--thread`, `git-format-patch` will generate `In-Reply-To` and 78`References` headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear 79as replies to the first mail; this also generates a `Message-Id` header to 80reference. 81 82OPTIONS 83------- 84:git-format-patch: 1 85include::diff-options.txt[] 86 87-<n>:: 88 Prepare patches from the topmost <n> commits. 89 90-o <dir>:: 91--output-directory <dir>:: 92 Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the 93 current working directory. 94 95-n:: 96--numbered:: 97 Name output in '[PATCH n/m]' format, even with a single patch. 98 99-N:: 100--no-numbered:: 101 Name output in '[PATCH]' format. 102 103--start-number <n>:: 104 Start numbering the patches at <n> instead of 1. 105 106--numbered-files:: 107 Output file names will be a simple number sequence 108 without the default first line of the commit appended. 109 110-k:: 111--keep-subject:: 112 Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the 113 commit log message. 114 115-s:: 116--signoff:: 117 Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using 118 the committer identity of yourself. 119 See the signoff option in linkgit:git-commit[1] for more information. 120 121--stdout:: 122 Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, 123 instead of creating a file for each one. 124 125--attach[=<boundary>]:: 126 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 127 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 128 second part, with `Content-Disposition: attachment`. 129 130--no-attach:: 131 Disable the creation of an attachment, overriding the 132 configuration setting. 133 134--inline[=<boundary>]:: 135 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 136 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 137 second part, with `Content-Disposition: inline`. 138 139--thread[=<style>]:: 140--no-thread:: 141 Controls addition of `In-Reply-To` and `References` headers to 142 make the second and subsequent mails appear as replies to the 143 first. Also controls generation of the `Message-Id` header to 144 reference. 145+ 146The optional <style> argument can be either `shallow` or `deep`. 147'shallow' threading makes every mail a reply to the head of the 148series, where the head is chosen from the cover letter, the 149`--in-reply-to`, and the first patch mail, in this order. 'deep' 150threading makes every mail a reply to the previous one. 151+ 152The default is `--no-thread`, unless the `format.thread` configuration 153is set. If `--thread` is specified without a style, it defaults to the 154style specified by `format.thread` if any, or else `shallow`. 155+ 156Beware that the default for 'git send-email' is to thread emails 157itself. If you want `git format-patch` to take care of threading, you 158will want to ensure that threading is disabled for `git send-email`. 159 160--in-reply-to=Message-Id:: 161 Make the first mail (or all the mails with `--no-thread`) appear as a 162 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to 163 provide a new patch series. 164 165--ignore-if-in-upstream:: 166 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in 167 <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable 168 from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the 169 patches being generated, and any patch that matches is 170 ignored. 171 172--subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: 173 Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject 174 line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This 175 allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be 176 combined with the `--numbered` option. 177 178--rfc:: 179 Alias for `--subject-prefix="RFC PATCH"`. RFC means "Request For 180 Comments"; use this when sending an experimental patch for 181 discussion rather than application. 182 183-v <n>:: 184--reroll-count=<n>:: 185 Mark the series as the <n>-th iteration of the topic. The 186 output filenames have `v<n>` prepended to them, and the 187 subject prefix ("PATCH" by default, but configurable via the 188 `--subject-prefix` option) has ` v<n>` appended to it. E.g. 189 `--reroll-count=4` may produce `v4-0001-add-makefile.patch` 190 file that has "Subject: [PATCH v4 1/20] Add makefile" in it. 191 192--to=<email>:: 193 Add a `To:` header to the email headers. This is in addition 194 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 195 The negated form `--no-to` discards all `To:` headers added so 196 far (from config or command line). 197 198--cc=<email>:: 199 Add a `Cc:` header to the email headers. This is in addition 200 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 201 The negated form `--no-cc` discards all `Cc:` headers added so 202 far (from config or command line). 203 204--from:: 205--from=<ident>:: 206 Use `ident` in the `From:` header of each commit email. If the 207 author ident of the commit is not textually identical to the 208 provided `ident`, place a `From:` header in the body of the 209 message with the original author. If no `ident` is given, use 210 the committer ident. 211+ 212Note that this option is only useful if you are actually sending the 213emails and want to identify yourself as the sender, but retain the 214original author (and `git am` will correctly pick up the in-body 215header). Note also that `git send-email` already handles this 216transformation for you, and this option should not be used if you are 217feeding the result to `git send-email`. 218 219--add-header=<header>:: 220 Add an arbitrary header to the email headers. This is in addition 221 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 222 For example, `--add-header="Organization: git-foo"`. 223 The negated form `--no-add-header` discards *all* (`To:`, 224 `Cc:`, and custom) headers added so far from config or command 225 line. 226 227--[no-]cover-letter:: 228 In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file 229 containing the branch description, shortlog and the overall diffstat. You can 230 fill in a description in the file before sending it out. 231 232--interdiff=<previous>:: 233 As a reviewer aid, insert an interdiff into the cover letter, 234 or as commentary of the lone patch of a 1-patch series, showing 235 the differences between the previous version of the patch series and 236 the series currently being formatted. `previous` is a single revision 237 naming the tip of the previous series which shares a common base with 238 the series being formatted (for example `git format-patch 239 --cover-letter --interdiff=feature/v1 -3 feature/v2`). 240 241--notes[=<ref>]:: 242 Append the notes (see linkgit:git-notes[1]) for the commit 243 after the three-dash line. 244+ 245The expected use case of this is to write supporting explanation for 246the commit that does not belong to the commit log message proper, 247and include it with the patch submission. While one can simply write 248these explanations after `format-patch` has run but before sending, 249keeping them as Git notes allows them to be maintained between versions 250of the patch series (but see the discussion of the `notes.rewrite` 251configuration options in linkgit:git-notes[1] to use this workflow). 252 253--[no-]signature=<signature>:: 254 Add a signature to each message produced. Per RFC 3676 the signature 255 is separated from the body by a line with '-- ' on it. If the 256 signature option is omitted the signature defaults to the Git version 257 number. 258 259--signature-file=<file>:: 260 Works just like --signature except the signature is read from a file. 261 262--suffix=.<sfx>:: 263 Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated 264 filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is 265 `--suffix=.txt`. Leaving this empty will remove the `.patch` 266 suffix. 267+ 268Note that the leading character does not have to be a dot; for example, 269you can use `--suffix=-patch` to get `0001-description-of-my-change-patch`. 270 271-q:: 272--quiet:: 273 Do not print the names of the generated files to standard output. 274 275--no-binary:: 276 Do not output contents of changes in binary files, instead 277 display a notice that those files changed. Patches generated 278 using this option cannot be applied properly, but they are 279 still useful for code review. 280 281--zero-commit:: 282 Output an all-zero hash in each patch's From header instead 283 of the hash of the commit. 284 285--base=<commit>:: 286 Record the base tree information to identify the state the 287 patch series applies to. See the BASE TREE INFORMATION section 288 below for details. 289 290--root:: 291 Treat the revision argument as a <revision range>, even if it 292 is just a single commit (that would normally be treated as a 293 <since>). Note that root commits included in the specified 294 range are always formatted as creation patches, independently 295 of this flag. 296 297--progress:: 298 Show progress reports on stderr as patches are generated. 299 300CONFIGURATION 301------------- 302You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message, 303defaults for the subject prefix and file suffix, number patches when 304outputting more than one patch, add "To" or "Cc:" headers, configure 305attachments, and sign off patches with configuration variables. 306 307------------ 308[format] 309 headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" 310 subjectPrefix = CHANGE 311 suffix = .txt 312 numbered = auto 313 to = <email> 314 cc = <email> 315 attach [ = mime-boundary-string ] 316 signOff = true 317 coverletter = auto 318------------ 319 320 321DISCUSSION 322---------- 323 324The patch produced by 'git format-patch' is in UNIX mailbox format, 325with a fixed "magic" time stamp to indicate that the file is output 326from format-patch rather than a real mailbox, like so: 327 328------------ 329From 8f72bad1baf19a53459661343e21d6491c3908d3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 330From: Tony Luck <tony.luck@intel.com> 331Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:42:54 -0700 332Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?[IA64]=20Put=20ia64=20config=20files=20on=20the=20?= 333 =?UTF-8?q?Uwe=20Kleine-K=C3=B6nig=20diet?= 334MIME-Version: 1.0 335Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 336Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit 337 338arch/arm config files were slimmed down using a python script 339(See commit c2330e286f68f1c408b4aa6515ba49d57f05beae comment) 340 341Do the same for ia64 so we can have sleek & trim looking 342... 343------------ 344 345Typically it will be placed in a MUA's drafts folder, edited to add 346timely commentary that should not go in the changelog after the three 347dashes, and then sent as a message whose body, in our example, starts 348with "arch/arm config files were...". On the receiving end, readers 349can save interesting patches in a UNIX mailbox and apply them with 350linkgit:git-am[1]. 351 352When a patch is part of an ongoing discussion, the patch generated by 353'git format-patch' can be tweaked to take advantage of the 'git am 354--scissors' feature. After your response to the discussion comes a 355line that consists solely of "`-- >8 --`" (scissors and perforation), 356followed by the patch with unnecessary header fields removed: 357 358------------ 359... 360> So we should do such-and-such. 361 362Makes sense to me. How about this patch? 363 364-- >8 -- 365Subject: [IA64] Put ia64 config files on the Uwe Kleine-König diet 366 367arch/arm config files were slimmed down using a python script 368... 369------------ 370 371When sending a patch this way, most often you are sending your own 372patch, so in addition to the "`From $SHA1 $magic_timestamp`" marker you 373should omit `From:` and `Date:` lines from the patch file. The patch 374title is likely to be different from the subject of the discussion the 375patch is in response to, so it is likely that you would want to keep 376the Subject: line, like the example above. 377 378Checking for patch corruption 379~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 380Many mailers if not set up properly will corrupt whitespace. Here are 381two common types of corruption: 382 383* Empty context lines that do not have _any_ whitespace. 384 385* Non-empty context lines that have one extra whitespace at the 386 beginning. 387 388One way to test if your MUA is set up correctly is: 389 390* Send the patch to yourself, exactly the way you would, except 391 with To: and Cc: lines that do not contain the list and 392 maintainer address. 393 394* Save that patch to a file in UNIX mailbox format. Call it a.patch, 395 say. 396 397* Apply it: 398 399 $ git fetch <project> master:test-apply 400 $ git checkout test-apply 401 $ git reset --hard 402 $ git am a.patch 403 404If it does not apply correctly, there can be various reasons. 405 406* The patch itself does not apply cleanly. That is _bad_ but 407 does not have much to do with your MUA. You might want to rebase 408 the patch with linkgit:git-rebase[1] before regenerating it in 409 this case. 410 411* The MUA corrupted your patch; "am" would complain that 412 the patch does not apply. Look in the .git/rebase-apply/ subdirectory and 413 see what 'patch' file contains and check for the common 414 corruption patterns mentioned above. 415 416* While at it, check the 'info' and 'final-commit' files as well. 417 If what is in 'final-commit' is not exactly what you would want to 418 see in the commit log message, it is very likely that the 419 receiver would end up hand editing the log message when applying 420 your patch. Things like "Hi, this is my first patch.\n" in the 421 patch e-mail should come after the three-dash line that signals 422 the end of the commit message. 423 424MUA-SPECIFIC HINTS 425------------------ 426Here are some hints on how to successfully submit patches inline using 427various mailers. 428 429GMail 430~~~~~ 431GMail does not have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web 432interface, so it will mangle any emails that you send. You can however 433use "git send-email" and send your patches through the GMail SMTP server, or 434use any IMAP email client to connect to the google IMAP server and forward 435the emails through that. 436 437For hints on using 'git send-email' to send your patches through the 438GMail SMTP server, see the EXAMPLE section of linkgit:git-send-email[1]. 439 440For hints on submission using the IMAP interface, see the EXAMPLE 441section of linkgit:git-imap-send[1]. 442 443Thunderbird 444~~~~~~~~~~~ 445By default, Thunderbird will both wrap emails as well as flag 446them as being 'format=flowed', both of which will make the 447resulting email unusable by Git. 448 449There are three different approaches: use an add-on to turn off line wraps, 450configure Thunderbird to not mangle patches, or use 451an external editor to keep Thunderbird from mangling the patches. 452 453Approach #1 (add-on) 454^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 455 456Install the Toggle Word Wrap add-on that is available from 457https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/toggle-word-wrap/ 458It adds a menu entry "Enable Word Wrap" in the composer's "Options" menu 459that you can tick off. Now you can compose the message as you otherwise do 460(cut + paste, 'git format-patch' | 'git imap-send', etc), but you have to 461insert line breaks manually in any text that you type. 462 463Approach #2 (configuration) 464^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 465Three steps: 466 4671. Configure your mail server composition as plain text: 468 Edit...Account Settings...Composition & Addressing, 469 uncheck "Compose Messages in HTML". 470 4712. Configure your general composition window to not wrap. 472+ 473In Thunderbird 2: 474Edit..Preferences..Composition, wrap plain text messages at 0 475+ 476In Thunderbird 3: 477Edit..Preferences..Advanced..Config Editor. Search for 478"mail.wrap_long_lines". 479Toggle it to make sure it is set to `false`. Also, search for 480"mailnews.wraplength" and set the value to 0. 481 4823. Disable the use of format=flowed: 483Edit..Preferences..Advanced..Config Editor. Search for 484"mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed". 485Toggle it to make sure it is set to `false`. 486 487After that is done, you should be able to compose email as you 488otherwise would (cut + paste, 'git format-patch' | 'git imap-send', etc), 489and the patches will not be mangled. 490 491Approach #3 (external editor) 492^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 493 494The following Thunderbird extensions are needed: 495AboutConfig from http://aboutconfig.mozdev.org/ and 496External Editor from http://globs.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=8 497 4981. Prepare the patch as a text file using your method of choice. 499 5002. Before opening a compose window, use Edit->Account Settings to 501 uncheck the "Compose messages in HTML format" setting in the 502 "Composition & Addressing" panel of the account to be used to 503 send the patch. 504 5053. In the main Thunderbird window, 'before' you open the compose 506 window for the patch, use Tools->about:config to set the 507 following to the indicated values: 508+ 509---------- 510 mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed => false 511 mailnews.wraplength => 0 512---------- 513 5144. Open a compose window and click the external editor icon. 515 5165. In the external editor window, read in the patch file and exit 517 the editor normally. 518 519Side note: it may be possible to do step 2 with 520about:config and the following settings but no one's tried yet. 521 522---------- 523 mail.html_compose => false 524 mail.identity.default.compose_html => false 525 mail.identity.id?.compose_html => false 526---------- 527 528There is a script in contrib/thunderbird-patch-inline which can help 529you include patches with Thunderbird in an easy way. To use it, do the 530steps above and then use the script as the external editor. 531 532KMail 533~~~~~ 534This should help you to submit patches inline using KMail. 535 5361. Prepare the patch as a text file. 537 5382. Click on New Mail. 539 5403. Go under "Options" in the Composer window and be sure that 541 "Word wrap" is not set. 542 5434. Use Message -> Insert file... and insert the patch. 544 5455. Back in the compose window: add whatever other text you wish to the 546 message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send. 547 548BASE TREE INFORMATION 549--------------------- 550 551The base tree information block is used for maintainers or third party 552testers to know the exact state the patch series applies to. It consists 553of the 'base commit', which is a well-known commit that is part of the 554stable part of the project history everybody else works off of, and zero 555or more 'prerequisite patches', which are well-known patches in flight 556that is not yet part of the 'base commit' that need to be applied on top 557of 'base commit' in topological order before the patches can be applied. 558 559The 'base commit' is shown as "base-commit: " followed by the 40-hex of 560the commit object name. A 'prerequisite patch' is shown as 561"prerequisite-patch-id: " followed by the 40-hex 'patch id', which can 562be obtained by passing the patch through the `git patch-id --stable` 563command. 564 565Imagine that on top of the public commit P, you applied well-known 566patches X, Y and Z from somebody else, and then built your three-patch 567series A, B, C, the history would be like: 568 569................................................ 570---P---X---Y---Z---A---B---C 571................................................ 572 573With `git format-patch --base=P -3 C` (or variants thereof, e.g. with 574`--cover-letter` or using `Z..C` instead of `-3 C` to specify the 575range), the base tree information block is shown at the end of the 576first message the command outputs (either the first patch, or the 577cover letter), like this: 578 579------------ 580base-commit: P 581prerequisite-patch-id: X 582prerequisite-patch-id: Y 583prerequisite-patch-id: Z 584------------ 585 586For non-linear topology, such as 587 588................................................ 589---P---X---A---M---C 590 \ / 591 Y---Z---B 592................................................ 593 594You can also use `git format-patch --base=P -3 C` to generate patches 595for A, B and C, and the identifiers for P, X, Y, Z are appended at the 596end of the first message. 597 598If set `--base=auto` in cmdline, it will track base commit automatically, 599the base commit will be the merge base of tip commit of the remote-tracking 600branch and revision-range specified in cmdline. 601For a local branch, you need to track a remote branch by `git branch 602--set-upstream-to` before using this option. 603 604EXAMPLES 605-------- 606 607* Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of 608the current branch using 'git am' to cherry-pick them: 609+ 610------------ 611$ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git am -3 -k 612------------ 613 614* Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the 615origin branch: 616+ 617------------ 618$ git format-patch origin 619------------ 620+ 621For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory. 622 623* Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the inception of the 624project: 625+ 626------------ 627$ git format-patch --root origin 628------------ 629 630* The same as the previous one: 631+ 632------------ 633$ git format-patch -M -B origin 634------------ 635+ 636Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites 637intelligently to produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces 638the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review. 639Note that non-Git "patch" programs won't understand renaming patches, so 640use it only when you know the recipient uses Git to apply your patch. 641 642* Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them 643as e-mailable patches: 644+ 645------------ 646$ git format-patch -3 647------------ 648 649SEE ALSO 650-------- 651linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1] 652 653GIT 654--- 655Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite