Documentation / git-rev-list.txton commit setup_git_directory: make sure GIT_DIR is a valid repository. (5e7bfe2)
   1git-rev-list(1)
   2===============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-rev-list - Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11'git-rev-list' [ \--max-count=number ]
  12        [ \--max-age=timestamp ]
  13        [ \--min-age=timestamp ]
  14        [ \--sparse ]
  15        [ \--no-merges ]
  16        [ \--all ]
  17        [ [ \--merge-order [ \--show-breaks ] ] | [ \--topo-order ] | ]
  18        [ \--parents ]
  19        [ \--objects [ \--unpacked ] ]
  20        [ \--pretty | \--header | ]
  21        [ \--bisect ]
  22        <commit>... [ \-- <paths>... ]
  23
  24DESCRIPTION
  25-----------
  26Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order starting at the
  27given commit(s), taking ancestry relationship into account.  This is
  28useful to produce human-readable log output.
  29
  30Commits which are stated with a preceding '{caret}' cause listing to stop at
  31that point. Their parents are implied. "git-rev-list foo bar {caret}baz" thus
  32means "list all the commits which are included in 'foo' and 'bar', but
  33not in 'baz'".
  34
  35A special notation <commit1>..<commit2> can be used as a
  36short-hand for {caret}<commit1> <commit2>.
  37
  38
  39OPTIONS
  40-------
  41--pretty::
  42        Print the contents of the commit changesets in human-readable form.
  43
  44--header::
  45        Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each
  46        record is separated with a NUL character.
  47
  48--objects::
  49        Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed commits.
  50        'git-rev-list --objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me all object IDs
  51        which I need to download if I have the commit object 'bar', but
  52        not 'foo'".
  53
  54--unpacked::
  55        Only useful with `--objects`; print the object IDs that
  56        are not in packs.
  57
  58--bisect::
  59        Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway
  60        between the included and excluded commits. Thus, if 'git-rev-list
  61        --bisect foo ^bar ^baz' outputs 'midpoint', the output
  62        of 'git-rev-list foo ^midpoint' and 'git-rev-list midpoint
  63        ^bar ^baz' would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change
  64        which introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search:
  65        repeatedly generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain
  66        is of length one.
  67
  68--max-count::
  69        Limit the number of commits output.
  70
  71--max-age=timestamp, --min-age=timestamp::
  72        Limit the commits output to specified time range.
  73
  74--sparse::
  75        When optional paths are given, the command outputs only
  76        the commits that changes at least one of them, and also
  77        ignores merges that do not touch the given paths.  This
  78        flag makes the command output all eligible commits
  79        (still subject to count and age limitation), but apply
  80        merge simplification nevertheless.
  81
  82--all::
  83        Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/` are
  84        listed on the command line as <commit>.
  85
  86--topo-order::
  87        By default, the commits are shown in reverse
  88        chronological order.  This option makes them appear in
  89        topological order (i.e. descendant commits are shown
  90        before their parents).
  91
  92--merge-order::
  93        When specified the commit history is decomposed into a unique
  94        sequence of minimal, non-linear epochs and maximal, linear epochs.
  95        Non-linear epochs are then linearised by sorting them into merge
  96        order, which is described below.
  97+
  98Maximal, linear epochs correspond to periods of sequential development.
  99Minimal, non-linear epochs correspond to periods of divergent development
 100followed by a converging merge. The theory of epochs is described in more
 101detail at
 102link:http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/[http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/].
 103+
 104The merge order for a non-linear epoch is defined as a linearisation for which
 105the following invariants are true:
 106+
 107    1. if a commit P is reachable from commit N, commit P sorts after commit N
 108       in the linearised list.
 109    2. if Pi and Pj are any two parents of a merge M (with i < j), then any
 110       commit N, such that N is reachable from Pj but not reachable from Pi,
 111       sorts before all commits reachable from Pi.
 112+
 113Invariant 1 states that later commits appear before earlier commits they are
 114derived from.
 115+
 116Invariant 2 states that commits unique to "later" parents in a merge, appear
 117before all commits from "earlier" parents of a merge.
 118
 119--show-breaks::
 120        Each item of the list is output with a 2-character prefix consisting
 121        of one of: (|), (^), (=) followed by a space.
 122+
 123Commits marked with (=) represent the boundaries of minimal, non-linear epochs
 124and correspond either to the start of a period of divergent development or to
 125the end of such a period.
 126+
 127Commits marked with (|) are direct parents of commits immediately preceding
 128the marked commit in the list.
 129+
 130Commits marked with (^) are not parents of the immediately preceding commit.
 131These "breaks" represent necessary discontinuities implied by trying to
 132represent an arbtirary DAG in a linear form.
 133+
 134`--show-breaks` is only valid if `--merge-order` is also specified.
 135
 136
 137Author
 138------
 139Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 140
 141Original *--merge-order* logic by Jon Seymour <jon.seymour@gmail.com>
 142
 143Documentation
 144--------------
 145Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 146
 147GIT
 148---
 149Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 150