Documentation / git-for-each-ref.txton commit Doc: fix misleading asciidoc formating (64eca30)
   1git-for-each-ref(1)
   2===================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-for-each-ref - Output information on each ref
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git for-each-ref' [--count=<count>] [--shell|--perl|--python|--tcl]
  12                   [(--sort=<key>)...] [--format=<format>] [<pattern>...]
  13                   [--points-at=<object>]
  14                   (--merged[=<object>] | --no-merged[=<object>])
  15                   [--contains[=<object>]] [--no-contains[=<object>]]
  16
  17DESCRIPTION
  18-----------
  19
  20Iterate over all refs that match `<pattern>` and show them
  21according to the given `<format>`, after sorting them according
  22to the given set of `<key>`.  If `<count>` is given, stop after
  23showing that many refs.  The interpolated values in `<format>`
  24can optionally be quoted as string literals in the specified
  25host language allowing their direct evaluation in that language.
  26
  27OPTIONS
  28-------
  29<pattern>...::
  30        If one or more patterns are given, only refs are shown that
  31        match against at least one pattern, either using fnmatch(3) or
  32        literally, in the latter case matching completely or from the
  33        beginning up to a slash.
  34
  35--count=<count>::
  36        By default the command shows all refs that match
  37        `<pattern>`.  This option makes it stop after showing
  38        that many refs.
  39
  40--sort=<key>::
  41        A field name to sort on.  Prefix `-` to sort in
  42        descending order of the value.  When unspecified,
  43        `refname` is used.  You may use the --sort=<key> option
  44        multiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primary
  45        key.
  46
  47--format=<format>::
  48        A string that interpolates `%(fieldname)` from a ref being shown
  49        and the object it points at.  If `fieldname`
  50        is prefixed with an asterisk (`*`) and the ref points
  51        at a tag object, use the value for the field in the object
  52        which the tag object refers to (instead of the field in the tag object).
  53        When unspecified, `<format>` defaults to
  54        `%(objectname) SPC %(objecttype) TAB %(refname)`.
  55        It also interpolates `%%` to `%`, and `%xx` where `xx`
  56        are hex digits interpolates to character with hex code
  57        `xx`; for example `%00` interpolates to `\0` (NUL),
  58        `%09` to `\t` (TAB) and `%0a` to `\n` (LF).
  59
  60--color[=<when>]:
  61        Respect any colors specified in the `--format` option. The
  62        `<when>` field must be one of `always`, `never`, or `auto` (if
  63        `<when>` is absent, behave as if `always` was given).
  64
  65--shell::
  66--perl::
  67--python::
  68--tcl::
  69        If given, strings that substitute `%(fieldname)`
  70        placeholders are quoted as string literals suitable for
  71        the specified host language.  This is meant to produce
  72        a scriptlet that can directly be `eval`ed.
  73
  74--points-at=<object>::
  75        Only list refs which points at the given object.
  76
  77--merged[=<object>]::
  78        Only list refs whose tips are reachable from the
  79        specified commit (HEAD if not specified),
  80        incompatible with `--no-merged`.
  81
  82--no-merged[=<object>]::
  83        Only list refs whose tips are not reachable from the
  84        specified commit (HEAD if not specified),
  85        incompatible with `--merged`.
  86
  87--contains[=<object>]::
  88        Only list refs which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not
  89        specified).
  90
  91--no-contains[=<object>]::
  92        Only list refs which don't contain the specified commit (HEAD
  93        if not specified).
  94
  95--ignore-case::
  96        Sorting and filtering refs are case insensitive.
  97
  98FIELD NAMES
  99-----------
 100
 101Various values from structured fields in referenced objects can
 102be used to interpolate into the resulting output, or as sort
 103keys.
 104
 105For all objects, the following names can be used:
 106
 107refname::
 108        The name of the ref (the part after $GIT_DIR/).
 109        For a non-ambiguous short name of the ref append `:short`.
 110        The option core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict
 111        abbreviation mode. If `lstrip=<N>` (`rstrip=<N>`) is appended, strips `<N>`
 112        slash-separated path components from the front (back) of the refname
 113        (e.g. `%(refname:lstrip=2)` turns `refs/tags/foo` into `foo` and
 114        `%(refname:rstrip=2)` turns `refs/tags/foo` into `refs`).
 115        If `<N>` is a negative number, strip as many path components as
 116        necessary from the specified end to leave `-<N>` path components
 117        (e.g. `%(refname:lstrip=-2)` turns
 118        `refs/tags/foo` into `tags/foo` and `%(refname:rstrip=-1)`
 119        turns `refs/tags/foo` into `refs`). When the ref does not have
 120        enough components, the result becomes an empty string if
 121        stripping with positive <N>, or it becomes the full refname if
 122        stripping with negative <N>.  Neither is an error.
 123+
 124`strip` can be used as a synonym to `lstrip`.
 125
 126objecttype::
 127        The type of the object (`blob`, `tree`, `commit`, `tag`).
 128
 129objectsize::
 130        The size of the object (the same as 'git cat-file -s' reports).
 131
 132objectname::
 133        The object name (aka SHA-1).
 134        For a non-ambiguous abbreviation of the object name append `:short`.
 135        For an abbreviation of the object name with desired length append
 136        `:short=<length>`, where the minimum length is MINIMUM_ABBREV. The
 137        length may be exceeded to ensure unique object names.
 138
 139upstream::
 140        The name of a local ref which can be considered ``upstream''
 141        from the displayed ref. Respects `:short`, `:lstrip` and
 142        `:rstrip` in the same way as `refname` above.  Additionally
 143        respects `:track` to show "[ahead N, behind M]" and
 144        `:trackshort` to show the terse version: ">" (ahead), "<"
 145        (behind), "<>" (ahead and behind), or "=" (in sync). `:track`
 146        also prints "[gone]" whenever unknown upstream ref is
 147        encountered. Append `:track,nobracket` to show tracking
 148        information without brackets (i.e "ahead N, behind M").
 149+
 150For any remote-tracking branch `%(upstream)`, `%(upstream:remotename)`
 151and `%(upstream:remoteref)` refer to the name of the remote and the
 152name of the tracked remote ref, respectively. In other words, the
 153remote-tracking branch can be updated explicitly and individually by
 154using the refspec `%(upstream:remoteref):%(upstream)` to fetch from
 155`%(upstream:remotename)`.
 156+
 157Has no effect if the ref does not have tracking information associated
 158with it.  All the options apart from `nobracket` are mutually exclusive,
 159but if used together the last option is selected.
 160
 161push::
 162        The name of a local ref which represents the `@{push}`
 163        location for the displayed ref. Respects `:short`, `:lstrip`,
 164        `:rstrip`, `:track`, `:trackshort`, `:remotename`, and `:remoteref`
 165        options as `upstream` does. Produces an empty string if no `@{push}`
 166        ref is configured.
 167
 168HEAD::
 169        '*' if HEAD matches current ref (the checked out branch), ' '
 170        otherwise.
 171
 172color::
 173        Change output color. Followed by `:<colorname>`, where color
 174        names are described under Values in the "CONFIGURATION FILE"
 175        section of linkgit:git-config[1].  For example,
 176        `%(color:bold red)`.
 177
 178align::
 179        Left-, middle-, or right-align the content between
 180        %(align:...) and %(end). The "align:" is followed by
 181        `width=<width>` and `position=<position>` in any order
 182        separated by a comma, where the `<position>` is either left,
 183        right or middle, default being left and `<width>` is the total
 184        length of the content with alignment. For brevity, the
 185        "width=" and/or "position=" prefixes may be omitted, and bare
 186        <width> and <position> used instead.  For instance,
 187        `%(align:<width>,<position>)`. If the contents length is more
 188        than the width then no alignment is performed. If used with
 189        `--quote` everything in between %(align:...) and %(end) is
 190        quoted, but if nested then only the topmost level performs
 191        quoting.
 192
 193if::
 194        Used as %(if)...%(then)...%(end) or
 195        %(if)...%(then)...%(else)...%(end).  If there is an atom with
 196        value or string literal after the %(if) then everything after
 197        the %(then) is printed, else if the %(else) atom is used, then
 198        everything after %(else) is printed. We ignore space when
 199        evaluating the string before %(then), this is useful when we
 200        use the %(HEAD) atom which prints either "*" or " " and we
 201        want to apply the 'if' condition only on the 'HEAD' ref.
 202        Append ":equals=<string>" or ":notequals=<string>" to compare
 203        the value between the %(if:...) and %(then) atoms with the
 204        given string.
 205
 206symref::
 207        The ref which the given symbolic ref refers to. If not a
 208        symbolic ref, nothing is printed. Respects the `:short`,
 209        `:lstrip` and `:rstrip` options in the same way as `refname`
 210        above.
 211
 212In addition to the above, for commit and tag objects, the header
 213field names (`tree`, `parent`, `object`, `type`, and `tag`) can
 214be used to specify the value in the header field.
 215
 216For commit and tag objects, the special `creatordate` and `creator`
 217fields will correspond to the appropriate date or name-email-date tuple
 218from the `committer` or `tagger` fields depending on the object type.
 219These are intended for working on a mix of annotated and lightweight tags.
 220
 221Fields that have name-email-date tuple as its value (`author`,
 222`committer`, and `tagger`) can be suffixed with `name`, `email`,
 223and `date` to extract the named component.
 224
 225The complete message in a commit and tag object is `contents`.
 226Its first line is `contents:subject`, where subject is the concatenation
 227of all lines of the commit message up to the first blank line.  The next
 228line is `contents:body`, where body is all of the lines after the first
 229blank line.  The optional GPG signature is `contents:signature`.  The
 230first `N` lines of the message is obtained using `contents:lines=N`.
 231Additionally, the trailers as interpreted by linkgit:git-interpret-trailers[1]
 232are obtained as `trailers` (or by using the historical alias
 233`contents:trailers`).  Non-trailer lines from the trailer block can be omitted
 234with `trailers:only`. Whitespace-continuations can be removed from trailers so
 235that each trailer appears on a line by itself with its full content with
 236`trailers:unfold`. Both can be used together as `trailers:unfold,only`.
 237
 238For sorting purposes, fields with numeric values sort in numeric order
 239(`objectsize`, `authordate`, `committerdate`, `creatordate`, `taggerdate`).
 240All other fields are used to sort in their byte-value order.
 241
 242There is also an option to sort by versions, this can be done by using
 243the fieldname `version:refname` or its alias `v:refname`.
 244
 245In any case, a field name that refers to a field inapplicable to
 246the object referred by the ref does not cause an error.  It
 247returns an empty string instead.
 248
 249As a special case for the date-type fields, you may specify a format for
 250the date by adding `:` followed by date format name (see the
 251values the `--date` option to linkgit:git-rev-list[1] takes).
 252
 253Some atoms like %(align) and %(if) always require a matching %(end).
 254We call them "opening atoms" and sometimes denote them as %($open).
 255
 256When a scripting language specific quoting is in effect, everything
 257between a top-level opening atom and its matching %(end) is evaluated
 258according to the semantics of the opening atom and only its result
 259from the top-level is quoted.
 260
 261
 262EXAMPLES
 263--------
 264
 265An example directly producing formatted text.  Show the most recent
 2663 tagged commits:
 267
 268------------
 269#!/bin/sh
 270
 271git for-each-ref --count=3 --sort='-*authordate' \
 272--format='From: %(*authorname) %(*authoremail)
 273Subject: %(*subject)
 274Date: %(*authordate)
 275Ref: %(*refname)
 276
 277%(*body)
 278' 'refs/tags'
 279------------
 280
 281
 282A simple example showing the use of shell eval on the output,
 283demonstrating the use of --shell.  List the prefixes of all heads:
 284------------
 285#!/bin/sh
 286
 287git for-each-ref --shell --format="ref=%(refname)" refs/heads | \
 288while read entry
 289do
 290        eval "$entry"
 291        echo `dirname $ref`
 292done
 293------------
 294
 295
 296A bit more elaborate report on tags, demonstrating that the format
 297may be an entire script:
 298------------
 299#!/bin/sh
 300
 301fmt='
 302        r=%(refname)
 303        t=%(*objecttype)
 304        T=${r#refs/tags/}
 305
 306        o=%(*objectname)
 307        n=%(*authorname)
 308        e=%(*authoremail)
 309        s=%(*subject)
 310        d=%(*authordate)
 311        b=%(*body)
 312
 313        kind=Tag
 314        if test "z$t" = z
 315        then
 316                # could be a lightweight tag
 317                t=%(objecttype)
 318                kind="Lightweight tag"
 319                o=%(objectname)
 320                n=%(authorname)
 321                e=%(authoremail)
 322                s=%(subject)
 323                d=%(authordate)
 324                b=%(body)
 325        fi
 326        echo "$kind $T points at a $t object $o"
 327        if test "z$t" = zcommit
 328        then
 329                echo "The commit was authored by $n $e
 330at $d, and titled
 331
 332    $s
 333
 334Its message reads as:
 335"
 336                echo "$b" | sed -e "s/^/    /"
 337                echo
 338        fi
 339'
 340
 341eval=`git for-each-ref --shell --format="$fmt" \
 342        --sort='*objecttype' \
 343        --sort=-taggerdate \
 344        refs/tags`
 345eval "$eval"
 346------------
 347
 348
 349An example to show the usage of %(if)...%(then)...%(else)...%(end).
 350This prefixes the current branch with a star.
 351
 352------------
 353git for-each-ref --format="%(if)%(HEAD)%(then)* %(else)  %(end)%(refname:short)" refs/heads/
 354------------
 355
 356
 357An example to show the usage of %(if)...%(then)...%(end).
 358This prints the authorname, if present.
 359
 360------------
 361git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)%(if)%(authorname)%(then) Authored by: %(authorname)%(end)"
 362------------
 363
 364SEE ALSO
 365--------
 366linkgit:git-show-ref[1]
 367
 368GIT
 369---
 370Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite