1git-notes(1) 2============ 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-notes - Add or inspect object notes 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git notes' [list [<object>]] 12'git notes' add [-f] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>] 13'git notes' copy [-f] ( --stdin | <from-object> <to-object> ) 14'git notes' append [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>] 15'git notes' edit [<object>] 16'git notes' show [<object>] 17'git notes' merge [-v | -q] [-s <strategy> ] <notes_ref> 18'git notes' merge --commit [-v | -q] 19'git notes' merge --abort [-v | -q] 20'git notes' remove [<object>] 21'git notes' prune [-n | -v] 22'git notes' get-ref 23 24 25DESCRIPTION 26----------- 27Adds, removes, or reads notes attached to objects, without touching 28the objects themselves. 29 30By default, notes are saved to and read from `refs/notes/commits`, but 31this default can be overridden. See the OPTIONS, CONFIGURATION, and 32ENVIRONMENT sections below. If this ref does not exist, it will be 33quietly created when it is first needed to store a note. 34 35A typical use of notes is to supplement a commit message without 36changing the commit itself. Notes can be shown by 'git log' along with 37the original commit message. To distinguish these notes from the 38message stored in the commit object, the notes are indented like the 39message, after an unindented line saying "Notes (<refname>):" (or 40"Notes:" for `refs/notes/commits`). 41 42To change which notes are shown by 'git log', see the 43"notes.displayRef" configuration in linkgit:git-log[1]. 44 45See the "notes.rewrite.<command>" configuration for a way to carry 46notes across commands that rewrite commits. 47 48 49SUBCOMMANDS 50----------- 51 52list:: 53 List the notes object for a given object. If no object is 54 given, show a list of all note objects and the objects they 55 annotate (in the format "<note object> <annotated object>"). 56 This is the default subcommand if no subcommand is given. 57 58add:: 59 Add notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). Abort if the 60 object already has notes (use `-f` to overwrite existing notes). 61 However, if you're using `add` interactively (using an editor 62 to supply the notes contents), then - instead of aborting - 63 the existing notes will be opened in the editor (like the `edit` 64 subcommand). 65 66copy:: 67 Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object. 68 Abort if the second object already has notes, or if the first 69 object has none (use -f to overwrite existing notes to the 70 second object). This subcommand is equivalent to: 71 `git notes add [-f] -C $(git notes list <from-object>) <to-object>` 72+ 73In `\--stdin` mode, take lines in the format 74+ 75---------- 76<from-object> SP <to-object> [ SP <rest> ] LF 77---------- 78+ 79on standard input, and copy the notes from each <from-object> to its 80corresponding <to-object>. (The optional `<rest>` is ignored so that 81the command can read the input given to the `post-rewrite` hook.) 82 83append:: 84 Append to the notes of an existing object (defaults to HEAD). 85 Creates a new notes object if needed. 86 87edit:: 88 Edit the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). 89 90show:: 91 Show the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). 92 93merge:: 94 Merge the given notes ref into the current notes ref. 95 This will try to merge the changes made by the given 96 notes ref (called "remote") since the merge-base (if 97 any) into the current notes ref (called "local"). 98+ 99If conflicts arise and a strategy for automatically resolving 100conflicting notes (see the -s/--strategy option) is not given, 101the "manual" resolver is used. This resolver checks out the 102conflicting notes in a special worktree (`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), 103and instructs the user to manually resolve the conflicts there. 104When done, the user can either finalize the merge with 105'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with 106'git notes merge --abort'. 107 108remove:: 109 Remove the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). 110 This is equivalent to specifying an empty note message to 111 the `edit` subcommand. 112 113prune:: 114 Remove all notes for non-existing/unreachable objects. 115 116get-ref:: 117 Print the current notes ref. This provides an easy way to 118 retrieve the current notes ref (e.g. from scripts). 119 120OPTIONS 121------- 122-f:: 123--force:: 124 When adding notes to an object that already has notes, 125 overwrite the existing notes (instead of aborting). 126 127-m <msg>:: 128--message=<msg>:: 129 Use the given note message (instead of prompting). 130 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values 131 are concatenated as separate paragraphs. 132 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a 133 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out. 134 135-F <file>:: 136--file=<file>:: 137 Take the note message from the given file. Use '-' to 138 read the note message from the standard input. 139 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a 140 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out. 141 142-C <object>:: 143--reuse-message=<object>:: 144 Take the note message from the given blob object (for 145 example, another note). 146 147-c <object>:: 148--reedit-message=<object>:: 149 Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that 150 the user can further edit the note message. 151 152--ref <ref>:: 153 Manipulate the notes tree in <ref>. This overrides 154 'GIT_NOTES_REF' and the "core.notesRef" configuration. The ref 155 is taken to be in `refs/notes/` if it is not qualified. 156 157-n:: 158--dry-run:: 159 Do not remove anything; just report the object names whose notes 160 would be removed. 161 162-s <strategy>:: 163--strategy=<strategy>:: 164 When merging notes, resolve notes conflicts using the given 165 strategy. The following strategies are recognized: "manual" 166 (default), "ours", "theirs", "union" and "cat_sort_uniq". 167 See the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section below for more 168 information on each notes merge strategy. 169 170--commit:: 171 Finalize an in-progress 'git notes merge'. Use this option 172 when you have resolved the conflicts that 'git notes merge' 173 stored in .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. This amends the partial 174 merge commit created by 'git notes merge' (stored in 175 .git/NOTES_MERGE_PARTIAL) by adding the notes in 176 .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. The notes ref stored in the 177 .git/NOTES_MERGE_REF symref is updated to the resulting commit. 178 179--abort:: 180 Abort/reset a in-progress 'git notes merge', i.e. a notes merge 181 with conflicts. This simply removes all files related to the 182 notes merge. 183 184-q:: 185--quiet:: 186 When merging notes, operate quietly. 187 188-v:: 189--verbose:: 190 When merging notes, be more verbose. 191 When pruning notes, report all object names whose notes are 192 removed. 193 194 195DISCUSSION 196---------- 197 198Commit notes are blobs containing extra information about an object 199(usually information to supplement a commit's message). These blobs 200are taken from notes refs. A notes ref is usually a branch which 201contains "files" whose paths are the object names for the objects 202they describe, with some directory separators included for performance 203reasons footnote:[Permitted pathnames have the form 204'ab'`/`'cd'`/`'ef'`/`'...'`/`'abcdef...': a sequence of directory 205names of two hexadecimal digits each followed by a filename with the 206rest of the object ID.]. 207 208Every notes change creates a new commit at the specified notes ref. 209You can therefore inspect the history of the notes by invoking, e.g., 210`git log -p notes/commits`. Currently the commit message only records 211which operation triggered the update, and the commit authorship is 212determined according to the usual rules (see linkgit:git-commit[1]). 213These details may change in the future. 214 215It is also permitted for a notes ref to point directly to a tree 216object, in which case the history of the notes can be read with 217`git log -p -g <refname>`. 218 219 220NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES 221---------------------- 222 223The default notes merge strategy is "manual", which checks out 224conflicting notes in a special work tree for resolving notes conflicts 225(`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), and instructs the user to resolve the 226conflicts in that work tree. 227When done, the user can either finalize the merge with 228'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with 229'git notes merge --abort'. 230 231"ours" automatically resolves conflicting notes in favor of the local 232version (i.e. the current notes ref). 233 234"theirs" automatically resolves notes conflicts in favor of the remote 235version (i.e. the given notes ref being merged into the current notes 236ref). 237 238"union" automatically resolves notes conflicts by concatenating the 239local and remote versions. 240 241"cat_sort_uniq" is similar to "union", but in addition to concatenating 242the local and remote versions, this strategy also sorts the resulting 243lines, and removes duplicate lines from the result. This is equivalent 244to applying the "cat | sort | uniq" shell pipeline to the local and 245remote versions. This strategy is useful if the notes follow a line-based 246format where one wants to avoid duplicated lines in the merge result. 247Note that if either the local or remote version contain duplicate lines 248prior to the merge, these will also be removed by this notes merge 249strategy. 250 251 252EXAMPLES 253-------- 254 255You can use notes to add annotations with information that was not 256available at the time a commit was written. 257 258------------ 259$ git notes add -m 'Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>' 72a144e2 260$ git show -s 72a144e 261[...] 262 Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 263 264Notes: 265 Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org> 266------------ 267 268In principle, a note is a regular Git blob, and any kind of 269(non-)format is accepted. You can binary-safely create notes from 270arbitrary files using 'git hash-object': 271 272------------ 273$ cc *.c 274$ blob=$(git hash-object -w a.out) 275$ git notes --ref=built add -C "$blob" HEAD 276------------ 277 278Of course, it doesn't make much sense to display non-text-format notes 279with 'git log', so if you use such notes, you'll probably need to write 280some special-purpose tools to do something useful with them. 281 282 283CONFIGURATION 284------------- 285 286core.notesRef:: 287 Notes ref to read and manipulate instead of 288 `refs/notes/commits`. Must be an unabbreviated ref name. 289 This setting can be overridden through the environment and 290 command line. 291 292notes.displayRef:: 293 Which ref (or refs, if a glob or specified more than once), in 294 addition to the default set by `core.notesRef` or 295 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit 296 messages with the 'git log' family of commands. 297 This setting can be overridden on the command line or by the 298 'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF' environment variable. 299 See linkgit:git-log[1]. 300 301notes.rewrite.<command>:: 302 When rewriting commits with <command> (currently `amend` or 303 `rebase`), if this variable is `false`, git will not copy 304 notes from the original to the rewritten commit. Defaults to 305 `true`. See also "`notes.rewriteRef`" below. 306+ 307This setting can be overridden by the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' 308environment variable. 309 310notes.rewriteMode:: 311 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target 312 commit already has a note. Must be one of `overwrite`, 313 `concatenate`, and `ignore`. Defaults to `concatenate`. 314+ 315This setting can be overridden with the `GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE` 316environment variable. 317 318notes.rewriteRef:: 319 When copying notes during a rewrite, specifies the (fully 320 qualified) ref whose notes should be copied. May be a glob, 321 in which case notes in all matching refs will be copied. You 322 may also specify this configuration several times. 323+ 324Does not have a default value; you must configure this variable to 325enable note rewriting. 326+ 327Can be overridden with the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' environment variable. 328 329 330ENVIRONMENT 331----------- 332 333'GIT_NOTES_REF':: 334 Which ref to manipulate notes from, instead of `refs/notes/commits`. 335 This overrides the `core.notesRef` setting. 336 337'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF':: 338 Colon-delimited list of refs or globs indicating which refs, 339 in addition to the default from `core.notesRef` or 340 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit 341 messages. 342 This overrides the `notes.displayRef` setting. 343+ 344A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist, but a glob that 345does not match any refs is silently ignored. 346 347'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE':: 348 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target 349 commit already has a note. 350 Must be one of `overwrite`, `concatenate`, and `ignore`. 351 This overrides the `core.rewriteMode` setting. 352 353'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF':: 354 When rewriting commits, which notes to copy from the original 355 to the rewritten commit. Must be a colon-delimited list of 356 refs or globs. 357+ 358If not set in the environment, the list of notes to copy depends 359on the `notes.rewrite.<command>` and `notes.rewriteRef` settings. 360 361 362Author 363------ 364Written by Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> and 365Johan Herland <johan@herland.net> 366 367Documentation 368------------- 369Documentation by Johannes Schindelin and Johan Herland 370 371GIT 372--- 373Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite