Documentation / git-ls-files.txton commit Avoid using non-portable `echo -n` in tests. (6ecfd91)
   1git-ls-files(1)
   2===============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-ls-files - Show information about files in the index and the working tree
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git ls-files' [-z] [-t] [-v]
  13                (--[cached|deleted|others|ignored|stage|unmerged|killed|modified])\*
  14                (-[c|d|o|i|s|u|k|m])\*
  15                [-x <pattern>|--exclude=<pattern>]
  16                [-X <file>|--exclude-from=<file>]
  17                [--exclude-per-directory=<file>]
  18                [--exclude-standard]
  19                [--error-unmatch] [--with-tree=<tree-ish>]
  20                [--full-name] [--abbrev] [--] [<file>]\*
  21
  22DESCRIPTION
  23-----------
  24This merges the file listing in the directory cache index with the
  25actual working directory list, and shows different combinations of the
  26two.
  27
  28One or more of the options below may be used to determine the files
  29shown:
  30
  31OPTIONS
  32-------
  33-c::
  34--cached::
  35        Show cached files in the output (default)
  36
  37-d::
  38--deleted::
  39        Show deleted files in the output
  40
  41-m::
  42--modified::
  43        Show modified files in the output
  44
  45-o::
  46--others::
  47        Show other files in the output
  48
  49-i::
  50--ignored::
  51        Show ignored files in the output.
  52        Note that this also reverses any exclude list present.
  53
  54-s::
  55--stage::
  56        Show staged contents' object name, mode bits and stage number in the output.
  57
  58--directory::
  59        If a whole directory is classified as "other", show just its
  60        name (with a trailing slash) and not its whole contents.
  61
  62--no-empty-directory::
  63        Do not list empty directories. Has no effect without --directory.
  64
  65-u::
  66--unmerged::
  67        Show unmerged files in the output (forces --stage)
  68
  69-k::
  70--killed::
  71        Show files on the filesystem that need to be removed due
  72        to file/directory conflicts for checkout-index to
  73        succeed.
  74
  75-z::
  76        \0 line termination on output.
  77
  78-x <pattern>::
  79--exclude=<pattern>::
  80        Skips files matching pattern.
  81        Note that pattern is a shell wildcard pattern.
  82
  83-X <file>::
  84--exclude-from=<file>::
  85        exclude patterns are read from <file>; 1 per line.
  86
  87--exclude-per-directory=<file>::
  88        read additional exclude patterns that apply only to the
  89        directory and its subdirectories in <file>.
  90
  91--exclude-standard::
  92        Add the standard git exclusions: .git/info/exclude, .gitignore
  93        in each directory, and the user's global exclusion file.
  94
  95--error-unmatch::
  96        If any <file> does not appear in the index, treat this as an
  97        error (return 1).
  98
  99--with-tree=<tree-ish>::
 100        When using --error-unmatch to expand the user supplied
 101        <file> (i.e. path pattern) arguments to paths, pretend
 102        that paths which were removed in the index since the
 103        named <tree-ish> are still present.  Using this option
 104        with `-s` or `-u` options does not make any sense.
 105
 106-t::
 107        Identify the file status with the following tags (followed by
 108        a space) at the start of each line:
 109        H::     cached
 110        M::     unmerged
 111        R::     removed/deleted
 112        C::     modified/changed
 113        K::     to be killed
 114        ?::     other
 115
 116-v::
 117        Similar to `-t`, but use lowercase letters for files
 118        that are marked as 'assume unchanged' (see
 119        linkgit:git-update-index[1]).
 120
 121--full-name::
 122        When run from a subdirectory, the command usually
 123        outputs paths relative to the current directory.  This
 124        option forces paths to be output relative to the project
 125        top directory.
 126
 127--abbrev[=<n>]::
 128        Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 129        lines, show only handful hexdigits prefix.
 130        Non default number of digits can be specified with --abbrev=<n>.
 131
 132\--::
 133        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 134
 135<file>::
 136        Files to show. If no files are given all files which match the other
 137        specified criteria are shown.
 138
 139Output
 140------
 141show files just outputs the filename unless '--stage' is specified in
 142which case it outputs:
 143
 144        [<tag> ]<mode> <object> <stage> <file>
 145
 146'git-ls-files --unmerged' and 'git-ls-files --stage' can be used to examine
 147detailed information on unmerged paths.
 148
 149For an unmerged path, instead of recording a single mode/SHA1 pair,
 150the index records up to three such pairs; one from tree O in stage
 1511, A in stage 2, and B in stage 3.  This information can be used by
 152the user (or the porcelain) to see what should eventually be recorded at the
 153path. (see linkgit:git-read-tree[1] for more information on state)
 154
 155When `-z` option is not used, TAB, LF, and backslash characters
 156in pathnames are represented as `\t`, `\n`, and `\\`,
 157respectively.
 158
 159
 160Exclude Patterns
 161----------------
 162
 163'git-ls-files' can use a list of "exclude patterns" when
 164traversing the directory tree and finding files to show when the
 165flags --others or --ignored are specified.  linkgit:gitignore[5]
 166specifies the format of exclude patterns.
 167
 168These exclude patterns come from these places, in order:
 169
 170  1. The command line flag --exclude=<pattern> specifies a
 171     single pattern.  Patterns are ordered in the same order
 172     they appear in the command line.
 173
 174  2. The command line flag --exclude-from=<file> specifies a
 175     file containing a list of patterns.  Patterns are ordered
 176     in the same order they appear in the file.
 177
 178  3. command line flag --exclude-per-directory=<name> specifies
 179     a name of the file in each directory 'git-ls-files'
 180     examines, normally `.gitignore`.  Files in deeper
 181     directories take precedence.  Patterns are ordered in the
 182     same order they appear in the files.
 183
 184A pattern specified on the command line with --exclude or read
 185from the file specified with --exclude-from is relative to the
 186top of the directory tree.  A pattern read from a file specified
 187by --exclude-per-directory is relative to the directory that the
 188pattern file appears in.
 189
 190SEE ALSO
 191--------
 192linkgit:git-read-tree[1], linkgit:gitignore[5]
 193
 194
 195Author
 196------
 197Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 198
 199Documentation
 200--------------
 201Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano, Josh Triplett, and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 202
 203GIT
 204---
 205Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite