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 <dir> | --stdout] [--thread] 13 [--attach[=<boundary>] | --inline[=<boundary>] | 14 [--no-attach]] 15 [-s | --signoff] [<common diff options>] 16 [-n | --numbered | -N | --no-numbered] 17 [--start-number <n>] [--numbered-files] 18 [--in-reply-to=Message-Id] [--suffix=.<sfx>] 19 [--ignore-if-in-upstream] 20 [--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix] 21 [--cc=<email>] 22 [--cover-letter] 23 [ <since> | <revision range> ] 24 25DESCRIPTION 26----------- 27 28Prepare each commit with its patch in 29one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format. 30The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or 31for use with 'git-am'. 32 33There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on. 34 351. A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading 36 to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history 37 that leads to the <since> to be output. 38 392. Generic <revision range> expression (see "SPECIFYING 40 REVISIONS" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]) means the 41 commits in the specified range. 42 43A single commit, when interpreted as a <revision range> 44expression, means "everything that leads to that commit", but 45if you write 'git format-patch <commit>', the previous rule 46applies to that command line and you do not get "everything 47since the beginning of the time". If you want to format 48everything since project inception to one commit, say "git 49format-patch \--root <commit>" to make it clear that it is the 50latter case. If you want to format a single commit, you can do 51this with "git format-patch -1 <commit>". 52 53By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the 54first line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as 55the filename. With the --numbered-files option, the output file names 56will only be numbers, without the first line of the commit appended. 57The names of the output files are printed to standard 58output, unless the --stdout option is specified. 59 60If -o is specified, output files are created in <dir>. Otherwise 61they are created in the current working directory. 62 63By default, the subject of a single patch is "[PATCH] First Line" and 64the subject when multiple patches are output is "[PATCH n/m] First 65Line". To force 1/1 to be added for a single patch, use -n. To omit 66patch numbers from the subject, use -N 67 68If given --thread, 'git-format-patch' will generate In-Reply-To and 69References headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear 70as replies to the first mail; this also generates a Message-Id header to 71reference. 72 73OPTIONS 74------- 75:git-format-patch: 1 76include::diff-options.txt[] 77 78-<n>:: 79 Limits the number of patches to prepare. 80 81-o <dir>:: 82--output-directory <dir>:: 83 Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the 84 current working directory. 85 86-n:: 87--numbered:: 88 Name output in '[PATCH n/m]' format, even with a single patch. 89 90-N:: 91--no-numbered:: 92 Name output in '[PATCH]' format. 93 94--start-number <n>:: 95 Start numbering the patches at <n> instead of 1. 96 97--numbered-files:: 98 Output file names will be a simple number sequence 99 without the default first line of the commit appended. 100 Mutually exclusive with the --stdout option. 101 102-k:: 103--keep-subject:: 104 Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the 105 commit log message. 106 107-s:: 108--signoff:: 109 Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using 110 the committer identity of yourself. 111 112--stdout:: 113 Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, 114 instead of creating a file for each one. 115 116--attach[=<boundary>]:: 117 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 118 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 119 second part, with "Content-Disposition: attachment". 120 121--no-attach:: 122 Disable the creation of an attachment, overriding the 123 configuration setting. 124 125--inline[=<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: inline". 129 130--thread[=<style>]:: 131 Add In-Reply-To and References headers to make the second and 132 subsequent mails appear as replies to the first. Also generates 133 the Message-Id header to reference. 134+ 135The optional <style> argument can be either `shallow` or `deep`. 136'Shallow' threading makes every mail a reply to the head of the 137series, where the head is chosen from the cover letter, the 138`\--in-reply-to`, and the first patch mail, in this order. 'Deep' 139threading makes every mail a reply to the previous one. If not 140specified, defaults to the 'format.thread' configuration, or `shallow` 141if that is not set. 142 143--in-reply-to=Message-Id:: 144 Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a 145 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to 146 provide a new patch series. 147 148--ignore-if-in-upstream:: 149 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in 150 <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable 151 from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the 152 patches being generated, and any patch that matches is 153 ignored. 154 155--subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: 156 Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject 157 line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This 158 allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be 159 combined with the --numbered option. 160 161--cc=<email>:: 162 Add a "Cc:" header to the email headers. This is in addition 163 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 164 165--cover-letter:: 166 In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file 167 containing the shortlog and the overall diffstat. You can 168 fill in a description in the file before sending it out. 169 170--suffix=.<sfx>:: 171 Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated 172 filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is 173 `--suffix=.txt`. 174+ 175Note that you would need to include the leading dot `.` if you 176want a filename like `0001-description-of-my-change.patch`, and 177the first letter does not have to be a dot. Leaving it empty would 178not add any suffix. 179 180--no-binary:: 181 Don't output contents of changes in binary files, just take note 182 that they differ. Note that this disable the patch to be properly 183 applied. By default the contents of changes in those files are 184 encoded in the patch. 185 186CONFIGURATION 187------------- 188You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message 189in the repository configuration, new defaults for the subject prefix 190and file suffix, control attachements, and number patches when outputting 191more than one. 192 193------------ 194[format] 195 headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" 196 subjectprefix = CHANGE 197 suffix = .txt 198 numbered = auto 199 cc = <email> 200 attach [ = mime-boundary-string ] 201------------ 202 203 204EXAMPLES 205-------- 206 207* Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of 208the current branch using 'git-am' to cherry-pick them: 209+ 210------------ 211$ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git am -3 -k 212------------ 213 214* Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the 215origin branch: 216+ 217------------ 218$ git format-patch origin 219------------ 220+ 221For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory. 222 223* Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the inception of the 224project: 225+ 226------------ 227$ git format-patch --root origin 228------------ 229 230* The same as the previous one: 231+ 232------------ 233$ git format-patch -M -B origin 234------------ 235+ 236Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites 237intelligently to produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces 238the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review it. 239Note that the "patch" program does not understand renaming patches, so 240use it only when you know the recipient uses git to apply your patch. 241 242* Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them 243as e-mailable patches: 244+ 245------------ 246$ git format-patch -3 247------------ 248 249SEE ALSO 250-------- 251linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1] 252 253 254Author 255------ 256Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 257 258Documentation 259-------------- 260Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 261 262GIT 263--- 264Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite