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 [-s | --signoff] [<common diff options>] 15 [-n | --numbered | -N | --no-numbered] 16 [--start-number <n>] [--numbered-files] 17 [--in-reply-to=Message-Id] [--suffix=.<sfx>] 18 [--ignore-if-in-upstream] 19 [--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix] 20 [ <since> | <revision range> ] 21 22DESCRIPTION 23----------- 24 25Prepare each commit with its patch in 26one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format. 27The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or 28for use with linkgit:git-am[1]. 29 30There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on. 31 321. A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading 33 to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history 34 that leads to the <since> to be output. 35 362. Generic <revision range> expression (see "SPECIFYING 37 REVISIONS" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]) means the 38 commits in the specified range. 39 40A single commit, when interpreted as a <revision range> 41expression, means "everything that leads to that commit", but 42if you write 'git format-patch <commit>', the previous rule 43applies to that command line and you do not get "everything 44since the beginning of the time". If you want to format 45everything since project inception to one commit, say "git 46format-patch \--root <commit>" to make it clear that it is the 47latter case. 48 49By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the 50first line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as 51the filename. With the --numbered-files option, the output file names 52will only be numbers, without the first line of the commit appended. 53The names of the output files are printed to standard 54output, unless the --stdout option is specified. 55 56If -o is specified, output files are created in <dir>. Otherwise 57they are created in the current working directory. 58 59If -n is specified, instead of "[PATCH] Subject", the first line 60is formatted as "[PATCH n/m] Subject". 61 62If given --thread, git-format-patch will generate In-Reply-To and 63References headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear 64as replies to the first mail; this also generates a Message-Id header to 65reference. 66 67OPTIONS 68------- 69:git-format-patch: 1 70include::diff-options.txt[] 71 72-<n>:: 73 Limits the number of patches to prepare. 74 75-o|--output-directory <dir>:: 76 Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the 77 current working directory. 78 79-n|--numbered:: 80 Name output in '[PATCH n/m]' format. 81 82-N|--no-numbered:: 83 Name output in '[PATCH]' format. 84 85--start-number <n>:: 86 Start numbering the patches at <n> instead of 1. 87 88--numbered-files:: 89 Output file names will be a simple number sequence 90 without the default first line of the commit appended. 91 Mutually exclusive with the --stdout option. 92 93-k|--keep-subject:: 94 Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the 95 commit log message. 96 97-s|--signoff:: 98 Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using 99 the committer identity of yourself. 100 101--stdout:: 102 Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, 103 instead of creating a file for each one. 104 105--attach[=<boundary>]:: 106 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 107 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 108 second part, with "Content-Disposition: attachment". 109 110--inline[=<boundary>]:: 111 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 112 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 113 second part, with "Content-Disposition: inline". 114 115--thread:: 116 Add In-Reply-To and References headers to make the second and 117 subsequent mails appear as replies to the first. Also generates 118 the Message-Id header to reference. 119 120--in-reply-to=Message-Id:: 121 Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a 122 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to 123 provide a new patch series. 124 125--ignore-if-in-upstream:: 126 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in 127 <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable 128 from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the 129 patches being generated, and any patch that matches is 130 ignored. 131 132--subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: 133 Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject 134 line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This 135 allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be 136 combined with the --numbered option. 137 138--suffix=.<sfx>:: 139 Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated 140 filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is 141 `--suffix=.txt`. 142+ 143Note that you would need to include the leading dot `.` if you 144want a filename like `0001-description-of-my-change.patch`, and 145the first letter does not have to be a dot. Leaving it empty would 146not add any suffix. 147 148CONFIGURATION 149------------- 150You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message 151in the repository configuration, new defaults for the subject prefix 152and file suffix, and number patches when outputting more than one. 153 154------------ 155[format] 156 headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" 157 subjectprefix = CHANGE 158 suffix = .txt 159 numbered = auto 160------------ 161 162 163EXAMPLES 164-------- 165 166git-format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git-am -3 -k:: 167 Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply 168 them on top of the current branch using `git-am` to 169 cherry-pick them. 170 171git-format-patch origin:: 172 Extract all commits which are in the current branch but 173 not in the origin branch. For each commit a separate file 174 is created in the current directory. 175 176git-format-patch \--root origin:: 177 Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the 178 inception of the project. 179 180git-format-patch -M -B origin:: 181 The same as the previous one. Additionally, it detects 182 and handles renames and complete rewrites intelligently to 183 produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces the 184 amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to 185 review it. Note that the "patch" program does not 186 understand renaming patches, so use it only when you know 187 the recipient uses git to apply your patch. 188 189git-format-patch -3:: 190 Extract three topmost commits from the current branch 191 and format them as e-mailable patches. 192 193See Also 194-------- 195linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1] 196 197 198Author 199------ 200Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 201 202Documentation 203-------------- 204Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 205 206GIT 207--- 208Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite