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:: 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. 134 135--in-reply-to=Message-Id:: 136 Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a 137 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to 138 provide a new patch series. 139 140--ignore-if-in-upstream:: 141 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in 142 <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable 143 from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the 144 patches being generated, and any patch that matches is 145 ignored. 146 147--subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: 148 Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject 149 line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This 150 allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be 151 combined with the --numbered option. 152 153--cc=<email>:: 154 Add a "Cc:" header to the email headers. This is in addition 155 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 156 157--cover-letter:: 158 In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file 159 containing the shortlog and the overall diffstat. You can 160 fill in a description in the file before sending it out. 161 162--suffix=.<sfx>:: 163 Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated 164 filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is 165 `--suffix=.txt`. 166+ 167Note that you would need to include the leading dot `.` if you 168want a filename like `0001-description-of-my-change.patch`, and 169the first letter does not have to be a dot. Leaving it empty would 170not add any suffix. 171 172--no-binary:: 173 Don't output contents of changes in binary files, just take note 174 that they differ. Note that this disable the patch to be properly 175 applied. By default the contents of changes in those files are 176 encoded in the patch. 177 178CONFIGURATION 179------------- 180You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message 181in the repository configuration, new defaults for the subject prefix 182and file suffix, control attachements, and number patches when outputting 183more than one. 184 185------------ 186[format] 187 headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" 188 subjectprefix = CHANGE 189 suffix = .txt 190 numbered = auto 191 cc = <email> 192 attach [ = mime-boundary-string ] 193------------ 194 195 196EXAMPLES 197-------- 198 199* Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of 200the current branch using 'git-am' to cherry-pick them: 201+ 202------------ 203$ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git am -3 -k 204------------ 205 206* Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the 207origin branch: 208+ 209------------ 210$ git format-patch origin 211------------ 212+ 213For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory. 214 215* Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the inception of the 216project: 217+ 218------------ 219$ git format-patch --root origin 220------------ 221 222* The same as the previous one: 223+ 224------------ 225$ git format-patch -M -B origin 226------------ 227+ 228Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites 229intelligently to produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces 230the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review it. 231Note that the "patch" program does not understand renaming patches, so 232use it only when you know the recipient uses git to apply your patch. 233 234* Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them 235as e-mailable patches: 236+ 237------------ 238$ git format-patch -3 239------------ 240 241SEE ALSO 242-------- 243linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1] 244 245 246Author 247------ 248Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 249 250Documentation 251-------------- 252Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 253 254GIT 255--- 256Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite