1git-cat-file(1) 2=============== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-cat-file - Provide content or type and size information for repository objects 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git cat-file' (-t | -s | -e | -p | <type> | --textconv ) <object> 13'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) < <list-of-objects> 14 15DESCRIPTION 16----------- 17In its first form, the command provides the content or the type of an object in 18the repository. The type is required unless '-t' or '-p' is used to find the 19object type, or '-s' is used to find the object size, or '--textconv' is used 20(which implies type "blob"). 21 22In the second form, a list of objects (separated by linefeeds) is provided on 23stdin, and the SHA-1, type, and size of each object is printed on stdout. 24 25OPTIONS 26------- 27<object>:: 28 The name of the object to show. 29 For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see 30 the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7]. 31 32-t:: 33 Instead of the content, show the object type identified by 34 <object>. 35 36-s:: 37 Instead of the content, show the object size identified by 38 <object>. 39 40-e:: 41 Suppress all output; instead exit with zero status if <object> 42 exists and is a valid object. 43 44-p:: 45 Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type. 46 47<type>:: 48 Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking 49 for a type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given 50 <object> is also permitted. An example is to ask for a 51 "tree" with <object> being a commit object that contains it, 52 or to ask for a "blob" with <object> being a tag object that 53 points at it. 54 55--textconv:: 56 Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case, 57 <object> has be of the form <treeish>:<path>, or :<path> in order 58 to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at <path>. 59 60--batch:: 61--batch=<format>:: 62 Print object information and contents for each object provided 63 on stdin. May not be combined with any other options or arguments. 64 See the section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. 65 66--batch-check:: 67--batch-check=<format>:: 68 Print object information for each object provided on stdin. May 69 not be combined with any other options or arguments. See the 70 section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. 71 72OUTPUT 73------ 74If '-t' is specified, one of the <type>. 75 76If '-s' is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes. 77 78If '-e' is specified, no output. 79 80If '-p' is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed. 81 82If <type> is specified, the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object> 83will be returned. 84 85BATCH OUTPUT 86------------ 87 88If `--batch` or `--batch-check` is given, `cat-file` will read objects 89from stdin, one per line, and print information about them. 90 91Each line is considered as a whole object name, and is parsed as if 92given to linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. 93 94You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom 95`<format>`. The `<format>` is copied literally to stdout for each 96object, with placeholders of the form `%(atom)` expanded, followed by a 97newline. The available atoms are: 98 99`objectname`:: 100 The 40-hex object name of the object. 101 102`objecttype`:: 103 The type of of the object (the same as `cat-file -t` reports). 104 105`objectsize`:: 106 The size, in bytes, of the object (the same as `cat-file -s` 107 reports). 108 109If no format is specified, the default format is `%(objectname) 110%(objecttype) %(objectsize)`. 111 112If `--batch` is specified, the object information is followed by the 113object contents (consisting of `%(objectsize)` bytes), followed by a 114newline. 115 116For example, `--batch` without a custom format would produce: 117 118------------ 119<sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF 120<contents> LF 121------------ 122 123Whereas `--batch-check='%(objectname) %(objecttype)'` would produce: 124 125------------ 126<sha1> SP <type> LF 127------------ 128 129If a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object in 130the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format and print: 131 132------------ 133<object> SP missing LF 134------------ 135 136GIT 137--- 138Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite