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. 100 101-k:: 102--keep-subject:: 103 Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the 104 commit log message. 105 106-s:: 107--signoff:: 108 Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using 109 the committer identity of yourself. 110 111--stdout:: 112 Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, 113 instead of creating a file for each one. 114 115--attach[=<boundary>]:: 116 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 117 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 118 second part, with "Content-Disposition: attachment". 119 120--no-attach:: 121 Disable the creation of an attachment, overriding the 122 configuration setting. 123 124--inline[=<boundary>]:: 125 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 126 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 127 second part, with "Content-Disposition: inline". 128 129--thread[=<style>]:: 130 Add In-Reply-To and References headers to make the second and 131 subsequent mails appear as replies to the first. Also generates 132 the Message-Id header to reference. 133+ 134The optional <style> argument can be either `shallow` or `deep`. 135'Shallow' threading makes every mail a reply to the head of the 136series, where the head is chosen from the cover letter, the 137`\--in-reply-to`, and the first patch mail, in this order. 'Deep' 138threading makes every mail a reply to the previous one. If not 139specified, defaults to the 'format.thread' configuration, or `shallow` 140if that is not set. 141 142--in-reply-to=Message-Id:: 143 Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a 144 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to 145 provide a new patch series. 146 147--ignore-if-in-upstream:: 148 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in 149 <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable 150 from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the 151 patches being generated, and any patch that matches is 152 ignored. 153 154--subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: 155 Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject 156 line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This 157 allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be 158 combined with the --numbered option. 159 160--cc=<email>:: 161 Add a "Cc:" header to the email headers. This is in addition 162 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 163 164--cover-letter:: 165 In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file 166 containing the shortlog and the overall diffstat. You can 167 fill in a description in the file before sending it out. 168 169--suffix=.<sfx>:: 170 Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated 171 filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is 172 `--suffix=.txt`. 173+ 174Note that you would need to include the leading dot `.` if you 175want a filename like `0001-description-of-my-change.patch`, and 176the first letter does not have to be a dot. Leaving it empty would 177not add any suffix. 178 179--no-binary:: 180 Don't output contents of changes in binary files, just take note 181 that they differ. Note that this disable the patch to be properly 182 applied. By default the contents of changes in those files are 183 encoded in the patch. 184 185CONFIGURATION 186------------- 187You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message 188in the repository configuration, new defaults for the subject prefix 189and file suffix, control attachements, and number patches when outputting 190more than one. 191 192------------ 193[format] 194 headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" 195 subjectprefix = CHANGE 196 suffix = .txt 197 numbered = auto 198 cc = <email> 199 attach [ = mime-boundary-string ] 200------------ 201 202 203EXAMPLES 204-------- 205 206* Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of 207the current branch using 'git-am' to cherry-pick them: 208+ 209------------ 210$ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git am -3 -k 211------------ 212 213* Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the 214origin branch: 215+ 216------------ 217$ git format-patch origin 218------------ 219+ 220For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory. 221 222* Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the inception of the 223project: 224+ 225------------ 226$ git format-patch --root origin 227------------ 228 229* The same as the previous one: 230+ 231------------ 232$ git format-patch -M -B origin 233------------ 234+ 235Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites 236intelligently to produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces 237the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review it. 238Note that the "patch" program does not understand renaming patches, so 239use it only when you know the recipient uses git to apply your patch. 240 241* Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them 242as e-mailable patches: 243+ 244------------ 245$ git format-patch -3 246------------ 247 248SEE ALSO 249-------- 250linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1] 251 252 253Author 254------ 255Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 256 257Documentation 258-------------- 259Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 260 261GIT 262--- 263Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite