Documentation / git-commit.txton commit Merge branch 'bg/maint-remote-update-default' (7f695d2)
   1git-commit(1)
   2=============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-commit - Record changes to the repository
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git commit' [-a | --interactive] [-s] [-v] [-u<mode>] [--amend] [--dry-run]
  12           [(-c | -C) <commit>] [-F <file> | -m <msg>] [--reset-author]
  13           [--allow-empty] [--no-verify] [-e] [--author=<author>]
  14           [--date=<date>] [--cleanup=<mode>] [--] [[-i | -o ]<file>...]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along
  19with a log message from the user describing the changes.
  20
  21The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
  22
  231. by using 'git-add' to incrementally "add" changes to the
  24   index before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
  25   files must be "added");
  26
  272. by using 'git-rm' to remove files from the working tree
  28   and the index, again before using the 'commit' command;
  29
  303. by listing files as arguments to the 'commit' command, in which
  31   case the commit will ignore changes staged in the index, and instead
  32   record the current content of the listed files (which must already
  33   be known to git);
  34
  354. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically
  36   "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
  37   listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
  38   that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
  39   actual commit;
  40
  415. by using the --interactive switch with the 'commit' command to decide one
  42   by one which files should be part of the commit, before finalizing the
  43   operation.  Currently, this is done by invoking 'git-add --interactive'.
  44
  45The `--dry-run` option can be used to obtain a
  46summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
  47commit by giving the same set of parameters (options and paths).
  48
  49If you make a commit and then find a mistake immediately after
  50that, you can recover from it with 'git-reset'.
  51
  52
  53OPTIONS
  54-------
  55-a::
  56--all::
  57        Tell the command to automatically stage files that have
  58        been modified and deleted, but new files you have not
  59        told git about are not affected.
  60
  61-C <commit>::
  62--reuse-message=<commit>::
  63        Take an existing commit object, and reuse the log message
  64        and the authorship information (including the timestamp)
  65        when creating the commit.
  66
  67-c <commit>::
  68--reedit-message=<commit>::
  69        Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that
  70        the user can further edit the commit message.
  71
  72--reset-author::
  73        When used with -C/-c/--amend options, declare that the
  74        authorship of the resulting commit now belongs of the committer.
  75        This also renews the author timestamp.
  76
  77--short::
  78        When doing a dry-run, give the output in the short-format. See
  79        linkgit:git-status[1] for details. Implies `--dry-run`.
  80
  81--porcelain::
  82        When doing a dry-run, give the output in a porcelain-ready
  83        format. See linkgit:git-status[1] for details. Implies
  84        `--dry-run`.
  85
  86-z::
  87        When showing `short` or `porcelain` status output, terminate
  88        entries in the status output with NUL, instead of LF. If no
  89        format is given, implies the `--porcelain` output format.
  90
  91-F <file>::
  92--file=<file>::
  93        Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
  94        read the message from the standard input.
  95
  96--author=<author>::
  97        Override the author name used in the commit.  You can use the
  98        standard `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format.  Otherwise,
  99        an existing commit that matches the given string and its author
 100        name is used.
 101
 102--date=<date>::
 103        Override the author date used in the commit.
 104
 105-m <msg>::
 106--message=<msg>::
 107        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
 108
 109-t <file>::
 110--template=<file>::
 111        Use the contents of the given file as the initial version
 112        of the commit message. The editor is invoked and you can
 113        make subsequent changes. If a message is specified using
 114        the `-m` or `-F` options, this option has no effect. This
 115        overrides the `commit.template` configuration variable.
 116
 117-s::
 118--signoff::
 119        Add Signed-off-by line by the committer at the end of the commit
 120        log message.
 121
 122-n::
 123--no-verify::
 124        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 125        See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 126
 127--allow-empty::
 128        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 129        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 130        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 131        is primarily for use by foreign scm interface scripts.
 132
 133--cleanup=<mode>::
 134        This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
 135        The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
 136        and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
 137        trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
 138        only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
 139        removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
 140        'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
 141        and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 142
 143-e::
 144--edit::
 145        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 146        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 147        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 148        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 149
 150--amend::
 151        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
 152        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
 153        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
 154        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
 155        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
 156        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
 157        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
 158        discarded.
 159+
 160--
 161It is a rough equivalent for:
 162------
 163        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 164        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 165        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 166
 167------
 168but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 169--
 170+
 171You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you
 172amend a commit that has already been published.  (See the "RECOVERING
 173FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1].)
 174
 175-i::
 176--include::
 177        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 178        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 179        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 180        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 181
 182-o::
 183--only::
 184        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 185        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 186        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 187        'git-commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 188        in which case this option can be omitted.
 189        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 190        no paths need to be specified, which can be used to amend
 191        the last commit without committing changes that have
 192        already been staged.
 193
 194-u[<mode>]::
 195--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 196        Show untracked files (Default: 'all').
 197+
 198The mode parameter is optional, and is used to specify
 199the handling of untracked files. The possible options are:
 200+
 201--
 202        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 203        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 204        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 205--
 206+
 207See linkgit:git-config[1] for configuration variable
 208used to change the default for when the option is not
 209specified.
 210
 211-v::
 212--verbose::
 213        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 214        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 215        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 216        lines prefixed with '#'.
 217
 218-q::
 219--quiet::
 220        Suppress commit summary message.
 221
 222--dry-run::
 223        Do not create a commit, but show a list of paths that are
 224        to be committed, paths with local changes that will be left
 225        uncommitted and paths that are untracked.
 226
 227\--::
 228        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 229
 230<file>...::
 231        When files are given on the command line, the command
 232        commits the contents of the named files, without
 233        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 234        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 235        of what have been staged before.
 236
 237:git-commit: 1
 238include::date-formats.txt[]
 239
 240EXAMPLES
 241--------
 242When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 243your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 244called the "index" with 'git-add'.  A file can be
 245reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 246to that of the last commit with `git reset HEAD -- <file>`,
 247which effectively reverts 'git-add' and prevents the changes to
 248this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 249the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 250`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 251has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 252command.  An example:
 253
 254------------
 255$ edit hello.c
 256$ git rm goodbye.c
 257$ git add hello.c
 258$ git commit
 259------------
 260
 261Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 262tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 263contents are tracked in
 264your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 265for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 266example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 267
 268------------
 269$ edit hello.c
 270$ rm goodbye.c
 271$ git commit -a
 272------------
 273
 274The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 275notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 276and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 277
 278After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 279changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 280When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 281only records the changes made to the named paths:
 282
 283------------
 284$ edit hello.c hello.h
 285$ git add hello.c hello.h
 286$ edit Makefile
 287$ git commit Makefile
 288------------
 289
 290This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 291The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 292in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 293they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 294sequence, if you do:
 295
 296------------
 297$ git commit
 298------------
 299
 300this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 301`hello.h` as expected.
 302
 303After a merge (initiated by 'git-merge' or 'git-pull') stops
 304because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 305paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 306conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 307check which paths are conflicting with 'git-status'
 308and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 309stage the result as usual with 'git-add':
 310
 311------------
 312$ git status | grep unmerged
 313unmerged: hello.c
 314$ edit hello.c
 315$ git add hello.c
 316------------
 317
 318After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 319would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 320run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 321
 322------------
 323$ git commit
 324------------
 325
 326As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 327option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 328resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 329alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 330should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 331refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 332
 333
 334DISCUSSION
 335----------
 336
 337Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 338with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 339change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 340Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
 341on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 342
 343include::i18n.txt[]
 344
 345ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 346---------------------------------------
 347The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 348GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 349VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 350order).  See linkgit:git-var[1] for details.
 351
 352HOOKS
 353-----
 354This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 355and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
 356information.
 357
 358
 359SEE ALSO
 360--------
 361linkgit:git-add[1],
 362linkgit:git-rm[1],
 363linkgit:git-mv[1],
 364linkgit:git-merge[1],
 365linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 366
 367Author
 368------
 369Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
 370Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
 371
 372
 373GIT
 374---
 375Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite