Documentation / git-for-each-ref.txton commit t0302 & t3900: add forgotten quotes (89a70b8)
   1git-for-each-ref(1)
   2===================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-for-each-ref - Output information on each ref
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git for-each-ref' [--count=<count>] [--shell|--perl|--python|--tcl]
  12                   [(--sort=<key>)...] [--format=<format>] [<pattern>...]
  13                   [--points-at <object>] [(--merged | --no-merged) [<object>]]
  14                   [--contains [<object>]] [--no-contains [<object>]]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18
  19Iterate over all refs that match `<pattern>` and show them
  20according to the given `<format>`, after sorting them according
  21to the given set of `<key>`.  If `<count>` is given, stop after
  22showing that many refs.  The interpolated values in `<format>`
  23can optionally be quoted as string literals in the specified
  24host language allowing their direct evaluation in that language.
  25
  26OPTIONS
  27-------
  28<count>::
  29        By default the command shows all refs that match
  30        `<pattern>`.  This option makes it stop after showing
  31        that many refs.
  32
  33<key>::
  34        A field name to sort on.  Prefix `-` to sort in
  35        descending order of the value.  When unspecified,
  36        `refname` is used.  You may use the --sort=<key> option
  37        multiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primary
  38        key.
  39
  40<format>::
  41        A string that interpolates `%(fieldname)` from the
  42        object pointed at by a ref being shown.  If `fieldname`
  43        is prefixed with an asterisk (`*`) and the ref points
  44        at a tag object, the value for the field in the object
  45        tag refers is used.  When unspecified, defaults to
  46        `%(objectname) SPC %(objecttype) TAB %(refname)`.
  47        It also interpolates `%%` to `%`, and `%xx` where `xx`
  48        are hex digits interpolates to character with hex code
  49        `xx`; for example `%00` interpolates to `\0` (NUL),
  50        `%09` to `\t` (TAB) and `%0a` to `\n` (LF).
  51
  52<pattern>...::
  53        If one or more patterns are given, only refs are shown that
  54        match against at least one pattern, either using fnmatch(3) or
  55        literally, in the latter case matching completely or from the
  56        beginning up to a slash.
  57
  58--shell::
  59--perl::
  60--python::
  61--tcl::
  62        If given, strings that substitute `%(fieldname)`
  63        placeholders are quoted as string literals suitable for
  64        the specified host language.  This is meant to produce
  65        a scriptlet that can directly be `eval`ed.
  66
  67--points-at <object>::
  68        Only list refs which points at the given object.
  69
  70--merged [<object>]::
  71        Only list refs whose tips are reachable from the
  72        specified commit (HEAD if not specified),
  73        incompatible with `--no-merged`.
  74
  75--no-merged [<object>]::
  76        Only list refs whose tips are not reachable from the
  77        specified commit (HEAD if not specified),
  78        incompatible with `--merged`.
  79
  80--contains [<object>]::
  81        Only list refs which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not
  82        specified).
  83
  84--no-contains [<object>]::
  85        Only list refs which don't contain the specified commit (HEAD
  86        if not specified).
  87
  88--ignore-case::
  89        Sorting and filtering refs are case insensitive.
  90
  91FIELD NAMES
  92-----------
  93
  94Various values from structured fields in referenced objects can
  95be used to interpolate into the resulting output, or as sort
  96keys.
  97
  98For all objects, the following names can be used:
  99
 100refname::
 101        The name of the ref (the part after $GIT_DIR/).
 102        For a non-ambiguous short name of the ref append `:short`.
 103        The option core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict
 104        abbreviation mode. If `lstrip=<N>` (`rstrip=<N>`) is appended, strips `<N>`
 105        slash-separated path components from the front (back) of the refname
 106        (e.g. `%(refname:lstrip=2)` turns `refs/tags/foo` into `foo` and
 107        `%(refname:rstrip=2)` turns `refs/tags/foo` into `refs`).
 108        If `<N>` is a negative number, strip as many path components as
 109        necessary from the specified end to leave `-<N>` path components
 110        (e.g. `%(refname:lstrip=-2)` turns
 111        `refs/tags/foo` into `tags/foo` and `%(refname:rstrip=-1)`
 112        turns `refs/tags/foo` into `refs`). When the ref does not have
 113        enough components, the result becomes an empty string if
 114        stripping with positive <N>, or it becomes the full refname if
 115        stripping with negative <N>.  Neither is an error.
 116+
 117`strip` can be used as a synomym to `lstrip`.
 118
 119objecttype::
 120        The type of the object (`blob`, `tree`, `commit`, `tag`).
 121
 122objectsize::
 123        The size of the object (the same as 'git cat-file -s' reports).
 124
 125objectname::
 126        The object name (aka SHA-1).
 127        For a non-ambiguous abbreviation of the object name append `:short`.
 128        For an abbreviation of the object name with desired length append
 129        `:short=<length>`, where the minimum length is MINIMUM_ABBREV. The
 130        length may be exceeded to ensure unique object names.
 131
 132upstream::
 133        The name of a local ref which can be considered ``upstream''
 134        from the displayed ref. Respects `:short`, `:lstrip` and
 135        `:rstrip` in the same way as `refname` above.  Additionally
 136        respects `:track` to show "[ahead N, behind M]" and
 137        `:trackshort` to show the terse version: ">" (ahead), "<"
 138        (behind), "<>" (ahead and behind), or "=" (in sync). `:track`
 139        also prints "[gone]" whenever unknown upstream ref is
 140        encountered. Append `:track,nobracket` to show tracking
 141        information without brackets (i.e "ahead N, behind M").  Has
 142        no effect if the ref does not have tracking information
 143        associated with it.  All the options apart from `nobracket`
 144        are mutually exclusive, but if used together the last option
 145        is selected.
 146
 147push::
 148        The name of a local ref which represents the `@{push}`
 149        location for the displayed ref. Respects `:short`, `:lstrip`,
 150        `:rstrip`, `:track`, and `:trackshort` options as `upstream`
 151        does. Produces an empty string if no `@{push}` ref is
 152        configured.
 153
 154HEAD::
 155        '*' if HEAD matches current ref (the checked out branch), ' '
 156        otherwise.
 157
 158color::
 159        Change output color.  Followed by `:<colorname>`, where names
 160        are described in `color.branch.*`.
 161
 162align::
 163        Left-, middle-, or right-align the content between
 164        %(align:...) and %(end). The "align:" is followed by
 165        `width=<width>` and `position=<position>` in any order
 166        separated by a comma, where the `<position>` is either left,
 167        right or middle, default being left and `<width>` is the total
 168        length of the content with alignment. For brevity, the
 169        "width=" and/or "position=" prefixes may be omitted, and bare
 170        <width> and <position> used instead.  For instance,
 171        `%(align:<width>,<position>)`. If the contents length is more
 172        than the width then no alignment is performed. If used with
 173        `--quote` everything in between %(align:...) and %(end) is
 174        quoted, but if nested then only the topmost level performs
 175        quoting.
 176
 177if::
 178        Used as %(if)...%(then)...%(end) or
 179        %(if)...%(then)...%(else)...%(end).  If there is an atom with
 180        value or string literal after the %(if) then everything after
 181        the %(then) is printed, else if the %(else) atom is used, then
 182        everything after %(else) is printed. We ignore space when
 183        evaluating the string before %(then), this is useful when we
 184        use the %(HEAD) atom which prints either "*" or " " and we
 185        want to apply the 'if' condition only on the 'HEAD' ref.
 186        Append ":equals=<string>" or ":notequals=<string>" to compare
 187        the value between the %(if:...) and %(then) atoms with the
 188        given string.
 189
 190symref::
 191        The ref which the given symbolic ref refers to. If not a
 192        symbolic ref, nothing is printed. Respects the `:short`,
 193        `:lstrip` and `:rstrip` options in the same way as `refname`
 194        above.
 195
 196In addition to the above, for commit and tag objects, the header
 197field names (`tree`, `parent`, `object`, `type`, and `tag`) can
 198be used to specify the value in the header field.
 199
 200For commit and tag objects, the special `creatordate` and `creator`
 201fields will correspond to the appropriate date or name-email-date tuple
 202from the `committer` or `tagger` fields depending on the object type.
 203These are intended for working on a mix of annotated and lightweight tags.
 204
 205Fields that have name-email-date tuple as its value (`author`,
 206`committer`, and `tagger`) can be suffixed with `name`, `email`,
 207and `date` to extract the named component.
 208
 209The complete message in a commit and tag object is `contents`.
 210Its first line is `contents:subject`, where subject is the concatenation
 211of all lines of the commit message up to the first blank line.  The next
 212line is 'contents:body', where body is all of the lines after the first
 213blank line.  The optional GPG signature is `contents:signature`.  The
 214first `N` lines of the message is obtained using `contents:lines=N`.
 215Additionally, the trailers as interpreted by linkgit:git-interpret-trailers[1]
 216are obtained as 'contents:trailers'.
 217
 218For sorting purposes, fields with numeric values sort in numeric order
 219(`objectsize`, `authordate`, `committerdate`, `creatordate`, `taggerdate`).
 220All other fields are used to sort in their byte-value order.
 221
 222There is also an option to sort by versions, this can be done by using
 223the fieldname `version:refname` or its alias `v:refname`.
 224
 225In any case, a field name that refers to a field inapplicable to
 226the object referred by the ref does not cause an error.  It
 227returns an empty string instead.
 228
 229As a special case for the date-type fields, you may specify a format for
 230the date by adding `:` followed by date format name (see the
 231values the `--date` option to linkgit:git-rev-list[1] takes).
 232
 233Some atoms like %(align) and %(if) always require a matching %(end).
 234We call them "opening atoms" and sometimes denote them as %($open).
 235
 236When a scripting language specific quoting is in effect, everything
 237between a top-level opening atom and its matching %(end) is evaluated
 238according to the semantics of the opening atom and only its result
 239from the top-level is quoted.
 240
 241
 242EXAMPLES
 243--------
 244
 245An example directly producing formatted text.  Show the most recent
 2463 tagged commits:
 247
 248------------
 249#!/bin/sh
 250
 251git for-each-ref --count=3 --sort='-*authordate' \
 252--format='From: %(*authorname) %(*authoremail)
 253Subject: %(*subject)
 254Date: %(*authordate)
 255Ref: %(*refname)
 256
 257%(*body)
 258' 'refs/tags'
 259------------
 260
 261
 262A simple example showing the use of shell eval on the output,
 263demonstrating the use of --shell.  List the prefixes of all heads:
 264------------
 265#!/bin/sh
 266
 267git for-each-ref --shell --format="ref=%(refname)" refs/heads | \
 268while read entry
 269do
 270        eval "$entry"
 271        echo `dirname $ref`
 272done
 273------------
 274
 275
 276A bit more elaborate report on tags, demonstrating that the format
 277may be an entire script:
 278------------
 279#!/bin/sh
 280
 281fmt='
 282        r=%(refname)
 283        t=%(*objecttype)
 284        T=${r#refs/tags/}
 285
 286        o=%(*objectname)
 287        n=%(*authorname)
 288        e=%(*authoremail)
 289        s=%(*subject)
 290        d=%(*authordate)
 291        b=%(*body)
 292
 293        kind=Tag
 294        if test "z$t" = z
 295        then
 296                # could be a lightweight tag
 297                t=%(objecttype)
 298                kind="Lightweight tag"
 299                o=%(objectname)
 300                n=%(authorname)
 301                e=%(authoremail)
 302                s=%(subject)
 303                d=%(authordate)
 304                b=%(body)
 305        fi
 306        echo "$kind $T points at a $t object $o"
 307        if test "z$t" = zcommit
 308        then
 309                echo "The commit was authored by $n $e
 310at $d, and titled
 311
 312    $s
 313
 314Its message reads as:
 315"
 316                echo "$b" | sed -e "s/^/    /"
 317                echo
 318        fi
 319'
 320
 321eval=`git for-each-ref --shell --format="$fmt" \
 322        --sort='*objecttype' \
 323        --sort=-taggerdate \
 324        refs/tags`
 325eval "$eval"
 326------------
 327
 328
 329An example to show the usage of %(if)...%(then)...%(else)...%(end).
 330This prefixes the current branch with a star.
 331
 332------------
 333git for-each-ref --format="%(if)%(HEAD)%(then)* %(else)  %(end)%(refname:short)" refs/heads/
 334------------
 335
 336
 337An example to show the usage of %(if)...%(then)...%(end).
 338This prints the authorname, if present.
 339
 340------------
 341git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)%(if)%(authorname)%(then) Authored by: %(authorname)%(end)"
 342------------
 343
 344SEE ALSO
 345--------
 346linkgit:git-show-ref[1]
 347
 348GIT
 349---
 350Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite