Documentation / git-format-patch.txton commit git-init-db(1): Describe --shared and the idempotent nature of init-db (8b32572)
   1git-format-patch(1)
   2===================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-format-patch - Prepare patches for e-mail submission.
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11'git-format-patch' [-n | -k] [-o <dir> | --stdout] [-s] [-c] [--mbox] [--diff-options] <his> [<mine>]
  12
  13DESCRIPTION
  14-----------
  15Prepare each commit with its patch since <mine> head forked from
  16<his> head, one file per patch, for e-mail submission.  Each
  17output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the first
  18line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as the
  19filename.
  20
  21When -o is specified, output files are created in that
  22directory; otherwise in the current working directory.
  23
  24When -n is specified, instead of "[PATCH] Subject", the first
  25line is formatted as "[PATCH N/M] Subject", unless you have only
  26one patch.
  27
  28When --mbox is specified, the output is formatted to resemble
  29UNIX mailbox format, and can be concatenated together for
  30processing with applymbox.
  31
  32
  33OPTIONS
  34-------
  35-o|--output-directory <dir>::
  36        Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the
  37        current working directory.
  38
  39-n|--numbered::
  40        Name output in '[PATCH n/m]' format.
  41
  42-k|--keep-subject::
  43        Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the
  44        commit log message.
  45
  46-a|--author, -d|--date::
  47        Output From: and Date: headers for commits made by
  48        yourself as well.  Usually these are output only for
  49        commits made by people other than yourself.
  50
  51-s|--signoff::
  52        Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using
  53        the committer identity of yourself.
  54
  55-c|--check::
  56        Display suspicious lines in the patch.  The definition
  57        of 'suspicious lines' is currently the lines that has
  58        trailing whitespaces, and the lines whose indentation
  59        has a SP character immediately followed by a TAB
  60        character.
  61
  62-m|--mbox::
  63        Format the output files for closer to mbox format by
  64        adding a phony Unix "From " line, so they can be
  65        concatenated together and fed to `git-applymbox`.
  66        Implies --author and --date.
  67
  68--stdout::
  69        This flag generates the mbox formatted output to the
  70        standard output, instead of saving them into a file per
  71        patch and implies --mbox.
  72
  73
  74EXAMPLES
  75--------
  76
  77git-format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git-am -3 -k::
  78        Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply
  79        them on top of the current branch using `git-am` to
  80        cherry-pick them.
  81
  82git-format-patch origin::
  83        Extract commits the current branch accumulated since it
  84        pulled from origin the last time in a patch form for
  85        e-mail submission.
  86
  87git-format-patch -M -B origin::
  88        The same as the previous one, except detect and handle
  89        renames and complete rewrites intelligently to produce
  90        renaming patch.  A renaming patch reduces the amount of
  91        text output, and generally makes it easier to review
  92        it.  Note that the "patch" program does not understand
  93        renaming patch well, so use it only when you know the
  94        recipient uses git to apply your patch.
  95
  96
  97See Also
  98--------
  99gitlink:git-am[1], gitlink:git-send-email
 100
 101
 102Author
 103------
 104Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
 105
 106Documentation
 107--------------
 108Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 109
 110GIT
 111---
 112Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 113