1git-notes(1) 2============ 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-notes - Add or inspect object notes 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git notes' [list [<object>]] 12'git notes' add [-f] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>] 13'git notes' copy [-f] ( --stdin | <from-object> <to-object> ) 14'git notes' append [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>] 15'git notes' edit [<object>] 16'git notes' show [<object>] 17'git notes' merge [-v | -q] [-s <strategy> ] <notes_ref> 18'git notes' merge --commit [-v | -q] 19'git notes' merge --abort [-v | -q] 20'git notes' remove [--ignore-missing] [<object>...] 21'git notes' prune [-n | -v] 22'git notes' get-ref 23 24 25DESCRIPTION 26----------- 27Adds, removes, or reads notes attached to objects, without touching 28the objects themselves. 29 30By default, notes are saved to and read from `refs/notes/commits`, but 31this default can be overridden. See the OPTIONS, CONFIGURATION, and 32ENVIRONMENT sections below. If this ref does not exist, it will be 33quietly created when it is first needed to store a note. 34 35A typical use of notes is to supplement a commit message without 36changing the commit itself. Notes can be shown by 'git log' along with 37the original commit message. To distinguish these notes from the 38message stored in the commit object, the notes are indented like the 39message, after an unindented line saying "Notes (<refname>):" (or 40"Notes:" for `refs/notes/commits`). 41 42To change which notes are shown by 'git log', see the 43"notes.displayRef" configuration in linkgit:git-log[1]. 44 45See the "notes.rewrite.<command>" configuration for a way to carry 46notes across commands that rewrite commits. 47 48 49SUBCOMMANDS 50----------- 51 52list:: 53 List the notes object for a given object. If no object is 54 given, show a list of all note objects and the objects they 55 annotate (in the format "<note object> <annotated object>"). 56 This is the default subcommand if no subcommand is given. 57 58add:: 59 Add notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). Abort if the 60 object already has notes (use `-f` to overwrite existing notes). 61 However, if you're using `add` interactively (using an editor 62 to supply the notes contents), then - instead of aborting - 63 the existing notes will be opened in the editor (like the `edit` 64 subcommand). 65 66copy:: 67 Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object. 68 Abort if the second object already has notes, or if the first 69 object has none (use -f to overwrite existing notes to the 70 second object). This subcommand is equivalent to: 71 `git notes add [-f] -C $(git notes list <from-object>) <to-object>` 72+ 73In `\--stdin` mode, take lines in the format 74+ 75---------- 76<from-object> SP <to-object> [ SP <rest> ] LF 77---------- 78+ 79on standard input, and copy the notes from each <from-object> to its 80corresponding <to-object>. (The optional `<rest>` is ignored so that 81the command can read the input given to the `post-rewrite` hook.) 82 83append:: 84 Append to the notes of an existing object (defaults to HEAD). 85 Creates a new notes object if needed. 86 87edit:: 88 Edit the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). 89 90show:: 91 Show the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). 92 93merge:: 94 Merge the given notes ref into the current notes ref. 95 This will try to merge the changes made by the given 96 notes ref (called "remote") since the merge-base (if 97 any) into the current notes ref (called "local"). 98+ 99If conflicts arise and a strategy for automatically resolving 100conflicting notes (see the -s/--strategy option) is not given, 101the "manual" resolver is used. This resolver checks out the 102conflicting notes in a special worktree (`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), 103and instructs the user to manually resolve the conflicts there. 104When done, the user can either finalize the merge with 105'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with 106'git notes merge --abort'. 107 108remove:: 109 Remove the notes for given objects (defaults to HEAD). When 110 giving zero or one object from the command line, this is 111 equivalent to specifying an empty note message to 112 the `edit` subcommand. 113 114prune:: 115 Remove all notes for non-existing/unreachable objects. 116 117get-ref:: 118 Print the current notes ref. This provides an easy way to 119 retrieve the current notes ref (e.g. from scripts). 120 121OPTIONS 122------- 123-f:: 124--force:: 125 When adding notes to an object that already has notes, 126 overwrite the existing notes (instead of aborting). 127 128-m <msg>:: 129--message=<msg>:: 130 Use the given note message (instead of prompting). 131 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values 132 are concatenated as separate paragraphs. 133 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a 134 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out. 135 136-F <file>:: 137--file=<file>:: 138 Take the note message from the given file. Use '-' to 139 read the note message from the standard input. 140 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a 141 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out. 142 143-C <object>:: 144--reuse-message=<object>:: 145 Take the note message from the given blob object (for 146 example, another note). 147 148-c <object>:: 149--reedit-message=<object>:: 150 Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that 151 the user can further edit the note message. 152 153--ref <ref>:: 154 Manipulate the notes tree in <ref>. This overrides 155 'GIT_NOTES_REF' and the "core.notesRef" configuration. The ref 156 is taken to be in `refs/notes/` if it is not qualified. 157 158--ignore-missing:: 159 Do not consider it an error to request removing notes from an 160 object that does not have notes attached to it. 161 162-n:: 163--dry-run:: 164 Do not remove anything; just report the object names whose notes 165 would be removed. 166 167-s <strategy>:: 168--strategy=<strategy>:: 169 When merging notes, resolve notes conflicts using the given 170 strategy. The following strategies are recognized: "manual" 171 (default), "ours", "theirs", "union" and "cat_sort_uniq". 172 See the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section below for more 173 information on each notes merge strategy. 174 175--commit:: 176 Finalize an in-progress 'git notes merge'. Use this option 177 when you have resolved the conflicts that 'git notes merge' 178 stored in .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. This amends the partial 179 merge commit created by 'git notes merge' (stored in 180 .git/NOTES_MERGE_PARTIAL) by adding the notes in 181 .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. The notes ref stored in the 182 .git/NOTES_MERGE_REF symref is updated to the resulting commit. 183 184--abort:: 185 Abort/reset a in-progress 'git notes merge', i.e. a notes merge 186 with conflicts. This simply removes all files related to the 187 notes merge. 188 189-q:: 190--quiet:: 191 When merging notes, operate quietly. 192 193-v:: 194--verbose:: 195 When merging notes, be more verbose. 196 When pruning notes, report all object names whose notes are 197 removed. 198 199 200DISCUSSION 201---------- 202 203Commit notes are blobs containing extra information about an object 204(usually information to supplement a commit's message). These blobs 205are taken from notes refs. A notes ref is usually a branch which 206contains "files" whose paths are the object names for the objects 207they describe, with some directory separators included for performance 208reasons footnote:[Permitted pathnames have the form 209'ab'`/`'cd'`/`'ef'`/`'...'`/`'abcdef...': a sequence of directory 210names of two hexadecimal digits each followed by a filename with the 211rest of the object ID.]. 212 213Every notes change creates a new commit at the specified notes ref. 214You can therefore inspect the history of the notes by invoking, e.g., 215`git log -p notes/commits`. Currently the commit message only records 216which operation triggered the update, and the commit authorship is 217determined according to the usual rules (see linkgit:git-commit[1]). 218These details may change in the future. 219 220It is also permitted for a notes ref to point directly to a tree 221object, in which case the history of the notes can be read with 222`git log -p -g <refname>`. 223 224 225NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES 226---------------------- 227 228The default notes merge strategy is "manual", which checks out 229conflicting notes in a special work tree for resolving notes conflicts 230(`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), and instructs the user to resolve the 231conflicts in that work tree. 232When done, the user can either finalize the merge with 233'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with 234'git notes merge --abort'. 235 236"ours" automatically resolves conflicting notes in favor of the local 237version (i.e. the current notes ref). 238 239"theirs" automatically resolves notes conflicts in favor of the remote 240version (i.e. the given notes ref being merged into the current notes 241ref). 242 243"union" automatically resolves notes conflicts by concatenating the 244local and remote versions. 245 246"cat_sort_uniq" is similar to "union", but in addition to concatenating 247the local and remote versions, this strategy also sorts the resulting 248lines, and removes duplicate lines from the result. This is equivalent 249to applying the "cat | sort | uniq" shell pipeline to the local and 250remote versions. This strategy is useful if the notes follow a line-based 251format where one wants to avoid duplicated lines in the merge result. 252Note that if either the local or remote version contain duplicate lines 253prior to the merge, these will also be removed by this notes merge 254strategy. 255 256 257EXAMPLES 258-------- 259 260You can use notes to add annotations with information that was not 261available at the time a commit was written. 262 263------------ 264$ git notes add -m 'Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>' 72a144e2 265$ git show -s 72a144e 266[...] 267 Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 268 269Notes: 270 Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org> 271------------ 272 273In principle, a note is a regular Git blob, and any kind of 274(non-)format is accepted. You can binary-safely create notes from 275arbitrary files using 'git hash-object': 276 277------------ 278$ cc *.c 279$ blob=$(git hash-object -w a.out) 280$ git notes --ref=built add -C "$blob" HEAD 281------------ 282 283Of course, it doesn't make much sense to display non-text-format notes 284with 'git log', so if you use such notes, you'll probably need to write 285some special-purpose tools to do something useful with them. 286 287 288CONFIGURATION 289------------- 290 291core.notesRef:: 292 Notes ref to read and manipulate instead of 293 `refs/notes/commits`. Must be an unabbreviated ref name. 294 This setting can be overridden through the environment and 295 command line. 296 297notes.displayRef:: 298 Which ref (or refs, if a glob or specified more than once), in 299 addition to the default set by `core.notesRef` or 300 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit 301 messages with the 'git log' family of commands. 302 This setting can be overridden on the command line or by the 303 'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF' environment variable. 304 See linkgit:git-log[1]. 305 306notes.rewrite.<command>:: 307 When rewriting commits with <command> (currently `amend` or 308 `rebase`), if this variable is `false`, git will not copy 309 notes from the original to the rewritten commit. Defaults to 310 `true`. See also "`notes.rewriteRef`" below. 311+ 312This setting can be overridden by the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' 313environment variable. 314 315notes.rewriteMode:: 316 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target 317 commit already has a note. Must be one of `overwrite`, 318 `concatenate`, and `ignore`. Defaults to `concatenate`. 319+ 320This setting can be overridden with the `GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE` 321environment variable. 322 323notes.rewriteRef:: 324 When copying notes during a rewrite, specifies the (fully 325 qualified) ref whose notes should be copied. May be a glob, 326 in which case notes in all matching refs will be copied. You 327 may also specify this configuration several times. 328+ 329Does not have a default value; you must configure this variable to 330enable note rewriting. 331+ 332Can be overridden with the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' environment variable. 333 334 335ENVIRONMENT 336----------- 337 338'GIT_NOTES_REF':: 339 Which ref to manipulate notes from, instead of `refs/notes/commits`. 340 This overrides the `core.notesRef` setting. 341 342'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF':: 343 Colon-delimited list of refs or globs indicating which refs, 344 in addition to the default from `core.notesRef` or 345 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit 346 messages. 347 This overrides the `notes.displayRef` setting. 348+ 349A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist, but a glob that 350does not match any refs is silently ignored. 351 352'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE':: 353 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target 354 commit already has a note. 355 Must be one of `overwrite`, `concatenate`, and `ignore`. 356 This overrides the `core.rewriteMode` setting. 357 358'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF':: 359 When rewriting commits, which notes to copy from the original 360 to the rewritten commit. Must be a colon-delimited list of 361 refs or globs. 362+ 363If not set in the environment, the list of notes to copy depends 364on the `notes.rewrite.<command>` and `notes.rewriteRef` settings. 365 366 367Author 368------ 369Written by Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> and 370Johan Herland <johan@herland.net> 371 372Documentation 373------------- 374Documentation by Johannes Schindelin and Johan Herland 375 376GIT 377--- 378Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite