Documentation / git-commit.txton commit GIT-VERSION-GEN: do not fail if a 'HEAD' file exists in the working copy (935e247)
   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]
  12           [(-c | -C) <commit>] [-F <file> | -m <msg>]
  13           [--allow-empty] [--no-verify] [-e] [--author=<author>]
  14           [--cleanup=<mode>] [--] [[-i | -o ]<file>...]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18Use 'git commit' to store the current contents of the index in a new
  19commit along with a log message describing the changes you have made.
  20
  21The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
  22
  231. by using linkgit:git-add[1] 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 linkgit:git-rm[1] 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;
  33
  344. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically
  35   "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
  36   listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
  37   that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
  38   actual commit;
  39
  405. by using the --interactive switch with the 'commit' command to decide one
  41   by one which files should be part of the commit, before finalizing the
  42   operation.  Currently, this is done by invoking `git-add --interactive`.
  43
  44The linkgit:git-status[1] command can be used to obtain a
  45summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
  46commit by giving the same set of parameters you would give to
  47this command.
  48
  49If you make a commit and then found a mistake immediately after
  50that, you can recover from it with linkgit:git-reset[1].
  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-F <file>::
  73--file=<file>::
  74        Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
  75        read the message from the standard input.
  76
  77--author=<author>::
  78        Override the author name used in the commit.  Use
  79        `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format.
  80
  81-m <msg>::
  82--message=<msg>::
  83        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
  84
  85-t <file>::
  86--template=<file>::
  87        Use the contents of the given file as the initial version
  88        of the commit message. The editor is invoked and you can
  89        make subsequent changes. If a message is specified using
  90        the `-m` or `-F` options, this option has no effect. This
  91        overrides the `commit.template` configuration variable.
  92
  93-s::
  94--signoff::
  95        Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message.
  96
  97-n::
  98--no-verify::
  99        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 100        See also linkgit:githooks[5][hooks].
 101
 102--allow-empty::
 103        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 104        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 105        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 106        is primarily for use by foreign scm interface scripts.
 107
 108--cleanup=<mode>::
 109        This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
 110        The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
 111        and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
 112        trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
 113        only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
 114        removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
 115        'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
 116        and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 117
 118-e::
 119--edit::
 120        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 121        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 122        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 123        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 124
 125--amend::
 126        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
 127        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
 128        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
 129        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
 130        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
 131        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
 132        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
 133        discarded.
 134+
 135--
 136It is a rough equivalent for:
 137------
 138        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 139        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 140        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 141
 142------
 143but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 144--
 145
 146-i::
 147--include::
 148        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 149        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 150        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 151        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 152
 153-o::
 154--only::
 155        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 156        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 157        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 158        'git commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 159        in which case this option can be omitted.
 160        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 161        no paths need be specified, which can be used to amend
 162        the last commit without committing changes that have
 163        already been staged.
 164
 165-u[<mode>]::
 166--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 167        Show untracked files (Default: 'all').
 168+
 169The mode parameter is optional, and is used to specify
 170the handling of untracked files. The possible options are:
 171+
 172--
 173        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 174        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 175        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 176--
 177+
 178See linkgit:git-config[1] for configuration variable
 179used to change the default for when the option is not
 180specified.
 181
 182-v::
 183--verbose::
 184        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 185        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 186        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 187        lines prefixed with '#'.
 188
 189-q::
 190--quiet::
 191        Suppress commit summary message.
 192
 193\--::
 194        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 195
 196<file>...::
 197        When files are given on the command line, the command
 198        commits the contents of the named files, without
 199        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 200        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 201        of what have been staged before.
 202
 203
 204EXAMPLES
 205--------
 206When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 207your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 208called the "index" with linkgit:git-add[1].  A file can be
 209reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 210to that of the last commit with `git-reset HEAD -- <file>`,
 211which effectively reverts `git-add` and prevents the changes to
 212this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 213the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 214`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 215has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 216command.  An example:
 217
 218------------
 219$ edit hello.c
 220$ git rm goodbye.c
 221$ git add hello.c
 222$ git commit
 223------------
 224
 225Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 226tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 227contents are tracked in
 228your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 229for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 230example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 231
 232------------
 233$ edit hello.c
 234$ rm goodbye.c
 235$ git commit -a
 236------------
 237
 238The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 239notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 240and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 241
 242After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 243changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 244When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 245only records the changes made to the named paths:
 246
 247------------
 248$ edit hello.c hello.h
 249$ git add hello.c hello.h
 250$ edit Makefile
 251$ git commit Makefile
 252------------
 253
 254This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 255The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 256in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 257they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 258sequence, if you do:
 259
 260------------
 261$ git commit
 262------------
 263
 264this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 265`hello.h` as expected.
 266
 267After a merge (initiated by either linkgit:git-merge[1] or
 268linkgit:git-pull[1]) stops because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 269paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 270conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 271check which paths are conflicting with linkgit:git-status[1]
 272and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 273stage the result as usual with linkgit:git-add[1]:
 274
 275------------
 276$ git status | grep unmerged
 277unmerged: hello.c
 278$ edit hello.c
 279$ git add hello.c
 280------------
 281
 282After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 283would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 284run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 285
 286------------
 287$ git commit
 288------------
 289
 290As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 291option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 292resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 293alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 294should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 295refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 296
 297
 298DISCUSSION
 299----------
 300
 301Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 302with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 303change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 304Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
 305on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 306
 307include::i18n.txt[]
 308
 309ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 310---------------------------------------
 311The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 312GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 313VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 314order).
 315
 316HOOKS
 317-----
 318This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 319and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5][hooks] for more
 320information.
 321
 322
 323SEE ALSO
 324--------
 325linkgit:git-add[1],
 326linkgit:git-rm[1],
 327linkgit:git-mv[1],
 328linkgit:git-merge[1],
 329linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 330
 331Author
 332------
 333Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
 334Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
 335
 336
 337GIT
 338---
 339Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite