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] [--stdin] [<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 42Notes can also be added to patches prepared with `git format-patch` by 43using the `--notes` option. Such notes are added as a patch commentary 44after a three dash separator line. 45 46To change which notes are shown by 'git log', see the 47"notes.displayRef" configuration in linkgit:git-log[1]. 48 49See the "notes.rewrite.<command>" configuration for a way to carry 50notes across commands that rewrite commits. 51 52 53SUBCOMMANDS 54----------- 55 56list:: 57 List the notes object for a given object. If no object is 58 given, show a list of all note objects and the objects they 59 annotate (in the format "<note object> <annotated object>"). 60 This is the default subcommand if no subcommand is given. 61 62add:: 63 Add notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). Abort if the 64 object already has notes (use `-f` to overwrite existing notes). 65 However, if you're using `add` interactively (using an editor 66 to supply the notes contents), then - instead of aborting - 67 the existing notes will be opened in the editor (like the `edit` 68 subcommand). 69 70copy:: 71 Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object. 72 Abort if the second object already has notes, or if the first 73 object has none (use -f to overwrite existing notes to the 74 second object). This subcommand is equivalent to: 75 `git notes add [-f] -C $(git notes list <from-object>) <to-object>` 76+ 77In `--stdin` mode, take lines in the format 78+ 79---------- 80<from-object> SP <to-object> [ SP <rest> ] LF 81---------- 82+ 83on standard input, and copy the notes from each <from-object> to its 84corresponding <to-object>. (The optional `<rest>` is ignored so that 85the command can read the input given to the `post-rewrite` hook.) 86 87append:: 88 Append to the notes of an existing object (defaults to HEAD). 89 Creates a new notes object if needed. 90 91edit:: 92 Edit the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). 93 94show:: 95 Show the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). 96 97merge:: 98 Merge the given notes ref into the current notes ref. 99 This will try to merge the changes made by the given 100 notes ref (called "remote") since the merge-base (if 101 any) into the current notes ref (called "local"). 102+ 103If conflicts arise and a strategy for automatically resolving 104conflicting notes (see the -s/--strategy option) is not given, 105the "manual" resolver is used. This resolver checks out the 106conflicting notes in a special worktree (`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), 107and instructs the user to manually resolve the conflicts there. 108When done, the user can either finalize the merge with 109'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with 110'git notes merge --abort'. 111 112remove:: 113 Remove the notes for given objects (defaults to HEAD). When 114 giving zero or one object from the command line, this is 115 equivalent to specifying an empty note message to 116 the `edit` subcommand. 117 118prune:: 119 Remove all notes for non-existing/unreachable objects. 120 121get-ref:: 122 Print the current notes ref. This provides an easy way to 123 retrieve the current notes ref (e.g. from scripts). 124 125OPTIONS 126------- 127-f:: 128--force:: 129 When adding notes to an object that already has notes, 130 overwrite the existing notes (instead of aborting). 131 132-m <msg>:: 133--message=<msg>:: 134 Use the given note message (instead of prompting). 135 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values 136 are concatenated as separate paragraphs. 137 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a 138 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out. 139 140-F <file>:: 141--file=<file>:: 142 Take the note message from the given file. Use '-' to 143 read the note message from the standard input. 144 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a 145 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out. 146 147-C <object>:: 148--reuse-message=<object>:: 149 Take the given blob object (for example, another note) as the 150 note message. (Use `git notes copy <object>` instead to 151 copy notes between objects.) 152 153-c <object>:: 154--reedit-message=<object>:: 155 Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that 156 the user can further edit the note message. 157 158--ref <ref>:: 159 Manipulate the notes tree in <ref>. This overrides 160 'GIT_NOTES_REF' and the "core.notesRef" configuration. The ref 161 is taken to be in `refs/notes/` if it is not qualified. 162 163--ignore-missing:: 164 Do not consider it an error to request removing notes from an 165 object that does not have notes attached to it. 166 167--stdin:: 168 Also read the object names to remove notes from from the standard 169 input (there is no reason you cannot combine this with object 170 names from the command line). 171 172-n:: 173--dry-run:: 174 Do not remove anything; just report the object names whose notes 175 would be removed. 176 177-s <strategy>:: 178--strategy=<strategy>:: 179 When merging notes, resolve notes conflicts using the given 180 strategy. The following strategies are recognized: "manual" 181 (default), "ours", "theirs", "union" and "cat_sort_uniq". 182 See the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section below for more 183 information on each notes merge strategy. 184 185--commit:: 186 Finalize an in-progress 'git notes merge'. Use this option 187 when you have resolved the conflicts that 'git notes merge' 188 stored in .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. This amends the partial 189 merge commit created by 'git notes merge' (stored in 190 .git/NOTES_MERGE_PARTIAL) by adding the notes in 191 .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. The notes ref stored in the 192 .git/NOTES_MERGE_REF symref is updated to the resulting commit. 193 194--abort:: 195 Abort/reset a in-progress 'git notes merge', i.e. a notes merge 196 with conflicts. This simply removes all files related to the 197 notes merge. 198 199-q:: 200--quiet:: 201 When merging notes, operate quietly. 202 203-v:: 204--verbose:: 205 When merging notes, be more verbose. 206 When pruning notes, report all object names whose notes are 207 removed. 208 209 210DISCUSSION 211---------- 212 213Commit notes are blobs containing extra information about an object 214(usually information to supplement a commit's message). These blobs 215are taken from notes refs. A notes ref is usually a branch which 216contains "files" whose paths are the object names for the objects 217they describe, with some directory separators included for performance 218reasons footnote:[Permitted pathnames have the form 219'ab'`/`'cd'`/`'ef'`/`'...'`/`'abcdef...': a sequence of directory 220names of two hexadecimal digits each followed by a filename with the 221rest of the object ID.]. 222 223Every notes change creates a new commit at the specified notes ref. 224You can therefore inspect the history of the notes by invoking, e.g., 225`git log -p notes/commits`. Currently the commit message only records 226which operation triggered the update, and the commit authorship is 227determined according to the usual rules (see linkgit:git-commit[1]). 228These details may change in the future. 229 230It is also permitted for a notes ref to point directly to a tree 231object, in which case the history of the notes can be read with 232`git log -p -g <refname>`. 233 234 235NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES 236---------------------- 237 238The default notes merge strategy is "manual", which checks out 239conflicting notes in a special work tree for resolving notes conflicts 240(`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), and instructs the user to resolve the 241conflicts in that work tree. 242When done, the user can either finalize the merge with 243'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with 244'git notes merge --abort'. 245 246"ours" automatically resolves conflicting notes in favor of the local 247version (i.e. the current notes ref). 248 249"theirs" automatically resolves notes conflicts in favor of the remote 250version (i.e. the given notes ref being merged into the current notes 251ref). 252 253"union" automatically resolves notes conflicts by concatenating the 254local and remote versions. 255 256"cat_sort_uniq" is similar to "union", but in addition to concatenating 257the local and remote versions, this strategy also sorts the resulting 258lines, and removes duplicate lines from the result. This is equivalent 259to applying the "cat | sort | uniq" shell pipeline to the local and 260remote versions. This strategy is useful if the notes follow a line-based 261format where one wants to avoid duplicated lines in the merge result. 262Note that if either the local or remote version contain duplicate lines 263prior to the merge, these will also be removed by this notes merge 264strategy. 265 266 267EXAMPLES 268-------- 269 270You can use notes to add annotations with information that was not 271available at the time a commit was written. 272 273------------ 274$ git notes add -m 'Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>' 72a144e2 275$ git show -s 72a144e 276[...] 277 Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 278 279Notes: 280 Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org> 281------------ 282 283In principle, a note is a regular Git blob, and any kind of 284(non-)format is accepted. You can binary-safely create notes from 285arbitrary files using 'git hash-object': 286 287------------ 288$ cc *.c 289$ blob=$(git hash-object -w a.out) 290$ git notes --ref=built add -C "$blob" HEAD 291------------ 292 293(You cannot simply use `git notes --ref=built add -F a.out HEAD` 294because that is not binary-safe.) 295Of course, it doesn't make much sense to display non-text-format notes 296with 'git log', so if you use such notes, you'll probably need to write 297some special-purpose tools to do something useful with them. 298 299 300CONFIGURATION 301------------- 302 303core.notesRef:: 304 Notes ref to read and manipulate instead of 305 `refs/notes/commits`. Must be an unabbreviated ref name. 306 This setting can be overridden through the environment and 307 command line. 308 309notes.displayRef:: 310 Which ref (or refs, if a glob or specified more than once), in 311 addition to the default set by `core.notesRef` or 312 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit 313 messages with the 'git log' family of commands. 314 This setting can be overridden on the command line or by the 315 'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF' environment variable. 316 See linkgit:git-log[1]. 317 318notes.rewrite.<command>:: 319 When rewriting commits with <command> (currently `amend` or 320 `rebase`), if this variable is `false`, git will not copy 321 notes from the original to the rewritten commit. Defaults to 322 `true`. See also "`notes.rewriteRef`" below. 323+ 324This setting can be overridden by the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' 325environment variable. 326 327notes.rewriteMode:: 328 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target 329 commit already has a note. Must be one of `overwrite`, 330 `concatenate`, and `ignore`. Defaults to `concatenate`. 331+ 332This setting can be overridden with the `GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE` 333environment variable. 334 335notes.rewriteRef:: 336 When copying notes during a rewrite, specifies the (fully 337 qualified) ref whose notes should be copied. May be a glob, 338 in which case notes in all matching refs will be copied. You 339 may also specify this configuration several times. 340+ 341Does not have a default value; you must configure this variable to 342enable note rewriting. 343+ 344Can be overridden with the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' environment variable. 345 346 347ENVIRONMENT 348----------- 349 350'GIT_NOTES_REF':: 351 Which ref to manipulate notes from, instead of `refs/notes/commits`. 352 This overrides the `core.notesRef` setting. 353 354'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF':: 355 Colon-delimited list of refs or globs indicating which refs, 356 in addition to the default from `core.notesRef` or 357 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit 358 messages. 359 This overrides the `notes.displayRef` setting. 360+ 361A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist, but a glob that 362does not match any refs is silently ignored. 363 364'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE':: 365 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target 366 commit already has a note. 367 Must be one of `overwrite`, `concatenate`, and `ignore`. 368 This overrides the `core.rewriteMode` setting. 369 370'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF':: 371 When rewriting commits, which notes to copy from the original 372 to the rewritten commit. Must be a colon-delimited list of 373 refs or globs. 374+ 375If not set in the environment, the list of notes to copy depends 376on the `notes.rewrite.<command>` and `notes.rewriteRef` settings. 377 378 379Author 380------ 381Written by Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> and 382Johan Herland <johan@herland.net> 383 384Documentation 385------------- 386Documentation by Johannes Schindelin and Johan Herland 387 388GIT 389--- 390Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite