Documentation / git-commit.txton commit Merge branch 'jc/better-conflict-resolution' (9ba929e)
   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-----------
  18Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along
  19with a log message from the user describing the changes.
  20
  21The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
  22
  231. by using 'git-add' 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 'git-rm' 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 'git-status' 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 find a mistake immediately after
  50that, you can recover from it with 'git-reset'.
  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.  You can use the
  79        standard `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format.  Otherwise,
  80        an existing commit that matches the given string and its author
  81        name is used.
  82
  83-m <msg>::
  84--message=<msg>::
  85        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
  86
  87-t <file>::
  88--template=<file>::
  89        Use the contents of the given file as the initial version
  90        of the commit message. The editor is invoked and you can
  91        make subsequent changes. If a message is specified using
  92        the `-m` or `-F` options, this option has no effect. This
  93        overrides the `commit.template` configuration variable.
  94
  95-s::
  96--signoff::
  97        Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message.
  98
  99-n::
 100--no-verify::
 101        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 102        See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 103
 104--allow-empty::
 105        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 106        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 107        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 108        is primarily for use by foreign scm interface scripts.
 109
 110--cleanup=<mode>::
 111        This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
 112        The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
 113        and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
 114        trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
 115        only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
 116        removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
 117        'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
 118        and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 119
 120-e::
 121--edit::
 122        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 123        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 124        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 125        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 126
 127--amend::
 128        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
 129        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
 130        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
 131        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
 132        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
 133        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
 134        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
 135        discarded.
 136+
 137--
 138It is a rough equivalent for:
 139------
 140        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 141        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 142        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 143
 144------
 145but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 146--
 147
 148-i::
 149--include::
 150        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 151        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 152        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 153        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 154
 155-o::
 156--only::
 157        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 158        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 159        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 160        'git-commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 161        in which case this option can be omitted.
 162        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 163        no paths need be specified, which can be used to amend
 164        the last commit without committing changes that have
 165        already been staged.
 166
 167-u[<mode>]::
 168--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 169        Show untracked files (Default: 'all').
 170+
 171The mode parameter is optional, and is used to specify
 172the handling of untracked files. The possible options are:
 173+
 174--
 175        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 176        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 177        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 178--
 179+
 180See linkgit:git-config[1] for configuration variable
 181used to change the default for when the option is not
 182specified.
 183
 184-v::
 185--verbose::
 186        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 187        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 188        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 189        lines prefixed with '#'.
 190
 191-q::
 192--quiet::
 193        Suppress commit summary message.
 194
 195\--::
 196        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 197
 198<file>...::
 199        When files are given on the command line, the command
 200        commits the contents of the named files, without
 201        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 202        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 203        of what have been staged before.
 204
 205
 206EXAMPLES
 207--------
 208When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 209your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 210called the "index" with 'git-add'.  A file can be
 211reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 212to that of the last commit with `git reset HEAD -- <file>`,
 213which effectively reverts 'git-add' and prevents the changes to
 214this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 215the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 216`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 217has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 218command.  An example:
 219
 220------------
 221$ edit hello.c
 222$ git rm goodbye.c
 223$ git add hello.c
 224$ git commit
 225------------
 226
 227Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 228tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 229contents are tracked in
 230your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 231for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 232example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 233
 234------------
 235$ edit hello.c
 236$ rm goodbye.c
 237$ git commit -a
 238------------
 239
 240The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 241notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 242and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 243
 244After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 245changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 246When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 247only records the changes made to the named paths:
 248
 249------------
 250$ edit hello.c hello.h
 251$ git add hello.c hello.h
 252$ edit Makefile
 253$ git commit Makefile
 254------------
 255
 256This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 257The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 258in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 259they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 260sequence, if you do:
 261
 262------------
 263$ git commit
 264------------
 265
 266this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 267`hello.h` as expected.
 268
 269After a merge (initiated by 'git-merge' or 'git-pull') stops
 270because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 271paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 272conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 273check which paths are conflicting with 'git-status'
 274and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 275stage the result as usual with 'git-add':
 276
 277------------
 278$ git status | grep unmerged
 279unmerged: hello.c
 280$ edit hello.c
 281$ git add hello.c
 282------------
 283
 284After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 285would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 286run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 287
 288------------
 289$ git commit
 290------------
 291
 292As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 293option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 294resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 295alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 296should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 297refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 298
 299
 300DISCUSSION
 301----------
 302
 303Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 304with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 305change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 306Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
 307on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 308
 309include::i18n.txt[]
 310
 311ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 312---------------------------------------
 313The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 314GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 315VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 316order).
 317
 318HOOKS
 319-----
 320This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 321and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
 322information.
 323
 324
 325SEE ALSO
 326--------
 327linkgit:git-add[1],
 328linkgit:git-rm[1],
 329linkgit:git-mv[1],
 330linkgit:git-merge[1],
 331linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 332
 333Author
 334------
 335Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
 336Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
 337
 338
 339GIT
 340---
 341Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite