1git-cat-file(1) 2=============== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-cat-file - Provide content or type and size information for repository objects 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git cat-file' (-t | -s | -e | -p | <type> | --textconv ) <object> 13'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) < <list-of-objects> 14 15DESCRIPTION 16----------- 17In its first form, the command provides the content or the type of an object in 18the repository. The type is required unless '-t' or '-p' is used to find the 19object type, or '-s' is used to find the object size, or '--textconv' is used 20(which implies type "blob"). 21 22In the second form, a list of objects (separated by linefeeds) is provided on 23stdin, and the SHA-1, type, and size of each object is printed on stdout. 24 25OPTIONS 26------- 27<object>:: 28 The name of the object to show. 29 For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see 30 the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7]. 31 32-t:: 33 Instead of the content, show the object type identified by 34 <object>. 35 36-s:: 37 Instead of the content, show the object size identified by 38 <object>. 39 40-e:: 41 Suppress all output; instead exit with zero status if <object> 42 exists and is a valid object. 43 44-p:: 45 Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type. 46 47<type>:: 48 Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking 49 for a type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given 50 <object> is also permitted. An example is to ask for a 51 "tree" with <object> being a commit object that contains it, 52 or to ask for a "blob" with <object> being a tag object that 53 points at it. 54 55--textconv:: 56 Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case, 57 <object> has be of the form <treeish>:<path>, or :<path> in order 58 to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at <path>. 59 60--batch:: 61--batch=<format>:: 62 Print object information and contents for each object provided 63 on stdin. May not be combined with any other options or arguments. 64 See the section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. 65 66--batch-check:: 67--batch-check=<format>:: 68 Print object information for each object provided on stdin. May 69 not be combined with any other options or arguments. See the 70 section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. 71 72OUTPUT 73------ 74If '-t' is specified, one of the <type>. 75 76If '-s' is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes. 77 78If '-e' is specified, no output. 79 80If '-p' is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed. 81 82If <type> is specified, the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object> 83will be returned. 84 85BATCH OUTPUT 86------------ 87 88If `--batch` or `--batch-check` is given, `cat-file` will read objects 89from stdin, one per line, and print information about them. 90 91Each line is considered as a whole object name, and is parsed as if 92given to linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. 93 94You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom 95`<format>`. The `<format>` is copied literally to stdout for each 96object, with placeholders of the form `%(atom)` expanded, followed by a 97newline. The available atoms are: 98 99`objectname`:: 100 The 40-hex object name of the object. 101 102`objecttype`:: 103 The type of of the object (the same as `cat-file -t` reports). 104 105`objectsize`:: 106 The size, in bytes, of the object (the same as `cat-file -s` 107 reports). 108 109`objectsize:disk`:: 110 The size, in bytes, that the object takes up on disk. See the 111 note about on-disk sizes in the `CAVEATS` section below. 112 113If no format is specified, the default format is `%(objectname) 114%(objecttype) %(objectsize)`. 115 116If `--batch` is specified, the object information is followed by the 117object contents (consisting of `%(objectsize)` bytes), followed by a 118newline. 119 120For example, `--batch` without a custom format would produce: 121 122------------ 123<sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF 124<contents> LF 125------------ 126 127Whereas `--batch-check='%(objectname) %(objecttype)'` would produce: 128 129------------ 130<sha1> SP <type> LF 131------------ 132 133If a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object in 134the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format and print: 135 136------------ 137<object> SP missing LF 138------------ 139 140 141CAVEATS 142------- 143 144Note that the sizes of objects on disk are reported accurately, but care 145should be taken in drawing conclusions about which refs or objects are 146responsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object may be 147much larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but the 148choice of which object is the base and which is the delta is arbitrary 149and is subject to change during a repack. Note also that multiple copies 150of an object may be present in the object database; in this case, it is 151undefined which copy's size will be reported. 152 153 154GIT 155--- 156Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite