Documentation / git-for-each-ref.txton commit Documentation: don't assume git-sh-setup and git-parse-remote are in PATH (bd87087)
   1git-for-each-ref(1)
   2===================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-for-each-ref - Output information on each ref
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git-for-each-ref' [--count=<count>] [--shell|--perl|--python|--tcl]
  12                   [--sort=<key>]\* [--format=<format>] [<pattern>...]
  13
  14DESCRIPTION
  15-----------
  16
  17Iterate over all refs that match `<pattern>` and show them
  18according to the given `<format>`, after sorting them according
  19to the given set of `<key>`.  If `<max>` is given, stop after
  20showing that many refs.  The interpolated values in `<format>`
  21can optionally be quoted as string literals in the specified
  22host language allowing their direct evaluation in that language.
  23
  24OPTIONS
  25-------
  26<count>::
  27        By default the command shows all refs that match
  28        `<pattern>`.  This option makes it stop after showing
  29        that many refs.
  30
  31<key>::
  32        A field name to sort on.  Prefix `-` to sort in
  33        descending order of the value.  When unspecified,
  34        `refname` is used.  You may use the --sort=<key> option
  35        multiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primary
  36        key.
  37
  38<format>::
  39        A string that interpolates `%(fieldname)` from the
  40        object pointed at by a ref being shown.  If `fieldname`
  41        is prefixed with an asterisk (`*`) and the ref points
  42        at a tag object, the value for the field in the object
  43        tag refers is used.  When unspecified, defaults to
  44        `%(objectname) SPC %(objecttype) TAB %(refname)`.
  45        It also interpolates `%%` to `%`, and `%xx` where `xx`
  46        are hex digits interpolates to character with hex code
  47        `xx`; for example `%00` interpolates to `\0` (NUL),
  48        `%09` to `\t` (TAB) and `%0a` to `\n` (LF).
  49
  50<pattern>::
  51        If one or more patterns are given, only refs are shown that
  52        match againt at least one pattern, either using fnmatch(3) or
  53        literally, in the latter case matching completely or from the
  54        beginning up to a slash.
  55
  56--shell::
  57--perl::
  58--python::
  59--tcl::
  60        If given, strings that substitute `%(fieldname)`
  61        placeholders are quoted as string literals suitable for
  62        the specified host language.  This is meant to produce
  63        a scriptlet that can directly be `eval`ed.
  64
  65
  66FIELD NAMES
  67-----------
  68
  69Various values from structured fields in referenced objects can
  70be used to interpolate into the resulting output, or as sort
  71keys.
  72
  73For all objects, the following names can be used:
  74
  75refname::
  76        The name of the ref (the part after $GIT_DIR/).
  77
  78objecttype::
  79        The type of the object (`blob`, `tree`, `commit`, `tag`).
  80
  81objectsize::
  82        The size of the object (the same as `git-cat-file -s` reports).
  83
  84objectname::
  85        The object name (aka SHA-1).
  86
  87In addition to the above, for commit and tag objects, the header
  88field names (`tree`, `parent`, `object`, `type`, and `tag`) can
  89be used to specify the value in the header field.
  90
  91Fields that have name-email-date tuple as its value (`author`,
  92`committer`, and `tagger`) can be suffixed with `name`, `email`,
  93and `date` to extract the named component.
  94
  95The first line of the message in a commit and tag object is
  96`subject`, the remaining lines are `body`.  The whole message
  97is `contents`.
  98
  99For sorting purposes, fields with numeric values sort in numeric
 100order (`objectsize`, `authordate`, `committerdate`, `taggerdate`).
 101All other fields are used to sort in their byte-value order.
 102
 103In any case, a field name that refers to a field inapplicable to
 104the object referred by the ref does not cause an error.  It
 105returns an empty string instead.
 106
 107As a special case for the date-type fields, you may specify a format for
 108the date by adding one of `:default`, `:relative`, `:short`, `:local`,
 109`:iso8601` or `:rfc2822` to the end of the fieldname; e.g.
 110`%(taggerdate:relative)`.
 111
 112
 113EXAMPLES
 114--------
 115
 116An example directly producing formatted text.  Show the most recent
 1173 tagged commits::
 118
 119------------
 120#!/bin/sh
 121
 122git-for-each-ref --count=3 --sort='-*authordate' \
 123--format='From: %(*authorname) %(*authoremail)
 124Subject: %(*subject)
 125Date: %(*authordate)
 126Ref: %(*refname)
 127
 128%(*body)
 129' 'refs/tags'
 130------------
 131
 132
 133A simple example showing the use of shell eval on the output,
 134demonstrating the use of --shell.  List the prefixes of all heads::
 135------------
 136#!/bin/sh
 137
 138git-for-each-ref --shell --format="ref=%(refname)" refs/heads | \
 139while read entry
 140do
 141        eval "$entry"
 142        echo `dirname $ref`
 143done
 144------------
 145
 146
 147A bit more elaborate report on tags, demonstrating that the format
 148may be an entire script::
 149------------
 150#!/bin/sh
 151
 152fmt='
 153        r=%(refname)
 154        t=%(*objecttype)
 155        T=${r#refs/tags/}
 156
 157        o=%(*objectname)
 158        n=%(*authorname)
 159        e=%(*authoremail)
 160        s=%(*subject)
 161        d=%(*authordate)
 162        b=%(*body)
 163
 164        kind=Tag
 165        if test "z$t" = z
 166        then
 167                # could be a lightweight tag
 168                t=%(objecttype)
 169                kind="Lightweight tag"
 170                o=%(objectname)
 171                n=%(authorname)
 172                e=%(authoremail)
 173                s=%(subject)
 174                d=%(authordate)
 175                b=%(body)
 176        fi
 177        echo "$kind $T points at a $t object $o"
 178        if test "z$t" = zcommit
 179        then
 180                echo "The commit was authored by $n $e
 181at $d, and titled
 182
 183    $s
 184
 185Its message reads as:
 186"
 187                echo "$b" | sed -e "s/^/    /"
 188                echo
 189        fi
 190'
 191
 192eval=`git-for-each-ref --shell --format="$fmt" \
 193        --sort='*objecttype' \
 194        --sort=-taggerdate \
 195        refs/tags`
 196eval "$eval"
 197------------