Documentation / git-rev-list.txton commit Merge branch 'maint' (be97292)
   1git-rev-list(1)
   2===============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-rev-list - Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git-rev-list' [ \--max-count=number ]
  13             [ \--max-age=timestamp ]
  14             [ \--min-age=timestamp ]
  15             [ \--sparse ]
  16             [ \--no-merges ]
  17             [ \--remove-empty ]
  18             [ \--all ]
  19             [ [ \--merge-order [ \--show-breaks ] ] | [ \--topo-order ] ]
  20             [ \--parents ]
  21             [ [\--objects | \--objects-edge] [ \--unpacked ] ]
  22             [ \--pretty | \--header ]
  23             [ \--bisect ]
  24             <commit>... [ \-- <paths>... ]
  25
  26DESCRIPTION
  27-----------
  28Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order starting at the
  29given commit(s), taking ancestry relationship into account.  This is
  30useful to produce human-readable log output.
  31
  32Commits which are stated with a preceding '{caret}' cause listing to stop at
  33that point. Their parents are implied. "git-rev-list foo bar {caret}baz" thus
  34means "list all the commits which are included in 'foo' and 'bar', but
  35not in 'baz'".
  36
  37A special notation <commit1>..<commit2> can be used as a
  38short-hand for {caret}<commit1> <commit2>.
  39
  40
  41OPTIONS
  42-------
  43--pretty::
  44        Print the contents of the commit changesets in human-readable form.
  45
  46--header::
  47        Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each
  48        record is separated with a NUL character.
  49
  50--objects::
  51        Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed commits.
  52        'git-rev-list --objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me all object IDs
  53        which I need to download if I have the commit object 'bar', but
  54        not 'foo'".
  55
  56--objects-edge::
  57        Similar to `--objects`, but also print the IDs of
  58        excluded commits refixed with a `-` character.  This is
  59        used by `git-pack-objects` to build 'thin' pack, which
  60        records objects in deltified form based on objects
  61        contained in these excluded commits to reduce network
  62        traffic.
  63
  64--unpacked::
  65        Only useful with `--objects`; print the object IDs that
  66        are not in packs.
  67
  68--bisect::
  69        Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway
  70        between the included and excluded commits. Thus, if 'git-rev-list
  71        --bisect foo ^bar ^baz' outputs 'midpoint', the output
  72        of 'git-rev-list foo ^midpoint' and 'git-rev-list midpoint
  73        ^bar ^baz' would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change
  74        which introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search:
  75        repeatedly generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain
  76        is of length one.
  77
  78--max-count::
  79        Limit the number of commits output.
  80
  81--max-age=timestamp, --min-age=timestamp::
  82        Limit the commits output to specified time range.
  83
  84--sparse::
  85        When optional paths are given, the command outputs only
  86        the commits that changes at least one of them, and also
  87        ignores merges that do not touch the given paths.  This
  88        flag makes the command output all eligible commits
  89        (still subject to count and age limitation), but apply
  90        merge simplification nevertheless.
  91
  92--remove-empty::
  93        Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
  94
  95--all::
  96        Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/` are
  97        listed on the command line as <commit>.
  98
  99--topo-order::
 100        By default, the commits are shown in reverse
 101        chronological order.  This option makes them appear in
 102        topological order (i.e. descendant commits are shown
 103        before their parents).
 104
 105--merge-order::
 106        When specified the commit history is decomposed into a unique
 107        sequence of minimal, non-linear epochs and maximal, linear epochs.
 108        Non-linear epochs are then linearised by sorting them into merge
 109        order, which is described below.
 110+
 111Maximal, linear epochs correspond to periods of sequential development.
 112Minimal, non-linear epochs correspond to periods of divergent development
 113followed by a converging merge. The theory of epochs is described in more
 114detail at
 115link:http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/[http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/].
 116+
 117The merge order for a non-linear epoch is defined as a linearisation for which
 118the following invariants are true:
 119+
 120    1. if a commit P is reachable from commit N, commit P sorts after commit N
 121       in the linearised list.
 122    2. if Pi and Pj are any two parents of a merge M (with i < j), then any
 123       commit N, such that N is reachable from Pj but not reachable from Pi,
 124       sorts before all commits reachable from Pi.
 125+
 126Invariant 1 states that later commits appear before earlier commits they are
 127derived from.
 128+
 129Invariant 2 states that commits unique to "later" parents in a merge, appear
 130before all commits from "earlier" parents of a merge.
 131
 132--show-breaks::
 133        Each item of the list is output with a 2-character prefix consisting
 134        of one of: (|), (^), (=) followed by a space.
 135+
 136Commits marked with (=) represent the boundaries of minimal, non-linear epochs
 137and correspond either to the start of a period of divergent development or to
 138the end of such a period.
 139+
 140Commits marked with (|) are direct parents of commits immediately preceding
 141the marked commit in the list.
 142+
 143Commits marked with (^) are not parents of the immediately preceding commit.
 144These "breaks" represent necessary discontinuities implied by trying to
 145represent an arbitrary DAG in a linear form.
 146+
 147`--show-breaks` is only valid if `--merge-order` is also specified.
 148
 149
 150Author
 151------
 152Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 153
 154Original *--merge-order* logic by Jon Seymour <jon.seymour@gmail.com>
 155
 156Documentation
 157--------------
 158Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 159
 160GIT
 161---
 162Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 163