Documentation / git-rev-list.txton commit Merge master to get fixes up to 1.2.1 (bf0a255)
   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 [ \--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--unpacked::
  57        Only useful with `--objects`; print the object IDs that
  58        are not in packs.
  59
  60--bisect::
  61        Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway
  62        between the included and excluded commits. Thus, if 'git-rev-list
  63        --bisect foo ^bar ^baz' outputs 'midpoint', the output
  64        of 'git-rev-list foo ^midpoint' and 'git-rev-list midpoint
  65        ^bar ^baz' would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change
  66        which introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search:
  67        repeatedly generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain
  68        is of length one.
  69
  70--max-count::
  71        Limit the number of commits output.
  72
  73--max-age=timestamp, --min-age=timestamp::
  74        Limit the commits output to specified time range.
  75
  76--sparse::
  77        When optional paths are given, the command outputs only
  78        the commits that changes at least one of them, and also
  79        ignores merges that do not touch the given paths.  This
  80        flag makes the command output all eligible commits
  81        (still subject to count and age limitation), but apply
  82        merge simplification nevertheless.
  83
  84--remove-empty::
  85        Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
  86
  87--all::
  88        Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/` are
  89        listed on the command line as <commit>.
  90
  91--topo-order::
  92        By default, the commits are shown in reverse
  93        chronological order.  This option makes them appear in
  94        topological order (i.e. descendant commits are shown
  95        before their parents).
  96
  97--merge-order::
  98        When specified the commit history is decomposed into a unique
  99        sequence of minimal, non-linear epochs and maximal, linear epochs.
 100        Non-linear epochs are then linearised by sorting them into merge
 101        order, which is described below.
 102+
 103Maximal, linear epochs correspond to periods of sequential development.
 104Minimal, non-linear epochs correspond to periods of divergent development
 105followed by a converging merge. The theory of epochs is described in more
 106detail at
 107link:http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/[http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/].
 108+
 109The merge order for a non-linear epoch is defined as a linearisation for which
 110the following invariants are true:
 111+
 112    1. if a commit P is reachable from commit N, commit P sorts after commit N
 113       in the linearised list.
 114    2. if Pi and Pj are any two parents of a merge M (with i < j), then any
 115       commit N, such that N is reachable from Pj but not reachable from Pi,
 116       sorts before all commits reachable from Pi.
 117+
 118Invariant 1 states that later commits appear before earlier commits they are
 119derived from.
 120+
 121Invariant 2 states that commits unique to "later" parents in a merge, appear
 122before all commits from "earlier" parents of a merge.
 123
 124--show-breaks::
 125        Each item of the list is output with a 2-character prefix consisting
 126        of one of: (|), (^), (=) followed by a space.
 127+
 128Commits marked with (=) represent the boundaries of minimal, non-linear epochs
 129and correspond either to the start of a period of divergent development or to
 130the end of such a period.
 131+
 132Commits marked with (|) are direct parents of commits immediately preceding
 133the marked commit in the list.
 134+
 135Commits marked with (^) are not parents of the immediately preceding commit.
 136These "breaks" represent necessary discontinuities implied by trying to
 137represent an arbitrary DAG in a linear form.
 138+
 139`--show-breaks` is only valid if `--merge-order` is also specified.
 140
 141
 142Author
 143------
 144Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 145
 146Original *--merge-order* logic by Jon Seymour <jon.seymour@gmail.com>
 147
 148Documentation
 149--------------
 150Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 151
 152GIT
 153---
 154Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 155