Documentation / git-rev-list.txton commit GIT 1.1.4 (c4e804b)
   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             [ \--all ]
  18             [ [ \--merge-order [ \--show-breaks ] ] | [ \--topo-order ] ]
  19             [ \--parents ]
  20             [ \--objects [ \--unpacked ] ]
  21             [ \--pretty | \--header ]
  22             [ \--bisect ]
  23             <commit>... [ \-- <paths>... ]
  24
  25DESCRIPTION
  26-----------
  27Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order starting at the
  28given commit(s), taking ancestry relationship into account.  This is
  29useful to produce human-readable log output.
  30
  31Commits which are stated with a preceding '{caret}' cause listing to stop at
  32that point. Their parents are implied. "git-rev-list foo bar {caret}baz" thus
  33means "list all the commits which are included in 'foo' and 'bar', but
  34not in 'baz'".
  35
  36A special notation <commit1>..<commit2> can be used as a
  37short-hand for {caret}<commit1> <commit2>.
  38
  39
  40OPTIONS
  41-------
  42--pretty::
  43        Print the contents of the commit changesets in human-readable form.
  44
  45--header::
  46        Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each
  47        record is separated with a NUL character.
  48
  49--objects::
  50        Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed commits.
  51        'git-rev-list --objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me all object IDs
  52        which I need to download if I have the commit object 'bar', but
  53        not 'foo'".
  54
  55--unpacked::
  56        Only useful with `--objects`; print the object IDs that
  57        are not in packs.
  58
  59--bisect::
  60        Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway
  61        between the included and excluded commits. Thus, if 'git-rev-list
  62        --bisect foo ^bar ^baz' outputs 'midpoint', the output
  63        of 'git-rev-list foo ^midpoint' and 'git-rev-list midpoint
  64        ^bar ^baz' would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change
  65        which introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search:
  66        repeatedly generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain
  67        is of length one.
  68
  69--max-count::
  70        Limit the number of commits output.
  71
  72--max-age=timestamp, --min-age=timestamp::
  73        Limit the commits output to specified time range.
  74
  75--sparse::
  76        When optional paths are given, the command outputs only
  77        the commits that changes at least one of them, and also
  78        ignores merges that do not touch the given paths.  This
  79        flag makes the command output all eligible commits
  80        (still subject to count and age limitation), but apply
  81        merge simplification nevertheless.
  82
  83--all::
  84        Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/` are
  85        listed on the command line as <commit>.
  86
  87--topo-order::
  88        By default, the commits are shown in reverse
  89        chronological order.  This option makes them appear in
  90        topological order (i.e. descendant commits are shown
  91        before their parents).
  92
  93--merge-order::
  94        When specified the commit history is decomposed into a unique
  95        sequence of minimal, non-linear epochs and maximal, linear epochs.
  96        Non-linear epochs are then linearised by sorting them into merge
  97        order, which is described below.
  98+
  99Maximal, linear epochs correspond to periods of sequential development.
 100Minimal, non-linear epochs correspond to periods of divergent development
 101followed by a converging merge. The theory of epochs is described in more
 102detail at
 103link:http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/[http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/].
 104+
 105The merge order for a non-linear epoch is defined as a linearisation for which
 106the following invariants are true:
 107+
 108    1. if a commit P is reachable from commit N, commit P sorts after commit N
 109       in the linearised list.
 110    2. if Pi and Pj are any two parents of a merge M (with i < j), then any
 111       commit N, such that N is reachable from Pj but not reachable from Pi,
 112       sorts before all commits reachable from Pi.
 113+
 114Invariant 1 states that later commits appear before earlier commits they are
 115derived from.
 116+
 117Invariant 2 states that commits unique to "later" parents in a merge, appear
 118before all commits from "earlier" parents of a merge.
 119
 120--show-breaks::
 121        Each item of the list is output with a 2-character prefix consisting
 122        of one of: (|), (^), (=) followed by a space.
 123+
 124Commits marked with (=) represent the boundaries of minimal, non-linear epochs
 125and correspond either to the start of a period of divergent development or to
 126the end of such a period.
 127+
 128Commits marked with (|) are direct parents of commits immediately preceding
 129the marked commit in the list.
 130+
 131Commits marked with (^) are not parents of the immediately preceding commit.
 132These "breaks" represent necessary discontinuities implied by trying to
 133represent an arbitrary DAG in a linear form.
 134+
 135`--show-breaks` is only valid if `--merge-order` is also specified.
 136
 137
 138Author
 139------
 140Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 141
 142Original *--merge-order* logic by Jon Seymour <jon.seymour@gmail.com>
 143
 144Documentation
 145--------------
 146Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 147
 148GIT
 149---
 150Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 151