Documentation / git-commit.txton commit t3211: demonstrate loss of peeled refs if a packed ref is deleted (c995de6)
   1git-commit(1)
   2=============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-commit - Record changes to the repository
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git commit' [-a | --interactive | --patch] [-s] [-v] [-u<mode>] [--amend]
  12           [--dry-run] [(-c | -C | --fixup | --squash) <commit>]
  13           [-F <file> | -m <msg>] [--reset-author] [--allow-empty]
  14           [--allow-empty-message] [--no-verify] [-e] [--author=<author>]
  15           [--date=<date>] [--cleanup=<mode>] [--status | --no-status]
  16           [-i | -o] [-S[<keyid>]] [--] [<file>...]
  17
  18DESCRIPTION
  19-----------
  20Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along
  21with a log message from the user describing the changes.
  22
  23The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
  24
  251. by using 'git add' to incrementally "add" changes to the
  26   index before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
  27   files must be "added");
  28
  292. by using 'git rm' to remove files from the working tree
  30   and the index, again before using the 'commit' command;
  31
  323. by listing files as arguments to the 'commit' command, in which
  33   case the commit will ignore changes staged in the index, and instead
  34   record the current content of the listed files (which must already
  35   be known to git);
  36
  374. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically
  38   "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
  39   listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
  40   that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
  41   actual commit;
  42
  435. by using the --interactive or --patch switches with the 'commit' command
  44   to decide one by one which files or hunks should be part of the commit,
  45   before finalizing the operation. See the ``Interactive Mode'' section of
  46   linkgit:git-add[1] to learn how to operate these modes.
  47
  48The `--dry-run` option can be used to obtain a
  49summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
  50commit by giving the same set of parameters (options and paths).
  51
  52If you make a commit and then find a mistake immediately after
  53that, you can recover from it with 'git reset'.
  54
  55
  56OPTIONS
  57-------
  58-a::
  59--all::
  60        Tell the command to automatically stage files that have
  61        been modified and deleted, but new files you have not
  62        told git about are not affected.
  63
  64-p::
  65--patch::
  66        Use the interactive patch selection interface to chose
  67        which changes to commit. See linkgit:git-add[1] for
  68        details.
  69
  70-C <commit>::
  71--reuse-message=<commit>::
  72        Take an existing commit object, and reuse the log message
  73        and the authorship information (including the timestamp)
  74        when creating the commit.
  75
  76-c <commit>::
  77--reedit-message=<commit>::
  78        Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that
  79        the user can further edit the commit message.
  80
  81--fixup=<commit>::
  82        Construct a commit message for use with `rebase --autosquash`.
  83        The commit message will be the subject line from the specified
  84        commit with a prefix of "fixup! ".  See linkgit:git-rebase[1]
  85        for details.
  86
  87--squash=<commit>::
  88        Construct a commit message for use with `rebase --autosquash`.
  89        The commit message subject line is taken from the specified
  90        commit with a prefix of "squash! ".  Can be used with additional
  91        commit message options (`-m`/`-c`/`-C`/`-F`). See
  92        linkgit:git-rebase[1] for details.
  93
  94--reset-author::
  95        When used with -C/-c/--amend options, or when committing after a
  96        a conflicting cherry-pick, declare that the authorship of the
  97        resulting commit now belongs of the committer. This also renews
  98        the author timestamp.
  99
 100--short::
 101        When doing a dry-run, give the output in the short-format. See
 102        linkgit:git-status[1] for details. Implies `--dry-run`.
 103
 104--branch::
 105        Show the branch and tracking info even in short-format.
 106
 107--porcelain::
 108        When doing a dry-run, give the output in a porcelain-ready
 109        format. See linkgit:git-status[1] for details. Implies
 110        `--dry-run`.
 111
 112--long::
 113        When doing a dry-run, give the output in a the long-format.
 114        Implies `--dry-run`.
 115
 116-z::
 117--null::
 118        When showing `short` or `porcelain` status output, terminate
 119        entries in the status output with NUL, instead of LF. If no
 120        format is given, implies the `--porcelain` output format.
 121
 122-F <file>::
 123--file=<file>::
 124        Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
 125        read the message from the standard input.
 126
 127--author=<author>::
 128        Override the commit author. Specify an explicit author using the
 129        standard `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format. Otherwise <author>
 130        is assumed to be a pattern and is used to search for an existing
 131        commit by that author (i.e. rev-list --all -i --author=<author>);
 132        the commit author is then copied from the first such commit found.
 133
 134--date=<date>::
 135        Override the author date used in the commit.
 136
 137-m <msg>::
 138--message=<msg>::
 139        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
 140        If multiple `-m` options are given, their values are
 141        concatenated as separate paragraphs.
 142
 143-t <file>::
 144--template=<file>::
 145        When editing the commit message, start the editor with the
 146        contents in the given file.  The `commit.template` configuration
 147        variable is often used to give this option implicitly to the
 148        command.  This mechanism can be used by projects that want to
 149        guide participants with some hints on what to write in the message
 150        in what order.  If the user exits the editor without editing the
 151        message, the commit is aborted.  This has no effect when a message
 152        is given by other means, e.g. with the `-m` or `-F` options.
 153
 154-s::
 155--signoff::
 156        Add Signed-off-by line by the committer at the end of the commit
 157        log message.
 158
 159-n::
 160--no-verify::
 161        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 162        See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 163
 164--allow-empty::
 165        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 166        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 167        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 168        is primarily for use by foreign SCM interface scripts.
 169
 170--allow-empty-message::
 171       Like --allow-empty this command is primarily for use by foreign
 172       SCM interface scripts. It allows you to create a commit with an
 173       empty commit message without using plumbing commands like
 174       linkgit:git-commit-tree[1].
 175
 176--cleanup=<mode>::
 177        This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
 178        The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
 179        and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
 180        trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
 181        only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
 182        removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
 183        'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
 184        and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 185
 186-e::
 187--edit::
 188        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 189        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 190        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 191        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 192
 193--no-edit::
 194        Use the selected commit message without launching an editor.
 195        For example, `git commit --amend --no-edit` amends a commit
 196        without changing its commit message.
 197
 198--amend::
 199        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
 200        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
 201        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
 202        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
 203        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
 204        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
 205        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
 206        discarded.
 207+
 208--
 209It is a rough equivalent for:
 210------
 211        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 212        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 213        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 214
 215------
 216but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 217--
 218+
 219You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you
 220amend a commit that has already been published.  (See the "RECOVERING
 221FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1].)
 222
 223--no-post-rewrite::
 224        Bypass the post-rewrite hook.
 225
 226-i::
 227--include::
 228        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 229        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 230        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 231        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 232
 233-o::
 234--only::
 235        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 236        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 237        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 238        'git commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 239        in which case this option can be omitted.
 240        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 241        no paths need to be specified, which can be used to amend
 242        the last commit without committing changes that have
 243        already been staged.
 244
 245-u[<mode>]::
 246--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 247        Show untracked files.
 248+
 249The mode parameter is optional (defaults to 'all'), and is used to
 250specify the handling of untracked files; when -u is not used, the
 251default is 'normal', i.e. show untracked files and directories.
 252+
 253The possible options are:
 254+
 255        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 256        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 257        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 258+
 259The default can be changed using the status.showUntrackedFiles
 260configuration variable documented in linkgit:git-config[1].
 261
 262-v::
 263--verbose::
 264        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 265        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 266        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 267        lines prefixed with '#'.
 268
 269-q::
 270--quiet::
 271        Suppress commit summary message.
 272
 273--dry-run::
 274        Do not create a commit, but show a list of paths that are
 275        to be committed, paths with local changes that will be left
 276        uncommitted and paths that are untracked.
 277
 278--status::
 279        Include the output of linkgit:git-status[1] in the commit
 280        message template when using an editor to prepare the commit
 281        message.  Defaults to on, but can be used to override
 282        configuration variable commit.status.
 283
 284--no-status::
 285        Do not include the output of linkgit:git-status[1] in the
 286        commit message template when using an editor to prepare the
 287        default commit message.
 288
 289-S[<keyid>]::
 290--gpg-sign[=<keyid>]::
 291        GPG-sign commit.
 292
 293\--::
 294        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 295
 296<file>...::
 297        When files are given on the command line, the command
 298        commits the contents of the named files, without
 299        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 300        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 301        of what have been staged before.
 302
 303:git-commit: 1
 304include::date-formats.txt[]
 305
 306EXAMPLES
 307--------
 308When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 309your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 310called the "index" with 'git add'.  A file can be
 311reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 312to that of the last commit with `git reset HEAD -- <file>`,
 313which effectively reverts 'git add' and prevents the changes to
 314this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 315the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 316`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 317has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 318command.  An example:
 319
 320------------
 321$ edit hello.c
 322$ git rm goodbye.c
 323$ git add hello.c
 324$ git commit
 325------------
 326
 327Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 328tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 329contents are tracked in
 330your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 331for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 332example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 333
 334------------
 335$ edit hello.c
 336$ rm goodbye.c
 337$ git commit -a
 338------------
 339
 340The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 341notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 342and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 343
 344After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 345changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 346When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 347only records the changes made to the named paths:
 348
 349------------
 350$ edit hello.c hello.h
 351$ git add hello.c hello.h
 352$ edit Makefile
 353$ git commit Makefile
 354------------
 355
 356This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 357The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 358in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 359they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 360sequence, if you do:
 361
 362------------
 363$ git commit
 364------------
 365
 366this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 367`hello.h` as expected.
 368
 369After a merge (initiated by 'git merge' or 'git pull') stops
 370because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 371paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 372conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 373check which paths are conflicting with 'git status'
 374and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 375stage the result as usual with 'git add':
 376
 377------------
 378$ git status | grep unmerged
 379unmerged: hello.c
 380$ edit hello.c
 381$ git add hello.c
 382------------
 383
 384After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 385would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 386run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 387
 388------------
 389$ git commit
 390------------
 391
 392As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 393option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 394resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 395alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 396should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 397refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 398
 399
 400DISCUSSION
 401----------
 402
 403Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 404with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 405change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 406The text up to the first blank line in a commit message is treated
 407as the commit title, and that title is used throughout git.
 408For example, linkgit:git-format-patch[1] turns a commit into email, and it uses
 409the title on the Subject line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 410
 411include::i18n.txt[]
 412
 413ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 414---------------------------------------
 415The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 416GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 417VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 418order).  See linkgit:git-var[1] for details.
 419
 420HOOKS
 421-----
 422This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 423and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
 424information.
 425
 426FILES
 427-----
 428
 429`$GIT_DIR/COMMIT_EDITMSG`::
 430        This file contains the commit message of a commit in progress.
 431        If `git commit` exits due to an error before creating a commit,
 432        any commit message that has been provided by the user (e.g., in
 433        an editor session) will be available in this file, but will be
 434        overwritten by the next invocation of `git commit`.
 435
 436SEE ALSO
 437--------
 438linkgit:git-add[1],
 439linkgit:git-rm[1],
 440linkgit:git-mv[1],
 441linkgit:git-merge[1],
 442linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 443
 444GIT
 445---
 446Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite