Documentation / git-commit.txton commit SubmittingPatches: clarify the expected commit log description (d0f7dcb)
   1git-commit(1)
   2=============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-commit - Record changes to the repository
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git commit' [-a | --interactive] [-s] [-v] [-u<mode>] [--amend] [--dry-run]
  12           [(-c | -C | --fixup | --squash) <commit>] [-F <file> | -m <msg>]
  13           [--reset-author] [--allow-empty] [--allow-empty-message] [--no-verify]
  14           [-e] [--author=<author>] [--date=<date>] [--cleanup=<mode>]
  15           [--status | --no-status] [-i | -o] [--] [<file>...]
  16
  17DESCRIPTION
  18-----------
  19Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along
  20with a log message from the user describing the changes.
  21
  22The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
  23
  241. by using 'git add' to incrementally "add" changes to the
  25   index before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
  26   files must be "added");
  27
  282. by using 'git rm' to remove files from the working tree
  29   and the index, again before using the 'commit' command;
  30
  313. by listing files as arguments to the 'commit' command, in which
  32   case the commit will ignore changes staged in the index, and instead
  33   record the current content of the listed files (which must already
  34   be known to git);
  35
  364. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically
  37   "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
  38   listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
  39   that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
  40   actual commit;
  41
  425. by using the --interactive switch with the 'commit' command to decide one
  43   by one which files should be part of the commit, before finalizing the
  44   operation.  Currently, this is done by invoking 'git add --interactive'.
  45
  46The `--dry-run` option can be used to obtain a
  47summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
  48commit by giving the same set of parameters (options and paths).
  49
  50If you make a commit and then find a mistake immediately after
  51that, you can recover from it with 'git reset'.
  52
  53
  54OPTIONS
  55-------
  56-a::
  57--all::
  58        Tell the command to automatically stage files that have
  59        been modified and deleted, but new files you have not
  60        told git about are not affected.
  61
  62-C <commit>::
  63--reuse-message=<commit>::
  64        Take an existing commit object, and reuse the log message
  65        and the authorship information (including the timestamp)
  66        when creating the commit.
  67
  68-c <commit>::
  69--reedit-message=<commit>::
  70        Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that
  71        the user can further edit the commit message.
  72
  73--fixup=<commit>::
  74        Construct a commit message for use with `rebase --autosquash`.
  75        The commit message will be the subject line from the specified
  76        commit with a prefix of "fixup! ".  See linkgit:git-rebase[1]
  77        for details.
  78
  79--squash=<commit>::
  80        Construct a commit message for use with `rebase --autosquash`.
  81        The commit message subject line is taken from the specified
  82        commit with a prefix of "squash! ".  Can be used with additional
  83        commit message options (`-m`/`-c`/`-C`/`-F`). See
  84        linkgit:git-rebase[1] for details.
  85
  86--reset-author::
  87        When used with -C/-c/--amend options, declare that the
  88        authorship of the resulting commit now belongs of the committer.
  89        This also renews the author timestamp.
  90
  91--short::
  92        When doing a dry-run, give the output in the short-format. See
  93        linkgit:git-status[1] for details. Implies `--dry-run`.
  94
  95--porcelain::
  96        When doing a dry-run, give the output in a porcelain-ready
  97        format. See linkgit:git-status[1] for details. Implies
  98        `--dry-run`.
  99
 100-z::
 101        When showing `short` or `porcelain` status output, terminate
 102        entries in the status output with NUL, instead of LF. If no
 103        format is given, implies the `--porcelain` output format.
 104
 105-F <file>::
 106--file=<file>::
 107        Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
 108        read the message from the standard input.
 109
 110--author=<author>::
 111        Override the commit author. Specify an explicit author using the
 112        standard `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format. Otherwise <author>
 113        is assumed to be a pattern and is used to search for an existing
 114        commit by that author (i.e. rev-list --all -i --author=<author>);
 115        the commit author is then copied from the first such commit found.
 116
 117--date=<date>::
 118        Override the author date used in the commit.
 119
 120-m <msg>::
 121--message=<msg>::
 122        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
 123
 124-t <file>::
 125--template=<file>::
 126        Use the contents of the given file as the initial version
 127        of the commit message. The editor is invoked and you can
 128        make subsequent changes. If a message is specified using
 129        the `-m` or `-F` options, this option has no effect. This
 130        overrides the `commit.template` configuration variable.
 131
 132-s::
 133--signoff::
 134        Add Signed-off-by line by the committer at the end of the commit
 135        log message.
 136
 137-n::
 138--no-verify::
 139        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 140        See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 141
 142--allow-empty::
 143        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 144        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 145        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 146        is primarily for use by foreign SCM interface scripts.
 147
 148--allow-empty-message::
 149       Like --allow-empty this command is primarily for use by foreign
 150       SCM interface scripts. It allows you to create a commit with an
 151       empty commit message without using plumbing commands like
 152       linkgit:git-commit-tree[1].
 153
 154--cleanup=<mode>::
 155        This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
 156        The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
 157        and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
 158        trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
 159        only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
 160        removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
 161        'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
 162        and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 163
 164-e::
 165--edit::
 166        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 167        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 168        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 169        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 170
 171--amend::
 172        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
 173        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
 174        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
 175        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
 176        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
 177        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
 178        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
 179        discarded.
 180+
 181--
 182It is a rough equivalent for:
 183------
 184        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 185        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 186        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 187
 188------
 189but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 190--
 191+
 192You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you
 193amend a commit that has already been published.  (See the "RECOVERING
 194FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1].)
 195
 196-i::
 197--include::
 198        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 199        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 200        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 201        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 202
 203-o::
 204--only::
 205        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 206        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 207        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 208        'git commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 209        in which case this option can be omitted.
 210        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 211        no paths need to be specified, which can be used to amend
 212        the last commit without committing changes that have
 213        already been staged.
 214
 215-u[<mode>]::
 216--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 217        Show untracked files.
 218+
 219The mode parameter is optional (defaults to 'all'), and is used to
 220specify the handling of untracked files; when -u is not used, the
 221default is 'normal', i.e. show untracked files and directories.
 222+
 223The possible options are:
 224+
 225        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 226        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 227        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 228+
 229The default can be changed using the status.showUntrackedFiles
 230configuration variable documented in linkgit:git-config[1].
 231
 232-v::
 233--verbose::
 234        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 235        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 236        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 237        lines prefixed with '#'.
 238
 239-q::
 240--quiet::
 241        Suppress commit summary message.
 242
 243--dry-run::
 244        Do not create a commit, but show a list of paths that are
 245        to be committed, paths with local changes that will be left
 246        uncommitted and paths that are untracked.
 247
 248--status::
 249        Include the output of linkgit:git-status[1] in the commit
 250        message template when using an editor to prepare the commit
 251        message.  Defaults to on, but can be used to override
 252        configuration variable commit.status.
 253
 254--no-status::
 255        Do not include the output of linkgit:git-status[1] in the
 256        commit message template when using an editor to prepare the
 257        default commit message.
 258
 259\--::
 260        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 261
 262<file>...::
 263        When files are given on the command line, the command
 264        commits the contents of the named files, without
 265        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 266        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 267        of what have been staged before.
 268
 269:git-commit: 1
 270include::date-formats.txt[]
 271
 272EXAMPLES
 273--------
 274When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 275your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 276called the "index" with 'git add'.  A file can be
 277reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 278to that of the last commit with `git reset HEAD -- <file>`,
 279which effectively reverts 'git add' and prevents the changes to
 280this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 281the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 282`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 283has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 284command.  An example:
 285
 286------------
 287$ edit hello.c
 288$ git rm goodbye.c
 289$ git add hello.c
 290$ git commit
 291------------
 292
 293Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 294tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 295contents are tracked in
 296your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 297for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 298example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 299
 300------------
 301$ edit hello.c
 302$ rm goodbye.c
 303$ git commit -a
 304------------
 305
 306The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 307notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 308and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 309
 310After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 311changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 312When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 313only records the changes made to the named paths:
 314
 315------------
 316$ edit hello.c hello.h
 317$ git add hello.c hello.h
 318$ edit Makefile
 319$ git commit Makefile
 320------------
 321
 322This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 323The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 324in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 325they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 326sequence, if you do:
 327
 328------------
 329$ git commit
 330------------
 331
 332this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 333`hello.h` as expected.
 334
 335After a merge (initiated by 'git merge' or 'git pull') stops
 336because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 337paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 338conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 339check which paths are conflicting with 'git status'
 340and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 341stage the result as usual with 'git add':
 342
 343------------
 344$ git status | grep unmerged
 345unmerged: hello.c
 346$ edit hello.c
 347$ git add hello.c
 348------------
 349
 350After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 351would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 352run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 353
 354------------
 355$ git commit
 356------------
 357
 358As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 359option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 360resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 361alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 362should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 363refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 364
 365
 366DISCUSSION
 367----------
 368
 369Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 370with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 371change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 372Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
 373on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 374
 375include::i18n.txt[]
 376
 377ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 378---------------------------------------
 379The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 380GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 381VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 382order).  See linkgit:git-var[1] for details.
 383
 384HOOKS
 385-----
 386This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 387and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
 388information.
 389
 390
 391SEE ALSO
 392--------
 393linkgit:git-add[1],
 394linkgit:git-rm[1],
 395linkgit:git-mv[1],
 396linkgit:git-merge[1],
 397linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 398
 399Author
 400------
 401Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
 402Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
 403
 404
 405GIT
 406---
 407Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite