Documentation / git-commit.txton commit Merge branch 'jc/mailinfo-remove-brackets' (d268cb9)
   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) <commit>] [-F <file> | -m <msg>]
  13           [--allow-empty] [--no-verify] [-e] [--author=<author>]
  14           [--cleanup=<mode>] [--] [[-i | -o ]<file>...]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along
  19with a log message from the user describing the changes.
  20
  21The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
  22
  231. by using 'git-add' to incrementally "add" changes to the
  24   index before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
  25   files must be "added");
  26
  272. by using 'git-rm' to remove files from the working tree
  28   and the index, again before using the 'commit' command;
  29
  303. by listing files as arguments to the 'commit' command, in which
  31   case the commit will ignore changes staged in the index, and instead
  32   record the current content of the listed files (which must already
  33   be known to git);
  34
  354. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically
  36   "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
  37   listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
  38   that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
  39   actual commit;
  40
  415. by using the --interactive switch with the 'commit' command to decide one
  42   by one which files should be part of the commit, before finalizing the
  43   operation.  Currently, this is done by invoking 'git-add --interactive'.
  44
  45The `--dry-run` option can be used to obtain a
  46summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
  47commit by giving the same set of parameters (options and paths).
  48
  49If you make a commit and then find a mistake immediately after
  50that, you can recover from it with 'git-reset'.
  51
  52
  53OPTIONS
  54-------
  55-a::
  56--all::
  57        Tell the command to automatically stage files that have
  58        been modified and deleted, but new files you have not
  59        told git about are not affected.
  60
  61-C <commit>::
  62--reuse-message=<commit>::
  63        Take an existing commit object, and reuse the log message
  64        and the authorship information (including the timestamp)
  65        when creating the commit.
  66
  67-c <commit>::
  68--reedit-message=<commit>::
  69        Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that
  70        the user can further edit the commit message.
  71
  72-F <file>::
  73--file=<file>::
  74        Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
  75        read the message from the standard input.
  76
  77--author=<author>::
  78        Override the author name used in the commit.  You can use the
  79        standard `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format.  Otherwise,
  80        an existing commit that matches the given string and its author
  81        name is used.
  82
  83-m <msg>::
  84--message=<msg>::
  85        Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
  86
  87-t <file>::
  88--template=<file>::
  89        Use the contents of the given file as the initial version
  90        of the commit message. The editor is invoked and you can
  91        make subsequent changes. If a message is specified using
  92        the `-m` or `-F` options, this option has no effect. This
  93        overrides the `commit.template` configuration variable.
  94
  95-s::
  96--signoff::
  97        Add Signed-off-by line by the committer at the end of the commit
  98        log message.
  99
 100-n::
 101--no-verify::
 102        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 103        See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 104
 105--allow-empty::
 106        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 107        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 108        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 109        is primarily for use by foreign scm interface scripts.
 110
 111--cleanup=<mode>::
 112        This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
 113        The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
 114        and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
 115        trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
 116        only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
 117        removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
 118        'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
 119        and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 120
 121-e::
 122--edit::
 123        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 124        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 125        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 126        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 127
 128--amend::
 129        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
 130        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
 131        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
 132        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
 133        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
 134        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
 135        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
 136        discarded.
 137+
 138--
 139It is a rough equivalent for:
 140------
 141        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 142        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 143        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 144
 145------
 146but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 147--
 148+
 149You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you
 150amend a commit that has already been published.  (See the "RECOVERING
 151FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1].)
 152
 153-i::
 154--include::
 155        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 156        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 157        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 158        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 159
 160-o::
 161--only::
 162        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 163        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 164        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 165        'git-commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 166        in which case this option can be omitted.
 167        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 168        no paths need to be specified, which can be used to amend
 169        the last commit without committing changes that have
 170        already been staged.
 171
 172-u[<mode>]::
 173--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 174        Show untracked files (Default: 'all').
 175+
 176The mode parameter is optional, and is used to specify
 177the handling of untracked files. The possible options are:
 178+
 179--
 180        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 181        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 182        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 183--
 184+
 185See linkgit:git-config[1] for configuration variable
 186used to change the default for when the option is not
 187specified.
 188
 189-v::
 190--verbose::
 191        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 192        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 193        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 194        lines prefixed with '#'.
 195
 196-q::
 197--quiet::
 198        Suppress commit summary message.
 199
 200--dry-run::
 201        Do not create a commit, but show a list of paths that are
 202        to be committed, paths with local changes that will be left
 203        uncommitted and paths that are untracked.
 204
 205\--::
 206        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 207
 208<file>...::
 209        When files are given on the command line, the command
 210        commits the contents of the named files, without
 211        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 212        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 213        of what have been staged before.
 214
 215
 216EXAMPLES
 217--------
 218When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 219your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 220called the "index" with 'git-add'.  A file can be
 221reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 222to that of the last commit with `git reset HEAD -- <file>`,
 223which effectively reverts 'git-add' and prevents the changes to
 224this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 225the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 226`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 227has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 228command.  An example:
 229
 230------------
 231$ edit hello.c
 232$ git rm goodbye.c
 233$ git add hello.c
 234$ git commit
 235------------
 236
 237Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 238tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 239contents are tracked in
 240your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 241for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 242example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 243
 244------------
 245$ edit hello.c
 246$ rm goodbye.c
 247$ git commit -a
 248------------
 249
 250The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 251notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 252and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 253
 254After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 255changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 256When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 257only records the changes made to the named paths:
 258
 259------------
 260$ edit hello.c hello.h
 261$ git add hello.c hello.h
 262$ edit Makefile
 263$ git commit Makefile
 264------------
 265
 266This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 267The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 268in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 269they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 270sequence, if you do:
 271
 272------------
 273$ git commit
 274------------
 275
 276this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 277`hello.h` as expected.
 278
 279After a merge (initiated by 'git-merge' or 'git-pull') stops
 280because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 281paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 282conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 283check which paths are conflicting with 'git-status'
 284and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 285stage the result as usual with 'git-add':
 286
 287------------
 288$ git status | grep unmerged
 289unmerged: hello.c
 290$ edit hello.c
 291$ git add hello.c
 292------------
 293
 294After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 295would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 296run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 297
 298------------
 299$ git commit
 300------------
 301
 302As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 303option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 304resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 305alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 306should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 307refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 308
 309
 310DISCUSSION
 311----------
 312
 313Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 314with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 315change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 316Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
 317on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 318
 319include::i18n.txt[]
 320
 321ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 322---------------------------------------
 323The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 324GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 325VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 326order).  See linkgit:git-var[1] for details.
 327
 328HOOKS
 329-----
 330This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 331and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
 332information.
 333
 334
 335SEE ALSO
 336--------
 337linkgit:git-add[1],
 338linkgit:git-rm[1],
 339linkgit:git-mv[1],
 340linkgit:git-merge[1],
 341linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 342
 343Author
 344------
 345Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
 346Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
 347
 348
 349GIT
 350---
 351Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite