1Commit Formatting 2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3 4ifdef::git-rev-list[] 5Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the 6more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1], 7linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1] 8endif::git-rev-list[] 9 10include::pretty-options.txt[] 11 12--relative-date:: 13 14 Synonym for `--date=relative`. 15 16--date={relative,local,default,iso,rfc,short,raw}:: 17 18 Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such 19 as when using "--pretty". `log.date` config variable sets a default 20 value for log command's --date option. 21+ 22`--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time, 23e.g. "2 hours ago". 24+ 25`--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local timezone. 26+ 27`--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format. 28+ 29`--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822 30format, often found in E-mail messages. 31+ 32`--date=short` shows only date but not time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format. 33+ 34`--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw git format `%s %z` format. 35+ 36`--date=default` shows timestamps in the original timezone 37(either committer's or author's). 38 39ifdef::git-rev-list[] 40--header:: 41 42 Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is 43 separated with a NUL character. 44endif::git-rev-list[] 45 46--parents:: 47 48 Print the parents of the commit. Also enables parent 49 rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below. 50 51--children:: 52 53 Print the children of the commit. Also enables parent 54 rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below. 55 56ifdef::git-rev-list[] 57--timestamp:: 58 Print the raw commit timestamp. 59endif::git-rev-list[] 60 61--left-right:: 62 63 Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from. 64 Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from 65 the right with `>`. If combined with `--boundary`, those 66 commits are prefixed with `-`. 67+ 68For example, if you have this topology: 69+ 70----------------------------------------------------------------------- 71 y---b---b branch B 72 / \ / 73 / . 74 / / \ 75 o---x---a---a branch A 76----------------------------------------------------------------------- 77+ 78you would get an output like this: 79+ 80----------------------------------------------------------------------- 81 $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B 82 83 >bbbbbbb... 3rd on b 84 >bbbbbbb... 2nd on b 85 <aaaaaaa... 3rd on a 86 <aaaaaaa... 2nd on a 87 -yyyyyyy... 1st on b 88 -xxxxxxx... 1st on a 89----------------------------------------------------------------------- 90 91--graph:: 92 93 Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history 94 on the left hand side of the output. This may cause extra lines 95 to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history 96 to be drawn properly. 97+ 98This implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the 99'--date-order' option may also be specified. 100 101ifndef::git-rev-list[] 102Diff Formatting 103~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 104 105Below are listed options that control the formatting of diff output. 106Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff 107options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options. 108 109-c:: 110 111 This flag changes the way a merge commit is displayed. It shows 112 the differences from each of the parents to the merge result 113 simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent 114 and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files 115 which were modified from all parents. 116 117--cc:: 118 119 This flag implies the '-c' options and further compresses the 120 patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in 121 the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks 122 one of them without modification. 123 124-r:: 125 126 Show recursive diffs. 127 128-t:: 129 130 Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies '-r'. 131endif::git-rev-list[] 132 133Commit Limiting 134~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 135 136Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the 137special notations explained in the description, additional commit 138limiting may be applied. 139 140-- 141 142-n 'number':: 143--max-count=<number>:: 144 145 Limit the number of commits output. 146 147--skip=<number>:: 148 149 Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output. 150 151--since=<date>:: 152--after=<date>:: 153 154 Show commits more recent than a specific date. 155 156--until=<date>:: 157--before=<date>:: 158 159 Show commits older than a specific date. 160 161ifdef::git-rev-list[] 162--max-age=<timestamp>:: 163--min-age=<timestamp>:: 164 165 Limit the commits output to specified time range. 166endif::git-rev-list[] 167 168--author=<pattern>:: 169--committer=<pattern>:: 170 171 Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer 172 header lines that match the specified pattern (regular expression). 173 174--grep=<pattern>:: 175 176 Limit the commits output to ones with log message that 177 matches the specified pattern (regular expression). 178 179--all-match:: 180 Limit the commits output to ones that match all given --grep, 181 --author and --committer instead of ones that match at least one. 182 183-i:: 184--regexp-ignore-case:: 185 186 Match the regexp limiting patterns without regard to letters case. 187 188-E:: 189--extended-regexp:: 190 191 Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions 192 instead of the default basic regular expressions. 193 194-F:: 195--fixed-strings:: 196 197 Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret 198 pattern as a regular expression). 199 200--remove-empty:: 201 202 Stop when a given path disappears from the tree. 203 204--merges:: 205 206 Print only merge commits. 207 208--no-merges:: 209 210 Do not print commits with more than one parent. 211 212--first-parent:: 213 Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge 214 commit. This option can give a better overview when 215 viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch, 216 because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about 217 adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and 218 this option allows you to ignore the individual commits 219 brought in to your history by such a merge. 220 221--not:: 222 223 Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof) 224 for all following revision specifiers, up to the next '--not'. 225 226--all:: 227 228 Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/` are listed on the 229 command line as '<commit>'. 230 231--branches:: 232 233 Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads` are listed 234 on the command line as '<commit>'. 235 236--tags:: 237 238 Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags` are listed 239 on the command line as '<commit>'. 240 241--remotes:: 242 243 Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes` are listed 244 on the command line as '<commit>'. 245 246--stdin:: 247 248 In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command 249 line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is 250 seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the 251 result. 252 253ifdef::git-rev-list[] 254--quiet:: 255 256 Don't print anything to standard output. This form 257 is primarily meant to allow the caller to 258 test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully 259 connected (or not). It is faster than redirecting stdout 260 to /dev/null as the output does not have to be formatted. 261endif::git-rev-list[] 262 263--cherry-pick:: 264 265 Omit any commit that introduces the same change as 266 another commit on the "other side" when the set of 267 commits are limited with symmetric difference. 268+ 269For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way 270to list all commits on only one side of them is with 271`--left-right`, like the example above in the description of 272that option. It however shows the commits that were cherry-picked 273from the other branch (for example, "3rd on b" may be cherry-picked 274from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are 275excluded from the output. 276 277-g:: 278--walk-reflogs:: 279 280 Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk 281 reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones. 282 When this option is used you cannot specify commits to 283 exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2', 284 nor 'commit1...commit2' notations cannot be used). 285+ 286With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons), 287this causes the output to have two extra lines of information 288taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is 289used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as 290'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation 291instead. Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is 292prefixed with this information on the same line. 293This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'. 294See also linkgit:git-reflog[1]. 295 296--merge:: 297 298 After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a 299 conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge. 300 301--boundary:: 302 303 Output uninteresting commits at the boundary, which are usually 304 not shown. 305 306-- 307 308History Simplification 309~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 310 311Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the 312commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of 313'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other 314is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history. 315 316The following options select the commits to be shown: 317 318<paths>:: 319 320 Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected. 321 322--simplify-by-decoration:: 323 324 Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected. 325 326Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history. 327 328The following options affect the way the simplification is performed: 329 330Default mode:: 331 332 Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the 333 final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side 334 branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches 335 with the same content) 336 337--full-history:: 338 339 As the default mode but does not prune some history. 340 341--dense:: 342 343 Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a 344 meaningful history. 345 346--sparse:: 347 348 All commits in the simplified history are shown. 349 350--simplify-merges:: 351 352 Additional option to '--full-history' to remove some needless 353 merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected 354 commits contributing to this merge. 355 356A more detailed explanation follows. 357 358Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits 359that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff 360filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.) 361 362In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to 363illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume 364that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph: 365----------------------------------------------------------------------- 366 .-A---M---N---O---P 367 / / / / / 368 I B C D E 369 \ / / / / 370 `-------------' 371----------------------------------------------------------------------- 372The horizontal line of history A--P is taken to be the first parent of 373each merge. The commits are: 374 375* `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents 376 "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux". Initial 377 commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME. 378 379* In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo". 380 381* `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and 382 hence TREESAME to all parents. 383 384* `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar", 385 so it is not TREESAME to any parent. 386 387* `D` sets `foo` to "baz". Its merge `O` combines the strings from 388 `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent. 389 390* `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the 391 strings to "quux xyzzy". Despite appearing interesting, `P` is 392 TREESAME to all parents. 393 394'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding 395commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting 396(via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used. The following settings 397are available. 398 399Default mode:: 400 401 Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent 402 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). If the 403 commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow 404 only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME 405 parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all 406 parents. 407+ 408This results in: 409+ 410----------------------------------------------------------------------- 411 .-A---N---O 412 / / 413 I---------D 414----------------------------------------------------------------------- 415+ 416Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is 417available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was 418considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an 419empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME. 420+ 421Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does 422not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the 423parent lines. 424 425--full-history without parent rewriting:: 426 427 This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow 428 all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them. 429 Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are 430 included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In 431 the example, we get 432+ 433----------------------------------------------------------------------- 434 I A B N D O 435----------------------------------------------------------------------- 436+ 437`P` and `M` were excluded because they are TREESAME to a parent. `E`, 438`C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others 439do not appear. 440+ 441Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk 442about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show 443them disconnected. 444 445--full-history with parent rewriting:: 446 447 Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME 448 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). 449+ 450Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten: 451Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included 452themselves. This results in 453+ 454----------------------------------------------------------------------- 455 .-A---M---N---O---P 456 / / / / / 457 I B / D / 458 \ / / / / 459 `-------------' 460----------------------------------------------------------------------- 461+ 462Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above. Note that `E` 463was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was 464rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and 465`N`. Note also that `P` was included despite being TREESAME. 466 467In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME 468affects inclusion: 469 470--dense:: 471 472 Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME 473 to any parent. 474 475--sparse:: 476 477 All commits that are walked are included. 478+ 479Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if 480one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other 481sides of the merge are never walked. 482 483Finally, there is a fourth simplification mode available: 484 485--simplify-merges:: 486 487 First, build a history graph in the same way that 488 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting does (see above). 489+ 490Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final 491history according to the following rules: 492+ 493-- 494* Set `C'` to `C`. 495+ 496* Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`. In 497 the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents, and 498 remove duplicates. 499+ 500* If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has 501 zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains. 502 Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent. 503-- 504+ 505The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to 506'\--full-history' with parent rewriting. The example turns into: 507+ 508----------------------------------------------------------------------- 509 .-A---M---N---O 510 / / / 511 I B D 512 \ / / 513 `---------' 514----------------------------------------------------------------------- 515+ 516Note the major differences in `N` and `P` over '\--full-history': 517+ 518-- 519* `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the 520 other parent `M`. Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME. 521+ 522* `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed. `P` was then 523 removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME. 524-- 525 526The '\--simplify-by-decoration' option allows you to view only the 527big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits 528that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME 529(in other words, kept after history simplification rules described 530above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the 531contents of the paths given on the command line. All other 532commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away). 533 534ifdef::git-rev-list[] 535Bisection Helpers 536~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 537 538--bisect:: 539 540Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between 541the included and excluded commits. Thus, if 542 543----------------------------------------------------------------------- 544 $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz 545----------------------------------------------------------------------- 546 547outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands 548 549----------------------------------------------------------------------- 550 $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint 551 $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz 552----------------------------------------------------------------------- 553 554would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which 555introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly 556generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length 557one. 558 559--bisect-vars:: 560 561This calculates the same as `--bisect`, but outputs text ready 562to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the name of 563the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the 564expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is 565tested to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be 566tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, 567the expected number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` 568turns out to be bad to `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits 569we are bisecting right now to `bisect_all`. 570 571--bisect-all:: 572 573This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded 574commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded 575commits. The farthest from them is displayed first. (This is the only 576one displayed by `--bisect`.) 577+ 578This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to 579test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they 580may not compile for example). 581+ 582This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case, 583after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if 584`--bisect-vars` had been used alone. 585endif::git-rev-list[] 586 587 588Commit Ordering 589~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 590 591By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order. 592 593--topo-order:: 594 595 This option makes them appear in topological order (i.e. 596 descendant commits are shown before their parents). 597 598--date-order:: 599 600 This option is similar to '--topo-order' in the sense that no 601 parent comes before all of its children, but otherwise things 602 are still ordered in the commit timestamp order. 603 604--reverse:: 605 606 Output the commits in reverse order. 607 Cannot be combined with '\--walk-reflogs'. 608 609Object Traversal 610~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 611 612These options are mostly targeted for packing of git repositories. 613 614--objects:: 615 616 Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed 617 commits. '--objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me 618 all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit 619 object 'bar', but not 'foo'". 620 621--objects-edge:: 622 623 Similar to '--objects', but also print the IDs of excluded 624 commits prefixed with a "-" character. This is used by 625 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build "thin" pack, which records 626 objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these 627 excluded commits to reduce network traffic. 628 629--unpacked:: 630 631 Only useful with '--objects'; print the object IDs that are not 632 in packs. 633 634--no-walk:: 635 636 Only show the given revs, but do not traverse their ancestors. 637 638--do-walk:: 639 640 Overrides a previous --no-walk.