Documentation / rev-list-options.txton commit Update draft release notes to 1.9 (d7aced9)
   1Commit Limiting
   2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   3
   4Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the
   5special notations explained in the description, additional commit
   6limiting may be applied.
   7
   8Using more options generally further limits the output (e.g.
   9`--since=<date1>` limits to commits newer than `<date1>`, and using it
  10with `--grep=<pattern>` further limits to commits whose log message
  11has a line that matches `<pattern>`), unless otherwise noted.
  12
  13Note that these are applied before commit
  14ordering and formatting options, such as `--reverse`.
  15
  16--
  17
  18-<number>::
  19-n <number>::
  20--max-count=<number>::
  21        Limit the number of commits to output.
  22
  23--skip=<number>::
  24        Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
  25
  26--since=<date>::
  27--after=<date>::
  28        Show commits more recent than a specific date.
  29
  30--until=<date>::
  31--before=<date>::
  32        Show commits older than a specific date.
  33
  34ifdef::git-rev-list[]
  35--max-age=<timestamp>::
  36--min-age=<timestamp>::
  37        Limit the commits output to specified time range.
  38endif::git-rev-list[]
  39
  40--author=<pattern>::
  41--committer=<pattern>::
  42        Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
  43        header lines that match the specified pattern (regular
  44        expression).  With more than one `--author=<pattern>`,
  45        commits whose author matches any of the given patterns are
  46        chosen (similarly for multiple `--committer=<pattern>`).
  47
  48--grep-reflog=<pattern>::
  49        Limit the commits output to ones with reflog entries that
  50        match the specified pattern (regular expression). With
  51        more than one `--grep-reflog`, commits whose reflog message
  52        matches any of the given patterns are chosen.  It is an
  53        error to use this option unless `--walk-reflogs` is in use.
  54
  55--grep=<pattern>::
  56        Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
  57        matches the specified pattern (regular expression).  With
  58        more than one `--grep=<pattern>`, commits whose message
  59        matches any of the given patterns are chosen (but see
  60        `--all-match`).
  61+
  62When `--show-notes` is in effect, the message from the notes as
  63if it is part of the log message.
  64
  65--all-match::
  66        Limit the commits output to ones that match all given `--grep`,
  67        instead of ones that match at least one.
  68
  69-i::
  70--regexp-ignore-case::
  71        Match the regular expression limiting patterns without regard to letter
  72        case.
  73
  74--basic-regexp::
  75        Consider the limiting patterns to be basic regular expressions;
  76        this is the default.
  77
  78-E::
  79--extended-regexp::
  80        Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
  81        instead of the default basic regular expressions.
  82
  83-F::
  84--fixed-strings::
  85        Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
  86        pattern as a regular expression).
  87
  88--perl-regexp::
  89        Consider the limiting patterns to be Perl-compatible regular expressions.
  90        Requires libpcre to be compiled in.
  91
  92--remove-empty::
  93        Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
  94
  95--merges::
  96        Print only merge commits. This is exactly the same as `--min-parents=2`.
  97
  98--no-merges::
  99        Do not print commits with more than one parent. This is
 100        exactly the same as `--max-parents=1`.
 101
 102--min-parents=<number>::
 103--max-parents=<number>::
 104--no-min-parents::
 105--no-max-parents::
 106        Show only commits which have at least (or at most) that many parent
 107        commits. In particular, `--max-parents=1` is the same as `--no-merges`,
 108        `--min-parents=2` is the same as `--merges`.  `--max-parents=0`
 109        gives all root commits and `--min-parents=3` all octopus merges.
 110+
 111`--no-min-parents` and `--no-max-parents` reset these limits (to no limit)
 112again.  Equivalent forms are `--min-parents=0` (any commit has 0 or more
 113parents) and `--max-parents=-1` (negative numbers denote no upper limit).
 114
 115--first-parent::
 116        Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
 117        commit.  This option can give a better overview when
 118        viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
 119        because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
 120        adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
 121        this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
 122        brought in to your history by such a merge.
 123
 124--not::
 125        Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
 126        for all following revision specifiers, up to the next `--not`.
 127
 128--all::
 129        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the
 130        command line as '<commit>'.
 131
 132--branches[=<pattern>]::
 133        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
 134        on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
 135        branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
 136        '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 137
 138--tags[=<pattern>]::
 139        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
 140        on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
 141        tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
 142        or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 143
 144--remotes[=<pattern>]::
 145        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
 146        on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
 147        remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
 148        If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 149
 150--glob=<glob-pattern>::
 151        Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob '<glob-pattern>'
 152        are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/',
 153        is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
 154        or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 155
 156--exclude=<glob-pattern>::
 157
 158        Do not include refs matching '<glob-pattern>' that the next `--all`,
 159        `--branches`, `--tags`, `--remotes`, or `--glob` would otherwise
 160        consider. Repetitions of this option accumulate exclusion patterns
 161        up to the next `--all`, `--branches`, `--tags`, `--remotes`, or
 162        `--glob` option (other options or arguments do not clear
 163        accumlated patterns).
 164+
 165The patterns given should not begin with `refs/heads`, `refs/tags`, or
 166`refs/remotes` when applied to `--branches`, `--tags`, or `--remotes`,
 167respectively, and they must begin with `refs/` when applied to `--glob`
 168or `--all`. If a trailing '/{asterisk}' is intended, it must be given
 169explicitly.
 170
 171--ignore-missing::
 172        Upon seeing an invalid object name in the input, pretend as if
 173        the bad input was not given.
 174
 175ifndef::git-rev-list[]
 176--bisect::
 177        Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
 178        was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
 179        bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
 180        line.
 181endif::git-rev-list[]
 182
 183--stdin::
 184        In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
 185        line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is
 186        seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the
 187        result.
 188
 189ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 190--quiet::
 191        Don't print anything to standard output.  This form
 192        is primarily meant to allow the caller to
 193        test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
 194        connected (or not).  It is faster than redirecting stdout
 195        to `/dev/null` as the output does not have to be formatted.
 196endif::git-rev-list[]
 197
 198--cherry-mark::
 199        Like `--cherry-pick` (see below) but mark equivalent commits
 200        with `=` rather than omitting them, and inequivalent ones with `+`.
 201
 202--cherry-pick::
 203        Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
 204        another commit on the ``other side'' when the set of
 205        commits are limited with symmetric difference.
 206+
 207For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
 208to list all commits on only one side of them is with
 209`--left-right` (see the example below in the description of
 210the `--left-right` option). However, it shows the commits that were
 211cherry-picked from the other branch (for example, ``3rd on b'' may be
 212cherry-picked from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are
 213excluded from the output.
 214
 215--left-only::
 216--right-only::
 217        List only commits on the respective side of a symmetric range,
 218        i.e. only those which would be marked `<` resp. `>` by
 219        `--left-right`.
 220+
 221For example, `--cherry-pick --right-only A...B` omits those
 222commits from `B` which are in `A` or are patch-equivalent to a commit in
 223`A`. In other words, this lists the `+` commits from `git cherry A B`.
 224More precisely, `--cherry-pick --right-only --no-merges` gives the exact
 225list.
 226
 227--cherry::
 228        A synonym for `--right-only --cherry-mark --no-merges`; useful to
 229        limit the output to the commits on our side and mark those that
 230        have been applied to the other side of a forked history with
 231        `git log --cherry upstream...mybranch`, similar to
 232        `git cherry upstream mybranch`.
 233
 234-g::
 235--walk-reflogs::
 236        Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
 237        reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
 238        When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
 239        exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
 240        nor 'commit1\...commit2' notations cannot be used).
 241+
 242With `--pretty` format other than `oneline` (for obvious reasons),
 243this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
 244taken from the reflog.  By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
 245used in the output.  When the starting commit is specified as
 246'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
 247instead.  Under `--pretty=oneline`, the commit message is
 248prefixed with this information on the same line.
 249This option cannot be combined with `--reverse`.
 250See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
 251
 252--merge::
 253        After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
 254        conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
 255
 256--boundary::
 257        Output excluded boundary commits. Boundary commits are
 258        prefixed with `-`.
 259
 260--
 261
 262History Simplification
 263~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 264
 265Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
 266commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
 267'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
 268is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
 269
 270The following options select the commits to be shown:
 271
 272<paths>::
 273        Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
 274
 275--simplify-by-decoration::
 276        Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
 277
 278Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
 279
 280The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
 281
 282Default mode::
 283        Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
 284        final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
 285        branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
 286        with the same content)
 287
 288--full-history::
 289        Same as the default mode, but does not prune some history.
 290
 291--dense::
 292        Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
 293        meaningful history.
 294
 295--sparse::
 296        All commits in the simplified history are shown.
 297
 298--simplify-merges::
 299        Additional option to `--full-history` to remove some needless
 300        merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
 301        commits contributing to this merge.
 302
 303--ancestry-path::
 304        When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2'
 305        or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist
 306        directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and
 307        'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1',
 308        and ancestors of 'commit2'.
 309
 310A more detailed explanation follows.
 311
 312Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>.  We shall call commits
 313that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME.  (In a diff
 314filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
 315
 316In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
 317illustrate the differences between simplification settings.  We assume
 318that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
 319-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 320          .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
 321         /     /   /   /   /   /
 322        I     B   C   D   E   Y
 323         \   /   /   /   /   /
 324          `-------------'   X
 325-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 326The horizontal line of history A---Q is taken to be the first parent of
 327each merge.  The commits are:
 328
 329* `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
 330  ``asdf'', and a file `quux` exists with contents ``quux''. Initial
 331  commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
 332
 333* In `A`, `foo` contains just ``foo''.
 334
 335* `B` contains the same change as `A`.  Its merge `M` is trivial and
 336  hence TREESAME to all parents.
 337
 338* `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to ``foobar'',
 339  so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
 340
 341* `D` sets `foo` to ``baz''. Its merge `O` combines the strings from
 342  `N` and `D` to ``foobarbaz''; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
 343
 344* `E` changes `quux` to ``xyzzy'', and its merge `P` combines the
 345  strings to ``quux xyzzy''. `P` is TREESAME to `O`, but not to `E`.
 346
 347* `X` is an independent root commit that added a new file `side`, and `Y`
 348  modified it. `Y` is TREESAME to `X`. Its merge `Q` added `side` to `P`, and
 349  `Q` is TREESAME to `P`, but not to `Y`.
 350
 351`rev-list` walks backwards through history, including or excluding
 352commits based on whether `--full-history` and/or parent rewriting
 353(via `--parents` or `--children`) are used. The following settings
 354are available.
 355
 356Default mode::
 357        Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
 358        (though this can be changed, see `--sparse` below).  If the
 359        commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
 360        only that parent.  (Even if there are several TREESAME
 361        parents, follow only one of them.)  Otherwise, follow all
 362        parents.
 363+
 364This results in:
 365+
 366-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 367          .-A---N---O
 368         /     /   /
 369        I---------D
 370-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 371+
 372Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
 373available, removed `B` from consideration entirely.  `C` was
 374considered via `N`, but is TREESAME.  Root commits are compared to an
 375empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
 376+
 377Parent/child relations are only visible with `--parents`, but that does
 378not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
 379parent lines.
 380
 381--full-history without parent rewriting::
 382        This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
 383        all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
 384        Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
 385        included, this does not imply that the merge itself is!  In
 386        the example, we get
 387+
 388-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 389        I  A  B  N  D  O  P  Q
 390-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 391+
 392`M` was excluded because it is TREESAME to both parents.  `E`,
 393`C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
 394do not appear.
 395+
 396Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
 397about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
 398them disconnected.
 399
 400--full-history with parent rewriting::
 401        Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
 402        (though this can be changed, see `--sparse` below).
 403+
 404Merges are always included.  However, their parent list is rewritten:
 405Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
 406themselves.  This results in
 407+
 408-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 409          .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
 410         /     /   /   /   /
 411        I     B   /   D   /
 412         \   /   /   /   /
 413          `-------------'
 414-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 415+
 416Compare to `--full-history` without rewriting above.  Note that `E`
 417was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
 418rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`.  The same happened for `C` and
 419`N`, and `X`, `Y` and `Q`.
 420
 421In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
 422affects inclusion:
 423
 424--dense::
 425        Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
 426        to any parent.
 427
 428--sparse::
 429        All commits that are walked are included.
 430+
 431Note that without `--full-history`, this still simplifies merges: if
 432one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
 433sides of the merge are never walked.
 434
 435--simplify-merges::
 436        First, build a history graph in the same way that
 437        `--full-history` with parent rewriting does (see above).
 438+
 439Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
 440history according to the following rules:
 441+
 442--
 443* Set `C'` to `C`.
 444+
 445* Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`.  In
 446  the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents or that are
 447  root commits TREESAME to an empty tree, and remove duplicates, but take care
 448  to never drop all parents that we are TREESAME to.
 449+
 450* If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
 451  zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
 452  Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
 453--
 454+
 455The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
 456`--full-history` with parent rewriting.  The example turns into:
 457+
 458-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 459          .-A---M---N---O
 460         /     /       /
 461        I     B       D
 462         \   /       /
 463          `---------'
 464-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 465+
 466Note the major differences in `N`, `P`, and `Q` over `--full-history`:
 467+
 468--
 469* `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
 470  other parent `M`.  Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
 471+
 472* `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed.  `P` was then
 473  removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
 474+
 475* `Q`'s parent list had `Y` simplified to `X`. `X` was then removed, because it
 476  was a TREESAME root. `Q` was then removed completely, because it had one
 477  parent and is TREESAME.
 478--
 479
 480Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available:
 481
 482--ancestry-path::
 483        Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry
 484        chain between the ``from'' and ``to'' commits in the given commit
 485        range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the ``to''
 486        commit and descendants of the ``from'' commit.
 487+
 488As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
 489+
 490-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 491            D---E-------F
 492           /     \       \
 493          B---C---G---H---I---J
 494         /                     \
 495        A-------K---------------L--M
 496-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 497+
 498A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`,
 499but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see
 500what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense
 501that ``what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`''. The result in this
 502example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself,
 503of course).
 504+
 505When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the
 506bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view
 507only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e.
 508excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the `--ancestry-path`
 509option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in:
 510+
 511-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 512                E-------F
 513                 \       \
 514                  G---H---I---J
 515                               \
 516                                L--M
 517-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 518
 519The `--simplify-by-decoration` option allows you to view only the
 520big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
 521that are not referenced by tags.  Commits are marked as !TREESAME
 522(in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
 523above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
 524contents of the paths given on the command line.  All other
 525commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
 526
 527ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 528Bisection Helpers
 529~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 530
 531--bisect::
 532        Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
 533        included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
 534        `refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
 535        exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
 536        added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
 537        are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
 538+
 539-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 540        $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
 541-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 542+
 543outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
 544+
 545-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 546        $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
 547        $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
 548-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 549+
 550would be of roughly the same length.  Finding the change which
 551introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
 552generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
 553one.
 554
 555--bisect-vars::
 556        This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
 557        `refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
 558        text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
 559        name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
 560        expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
 561        to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if
 562        `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected
 563        number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
 564        `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to
 565        `bisect_all`.
 566
 567--bisect-all::
 568        This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
 569        commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
 570        commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
 571        from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
 572        `--bisect`.)
 573+
 574This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
 575test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
 576may not compile for example).
 577+
 578This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
 579after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
 580`--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
 581endif::git-rev-list[]
 582
 583
 584Commit Ordering
 585~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 586
 587By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
 588
 589--date-order::
 590        Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
 591        otherwise show commits in the commit timestamp order.
 592
 593--author-date-order::
 594        Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
 595        otherwise show commits in the author timestamp order.
 596
 597--topo-order::
 598        Show no parents before all of its children are shown, and
 599        avoid showing commits on multiple lines of history
 600        intermixed.
 601+
 602For example, in a commit history like this:
 603+
 604----------------------------------------------------------------
 605
 606    ---1----2----4----7
 607        \              \
 608         3----5----6----8---
 609
 610----------------------------------------------------------------
 611+
 612where the numbers denote the order of commit timestamps, `git
 613rev-list` and friends with `--date-order` show the commits in the
 614timestamp order: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.
 615+
 616With `--topo-order`, they would show 8 6 5 3 7 4 2 1 (or 8 7 4 2 6 5
 6173 1); some older commits are shown before newer ones in order to
 618avoid showing the commits from two parallel development track mixed
 619together.
 620
 621--reverse::
 622        Output the commits in reverse order.
 623        Cannot be combined with `--walk-reflogs`.
 624
 625Object Traversal
 626~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 627
 628These options are mostly targeted for packing of Git repositories.
 629
 630--objects::
 631        Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
 632        commits.  `--objects foo ^bar` thus means ``send me
 633        all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
 634        object _bar_ but not _foo_''.
 635
 636--objects-edge::
 637        Similar to `--objects`, but also print the IDs of excluded
 638        commits prefixed with a ``-'' character.  This is used by
 639        linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build ``thin'' pack, which records
 640        objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
 641        excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
 642
 643--unpacked::
 644        Only useful with `--objects`; print the object IDs that are not
 645        in packs.
 646
 647--no-walk[=(sorted|unsorted)]::
 648        Only show the given commits, but do not traverse their ancestors.
 649        This has no effect if a range is specified. If the argument
 650        `unsorted` is given, the commits are shown in the order they were
 651        given on the command line. Otherwise (if `sorted` or no argument
 652        was given), the commits are shown in reverse chronological order
 653        by commit time.
 654
 655--do-walk::
 656        Overrides a previous `--no-walk`.
 657
 658Commit Formatting
 659~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 660
 661ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 662Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
 663more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
 664linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
 665endif::git-rev-list[]
 666
 667include::pretty-options.txt[]
 668
 669--relative-date::
 670        Synonym for `--date=relative`.
 671
 672--date=(relative|local|default|iso|rfc|short|raw)::
 673        Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such
 674        as when using `--pretty`. `log.date` config variable sets a default
 675        value for the log command's `--date` option.
 676+
 677`--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
 678e.g. ``2 hours ago''.
 679+
 680`--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local time zone.
 681+
 682`--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format.
 683+
 684`--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
 685format, often found in email messages.
 686+
 687`--date=short` shows only the date, but not the time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
 688+
 689`--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw Git format `%s %z` format.
 690+
 691`--date=default` shows timestamps in the original time zone
 692(either committer's or author's).
 693
 694ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 695--header::
 696        Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
 697        separated with a NUL character.
 698endif::git-rev-list[]
 699
 700--parents::
 701        Print also the parents of the commit (in the form "commit parent...").
 702        Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
 703
 704--children::
 705        Print also the children of the commit (in the form "commit child...").
 706        Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
 707
 708ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 709--timestamp::
 710        Print the raw commit timestamp.
 711endif::git-rev-list[]
 712
 713--left-right::
 714        Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from.
 715        Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
 716        the right with `>`.  If combined with `--boundary`, those
 717        commits are prefixed with `-`.
 718+
 719For example, if you have this topology:
 720+
 721-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 722             y---b---b  branch B
 723            / \ /
 724           /   .
 725          /   / \
 726         o---x---a---a  branch A
 727-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 728+
 729you would get an output like this:
 730+
 731-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 732        $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
 733
 734        >bbbbbbb... 3rd on b
 735        >bbbbbbb... 2nd on b
 736        <aaaaaaa... 3rd on a
 737        <aaaaaaa... 2nd on a
 738        -yyyyyyy... 1st on b
 739        -xxxxxxx... 1st on a
 740-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 741
 742--graph::
 743        Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
 744        on the left hand side of the output.  This may cause extra lines
 745        to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
 746        to be drawn properly.
 747+
 748This enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
 749+
 750This implies the `--topo-order` option by default, but the
 751`--date-order` option may also be specified.
 752
 753ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 754--count::
 755        Print a number stating how many commits would have been
 756        listed, and suppress all other output.  When used together
 757        with `--left-right`, instead print the counts for left and
 758        right commits, separated by a tab. When used together with
 759        `--cherry-mark`, omit patch equivalent commits from these
 760        counts and print the count for equivalent commits separated
 761        by a tab.
 762endif::git-rev-list[]
 763
 764ifndef::git-rev-list[]
 765Diff Formatting
 766~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 767
 768Listed below are options that control the formatting of diff output.
 769Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
 770options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
 771
 772-c::
 773        With this option, diff output for a merge commit
 774        shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
 775        simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
 776        and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
 777        which were modified from all parents.
 778
 779--cc::
 780        This flag implies the `-c` option and further compresses the
 781        patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
 782        the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
 783        one of them without modification.
 784
 785-m::
 786        This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
 787        regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
 788        and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
 789        the first parent is shown when `--first-parent` option is given;
 790        in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
 791        brought _into_ the then-current branch.
 792
 793-r::
 794        Show recursive diffs.
 795
 796-t::
 797        Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies `-r`.
 798endif::git-rev-list[]