1git-notes(1) 2============ 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-notes - Add or inspect object notes 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git notes' [list [<object>]] 12'git notes' add [-f] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>] 13'git notes' copy [-f] ( --stdin | <from-object> <to-object> ) 14'git notes' append [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>] 15'git notes' edit [<object>] 16'git notes' show [<object>] 17'git notes' merge [-v | -q] [-s <strategy> ] <notes_ref> 18'git notes' merge --commit [-v | -q] 19'git notes' merge --abort [-v | -q] 20'git notes' remove [<object>...] 21'git notes' prune [-n | -v] 22'git notes' get-ref 23 24 25DESCRIPTION 26----------- 27Adds, removes, or reads notes attached to objects, without touching 28the objects themselves. 29 30By default, notes are saved to and read from `refs/notes/commits`, but 31this default can be overridden. See the OPTIONS, CONFIGURATION, and 32ENVIRONMENT sections below. If this ref does not exist, it will be 33quietly created when it is first needed to store a note. 34 35A typical use of notes is to supplement a commit message without 36changing the commit itself. Notes can be shown by 'git log' along with 37the original commit message. To distinguish these notes from the 38message stored in the commit object, the notes are indented like the 39message, after an unindented line saying "Notes (<refname>):" (or 40"Notes:" for `refs/notes/commits`). 41 42To change which notes are shown by 'git log', see the 43"notes.displayRef" configuration in linkgit:git-log[1]. 44 45See the "notes.rewrite.<command>" configuration for a way to carry 46notes across commands that rewrite commits. 47 48 49SUBCOMMANDS 50----------- 51 52list:: 53 List the notes object for a given object. If no object is 54 given, show a list of all note objects and the objects they 55 annotate (in the format "<note object> <annotated object>"). 56 This is the default subcommand if no subcommand is given. 57 58add:: 59 Add notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). Abort if the 60 object already has notes (use `-f` to overwrite existing notes). 61 However, if you're using `add` interactively (using an editor 62 to supply the notes contents), then - instead of aborting - 63 the existing notes will be opened in the editor (like the `edit` 64 subcommand). 65 66copy:: 67 Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object. 68 Abort if the second object already has notes, or if the first 69 object has none (use -f to overwrite existing notes to the 70 second object). This subcommand is equivalent to: 71 `git notes add [-f] -C $(git notes list <from-object>) <to-object>` 72+ 73In `\--stdin` mode, take lines in the format 74+ 75---------- 76<from-object> SP <to-object> [ SP <rest> ] LF 77---------- 78+ 79on standard input, and copy the notes from each <from-object> to its 80corresponding <to-object>. (The optional `<rest>` is ignored so that 81the command can read the input given to the `post-rewrite` hook.) 82 83append:: 84 Append to the notes of an existing object (defaults to HEAD). 85 Creates a new notes object if needed. 86 87edit:: 88 Edit the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). 89 90show:: 91 Show the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). 92 93merge:: 94 Merge the given notes ref into the current notes ref. 95 This will try to merge the changes made by the given 96 notes ref (called "remote") since the merge-base (if 97 any) into the current notes ref (called "local"). 98+ 99If conflicts arise and a strategy for automatically resolving 100conflicting notes (see the -s/--strategy option) is not given, 101the "manual" resolver is used. This resolver checks out the 102conflicting notes in a special worktree (`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), 103and instructs the user to manually resolve the conflicts there. 104When done, the user can either finalize the merge with 105'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with 106'git notes merge --abort'. 107 108remove:: 109 Remove the notes for given objects (defaults to HEAD). When 110 giving zero or one object from the command line, this is 111 equivalent to specifying an empty note message to 112 the `edit` subcommand. 113 114prune:: 115 Remove all notes for non-existing/unreachable objects. 116 117get-ref:: 118 Print the current notes ref. This provides an easy way to 119 retrieve the current notes ref (e.g. from scripts). 120 121OPTIONS 122------- 123-f:: 124--force:: 125 When adding notes to an object that already has notes, 126 overwrite the existing notes (instead of aborting). 127 128-m <msg>:: 129--message=<msg>:: 130 Use the given note message (instead of prompting). 131 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values 132 are concatenated as separate paragraphs. 133 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a 134 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out. 135 136-F <file>:: 137--file=<file>:: 138 Take the note message from the given file. Use '-' to 139 read the note message from the standard input. 140 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a 141 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out. 142 143-C <object>:: 144--reuse-message=<object>:: 145 Take the note message from the given blob object (for 146 example, another note). 147 148-c <object>:: 149--reedit-message=<object>:: 150 Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that 151 the user can further edit the note message. 152 153--ref <ref>:: 154 Manipulate the notes tree in <ref>. This overrides 155 'GIT_NOTES_REF' and the "core.notesRef" configuration. The ref 156 is taken to be in `refs/notes/` if it is not qualified. 157 158-n:: 159--dry-run:: 160 Do not remove anything; just report the object names whose notes 161 would be removed. 162 163-s <strategy>:: 164--strategy=<strategy>:: 165 When merging notes, resolve notes conflicts using the given 166 strategy. The following strategies are recognized: "manual" 167 (default), "ours", "theirs", "union" and "cat_sort_uniq". 168 See the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section below for more 169 information on each notes merge strategy. 170 171--commit:: 172 Finalize an in-progress 'git notes merge'. Use this option 173 when you have resolved the conflicts that 'git notes merge' 174 stored in .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. This amends the partial 175 merge commit created by 'git notes merge' (stored in 176 .git/NOTES_MERGE_PARTIAL) by adding the notes in 177 .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. The notes ref stored in the 178 .git/NOTES_MERGE_REF symref is updated to the resulting commit. 179 180--abort:: 181 Abort/reset a in-progress 'git notes merge', i.e. a notes merge 182 with conflicts. This simply removes all files related to the 183 notes merge. 184 185-q:: 186--quiet:: 187 When merging notes, operate quietly. 188 189-v:: 190--verbose:: 191 When merging notes, be more verbose. 192 When pruning notes, report all object names whose notes are 193 removed. 194 195 196DISCUSSION 197---------- 198 199Commit notes are blobs containing extra information about an object 200(usually information to supplement a commit's message). These blobs 201are taken from notes refs. A notes ref is usually a branch which 202contains "files" whose paths are the object names for the objects 203they describe, with some directory separators included for performance 204reasons footnote:[Permitted pathnames have the form 205'ab'`/`'cd'`/`'ef'`/`'...'`/`'abcdef...': a sequence of directory 206names of two hexadecimal digits each followed by a filename with the 207rest of the object ID.]. 208 209Every notes change creates a new commit at the specified notes ref. 210You can therefore inspect the history of the notes by invoking, e.g., 211`git log -p notes/commits`. Currently the commit message only records 212which operation triggered the update, and the commit authorship is 213determined according to the usual rules (see linkgit:git-commit[1]). 214These details may change in the future. 215 216It is also permitted for a notes ref to point directly to a tree 217object, in which case the history of the notes can be read with 218`git log -p -g <refname>`. 219 220 221NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES 222---------------------- 223 224The default notes merge strategy is "manual", which checks out 225conflicting notes in a special work tree for resolving notes conflicts 226(`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), and instructs the user to resolve the 227conflicts in that work tree. 228When done, the user can either finalize the merge with 229'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with 230'git notes merge --abort'. 231 232"ours" automatically resolves conflicting notes in favor of the local 233version (i.e. the current notes ref). 234 235"theirs" automatically resolves notes conflicts in favor of the remote 236version (i.e. the given notes ref being merged into the current notes 237ref). 238 239"union" automatically resolves notes conflicts by concatenating the 240local and remote versions. 241 242"cat_sort_uniq" is similar to "union", but in addition to concatenating 243the local and remote versions, this strategy also sorts the resulting 244lines, and removes duplicate lines from the result. This is equivalent 245to applying the "cat | sort | uniq" shell pipeline to the local and 246remote versions. This strategy is useful if the notes follow a line-based 247format where one wants to avoid duplicated lines in the merge result. 248Note that if either the local or remote version contain duplicate lines 249prior to the merge, these will also be removed by this notes merge 250strategy. 251 252 253EXAMPLES 254-------- 255 256You can use notes to add annotations with information that was not 257available at the time a commit was written. 258 259------------ 260$ git notes add -m 'Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>' 72a144e2 261$ git show -s 72a144e 262[...] 263 Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 264 265Notes: 266 Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org> 267------------ 268 269In principle, a note is a regular Git blob, and any kind of 270(non-)format is accepted. You can binary-safely create notes from 271arbitrary files using 'git hash-object': 272 273------------ 274$ cc *.c 275$ blob=$(git hash-object -w a.out) 276$ git notes --ref=built add -C "$blob" HEAD 277------------ 278 279Of course, it doesn't make much sense to display non-text-format notes 280with 'git log', so if you use such notes, you'll probably need to write 281some special-purpose tools to do something useful with them. 282 283 284CONFIGURATION 285------------- 286 287core.notesRef:: 288 Notes ref to read and manipulate instead of 289 `refs/notes/commits`. Must be an unabbreviated ref name. 290 This setting can be overridden through the environment and 291 command line. 292 293notes.displayRef:: 294 Which ref (or refs, if a glob or specified more than once), in 295 addition to the default set by `core.notesRef` or 296 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit 297 messages with the 'git log' family of commands. 298 This setting can be overridden on the command line or by the 299 'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF' environment variable. 300 See linkgit:git-log[1]. 301 302notes.rewrite.<command>:: 303 When rewriting commits with <command> (currently `amend` or 304 `rebase`), if this variable is `false`, git will not copy 305 notes from the original to the rewritten commit. Defaults to 306 `true`. See also "`notes.rewriteRef`" below. 307+ 308This setting can be overridden by the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' 309environment variable. 310 311notes.rewriteMode:: 312 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target 313 commit already has a note. Must be one of `overwrite`, 314 `concatenate`, and `ignore`. Defaults to `concatenate`. 315+ 316This setting can be overridden with the `GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE` 317environment variable. 318 319notes.rewriteRef:: 320 When copying notes during a rewrite, specifies the (fully 321 qualified) ref whose notes should be copied. May be a glob, 322 in which case notes in all matching refs will be copied. You 323 may also specify this configuration several times. 324+ 325Does not have a default value; you must configure this variable to 326enable note rewriting. 327+ 328Can be overridden with the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' environment variable. 329 330 331ENVIRONMENT 332----------- 333 334'GIT_NOTES_REF':: 335 Which ref to manipulate notes from, instead of `refs/notes/commits`. 336 This overrides the `core.notesRef` setting. 337 338'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF':: 339 Colon-delimited list of refs or globs indicating which refs, 340 in addition to the default from `core.notesRef` or 341 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit 342 messages. 343 This overrides the `notes.displayRef` setting. 344+ 345A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist, but a glob that 346does not match any refs is silently ignored. 347 348'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE':: 349 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target 350 commit already has a note. 351 Must be one of `overwrite`, `concatenate`, and `ignore`. 352 This overrides the `core.rewriteMode` setting. 353 354'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF':: 355 When rewriting commits, which notes to copy from the original 356 to the rewritten commit. Must be a colon-delimited list of 357 refs or globs. 358+ 359If not set in the environment, the list of notes to copy depends 360on the `notes.rewrite.<command>` and `notes.rewriteRef` settings. 361 362 363Author 364------ 365Written by Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> and 366Johan Herland <johan@herland.net> 367 368Documentation 369------------- 370Documentation by Johannes Schindelin and Johan Herland 371 372GIT 373--- 374Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite