1git-format-patch(1) 2=================== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-format-patch - Prepare patches for e-mail submission 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git format-patch' [-k] [-o <dir> | --stdout] [--thread] 13 [--attach[=<boundary>] | --inline[=<boundary>]] 14 [-s | --signoff] [<common diff options>] 15 [-n | --numbered | -N | --no-numbered] 16 [--start-number <n>] [--numbered-files] 17 [--in-reply-to=Message-Id] [--suffix=.<sfx>] 18 [--ignore-if-in-upstream] 19 [--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix] 20 [--cc=<email>] 21 [--cover-letter] 22 [ <since> | <revision range> ] 23 24DESCRIPTION 25----------- 26 27Prepare each commit with its patch in 28one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format. 29The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or 30for use with 'git-am'. 31 32There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on. 33 341. A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading 35 to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history 36 that leads to the <since> to be output. 37 382. Generic <revision range> expression (see "SPECIFYING 39 REVISIONS" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]) means the 40 commits in the specified range. 41 42A single commit, when interpreted as a <revision range> 43expression, means "everything that leads to that commit", but 44if you write 'git format-patch <commit>', the previous rule 45applies to that command line and you do not get "everything 46since the beginning of the time". If you want to format 47everything since project inception to one commit, say "git 48format-patch \--root <commit>" to make it clear that it is the 49latter case. If you want to format a single commit, you can do 50this with "git format-patch -1 <commit>". 51 52By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the 53first line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as 54the filename. With the --numbered-files option, the output file names 55will only be numbers, without the first line of the commit appended. 56The names of the output files are printed to standard 57output, unless the --stdout option is specified. 58 59If -o is specified, output files are created in <dir>. Otherwise 60they are created in the current working directory. 61 62If -n is specified, instead of "[PATCH] Subject", the first line 63is formatted as "[PATCH n/m] Subject". 64 65If given --thread, 'git-format-patch' will generate In-Reply-To and 66References headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear 67as replies to the first mail; this also generates a Message-Id header to 68reference. 69 70OPTIONS 71------- 72:git-format-patch: 1 73include::diff-options.txt[] 74 75-<n>:: 76 Limits the number of patches to prepare. 77 78-o <dir>:: 79--output-directory <dir>:: 80 Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the 81 current working directory. 82 83-n:: 84--numbered:: 85 Name output in '[PATCH n/m]' format. 86 87-N:: 88--no-numbered:: 89 Name output in '[PATCH]' format. 90 91--start-number <n>:: 92 Start numbering the patches at <n> instead of 1. 93 94--numbered-files:: 95 Output file names will be a simple number sequence 96 without the default first line of the commit appended. 97 Mutually exclusive with the --stdout option. 98 99-k:: 100--keep-subject:: 101 Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the 102 commit log message. 103 104-s:: 105--signoff:: 106 Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using 107 the committer identity of yourself. 108 109--stdout:: 110 Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, 111 instead of creating a file for each one. 112 113--attach[=<boundary>]:: 114 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 115 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 116 second part, with "Content-Disposition: attachment". 117 118--inline[=<boundary>]:: 119 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of 120 which is the commit message and the patch itself in the 121 second part, with "Content-Disposition: inline". 122 123--thread:: 124 Add In-Reply-To and References headers to make the second and 125 subsequent mails appear as replies to the first. Also generates 126 the Message-Id header to reference. 127 128--in-reply-to=Message-Id:: 129 Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a 130 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to 131 provide a new patch series. 132 133--ignore-if-in-upstream:: 134 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in 135 <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable 136 from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the 137 patches being generated, and any patch that matches is 138 ignored. 139 140--subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: 141 Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject 142 line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This 143 allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be 144 combined with the --numbered option. 145 146--cc=<email>:: 147 Add a "Cc:" header to the email headers. This is in addition 148 to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. 149 150--cover-letter:: 151 In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file 152 containing the shortlog and the overall diffstat. You can 153 fill in a description in the file before sending it out. 154 155--suffix=.<sfx>:: 156 Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated 157 filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is 158 `--suffix=.txt`. 159+ 160Note that you would need to include the leading dot `.` if you 161want a filename like `0001-description-of-my-change.patch`, and 162the first letter does not have to be a dot. Leaving it empty would 163not add any suffix. 164 165--no-binary:: 166 Don't output contents of changes in binary files, just take note 167 that they differ. Note that this disable the patch to be properly 168 applied. By default the contents of changes in those files are 169 encoded in the patch. 170 171CONFIGURATION 172------------- 173You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message 174in the repository configuration, new defaults for the subject prefix 175and file suffix, and number patches when outputting more than one. 176 177------------ 178[format] 179 headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" 180 subjectprefix = CHANGE 181 suffix = .txt 182 numbered = auto 183 cc = <email> 184------------ 185 186 187EXAMPLES 188-------- 189 190* Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of 191the current branch using 'git-am' to cherry-pick them: 192+ 193------------ 194$ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git am -3 -k 195------------ 196 197* Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the 198origin branch: 199+ 200------------ 201$ git format-patch origin 202------------ 203+ 204For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory. 205 206* Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the inception of the 207project: 208+ 209------------ 210$ git format-patch --root origin 211------------ 212 213* The same as the previous one: 214+ 215------------ 216$ git format-patch -M -B origin 217------------ 218+ 219Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites 220intelligently to produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces 221the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review it. 222Note that the "patch" program does not understand renaming patches, so 223use it only when you know the recipient uses git to apply your patch. 224 225* Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them 226as e-mailable patches: 227+ 228------------ 229$ git format-patch -3 230------------ 231 232SEE ALSO 233-------- 234linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1] 235 236 237Author 238------ 239Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 240 241Documentation 242-------------- 243Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 244 245GIT 246--- 247Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite