Documentation / git-commit.txton commit Documentation: add manpage about workflows (f948dd8)
   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]
  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;
  33
  344. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically
  35   "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
  36   listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
  37   that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
  38   actual commit;
  39
  405. by using the --interactive switch with the 'commit' command to decide one
  41   by one which files should be part of the commit, before finalizing the
  42   operation.  Currently, this is done by invoking 'git-add --interactive'.
  43
  44The 'git-status' command can be used to obtain a
  45summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
  46commit by giving the same set of parameters you would give to
  47this command.
  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 at the end of the commit message.
  98
  99-n::
 100--no-verify::
 101        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 102        See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 103
 104--allow-empty::
 105        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 106        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 107        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 108        is primarily for use by foreign scm interface scripts.
 109
 110--cleanup=<mode>::
 111        This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
 112        The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
 113        and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
 114        trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
 115        only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
 116        removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
 117        'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
 118        and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 119
 120-e::
 121--edit::
 122        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 123        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 124        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 125        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 126
 127--amend::
 128        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
 129        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
 130        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
 131        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
 132        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
 133        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
 134        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
 135        discarded.
 136+
 137--
 138It is a rough equivalent for:
 139------
 140        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 141        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 142        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 143
 144------
 145but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 146--
 147+
 148You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you
 149amend a commit that has already been published.  (See the "RECOVERING
 150FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1].)
 151
 152-i::
 153--include::
 154        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 155        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 156        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 157        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 158
 159-o::
 160--only::
 161        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 162        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 163        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 164        'git-commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 165        in which case this option can be omitted.
 166        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 167        no paths need be specified, which can be used to amend
 168        the last commit without committing changes that have
 169        already been staged.
 170
 171-u[<mode>]::
 172--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 173        Show untracked files (Default: 'all').
 174+
 175The mode parameter is optional, and is used to specify
 176the handling of untracked files. The possible options are:
 177+
 178--
 179        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 180        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 181        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 182--
 183+
 184See linkgit:git-config[1] for configuration variable
 185used to change the default for when the option is not
 186specified.
 187
 188-v::
 189--verbose::
 190        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 191        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 192        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 193        lines prefixed with '#'.
 194
 195-q::
 196--quiet::
 197        Suppress commit summary message.
 198
 199\--::
 200        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 201
 202<file>...::
 203        When files are given on the command line, the command
 204        commits the contents of the named files, without
 205        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 206        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 207        of what have been staged before.
 208
 209
 210EXAMPLES
 211--------
 212When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 213your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 214called the "index" with 'git-add'.  A file can be
 215reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 216to that of the last commit with `git reset HEAD -- <file>`,
 217which effectively reverts 'git-add' and prevents the changes to
 218this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 219the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 220`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 221has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 222command.  An example:
 223
 224------------
 225$ edit hello.c
 226$ git rm goodbye.c
 227$ git add hello.c
 228$ git commit
 229------------
 230
 231Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 232tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 233contents are tracked in
 234your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 235for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 236example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 237
 238------------
 239$ edit hello.c
 240$ rm goodbye.c
 241$ git commit -a
 242------------
 243
 244The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 245notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 246and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 247
 248After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 249changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 250When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 251only records the changes made to the named paths:
 252
 253------------
 254$ edit hello.c hello.h
 255$ git add hello.c hello.h
 256$ edit Makefile
 257$ git commit Makefile
 258------------
 259
 260This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 261The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 262in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 263they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 264sequence, if you do:
 265
 266------------
 267$ git commit
 268------------
 269
 270this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 271`hello.h` as expected.
 272
 273After a merge (initiated by 'git-merge' or 'git-pull') stops
 274because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 275paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 276conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 277check which paths are conflicting with 'git-status'
 278and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 279stage the result as usual with 'git-add':
 280
 281------------
 282$ git status | grep unmerged
 283unmerged: hello.c
 284$ edit hello.c
 285$ git add hello.c
 286------------
 287
 288After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 289would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 290run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 291
 292------------
 293$ git commit
 294------------
 295
 296As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 297option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 298resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 299alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 300should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 301refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 302
 303
 304DISCUSSION
 305----------
 306
 307Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 308with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 309change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 310Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
 311on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 312
 313include::i18n.txt[]
 314
 315ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 316---------------------------------------
 317The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 318GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 319VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 320order).
 321
 322HOOKS
 323-----
 324This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 325and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
 326information.
 327
 328
 329SEE ALSO
 330--------
 331linkgit:git-add[1],
 332linkgit:git-rm[1],
 333linkgit:git-mv[1],
 334linkgit:git-merge[1],
 335linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 336
 337Author
 338------
 339Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
 340Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
 341
 342
 343GIT
 344---
 345Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite