Documentation / git-commit.txton commit Merge branch 'gb/formatpatch-autonbr' (fd6e237)
   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 by the commiter at the end of the commit
  98        log message.
  99
 100-n::
 101--no-verify::
 102        This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
 103        See also linkgit:githooks[5].
 104
 105--allow-empty::
 106        Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
 107        sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
 108        from making such a commit.  This option bypasses the safety, and
 109        is primarily for use by foreign scm interface scripts.
 110
 111--cleanup=<mode>::
 112        This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
 113        The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
 114        and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
 115        trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
 116        only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
 117        removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
 118        'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
 119        and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 120
 121-e::
 122--edit::
 123        The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
 124        `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
 125        commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
 126        further edit the message taken from these sources.
 127
 128--amend::
 129        Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
 130        object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
 131        (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
 132        commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
 133        tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
 134        current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
 135        the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
 136        discarded.
 137+
 138--
 139It is a rough equivalent for:
 140------
 141        $ git reset --soft HEAD^
 142        $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
 143        $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
 144
 145------
 146but can be used to amend a merge commit.
 147--
 148
 149-i::
 150--include::
 151        Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
 152        stage the contents of paths given on the command line
 153        as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
 154        are concluding a conflicted merge.
 155
 156-o::
 157--only::
 158        Make a commit only from the paths specified on the
 159        command line, disregarding any contents that have been
 160        staged so far. This is the default mode of operation of
 161        'git-commit' if any paths are given on the command line,
 162        in which case this option can be omitted.
 163        If this option is specified together with '--amend', then
 164        no paths need be specified, which can be used to amend
 165        the last commit without committing changes that have
 166        already been staged.
 167
 168-u[<mode>]::
 169--untracked-files[=<mode>]::
 170        Show untracked files (Default: 'all').
 171+
 172The mode parameter is optional, and is used to specify
 173the handling of untracked files. The possible options are:
 174+
 175--
 176        - 'no'     - Show no untracked files
 177        - 'normal' - Shows untracked files and directories
 178        - 'all'    - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
 179--
 180+
 181See linkgit:git-config[1] for configuration variable
 182used to change the default for when the option is not
 183specified.
 184
 185-v::
 186--verbose::
 187        Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
 188        would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
 189        template.  Note that this diff output doesn't have its
 190        lines prefixed with '#'.
 191
 192-q::
 193--quiet::
 194        Suppress commit summary message.
 195
 196\--::
 197        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
 198
 199<file>...::
 200        When files are given on the command line, the command
 201        commits the contents of the named files, without
 202        recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
 203        these files are also staged for the next commit on top
 204        of what have been staged before.
 205
 206
 207EXAMPLES
 208--------
 209When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
 210your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
 211called the "index" with 'git-add'.  A file can be
 212reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
 213to that of the last commit with `git reset HEAD -- <file>`,
 214which effectively reverts 'git-add' and prevents the changes to
 215this file from participating in the next commit.  After building
 216the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
 217`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
 218has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
 219command.  An example:
 220
 221------------
 222$ edit hello.c
 223$ git rm goodbye.c
 224$ git add hello.c
 225$ git commit
 226------------
 227
 228Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
 229tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
 230contents are tracked in
 231your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
 232for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
 233example if there is no other change in your working tree:
 234
 235------------
 236$ edit hello.c
 237$ rm goodbye.c
 238$ git commit -a
 239------------
 240
 241The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
 242notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
 243and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
 244
 245After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
 246changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
 247When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
 248only records the changes made to the named paths:
 249
 250------------
 251$ edit hello.c hello.h
 252$ git add hello.c hello.h
 253$ edit Makefile
 254$ git commit Makefile
 255------------
 256
 257This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
 258The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
 259in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
 260they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
 261sequence, if you do:
 262
 263------------
 264$ git commit
 265------------
 266
 267this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
 268`hello.h` as expected.
 269
 270After a merge (initiated by 'git-merge' or 'git-pull') stops
 271because of conflicts, cleanly merged
 272paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
 273conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
 274check which paths are conflicting with 'git-status'
 275and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
 276stage the result as usual with 'git-add':
 277
 278------------
 279$ git status | grep unmerged
 280unmerged: hello.c
 281$ edit hello.c
 282$ git add hello.c
 283------------
 284
 285After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
 286would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
 287run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
 288
 289------------
 290$ git commit
 291------------
 292
 293As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
 294option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
 295resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
 296alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
 297should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
 298refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
 299
 300
 301DISCUSSION
 302----------
 303
 304Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
 305with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
 306change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
 307Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
 308on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
 309
 310include::i18n.txt[]
 311
 312ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 313---------------------------------------
 314The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
 315GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
 316VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
 317order).
 318
 319HOOKS
 320-----
 321This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
 322and `post-commit` hooks.  See linkgit:githooks[5] for more
 323information.
 324
 325
 326SEE ALSO
 327--------
 328linkgit:git-add[1],
 329linkgit:git-rm[1],
 330linkgit:git-mv[1],
 331linkgit:git-merge[1],
 332linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 333
 334Author
 335------
 336Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
 337Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
 338
 339
 340GIT
 341---
 342Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite