1git-cat-file(1) 2=============== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-cat-file - Provide content or type and size information for repository objects 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git cat-file' (-t | -s | -e | -p | <type> | --textconv ) <object> 13'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) < <list-of-objects> 14 15DESCRIPTION 16----------- 17In its first form, the command provides the content or the type of an object in 18the repository. The type is required unless '-t' or '-p' is used to find the 19object type, or '-s' is used to find the object size, or '--textconv' is used 20(which implies type "blob"). 21 22In the second form, a list of objects (separated by linefeeds) is provided on 23stdin, and the SHA-1, type, and size of each object is printed on stdout. 24 25OPTIONS 26------- 27<object>:: 28 The name of the object to show. 29 For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see 30 the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7]. 31 32-t:: 33 Instead of the content, show the object type identified by 34 <object>. 35 36-s:: 37 Instead of the content, show the object size identified by 38 <object>. 39 40-e:: 41 Suppress all output; instead exit with zero status if <object> 42 exists and is a valid object. 43 44-p:: 45 Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type. 46 47<type>:: 48 Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking 49 for a type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given 50 <object> is also permitted. An example is to ask for a 51 "tree" with <object> being a commit object that contains it, 52 or to ask for a "blob" with <object> being a tag object that 53 points at it. 54 55--textconv:: 56 Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case, 57 <object> has be of the form <tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path> in order 58 to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at <path>. 59 60--batch:: 61--batch=<format>:: 62 Print object information and contents for each object provided 63 on stdin. May not be combined with any other options or arguments. 64 See the section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. 65 66--batch-check:: 67--batch-check=<format>:: 68 Print object information for each object provided on stdin. May 69 not be combined with any other options or arguments. See the 70 section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. 71 72OUTPUT 73------ 74If '-t' is specified, one of the <type>. 75 76If '-s' is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes. 77 78If '-e' is specified, no output. 79 80If '-p' is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed. 81 82If <type> is specified, the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object> 83will be returned. 84 85BATCH OUTPUT 86------------ 87 88If `--batch` or `--batch-check` is given, `cat-file` will read objects 89from stdin, one per line, and print information about them. By default, 90the whole line is considered as an object, as if it were fed to 91linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. 92 93You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom 94`<format>`. The `<format>` is copied literally to stdout for each 95object, with placeholders of the form `%(atom)` expanded, followed by a 96newline. The available atoms are: 97 98`objectname`:: 99 The 40-hex object name of the object. 100 101`objecttype`:: 102 The type of of the object (the same as `cat-file -t` reports). 103 104`objectsize`:: 105 The size, in bytes, of the object (the same as `cat-file -s` 106 reports). 107 108`objectsize:disk`:: 109 The size, in bytes, that the object takes up on disk. See the 110 note about on-disk sizes in the `CAVEATS` section below. 111 112`deltabase`:: 113 If the object is stored as a delta on-disk, this expands to the 114 40-hex sha1 of the delta base object. Otherwise, expands to the 115 null sha1 (40 zeroes). See `CAVEATS` below. 116 117`rest`:: 118 If this atom is used in the output string, input lines are split 119 at the first whitespace boundary. All characters before that 120 whitespace are considered to be the object name; characters 121 after that first run of whitespace (i.e., the "rest" of the 122 line) are output in place of the `%(rest)` atom. 123 124If no format is specified, the default format is `%(objectname) 125%(objecttype) %(objectsize)`. 126 127If `--batch` is specified, the object information is followed by the 128object contents (consisting of `%(objectsize)` bytes), followed by a 129newline. 130 131For example, `--batch` without a custom format would produce: 132 133------------ 134<sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF 135<contents> LF 136------------ 137 138Whereas `--batch-check='%(objectname) %(objecttype)'` would produce: 139 140------------ 141<sha1> SP <type> LF 142------------ 143 144If a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object in 145the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format and print: 146 147------------ 148<object> SP missing LF 149------------ 150 151 152CAVEATS 153------- 154 155Note that the sizes of objects on disk are reported accurately, but care 156should be taken in drawing conclusions about which refs or objects are 157responsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object may be 158much larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but the 159choice of which object is the base and which is the delta is arbitrary 160and is subject to change during a repack. 161 162Note also that multiple copies of an object may be present in the object 163database; in this case, it is undefined which copy's size or delta base 164will be reported. 165 166GIT 167--- 168Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite