NAME
----
-git-apply - Apply a patch on a git index file and a working tree
+git-apply - Apply a patch to files and/or to the index
SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'git apply' [--stat] [--numstat] [--summary] [--check] [--index]
- [--apply] [--no-add] [--build-fake-ancestor <file>] [-R | --reverse]
+ [--apply] [--no-add] [--build-fake-ancestor=<file>] [-R | --reverse]
[--allow-binary-replacement | --binary] [--reject] [-z]
[-pNUM] [-CNUM] [--inaccurate-eof] [--recount] [--cached]
+ [--ignore-space-change | --ignore-whitespace ]
[--whitespace=<nowarn|warn|fix|error|error-all>]
[--exclude=PATH] [--include=PATH] [--directory=<root>]
[--verbose] [<patch>...]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-Reads supplied 'diff' output and applies it on a git index file
-and a work tree.
+Reads the supplied diff output (i.e. "a patch") and applies it to files.
+With the `--index` option the patch is also applied to the index, and
+with the `--cache` option the patch is only applied to the index.
+Without these options, the command applies the patch only to files,
+and does not require them to be in a git repository.
+
+This command applies the patch but does not create a commit. Use
+linkgit:git-am[1] to create commits from patches generated by
+linkgit:git-format-patch[1] and/or received by email.
OPTIONS
-------
<patch>...::
- The files to read patch from. '-' can be used to read
+ The files to read the patch from. '-' can be used to read
from the standard input.
--stat::
input. Turns off "apply".
--numstat::
- Similar to \--stat, but shows number of added and
- deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
+ Similar to `--stat`, but shows the number of added and
+ deleted lines in decimal notation and the pathname without
abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly. For
binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
`0 0`. Turns off "apply".
--check::
Instead of applying the patch, see if the patch is
- applicable to the current work tree and/or the index
+ applicable to the current working tree and/or the index
file and detects errors. Turns off "apply".
--index::
- When --check is in effect, or when applying the patch
+ When `--check` is in effect, or when applying the patch
(which is the default when none of the options that
disables it is in effect), make sure the patch is
applicable to what the current index file records. If
- the file to be patched in the work tree is not
+ the file to be patched in the working tree is not
up-to-date, it is flagged as an error. This flag also
causes the index file to be updated.
--cached::
- Apply a patch without touching the working tree. Instead, take the
- cached data, apply the patch, and store the result in the index,
- without using the working tree. This implies '--index'.
+ Apply a patch without touching the working tree. Instead take the
+ cached data, apply the patch, and store the result in the index
+ without using the working tree. This implies `--index`.
---build-fake-ancestor <file>::
- Newer 'git-diff' output has embedded 'index information'
+--build-fake-ancestor=<file>::
+ Newer 'git diff' output has embedded 'index information'
for each blob to help identify the original version that
the patch applies to. When this flag is given, and if
- the original versions of the blobs is available locally,
+ the original versions of the blobs are available locally,
builds a temporary index containing those blobs.
+
When a pure mode change is encountered (which has no index information),
Apply the patch in reverse.
--reject::
- For atomicity, 'git-apply' by default fails the whole patch and
+ For atomicity, 'git apply' by default fails the whole patch and
does not touch the working tree when some of the hunks
do not apply. This option makes it apply
the parts of the patch that are applicable, and leave the
rejected hunks in corresponding *.rej files.
-z::
- When showing the index information, do not munge paths,
- but use NUL terminated machine readable format. Without
- this flag, the pathnames output will have TAB, LF, and
- backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, and `\\`,
- respectively.
+ When `--numstat` has been given, do not munge pathnames,
+ but use a NUL-terminated machine-readable format.
++
+Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double quotes,
+and backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, `\"`, and `\\`,
+respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
+any of those replacements occurred.
-p<n>::
Remove <n> leading slashes from traditional diff paths. The
ever ignored.
--unidiff-zero::
- By default, 'git-apply' expects that the patch being
+ By default, 'git apply' expects that the patch being
applied is a unified diff with at least one line of context.
This provides good safety measures, but breaks down when
- applying a diff generated with --unified=0. To bypass these
- checks use '--unidiff-zero'.
+ applying a diff generated with `--unified=0`. To bypass these
+ checks use `--unidiff-zero`.
+
-Note, for the reasons stated above usage of context-free patches are
+Note, for the reasons stated above usage of context-free patches is
discouraged.
--apply::
If you use any of the options marked "Turns off
- 'apply'" above, 'git-apply' reads and outputs the
- information you asked without actually applying the
+ 'apply'" above, 'git apply' reads and outputs the
+ requested information without actually applying the
patch. Give this flag after those flags to also apply
the patch.
patch. This can be used to extract the common part between
two files by first running 'diff' on them and applying
the result with this option, which would apply the
- deletion part but not addition part.
+ deletion part but not the addition part.
--allow-binary-replacement::
--binary::
be useful when importing patchsets, where you want to include certain
files or directories.
+
-When --exclude and --include patterns are used, they are examined in the
+When `--exclude` and `--include` patterns are used, they are examined in the
order they appear on the command line, and the first match determines if a
patch to each path is used. A patch to a path that does not match any
include/exclude pattern is used by default if there is no include pattern
on the command line, and ignored if there is any include pattern.
+--ignore-space-change::
+--ignore-whitespace::
+ When applying a patch, ignore changes in whitespace in context
+ lines if necessary.
+ Context lines will preserve their whitespace, and they will not
+ undergo whitespace fixing regardless of the value of the
+ `--whitespace` option. New lines will still be fixed, though.
+
--whitespace=<action>::
When applying a patch, detect a new or modified line that has
whitespace errors. What are considered whitespace errors is
When `git-apply` is used for statistics and not applying a
patch, it defaults to `nowarn`.
+
-You can use different `<action>` to control this
+You can use different `<action>` values to control this
behavior:
+
* `nowarn` turns off the trailing whitespace warning.
patch as-is (default).
* `fix` outputs warnings for a few such errors, and applies the
patch after fixing them (`strip` is a synonym --- the tool
- used to consider only trailing whitespaces as errors, and the
+ used to consider only trailing whitespace characters as errors, and the
fix involved 'stripping' them, but modern gits do more).
* `error` outputs warnings for a few such errors, and refuses
to apply the patch.
adjusting the hunk headers appropriately).
--directory=<root>::
- Prepend <root> to all filenames. If a "-p" argument was passed, too,
+ Prepend <root> to all filenames. If a "-p" argument was also passed,
it is applied before prepending the new root.
+
For example, a patch that talks about updating `a/git-gui.sh` to `b/git-gui.sh`
Configuration
-------------
+apply.ignorewhitespace::
+ Set to 'change' if you want changes in whitespace to be ignored by default.
+ Set to one of: no, none, never, false if you want changes in
+ whitespace to be significant.
apply.whitespace::
When no `--whitespace` flag is given from the command
line, this configuration item is used as the default.
Submodules
----------
-If the patch contains any changes to submodules then 'git-apply'
+If the patch contains any changes to submodules then 'git apply'
treats these changes as follows.
-If --index is specified (explicitly or implicitly), then the submodule
+If `--index` is specified (explicitly or implicitly), then the submodule
commits must match the index exactly for the patch to apply. If any
of the submodules are checked-out, then these check-outs are completely
ignored, i.e., they are not required to be up-to-date or clean and they
are not updated.
-If --index is not specified, then the submodule commits in the patch
-are ignored and only the absence of presence of the corresponding
+If `--index` is not specified, then the submodule commits in the patch
+are ignored and only the absence or presence of the corresponding
subdirectory is checked and (if possible) updated.
+
+SEE ALSO
+--------
+linkgit:git-am[1].
+
+
Author
------
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>