[--in-reply-to=Message-Id] [--suffix=.<sfx>]
[--ignore-if-in-upstream]
[--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix]
- <since>[..<until>]
+ [ <since> | <revision range> ]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-Prepare each commit between <since> and <until> with its patch in
+Prepare each commit with its patch in
one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format.
-If ..<until> is not specified, the head of the current working
-tree is implied. For a more complete list of ways to spell
-<since> and <until>, see "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in
-gitlink:git-rev-parse[1].
-
The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or
for use with gitlink:git-am[1].
+There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on.
+
+1. A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading
+ to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history
+ that leads to the <since> to be output.
+
+2. Generic <revision range> expression (see "SPECIFYING
+ REVISIONS" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1]) means the
+ commits in the specified range.
+
+A single commit, when interpreted as a <revision range>
+expression, means "everything that leads to that commit", but
+if you write 'git format-patch <commit>', the previous rule
+applies to that command line and you do not get "everything
+since the beginning of the time". If you want to format
+everything since project inception to one commit, say "git
+format-patch \--root <commit>" to make it clear that it is the
+latter case.
+
By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the
first line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as
the filename. With the --numbered-files option, the output file names
--suffix=.<sfx>::
Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated
- filenames, use specifed suffix. A common alternative is
+ filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is
`--suffix=.txt`.
+
Note that you would need to include the leading dot `.` if you
not in the origin branch. For each commit a separate file
is created in the current directory.
+git-format-patch \--root origin::
+ Extract all commits which that leads to 'origin' since the
+ inception of the project.
+
git-format-patch -M -B origin::
The same as the previous one. Additionally, it detects
and handles renames and complete rewrites intelligently to