SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
-'git cat-file' (-t | -s | -e | -p | <type> | --textconv ) <object>
-'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) < <list-of-objects>
+'git cat-file' (-t [--allow-unknown-type]| -s [--allow-unknown-type]| -e | -p | <type> | --textconv ) <object>
+'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) [--follow-symlinks] < <list-of-objects>
DESCRIPTION
-----------
--textconv::
Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case,
- <object> has be of the form <treeish>:<path>, or :<path> in order
+ <object> has be of the form <tree
-ish>:<path>, or :<path> in order
to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at <path>.
--batch::
not be combined with any other options or arguments. See the
section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details.
+--batch-all-objects::
+ Instead of reading a list of objects on stdin, perform the
+ requested batch operation on all objects in the repository and
+ any alternate object stores (not just reachable objects).
+ Requires `--batch` or `--batch-check` be specified. Note that
+ the objects are visited in order sorted by their hashes.
+
+--buffer::
+ Normally batch output is flushed after each object is output, so
+ that a process can interactively read and write from
+ `cat-file`. With this option, the output uses normal stdio
+ buffering; this is much more efficient when invoking
+ `--batch-check` on a large number of objects.
+
+--allow-unknown-type::
+ Allow -s or -t to query broken/corrupt objects of unknown type.
+
+--follow-symlinks::
+ With --batch or --batch-check, follow symlinks inside the
+ repository when requesting objects with extended SHA-1
+ expressions of the form tree-ish:path-in-tree. Instead of
+ providing output about the link itself, provide output about
+ the linked-to object. If a symlink points outside the
+ tree-ish (e.g. a link to /foo or a root-level link to ../foo),
+ the portion of the link which is outside the tree will be
+ printed.
++
+This option does not (currently) work correctly when an object in the
+index is specified (e.g. `:link` instead of `HEAD:link`) rather than
+one in the tree.
++
+This option cannot (currently) be used unless `--batch` or
+`--batch-check` is used.
++
+For example, consider a git repository containing:
++
+--
+ f: a file containing "hello\n"
+ link: a symlink to f
+ dir/link: a symlink to ../f
+ plink: a symlink to ../f
+ alink: a symlink to /etc/passwd
+--
++
+For a regular file `f`, `echo HEAD:f | git cat-file --batch` would print
++
+--
+ ce013625030ba8dba906f756967f9e9ca394464a blob 6
+--
++
+And `echo HEAD:link | git cat-file --batch --follow-symlinks` would
+print the same thing, as would `HEAD:dir/link`, as they both point at
+`HEAD:f`.
++
+Without `--follow-symlinks`, these would print data about the symlink
+itself. In the case of `HEAD:link`, you would see
++
+--
+ 4d1ae35ba2c8ec712fa2a379db44ad639ca277bd blob 1
+--
++
+Both `plink` and `alink` point outside the tree, so they would
+respectively print:
++
+--
+ symlink 4
+ ../f
+
+ symlink 11
+ /etc/passwd
+--
+
+
OUTPUT
------
If '-t' is specified, one of the <type>.
------------
If `--batch` or `--batch-check` is given, `cat-file` will read objects
-from stdin, one per line, and print information about them.
-
-Each line is considered as a whole object name, and is parsed as if
-given to linkgit:git-rev-parse[1].
+from stdin, one per line, and print information about them. By default,
+the whole line is considered as an object, as if it were fed to
+linkgit:git-rev-parse[1].
You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom
`<format>`. The `<format>` is copied literally to stdout for each
The size, in bytes, that the object takes up on disk. See the
note about on-disk sizes in the `CAVEATS` section below.
+`deltabase`::
+ If the object is stored as a delta on-disk, this expands to the
+ 40-hex sha1 of the delta base object. Otherwise, expands to the
+ null sha1 (40 zeroes). See `CAVEATS` below.
+
+`rest`::
+ If this atom is used in the output string, input lines are split
+ at the first whitespace boundary. All characters before that
+ whitespace are considered to be the object name; characters
+ after that first run of whitespace (i.e., the "rest" of the
+ line) are output in place of the `%(rest)` atom.
+
If no format is specified, the default format is `%(objectname)
%(objecttype) %(objectsize)`.
<object> SP missing LF
------------
+If --follow-symlinks is used, and a symlink in the repository points
+outside the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format
+and print:
+
+------------
+symlink SP <size> LF
+<symlink> LF
+------------
+
+The symlink will either be absolute (beginning with a /), or relative
+to the tree root. For instance, if dir/link points to ../../foo, then
+<symlink> will be ../foo. <size> is the size of the symlink in bytes.
+
+If --follow-symlinks is used, the following error messages will be
+displayed:
+
+------------
+<object> SP missing LF
+------------
+is printed when the initial symlink requested does not exist.
+
+------------
+dangling SP <size> LF
+<object> LF
+------------
+is printed when the initial symlink exists, but something that
+it (transitive-of) points to does not.
+
+------------
+loop SP <size> LF
+<object> LF
+------------
+is printed for symlink loops (or any symlinks that
+require more than 40 link resolutions to resolve).
+
+------------
+notdir SP <size> LF
+<object> LF
+------------
+is printed when, during symlink resolution, a file is used as a
+directory name.
CAVEATS
-------
responsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object may be
much larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but the
choice of which object is the base and which is the delta is arbitrary
-and is subject to change during a repack. Note also that multiple copies
-of an object may be present in the object database; in this case, it is
-undefined which copy's size will be reported.
+and is subject to change during a repack.
+Note also that multiple copies of an object may be present in the object
+database; in this case, it is undefined which copy's size or delta base
+will be reported.
GIT
---