--parents::
- Print the parents of the commit.
+ Print the parents of the commit. Also enables parent
+ rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
--children::
- Print the children of the commit.
+ Print the children of the commit. Also enables parent
+ rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
ifdef::git-rev-list[]
--timestamp::
o---x---a---a branch A
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
-you would get an output line this:
+you would get an output like this:
+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
$ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
---full-history::
-
- Show also parts of history irrelevant to current state of given
- paths. This turns off history simplification, which removed merges
- which didn't change anything at all at some child. It will still actually
- simplify away merges that didn't change anything at all into either
- child.
-
+ --simplify-merges::
+
+ Simplify away commits that did not change the given paths, similar
+ to `--full-history`, and further remove merges none of whose
+ parent history changes the given paths.
+
--no-merges::
Do not print commits with more than one parent.
this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as
-'commit@{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
+'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
instead. Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is
prefixed with this information on the same line.
-
-Cannot be combined with '\--reverse'.
+This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'.
See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
--merge::
Output uninteresting commits at the boundary, which are usually
not shown.
+--
+
+History Simplification
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+When optional paths are given, 'git-rev-list' simplifies commits with
+various strategies, according to the options you have selected.
+
+Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
+that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
+filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
+
+In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
+illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume
+that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ .-A---M---N---O---P
+ / / / / /
+ I B C D E
+ \ / / / /
+ `-------------'
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+The horizontal line of history A--P is taken to be the first parent of
+each merge. The commits are:
+
+* `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
+ "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux". Initial
+ commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
+
+* In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo".
+
+* `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and
+ hence TREESAME to all parents.
+
+* `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar",
+ so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
+
+* `D` sets `foo` to "baz". Its merge `O` combines the strings from
+ `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
+
+* `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the
+ strings to "quux xyzzy". Despite appearing interesting, `P` is
+ TREESAME to all parents.
+
+'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding
+commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting
+(via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used. The following settings
+are available.
+
+Default mode::
+
+ Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
+ (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). If the
+ commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
+ only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME
+ parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all
+ parents.
++
+This results in:
++
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ .-A---N---O
+ / /
+ I---------D
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++
+Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
+available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was
+considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an
+empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
++
+Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does
+not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
+parent lines.
+
+--full-history without parent rewriting::
+
+ This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
+ all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
+ Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
+ included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In
+ the example, we get
++
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ I A B N D O
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++
+`P` and `M` were excluded because they are TREESAME to a parent. `E`,
+`C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
+do not appear.
++
+Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
+about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
+them disconnected.
+
+--full-history with parent rewriting::
+
+ Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
+ (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).
++
+Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten:
+Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
+themselves. This results in
++
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ .-A---M---N---O---P
+ / / / / /
+ I B / D /
+ \ / / / /
+ `-------------'
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
++
+Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above. Note that `E`
+was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
+rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and
+`N`. Note also that `P` was included despite being TREESAME.
+
+In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
+affects inclusion:
+
--dense::
+
+ Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
+ to any parent.
+
--sparse::
-When optional paths are given, the default behaviour ('--dense') is to
-only output commits that changes at least one of them, and also ignore
-merges that do not touch the given paths.
+ All commits that are walked are included.
++
+Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if
+one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
+sides of the merge are never walked.
-Use the '--sparse' flag to makes the command output all eligible commits
-(still subject to count and age limitation), but apply merge
-simplification nevertheless.
ifdef::git-rev-list[]
+Bisection Helpers
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
--bisect::
Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
`--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
endif::git-rev-list[]
---
Commit Ordering
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~