1 Commit Formatting
2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
5 Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
6 more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
7 linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
8 endif::git-rev-list[]
10 include::pretty-options.txt[]
12 --relative-date::
14 Synonym for `--date=relative`.
16 --date=(relative|local|default|iso|rfc|short|raw)::
18 Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such
19 as when using "--pretty". `log.date` config variable sets a default
20 value for log command's --date option.
21 +
22 `--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
23 e.g. "2 hours ago".
24 +
25 `--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local timezone.
26 +
27 `--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format.
28 +
29 `--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
30 format, often found in E-mail messages.
31 +
32 `--date=short` shows only date but not time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
33 +
34 `--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw git format `%s %z` format.
35 +
36 `--date=default` shows timestamps in the original timezone
37 (either committer's or author's).
39 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
40 --header::
42 Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
43 separated with a NUL character.
44 endif::git-rev-list[]
46 --parents::
48 Print also the parents of the commit (in the form "commit parent...").
49 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
51 --children::
53 Print also the children of the commit (in the form "commit child...").
54 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
56 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
57 --timestamp::
58 Print the raw commit timestamp.
59 endif::git-rev-list[]
61 --left-right::
63 Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from.
64 Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
65 the right with `>`. If combined with `--boundary`, those
66 commits are prefixed with `-`.
67 +
68 For example, if you have this topology:
69 +
70 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
71 y---b---b branch B
72 / \ /
73 / .
74 / / \
75 o---x---a---a branch A
76 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
77 +
78 you would get an output like this:
79 +
80 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
81 $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
83 >bbbbbbb... 3rd on b
84 >bbbbbbb... 2nd on b
85 <aaaaaaa... 3rd on a
86 <aaaaaaa... 2nd on a
87 -yyyyyyy... 1st on b
88 -xxxxxxx... 1st on a
89 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
91 --graph::
93 Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
94 on the left hand side of the output. This may cause extra lines
95 to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
96 to be drawn properly.
97 +
98 This enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
99 +
100 This implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the
101 '--date-order' option may also be specified.
103 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
104 --count::
105 Print a number stating how many commits would have been
106 listed, and suppress all other output. When used together
107 with '--left-right', instead print the counts for left and
108 right commits, separated by a tab.
109 endif::git-rev-list[]
112 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
113 Diff Formatting
114 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
116 Below are listed options that control the formatting of diff output.
117 Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
118 options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
120 -c::
122 With this option, diff output for a merge commit
123 shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
124 simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
125 and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
126 which were modified from all parents.
128 --cc::
130 This flag implies the '-c' options and further compresses the
131 patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
132 the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
133 one of them without modification.
135 -m::
137 This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
138 regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
139 and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
140 the first parent is shown when '--first-parent' option is given;
141 in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
142 brought _into_ the then-current branch.
144 -r::
146 Show recursive diffs.
148 -t::
150 Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies '-r'.
152 -s::
153 Suppress diff output.
154 endif::git-rev-list[]
156 Commit Limiting
157 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
159 Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the
160 special notations explained in the description, additional commit
161 limiting may be applied.
163 --
165 -n 'number'::
166 --max-count=<number>::
168 Limit the number of commits output.
170 --skip=<number>::
172 Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
174 --since=<date>::
175 --after=<date>::
177 Show commits more recent than a specific date.
179 --until=<date>::
180 --before=<date>::
182 Show commits older than a specific date.
184 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
185 --max-age=<timestamp>::
186 --min-age=<timestamp>::
188 Limit the commits output to specified time range.
189 endif::git-rev-list[]
191 --author=<pattern>::
192 --committer=<pattern>::
194 Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
195 header lines that match the specified pattern (regular expression).
197 --grep=<pattern>::
199 Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
200 matches the specified pattern (regular expression).
202 --all-match::
203 Limit the commits output to ones that match all given --grep,
204 --author and --committer instead of ones that match at least one.
206 -i::
207 --regexp-ignore-case::
209 Match the regexp limiting patterns without regard to letters case.
211 -E::
212 --extended-regexp::
214 Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
215 instead of the default basic regular expressions.
217 -F::
218 --fixed-strings::
220 Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
221 pattern as a regular expression).
223 --remove-empty::
225 Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
227 --merges::
229 Print only merge commits. This is exactly the same as `--min-parents=2`.
231 --no-merges::
233 Do not print commits with more than one parent. This is
234 exactly the same as `--max-parents=1`.
236 --min-parents=<number>::
237 --max-parents=<number>::
238 --no-min-parents::
239 --no-max-parents::
241 Show only commits which have at least (or at most) that many
242 commits. In particular, `--max-parents=1` is the same as `--no-merges`,
243 `--min-parents=2` is the same as `--merges`. `--max-parents=0`
244 gives all root commits and `--min-parents=3` all octopus merges.
245 +
246 `--no-min-parents` and `--no-max-parents` reset these limits (to no limit)
247 again. Equivalent forms are `--min-parents=0` (any commit has 0 or more
248 parents) and `--max-parents=-1` (negative numbers denote no upper limit).
250 --first-parent::
251 Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
252 commit. This option can give a better overview when
253 viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
254 because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
255 adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
256 this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
257 brought in to your history by such a merge.
259 --not::
261 Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
262 for all following revision specifiers, up to the next '--not'.
264 --all::
266 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the
267 command line as '<commit>'.
269 --branches[=<pattern>]::
271 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
272 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
273 branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
274 '*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
276 --tags[=<pattern>]::
278 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
279 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
280 tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '*',
281 or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
283 --remotes[=<pattern>]::
285 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
286 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
287 remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
288 If pattern lacks '?', '*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
290 --glob=<glob-pattern>::
291 Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob '<glob-pattern>'
292 are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/',
293 is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '*',
294 or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
297 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
298 --bisect::
300 Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
301 was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
302 bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
303 line.
304 endif::git-rev-list[]
306 --stdin::
308 In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
309 line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is
310 seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the
311 result.
313 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
314 --quiet::
316 Don't print anything to standard output. This form
317 is primarily meant to allow the caller to
318 test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
319 connected (or not). It is faster than redirecting stdout
320 to /dev/null as the output does not have to be formatted.
321 endif::git-rev-list[]
323 --cherry-mark::
325 Like `--cherry-pick` (see below) but mark equivalent commits
326 with `=` rather than omitting them, and inequivalent ones with `+`.
328 --cherry-pick::
330 Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
331 another commit on the "other side" when the set of
332 commits are limited with symmetric difference.
333 +
334 For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
335 to list all commits on only one side of them is with
336 `--left-right`, like the example above in the description of
337 that option. It however shows the commits that were cherry-picked
338 from the other branch (for example, "3rd on b" may be cherry-picked
339 from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are
340 excluded from the output.
342 --left-only::
343 --right-only::
345 List only commits on the respective side of a symmetric range,
346 i.e. only those which would be marked `<` resp. `>` by
347 `--left-right`.
348 +
349 For example, `--cherry-pick --right-only A...B` omits those
350 commits from `B` which are in `A` or are patch-equivalent to a commit in
351 `A`. In other words, this lists the `{plus}` commits from `git cherry A B`.
352 More precisely, `--cherry-pick --right-only --no-merges` gives the exact
353 list.
355 --cherry::
357 A synonym for `--right-only --cherry-mark --no-merges`; useful to
358 limit the output to the commits on our side and mark those that
359 have been applied to the other side of a forked history with
360 `git log --cherry upstream...mybranch`, similar to
361 `git cherry upstream mybranch`.
363 -g::
364 --walk-reflogs::
366 Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
367 reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
368 When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
369 exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
370 nor 'commit1\...commit2' notations cannot be used).
371 +
372 With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons),
373 this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
374 taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
375 used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as
376 'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
377 instead. Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is
378 prefixed with this information on the same line.
379 This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'.
380 See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
382 --merge::
384 After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
385 conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
387 --boundary::
389 Output uninteresting commits at the boundary, which are usually
390 not shown.
392 --
394 History Simplification
395 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
397 Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
398 commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
399 'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
400 is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
402 The following options select the commits to be shown:
404 <paths>::
406 Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
408 --simplify-by-decoration::
410 Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
412 Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
414 The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
416 Default mode::
418 Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
419 final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
420 branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
421 with the same content)
423 --full-history::
425 As the default mode but does not prune some history.
427 --dense::
429 Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
430 meaningful history.
432 --sparse::
434 All commits in the simplified history are shown.
436 --simplify-merges::
438 Additional option to '--full-history' to remove some needless
439 merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
440 commits contributing to this merge.
442 --ancestry-path::
444 When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2'
445 or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist
446 directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and
447 'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1',
448 and ancestors of 'commit2'.
450 A more detailed explanation follows.
452 Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
453 that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
454 filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
456 In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
457 illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume
458 that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
459 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
460 .-A---M---N---O---P
461 / / / / /
462 I B C D E
463 \ / / / /
464 `-------------'
465 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
466 The horizontal line of history A--P is taken to be the first parent of
467 each merge. The commits are:
469 * `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
470 "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux". Initial
471 commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
473 * In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo".
475 * `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and
476 hence TREESAME to all parents.
478 * `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar",
479 so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
481 * `D` sets `foo` to "baz". Its merge `O` combines the strings from
482 `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
484 * `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the
485 strings to "quux xyzzy". Despite appearing interesting, `P` is
486 TREESAME to all parents.
488 'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding
489 commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting
490 (via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used. The following settings
491 are available.
493 Default mode::
495 Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
496 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). If the
497 commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
498 only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME
499 parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all
500 parents.
501 +
502 This results in:
503 +
504 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
505 .-A---N---O
506 / / /
507 I---------D
508 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
509 +
510 Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
511 available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was
512 considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an
513 empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
514 +
515 Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does
516 not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
517 parent lines.
519 --full-history without parent rewriting::
521 This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
522 all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
523 Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
524 included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In
525 the example, we get
526 +
527 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
528 I A B N D O
529 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
530 +
531 `P` and `M` were excluded because they are TREESAME to a parent. `E`,
532 `C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
533 do not appear.
534 +
535 Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
536 about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
537 them disconnected.
539 --full-history with parent rewriting::
541 Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
542 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).
543 +
544 Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten:
545 Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
546 themselves. This results in
547 +
548 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
549 .-A---M---N---O---P
550 / / / / /
551 I B / D /
552 \ / / / /
553 `-------------'
554 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
555 +
556 Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above. Note that `E`
557 was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
558 rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and
559 `N`. Note also that `P` was included despite being TREESAME.
561 In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
562 affects inclusion:
564 --dense::
566 Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
567 to any parent.
569 --sparse::
571 All commits that are walked are included.
572 +
573 Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if
574 one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
575 sides of the merge are never walked.
577 --simplify-merges::
579 First, build a history graph in the same way that
580 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting does (see above).
581 +
582 Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
583 history according to the following rules:
584 +
585 --
586 * Set `C'` to `C`.
587 +
588 * Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`. In
589 the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents, and
590 remove duplicates.
591 +
592 * If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
593 zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
594 Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
595 --
596 +
597 The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
598 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting. The example turns into:
599 +
600 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
601 .-A---M---N---O
602 / / /
603 I B D
604 \ / /
605 `---------'
606 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
607 +
608 Note the major differences in `N` and `P` over '\--full-history':
609 +
610 --
611 * `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
612 other parent `M`. Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
613 +
614 * `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed. `P` was then
615 removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
616 --
618 Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available:
620 --ancestry-path::
622 Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry
623 chain between the "from" and "to" commits in the given commit
624 range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the "to"
625 commit, and descendants of the "from" commit.
626 +
627 As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
628 +
629 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
630 D---E-------F
631 / \ \
632 B---C---G---H---I---J
633 / \
634 A-------K---------------L--M
635 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
636 +
637 A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`,
638 but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see
639 what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense
640 that "what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`". The result in this
641 example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself,
642 of course).
643 +
644 When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the
645 bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view
646 only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e.
647 excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the '\--ancestry-path'
648 option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in:
649 +
650 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
651 E-------F
652 \ \
653 G---H---I---J
654 \
655 L--M
656 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
658 The '\--simplify-by-decoration' option allows you to view only the
659 big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
660 that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME
661 (in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
662 above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
663 contents of the paths given on the command line. All other
664 commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
666 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
667 Bisection Helpers
668 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
670 --bisect::
672 Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
673 included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
674 `refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
675 exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
676 added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
677 are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
679 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
680 $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
681 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
683 outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
685 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
686 $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
687 $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
688 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
690 would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which
691 introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
692 generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
693 one.
695 --bisect-vars::
697 This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
698 `refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
699 text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
700 name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
701 expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
702 to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if
703 `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected
704 number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
705 `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to
706 `bisect_all`.
708 --bisect-all::
710 This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
711 commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
712 commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
713 from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
714 `--bisect`.)
715 +
716 This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
717 test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
718 may not compile for example).
719 +
720 This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
721 after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
722 `--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
723 endif::git-rev-list[]
726 Commit Ordering
727 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
729 By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
731 --topo-order::
733 This option makes them appear in topological order (i.e.
734 descendant commits are shown before their parents).
736 --date-order::
738 This option is similar to '--topo-order' in the sense that no
739 parent comes before all of its children, but otherwise things
740 are still ordered in the commit timestamp order.
742 --reverse::
744 Output the commits in reverse order.
745 Cannot be combined with '\--walk-reflogs'.
747 Object Traversal
748 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
750 These options are mostly targeted for packing of git repositories.
752 --objects::
754 Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
755 commits. '--objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me
756 all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
757 object 'bar', but not 'foo'".
759 --objects-edge::
761 Similar to '--objects', but also print the IDs of excluded
762 commits prefixed with a "-" character. This is used by
763 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build "thin" pack, which records
764 objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
765 excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
767 --unpacked::
769 Only useful with '--objects'; print the object IDs that are not
770 in packs.
772 --no-walk::
774 Only show the given revs, but do not traverse their ancestors.
776 --do-walk::
778 Overrides a previous --no-walk.