Documentation / rev-list-options.txton commit treewide: rename 'EXCL_FLAG_' to 'PATTERN_FLAG_' (4ff89ee)
   1Commit Limiting
   2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   3
   4Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the
   5special notations explained in the description, additional commit
   6limiting may be applied.
   7
   8Using more options generally further limits the output (e.g.
   9`--since=<date1>` limits to commits newer than `<date1>`, and using it
  10with `--grep=<pattern>` further limits to commits whose log message
  11has a line that matches `<pattern>`), unless otherwise noted.
  12
  13Note that these are applied before commit
  14ordering and formatting options, such as `--reverse`.
  15
  16-<number>::
  17-n <number>::
  18--max-count=<number>::
  19        Limit the number of commits to output.
  20
  21--skip=<number>::
  22        Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
  23
  24--since=<date>::
  25--after=<date>::
  26        Show commits more recent than a specific date.
  27
  28--until=<date>::
  29--before=<date>::
  30        Show commits older than a specific date.
  31
  32ifdef::git-rev-list[]
  33--max-age=<timestamp>::
  34--min-age=<timestamp>::
  35        Limit the commits output to specified time range.
  36endif::git-rev-list[]
  37
  38--author=<pattern>::
  39--committer=<pattern>::
  40        Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
  41        header lines that match the specified pattern (regular
  42        expression).  With more than one `--author=<pattern>`,
  43        commits whose author matches any of the given patterns are
  44        chosen (similarly for multiple `--committer=<pattern>`).
  45
  46--grep-reflog=<pattern>::
  47        Limit the commits output to ones with reflog entries that
  48        match the specified pattern (regular expression). With
  49        more than one `--grep-reflog`, commits whose reflog message
  50        matches any of the given patterns are chosen.  It is an
  51        error to use this option unless `--walk-reflogs` is in use.
  52
  53--grep=<pattern>::
  54        Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
  55        matches the specified pattern (regular expression).  With
  56        more than one `--grep=<pattern>`, commits whose message
  57        matches any of the given patterns are chosen (but see
  58        `--all-match`).
  59ifndef::git-rev-list[]
  60+
  61When `--show-notes` is in effect, the message from the notes is
  62matched as if it were part of the log message.
  63endif::git-rev-list[]
  64
  65--all-match::
  66        Limit the commits output to ones that match all given `--grep`,
  67        instead of ones that match at least one.
  68
  69--invert-grep::
  70        Limit the commits output to ones with log message that do not
  71        match the pattern specified with `--grep=<pattern>`.
  72
  73-i::
  74--regexp-ignore-case::
  75        Match the regular expression limiting patterns without regard to letter
  76        case.
  77
  78--basic-regexp::
  79        Consider the limiting patterns to be basic regular expressions;
  80        this is the default.
  81
  82-E::
  83--extended-regexp::
  84        Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
  85        instead of the default basic regular expressions.
  86
  87-F::
  88--fixed-strings::
  89        Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
  90        pattern as a regular expression).
  91
  92-P::
  93--perl-regexp::
  94        Consider the limiting patterns to be Perl-compatible regular
  95        expressions.
  96+
  97Support for these types of regular expressions is an optional
  98compile-time dependency. If Git wasn't compiled with support for them
  99providing this option will cause it to die.
 100
 101--remove-empty::
 102        Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
 103
 104--merges::
 105        Print only merge commits. This is exactly the same as `--min-parents=2`.
 106
 107--no-merges::
 108        Do not print commits with more than one parent. This is
 109        exactly the same as `--max-parents=1`.
 110
 111--min-parents=<number>::
 112--max-parents=<number>::
 113--no-min-parents::
 114--no-max-parents::
 115        Show only commits which have at least (or at most) that many parent
 116        commits. In particular, `--max-parents=1` is the same as `--no-merges`,
 117        `--min-parents=2` is the same as `--merges`.  `--max-parents=0`
 118        gives all root commits and `--min-parents=3` all octopus merges.
 119+
 120`--no-min-parents` and `--no-max-parents` reset these limits (to no limit)
 121again.  Equivalent forms are `--min-parents=0` (any commit has 0 or more
 122parents) and `--max-parents=-1` (negative numbers denote no upper limit).
 123
 124--first-parent::
 125        Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
 126        commit.  This option can give a better overview when
 127        viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
 128        because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
 129        adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
 130        this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
 131        brought in to your history by such a merge. Cannot be
 132        combined with --bisect.
 133
 134--not::
 135        Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
 136        for all following revision specifiers, up to the next `--not`.
 137
 138--all::
 139        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/`, along with `HEAD`, are
 140        listed on the command line as '<commit>'.
 141
 142--branches[=<pattern>]::
 143        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
 144        on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
 145        branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
 146        '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 147
 148--tags[=<pattern>]::
 149        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
 150        on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
 151        tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
 152        or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 153
 154--remotes[=<pattern>]::
 155        Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
 156        on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
 157        remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
 158        If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 159
 160--glob=<glob-pattern>::
 161        Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob '<glob-pattern>'
 162        are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/',
 163        is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
 164        or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
 165
 166--exclude=<glob-pattern>::
 167
 168        Do not include refs matching '<glob-pattern>' that the next `--all`,
 169        `--branches`, `--tags`, `--remotes`, or `--glob` would otherwise
 170        consider. Repetitions of this option accumulate exclusion patterns
 171        up to the next `--all`, `--branches`, `--tags`, `--remotes`, or
 172        `--glob` option (other options or arguments do not clear
 173        accumulated patterns).
 174+
 175The patterns given should not begin with `refs/heads`, `refs/tags`, or
 176`refs/remotes` when applied to `--branches`, `--tags`, or `--remotes`,
 177respectively, and they must begin with `refs/` when applied to `--glob`
 178or `--all`. If a trailing '/{asterisk}' is intended, it must be given
 179explicitly.
 180
 181--reflog::
 182        Pretend as if all objects mentioned by reflogs are listed on the
 183        command line as `<commit>`.
 184
 185--single-worktree::
 186        By default, all working trees will be examined by the
 187        following options when there are more than one (see
 188        linkgit:git-worktree[1]): `--all`, `--reflog` and
 189        `--indexed-objects`.
 190        This option forces them to examine the current working tree
 191        only.
 192
 193--ignore-missing::
 194        Upon seeing an invalid object name in the input, pretend as if
 195        the bad input was not given.
 196
 197ifndef::git-rev-list[]
 198--bisect::
 199        Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
 200        was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
 201        bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
 202        line. Cannot be combined with --first-parent.
 203endif::git-rev-list[]
 204
 205--stdin::
 206        In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
 207        line, read them from the standard input. If a `--` separator is
 208        seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the
 209        result.
 210
 211ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 212--quiet::
 213        Don't print anything to standard output.  This form
 214        is primarily meant to allow the caller to
 215        test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
 216        connected (or not).  It is faster than redirecting stdout
 217        to `/dev/null` as the output does not have to be formatted.
 218endif::git-rev-list[]
 219
 220--cherry-mark::
 221        Like `--cherry-pick` (see below) but mark equivalent commits
 222        with `=` rather than omitting them, and inequivalent ones with `+`.
 223
 224--cherry-pick::
 225        Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
 226        another commit on the ``other side'' when the set of
 227        commits are limited with symmetric difference.
 228+
 229For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
 230to list all commits on only one side of them is with
 231`--left-right` (see the example below in the description of
 232the `--left-right` option). However, it shows the commits that were
 233cherry-picked from the other branch (for example, ``3rd on b'' may be
 234cherry-picked from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are
 235excluded from the output.
 236
 237--left-only::
 238--right-only::
 239        List only commits on the respective side of a symmetric difference,
 240        i.e. only those which would be marked `<` resp. `>` by
 241        `--left-right`.
 242+
 243For example, `--cherry-pick --right-only A...B` omits those
 244commits from `B` which are in `A` or are patch-equivalent to a commit in
 245`A`. In other words, this lists the `+` commits from `git cherry A B`.
 246More precisely, `--cherry-pick --right-only --no-merges` gives the exact
 247list.
 248
 249--cherry::
 250        A synonym for `--right-only --cherry-mark --no-merges`; useful to
 251        limit the output to the commits on our side and mark those that
 252        have been applied to the other side of a forked history with
 253        `git log --cherry upstream...mybranch`, similar to
 254        `git cherry upstream mybranch`.
 255
 256-g::
 257--walk-reflogs::
 258        Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
 259        reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
 260        When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
 261        exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
 262        and 'commit1\...commit2' notations cannot be used).
 263+
 264With `--pretty` format other than `oneline` (for obvious reasons),
 265this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
 266taken from the reflog.  The reflog designator in the output may be shown
 267as `ref@{Nth}` (where `Nth` is the reverse-chronological index in the
 268reflog) or as `ref@{timestamp}` (with the timestamp for that entry),
 269depending on a few rules:
 270+
 271--
 2721. If the starting point is specified as `ref@{Nth}`, show the index
 273   format.
 274+
 2752. If the starting point was specified as `ref@{now}`, show the
 276   timestamp format.
 277+
 2783. If neither was used, but `--date` was given on the command line, show
 279   the timestamp in the format requested by `--date`.
 280+
 2814. Otherwise, show the index format.
 282--
 283+
 284Under `--pretty=oneline`, the commit message is
 285prefixed with this information on the same line.
 286This option cannot be combined with `--reverse`.
 287See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
 288
 289--merge::
 290        After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
 291        conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
 292
 293--boundary::
 294        Output excluded boundary commits. Boundary commits are
 295        prefixed with `-`.
 296
 297ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 298--use-bitmap-index::
 299
 300        Try to speed up the traversal using the pack bitmap index (if
 301        one is available). Note that when traversing with `--objects`,
 302        trees and blobs will not have their associated path printed.
 303
 304--progress=<header>::
 305        Show progress reports on stderr as objects are considered. The
 306        `<header>` text will be printed with each progress update.
 307endif::git-rev-list[]
 308
 309History Simplification
 310~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 311
 312Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
 313commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
 314'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
 315is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
 316
 317The following options select the commits to be shown:
 318
 319<paths>::
 320        Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
 321
 322--simplify-by-decoration::
 323        Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
 324
 325Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
 326
 327The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
 328
 329Default mode::
 330        Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
 331        final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
 332        branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
 333        with the same content)
 334
 335--full-history::
 336        Same as the default mode, but does not prune some history.
 337
 338--dense::
 339        Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
 340        meaningful history.
 341
 342--sparse::
 343        All commits in the simplified history are shown.
 344
 345--simplify-merges::
 346        Additional option to `--full-history` to remove some needless
 347        merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
 348        commits contributing to this merge.
 349
 350--ancestry-path::
 351        When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2'
 352        or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist
 353        directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and
 354        'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1',
 355        and ancestors of 'commit2'.
 356
 357A more detailed explanation follows.
 358
 359Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>.  We shall call commits
 360that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME.  (In a diff
 361filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
 362
 363In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
 364illustrate the differences between simplification settings.  We assume
 365that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
 366-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 367          .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
 368         /     /   /   /   /   /
 369        I     B   C   D   E   Y
 370         \   /   /   /   /   /
 371          `-------------'   X
 372-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 373The horizontal line of history A---Q is taken to be the first parent of
 374each merge.  The commits are:
 375
 376* `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
 377  ``asdf'', and a file `quux` exists with contents ``quux''. Initial
 378  commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
 379
 380* In `A`, `foo` contains just ``foo''.
 381
 382* `B` contains the same change as `A`.  Its merge `M` is trivial and
 383  hence TREESAME to all parents.
 384
 385* `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to ``foobar'',
 386  so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
 387
 388* `D` sets `foo` to ``baz''. Its merge `O` combines the strings from
 389  `N` and `D` to ``foobarbaz''; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
 390
 391* `E` changes `quux` to ``xyzzy'', and its merge `P` combines the
 392  strings to ``quux xyzzy''. `P` is TREESAME to `O`, but not to `E`.
 393
 394* `X` is an independent root commit that added a new file `side`, and `Y`
 395  modified it. `Y` is TREESAME to `X`. Its merge `Q` added `side` to `P`, and
 396  `Q` is TREESAME to `P`, but not to `Y`.
 397
 398`rev-list` walks backwards through history, including or excluding
 399commits based on whether `--full-history` and/or parent rewriting
 400(via `--parents` or `--children`) are used. The following settings
 401are available.
 402
 403Default mode::
 404        Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
 405        (though this can be changed, see `--sparse` below).  If the
 406        commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
 407        only that parent.  (Even if there are several TREESAME
 408        parents, follow only one of them.)  Otherwise, follow all
 409        parents.
 410+
 411This results in:
 412+
 413-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 414          .-A---N---O
 415         /     /   /
 416        I---------D
 417-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 418+
 419Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
 420available, removed `B` from consideration entirely.  `C` was
 421considered via `N`, but is TREESAME.  Root commits are compared to an
 422empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
 423+
 424Parent/child relations are only visible with `--parents`, but that does
 425not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
 426parent lines.
 427
 428--full-history without parent rewriting::
 429        This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
 430        all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
 431        Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
 432        included, this does not imply that the merge itself is!  In
 433        the example, we get
 434+
 435-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 436        I  A  B  N  D  O  P  Q
 437-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 438+
 439`M` was excluded because it is TREESAME to both parents.  `E`,
 440`C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
 441do not appear.
 442+
 443Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
 444about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
 445them disconnected.
 446
 447--full-history with parent rewriting::
 448        Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
 449        (though this can be changed, see `--sparse` below).
 450+
 451Merges are always included.  However, their parent list is rewritten:
 452Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
 453themselves.  This results in
 454+
 455-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 456          .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
 457         /     /   /   /   /
 458        I     B   /   D   /
 459         \   /   /   /   /
 460          `-------------'
 461-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 462+
 463Compare to `--full-history` without rewriting above.  Note that `E`
 464was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
 465rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`.  The same happened for `C` and
 466`N`, and `X`, `Y` and `Q`.
 467
 468In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
 469affects inclusion:
 470
 471--dense::
 472        Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
 473        to any parent.
 474
 475--sparse::
 476        All commits that are walked are included.
 477+
 478Note that without `--full-history`, this still simplifies merges: if
 479one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
 480sides of the merge are never walked.
 481
 482--simplify-merges::
 483        First, build a history graph in the same way that
 484        `--full-history` with parent rewriting does (see above).
 485+
 486Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
 487history according to the following rules:
 488+
 489--
 490* Set `C'` to `C`.
 491+
 492* Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`.  In
 493  the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents or that are
 494  root commits TREESAME to an empty tree, and remove duplicates, but take care
 495  to never drop all parents that we are TREESAME to.
 496+
 497* If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
 498  zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
 499  Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
 500--
 501+
 502The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
 503`--full-history` with parent rewriting.  The example turns into:
 504+
 505-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 506          .-A---M---N---O
 507         /     /       /
 508        I     B       D
 509         \   /       /
 510          `---------'
 511-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 512+
 513Note the major differences in `N`, `P`, and `Q` over `--full-history`:
 514+
 515--
 516* `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
 517  other parent `M`.  Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
 518+
 519* `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed.  `P` was then
 520  removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
 521+
 522* `Q`'s parent list had `Y` simplified to `X`. `X` was then removed, because it
 523  was a TREESAME root. `Q` was then removed completely, because it had one
 524  parent and is TREESAME.
 525--
 526
 527Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available:
 528
 529--ancestry-path::
 530        Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry
 531        chain between the ``from'' and ``to'' commits in the given commit
 532        range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the ``to''
 533        commit and descendants of the ``from'' commit.
 534+
 535As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
 536+
 537-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 538            D---E-------F
 539           /     \       \
 540          B---C---G---H---I---J
 541         /                     \
 542        A-------K---------------L--M
 543-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 544+
 545A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`,
 546but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see
 547what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense
 548that ``what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`''. The result in this
 549example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself,
 550of course).
 551+
 552When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the
 553bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view
 554only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e.
 555excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the `--ancestry-path`
 556option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in:
 557+
 558-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 559                E-------F
 560                 \       \
 561                  G---H---I---J
 562                               \
 563                                L--M
 564-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 565
 566The `--simplify-by-decoration` option allows you to view only the
 567big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
 568that are not referenced by tags.  Commits are marked as !TREESAME
 569(in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
 570above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
 571contents of the paths given on the command line.  All other
 572commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
 573
 574ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 575Bisection Helpers
 576~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 577
 578--bisect::
 579        Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
 580        included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
 581        `refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
 582        exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
 583        added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
 584        are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
 585+
 586-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 587        $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
 588-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 589+
 590outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
 591+
 592-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 593        $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
 594        $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
 595-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 596+
 597would be of roughly the same length.  Finding the change which
 598introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
 599generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
 600one. Cannot be combined with --first-parent.
 601
 602--bisect-vars::
 603        This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
 604        `refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
 605        text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
 606        name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
 607        expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
 608        to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if
 609        `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected
 610        number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
 611        `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to
 612        `bisect_all`.
 613
 614--bisect-all::
 615        This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
 616        commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
 617        commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
 618        from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
 619        `--bisect`.)
 620+
 621This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
 622test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
 623may not compile for example).
 624+
 625This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
 626after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
 627`--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
 628endif::git-rev-list[]
 629
 630
 631Commit Ordering
 632~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 633
 634By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
 635
 636--date-order::
 637        Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
 638        otherwise show commits in the commit timestamp order.
 639
 640--author-date-order::
 641        Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
 642        otherwise show commits in the author timestamp order.
 643
 644--topo-order::
 645        Show no parents before all of its children are shown, and
 646        avoid showing commits on multiple lines of history
 647        intermixed.
 648+
 649For example, in a commit history like this:
 650+
 651----------------------------------------------------------------
 652
 653    ---1----2----4----7
 654        \              \
 655         3----5----6----8---
 656
 657----------------------------------------------------------------
 658+
 659where the numbers denote the order of commit timestamps, `git
 660rev-list` and friends with `--date-order` show the commits in the
 661timestamp order: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.
 662+
 663With `--topo-order`, they would show 8 6 5 3 7 4 2 1 (or 8 7 4 2 6 5
 6643 1); some older commits are shown before newer ones in order to
 665avoid showing the commits from two parallel development track mixed
 666together.
 667
 668--reverse::
 669        Output the commits chosen to be shown (see Commit Limiting
 670        section above) in reverse order. Cannot be combined with
 671        `--walk-reflogs`.
 672
 673Object Traversal
 674~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 675
 676These options are mostly targeted for packing of Git repositories.
 677
 678ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 679--objects::
 680        Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
 681        commits.  `--objects foo ^bar` thus means ``send me
 682        all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
 683        object _bar_ but not _foo_''.
 684
 685--in-commit-order::
 686        Print tree and blob ids in order of the commits. The tree
 687        and blob ids are printed after they are first referenced
 688        by a commit.
 689
 690--objects-edge::
 691        Similar to `--objects`, but also print the IDs of excluded
 692        commits prefixed with a ``-'' character.  This is used by
 693        linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build a ``thin'' pack, which records
 694        objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
 695        excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
 696
 697--objects-edge-aggressive::
 698        Similar to `--objects-edge`, but it tries harder to find excluded
 699        commits at the cost of increased time.  This is used instead of
 700        `--objects-edge` to build ``thin'' packs for shallow repositories.
 701
 702--indexed-objects::
 703        Pretend as if all trees and blobs used by the index are listed
 704        on the command line.  Note that you probably want to use
 705        `--objects`, too.
 706
 707--unpacked::
 708        Only useful with `--objects`; print the object IDs that are not
 709        in packs.
 710
 711--filter=<filter-spec>::
 712        Only useful with one of the `--objects*`; omits objects (usually
 713        blobs) from the list of printed objects.  The '<filter-spec>'
 714        may be one of the following:
 715+
 716The form '--filter=blob:none' omits all blobs.
 717+
 718The form '--filter=blob:limit=<n>[kmg]' omits blobs larger than n bytes
 719or units.  n may be zero.  The suffixes k, m, and g can be used to name
 720units in KiB, MiB, or GiB.  For example, 'blob:limit=1k' is the same
 721as 'blob:limit=1024'.
 722+
 723The form '--filter=sparse:oid=<blob-ish>' uses a sparse-checkout
 724specification contained in the blob (or blob-expression) '<blob-ish>'
 725to omit blobs that would not be not required for a sparse checkout on
 726the requested refs.
 727+
 728The form '--filter=tree:<depth>' omits all blobs and trees whose depth
 729from the root tree is >= <depth> (minimum depth if an object is located
 730at multiple depths in the commits traversed). <depth>=0 will not include
 731any trees or blobs unless included explicitly in the command-line (or
 732standard input when --stdin is used). <depth>=1 will include only the
 733tree and blobs which are referenced directly by a commit reachable from
 734<commit> or an explicitly-given object. <depth>=2 is like <depth>=1
 735while also including trees and blobs one more level removed from an
 736explicitly-given commit or tree.
 737+
 738Note that the form '--filter=sparse:path=<path>' that wants to read
 739from an arbitrary path on the filesystem has been dropped for security
 740reasons.
 741+
 742Multiple '--filter=' flags can be specified to combine filters. Only
 743objects which are accepted by every filter are included.
 744+
 745The form '--filter=combine:<filter1>+<filter2>+...<filterN>' can also be
 746used to combined several filters, but this is harder than just repeating
 747the '--filter' flag and is usually not necessary. Filters are joined by
 748'{plus}' and individual filters are %-encoded (i.e. URL-encoded).
 749Besides the '{plus}' and '%' characters, the following characters are
 750reserved and also must be encoded: `~!@#$^&*()[]{}\;",<>?`+&#39;&#96;+
 751as well as all characters with ASCII code &lt;= `0x20`, which includes
 752space and newline.
 753+
 754Other arbitrary characters can also be encoded. For instance,
 755'combine:tree:3+blob:none' and 'combine:tree%3A3+blob%3Anone' are
 756equivalent.
 757
 758--no-filter::
 759        Turn off any previous `--filter=` argument.
 760
 761--filter-print-omitted::
 762        Only useful with `--filter=`; prints a list of the objects omitted
 763        by the filter.  Object IDs are prefixed with a ``~'' character.
 764
 765--missing=<missing-action>::
 766        A debug option to help with future "partial clone" development.
 767        This option specifies how missing objects are handled.
 768+
 769The form '--missing=error' requests that rev-list stop with an error if
 770a missing object is encountered.  This is the default action.
 771+
 772The form '--missing=allow-any' will allow object traversal to continue
 773if a missing object is encountered.  Missing objects will silently be
 774omitted from the results.
 775+
 776The form '--missing=allow-promisor' is like 'allow-any', but will only
 777allow object traversal to continue for EXPECTED promisor missing objects.
 778Unexpected missing objects will raise an error.
 779+
 780The form '--missing=print' is like 'allow-any', but will also print a
 781list of the missing objects.  Object IDs are prefixed with a ``?'' character.
 782
 783--exclude-promisor-objects::
 784        (For internal use only.)  Prefilter object traversal at
 785        promisor boundary.  This is used with partial clone.  This is
 786        stronger than `--missing=allow-promisor` because it limits the
 787        traversal, rather than just silencing errors about missing
 788        objects.
 789endif::git-rev-list[]
 790
 791--no-walk[=(sorted|unsorted)]::
 792        Only show the given commits, but do not traverse their ancestors.
 793        This has no effect if a range is specified. If the argument
 794        `unsorted` is given, the commits are shown in the order they were
 795        given on the command line. Otherwise (if `sorted` or no argument
 796        was given), the commits are shown in reverse chronological order
 797        by commit time.
 798        Cannot be combined with `--graph`.
 799
 800--do-walk::
 801        Overrides a previous `--no-walk`.
 802
 803Commit Formatting
 804~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 805
 806ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 807Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
 808more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
 809linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
 810endif::git-rev-list[]
 811
 812include::pretty-options.txt[]
 813
 814--relative-date::
 815        Synonym for `--date=relative`.
 816
 817--date=<format>::
 818        Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such
 819        as when using `--pretty`. `log.date` config variable sets a default
 820        value for the log command's `--date` option. By default, dates
 821        are shown in the original time zone (either committer's or
 822        author's). If `-local` is appended to the format (e.g.,
 823        `iso-local`), the user's local time zone is used instead.
 824+
 825--
 826`--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
 827e.g. ``2 hours ago''. The `-local` option has no effect for
 828`--date=relative`.
 829
 830`--date=local` is an alias for `--date=default-local`.
 831
 832`--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in a ISO 8601-like format.
 833The differences to the strict ISO 8601 format are:
 834
 835        - a space instead of the `T` date/time delimiter
 836        - a space between time and time zone
 837        - no colon between hours and minutes of the time zone
 838
 839`--date=iso-strict` (or `--date=iso8601-strict`) shows timestamps in strict
 840ISO 8601 format.
 841
 842`--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
 843format, often found in email messages.
 844
 845`--date=short` shows only the date, but not the time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
 846
 847`--date=raw` shows the date as seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01
 84800:00:00 UTC), followed by a space, and then the timezone as an offset
 849from UTC (a `+` or `-` with four digits; the first two are hours, and
 850the second two are minutes). I.e., as if the timestamp were formatted
 851with `strftime("%s %z")`).
 852Note that the `-local` option does not affect the seconds-since-epoch
 853value (which is always measured in UTC), but does switch the accompanying
 854timezone value.
 855
 856`--date=human` shows the timezone if the timezone does not match the
 857current time-zone, and doesn't print the whole date if that matches
 858(ie skip printing year for dates that are "this year", but also skip
 859the whole date itself if it's in the last few days and we can just say
 860what weekday it was).  For older dates the hour and minute is also
 861omitted.
 862
 863`--date=unix` shows the date as a Unix epoch timestamp (seconds since
 8641970).  As with `--raw`, this is always in UTC and therefore `-local`
 865has no effect.
 866
 867`--date=format:...` feeds the format `...` to your system `strftime`,
 868except for %z and %Z, which are handled internally.
 869Use `--date=format:%c` to show the date in your system locale's
 870preferred format.  See the `strftime` manual for a complete list of
 871format placeholders. When using `-local`, the correct syntax is
 872`--date=format-local:...`.
 873
 874`--date=default` is the default format, and is similar to
 875`--date=rfc2822`, with a few exceptions:
 876--
 877        - there is no comma after the day-of-week
 878
 879        - the time zone is omitted when the local time zone is used
 880
 881ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 882--header::
 883        Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
 884        separated with a NUL character.
 885endif::git-rev-list[]
 886
 887--parents::
 888        Print also the parents of the commit (in the form "commit parent...").
 889        Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' above.
 890
 891--children::
 892        Print also the children of the commit (in the form "commit child...").
 893        Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' above.
 894
 895ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 896--timestamp::
 897        Print the raw commit timestamp.
 898endif::git-rev-list[]
 899
 900--left-right::
 901        Mark which side of a symmetric difference a commit is reachable from.
 902        Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
 903        the right with `>`.  If combined with `--boundary`, those
 904        commits are prefixed with `-`.
 905+
 906For example, if you have this topology:
 907+
 908-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 909             y---b---b  branch B
 910            / \ /
 911           /   .
 912          /   / \
 913         o---x---a---a  branch A
 914-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 915+
 916you would get an output like this:
 917+
 918-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 919        $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
 920
 921        >bbbbbbb... 3rd on b
 922        >bbbbbbb... 2nd on b
 923        <aaaaaaa... 3rd on a
 924        <aaaaaaa... 2nd on a
 925        -yyyyyyy... 1st on b
 926        -xxxxxxx... 1st on a
 927-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 928
 929--graph::
 930        Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
 931        on the left hand side of the output.  This may cause extra lines
 932        to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
 933        to be drawn properly.
 934        Cannot be combined with `--no-walk`.
 935+
 936This enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' above.
 937+
 938This implies the `--topo-order` option by default, but the
 939`--date-order` option may also be specified.
 940
 941--show-linear-break[=<barrier>]::
 942        When --graph is not used, all history branches are flattened
 943        which can make it hard to see that the two consecutive commits
 944        do not belong to a linear branch. This option puts a barrier
 945        in between them in that case. If `<barrier>` is specified, it
 946        is the string that will be shown instead of the default one.
 947
 948ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 949--count::
 950        Print a number stating how many commits would have been
 951        listed, and suppress all other output.  When used together
 952        with `--left-right`, instead print the counts for left and
 953        right commits, separated by a tab. When used together with
 954        `--cherry-mark`, omit patch equivalent commits from these
 955        counts and print the count for equivalent commits separated
 956        by a tab.
 957endif::git-rev-list[]
 958
 959ifndef::git-rev-list[]
 960Diff Formatting
 961~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 962
 963Listed below are options that control the formatting of diff output.
 964Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
 965options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
 966
 967-c::
 968        With this option, diff output for a merge commit
 969        shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
 970        simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
 971        and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
 972        which were modified from all parents.
 973
 974--cc::
 975        This flag implies the `-c` option and further compresses the
 976        patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
 977        the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
 978        one of them without modification.
 979
 980--combined-all-paths::
 981        This flag causes combined diffs (used for merge commits) to
 982        list the name of the file from all parents.  It thus only has
 983        effect when -c or --cc are specified, and is likely only
 984        useful if filename changes are detected (i.e. when either
 985        rename or copy detection have been requested).
 986
 987-m::
 988        This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
 989        regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
 990        and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
 991        the first parent is shown when `--first-parent` option is given;
 992        in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
 993        brought _into_ the then-current branch.
 994
 995-r::
 996        Show recursive diffs.
 997
 998-t::
 999        Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies `-r`.
1000endif::git-rev-list[]