Documentation / rev-list-options.txton commit Merge branch 'tr/rev-list-docs' into tr/filter-branch (e910ce3)
   1Commit Formatting
   2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   3
   4ifdef::git-rev-list[]
   5Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
   6more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
   7linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
   8endif::git-rev-list[]
   9
  10include::pretty-options.txt[]
  11
  12--relative-date::
  13
  14        Synonym for `--date=relative`.
  15
  16--date={relative,local,default,iso,rfc,short}::
  17
  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,
  23e.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
  30format, often found in E-mail messages.
  31+
  32`--date=short` shows only date but not time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
  33+
  34`--date=default` shows timestamps in the original timezone
  35(either committer's or author's).
  36
  37ifdef::git-rev-list[]
  38--header::
  39
  40        Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
  41        separated with a NUL character.
  42endif::git-rev-list[]
  43
  44--parents::
  45
  46        Print the parents of the commit.  Also enables parent
  47        rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
  48
  49--children::
  50
  51        Print the children of the commit.  Also enables parent
  52        rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
  53
  54ifdef::git-rev-list[]
  55--timestamp::
  56        Print the raw commit timestamp.
  57endif::git-rev-list[]
  58
  59--left-right::
  60
  61        Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from.
  62        Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
  63        the right with `>`.  If combined with `--boundary`, those
  64        commits are prefixed with `-`.
  65+
  66For example, if you have this topology:
  67+
  68-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  69             y---b---b  branch B
  70            / \ /
  71           /   .
  72          /   / \
  73         o---x---a---a  branch A
  74-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  75+
  76you would get an output like this:
  77+
  78-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  79        $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
  80
  81        >bbbbbbb... 3rd on b
  82        >bbbbbbb... 2nd on b
  83        <aaaaaaa... 3rd on a
  84        <aaaaaaa... 2nd on a
  85        -yyyyyyy... 1st on b
  86        -xxxxxxx... 1st on a
  87-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  88
  89--graph::
  90
  91        Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
  92        on the left hand side of the output.  This may cause extra lines
  93        to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
  94        to be drawn properly.
  95+
  96This implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the
  97'--date-order' option may also be specified.
  98
  99Diff Formatting
 100~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 101
 102Below are listed options that control the formatting of diff output.
 103Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
 104options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
 105
 106-c::
 107
 108        This flag changes the way a merge commit is displayed.  It shows
 109        the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
 110        simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
 111        and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
 112        which were modified from all parents.
 113
 114--cc::
 115
 116        This flag implies the '-c' options and further compresses the
 117        patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
 118        the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
 119        one of them without modification.
 120
 121-r::
 122
 123        Show recursive diffs.
 124
 125-t::
 126
 127        Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies '-r'.
 128
 129Commit Limiting
 130~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 131
 132Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the
 133special notations explained in the description, additional commit
 134limiting may be applied.
 135
 136--
 137
 138-n 'number'::
 139--max-count='number'::
 140
 141        Limit the number of commits output.
 142
 143--skip='number'::
 144
 145        Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
 146
 147--since='date'::
 148--after='date'::
 149
 150        Show commits more recent than a specific date.
 151
 152--until='date'::
 153--before='date'::
 154
 155        Show commits older than a specific date.
 156
 157ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 158--max-age='timestamp'::
 159--min-age='timestamp'::
 160
 161        Limit the commits output to specified time range.
 162endif::git-rev-list[]
 163
 164--author='pattern'::
 165--committer='pattern'::
 166
 167        Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
 168        header lines that match the specified pattern (regular expression).
 169
 170--grep='pattern'::
 171
 172        Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
 173        matches the specified pattern (regular expression).
 174
 175-i::
 176--regexp-ignore-case::
 177
 178        Match the regexp limiting patterns without regard to letters case.
 179
 180-E::
 181--extended-regexp::
 182
 183        Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
 184        instead of the default basic regular expressions.
 185
 186-F::
 187--fixed-strings::
 188
 189        Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
 190        pattern as a regular expression).
 191
 192--remove-empty::
 193
 194        Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
 195
 196--no-merges::
 197
 198        Do not print commits with more than one parent.
 199
 200--first-parent::
 201        Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
 202        commit.  This option can give a better overview when
 203        viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
 204        because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
 205        adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
 206        this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
 207        brought in to your history by such a merge.
 208
 209--not::
 210
 211        Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
 212        for all following revision specifiers, up to the next '--not'.
 213
 214--all::
 215
 216        Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/` are listed on the
 217        command line as '<commit>'.
 218
 219ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 220--stdin::
 221
 222        In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
 223        line, read them from the standard input.
 224
 225--quiet::
 226
 227        Don't print anything to standard output.  This form
 228        is primarily meant to allow the caller to
 229        test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
 230        connected (or not).  It is faster than redirecting stdout
 231        to /dev/null as the output does not have to be formatted.
 232endif::git-rev-list[]
 233
 234--cherry-pick::
 235
 236        Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
 237        another commit on the "other side" when the set of
 238        commits are limited with symmetric difference.
 239+
 240For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
 241to list all commits on only one side of them is with
 242`--left-right`, like the example above in the description of
 243that option.  It however shows the commits that were cherry-picked
 244from the other branch (for example, "3rd on b" may be cherry-picked
 245from branch A).  With this option, such pairs of commits are
 246excluded from the output.
 247
 248-g::
 249--walk-reflogs::
 250
 251        Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
 252        reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
 253        When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
 254        exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
 255        nor 'commit1...commit2' notations cannot be used).
 256+
 257With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons),
 258this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
 259taken from the reflog.  By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
 260used in the output.  When the starting commit is specified as
 261'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
 262instead.  Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is
 263prefixed with this information on the same line.
 264This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'.
 265See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
 266
 267--merge::
 268
 269        After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
 270        conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
 271
 272--boundary::
 273
 274        Output uninteresting commits at the boundary, which are usually
 275        not shown.
 276
 277--
 278
 279History Simplification
 280~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 281
 282When optional paths are given, 'git-rev-list' simplifies commits with
 283various strategies, according to the options you have selected.
 284
 285Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>.  We shall call commits
 286that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME.  (In a diff
 287filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
 288
 289In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
 290illustrate the differences between simplification settings.  We assume
 291that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
 292-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 293          .-A---M---N---O---P
 294         /     /   /   /   /
 295        I     B   C   D   E
 296         \   /   /   /   /
 297          `-------------'
 298-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 299The horizontal line of history A--P is taken to be the first parent of
 300each merge.  The commits are:
 301
 302* `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
 303  "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux".  Initial
 304  commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
 305
 306* In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo".
 307
 308* `B` contains the same change as `A`.  Its merge `M` is trivial and
 309  hence TREESAME to all parents.
 310
 311* `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar",
 312  so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
 313
 314* `D` sets `foo` to "baz".  Its merge `O` combines the strings from
 315  `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
 316
 317* `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the
 318  strings to "quux xyzzy".  Despite appearing interesting, `P` is
 319  TREESAME to all parents.
 320
 321'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding
 322commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting
 323(via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used.  The following settings
 324are available.
 325
 326Default mode::
 327
 328        Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
 329        (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).  If the
 330        commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
 331        only that parent.  (Even if there are several TREESAME
 332        parents, follow only one of them.)  Otherwise, follow all
 333        parents.
 334+
 335This results in:
 336+
 337-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 338          .-A---N---O
 339         /         /
 340        I---------D
 341-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 342+
 343Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
 344available, removed `B` from consideration entirely.  `C` was
 345considered via `N`, but is TREESAME.  Root commits are compared to an
 346empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
 347+
 348Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does
 349not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
 350parent lines.
 351
 352--full-history without parent rewriting::
 353
 354        This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
 355        all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
 356        Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
 357        included, this does not imply that the merge itself is!  In
 358        the example, we get
 359+
 360-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 361        I  A  B  N  D  O
 362-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 363+
 364`P` and `M` were excluded because they are TREESAME to a parent.  `E`,
 365`C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
 366do not appear.
 367+
 368Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
 369about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
 370them disconnected.
 371
 372--full-history with parent rewriting::
 373
 374        Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
 375        (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).
 376+
 377Merges are always included.  However, their parent list is rewritten:
 378Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
 379themselves.  This results in
 380+
 381-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 382          .-A---M---N---O---P
 383         /     /   /   /   /
 384        I     B   /   D   /
 385         \   /   /   /   /
 386          `-------------'
 387-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 388+
 389Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above.  Note that `E`
 390was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
 391rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`.  The same happened for `C` and
 392`N`.  Note also that `P` was included despite being TREESAME.
 393
 394In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
 395affects inclusion:
 396
 397--dense::
 398
 399        Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
 400        to any parent.
 401
 402--sparse::
 403
 404        All commits that are walked are included.
 405+
 406Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if
 407one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
 408sides of the merge are never walked.
 409
 410Finally, there is a fourth simplification mode available:
 411
 412--simplify-merges::
 413
 414        First, build a history graph in the same way that
 415        '\--full-history' with parent rewriting does (see above).
 416+
 417Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
 418history according to the following rules:
 419+
 420--
 421* Set `C'` to `C`.
 422+
 423* Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`.  In
 424  the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents, and
 425  remove duplicates.
 426+
 427* If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
 428  zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
 429  Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
 430--
 431+
 432The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
 433'\--full-history' with parent rewriting.  The example turns into:
 434+
 435-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 436          .-A---M---N---O
 437         /     /       /
 438        I     B       D
 439         \   /       /
 440          `---------'
 441-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 442+
 443Note the major differences in `N` and `P` over '\--full-history':
 444+
 445--
 446* `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
 447  other parent `M`.  Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
 448+
 449* `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed.  `P` was then
 450  removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
 451--
 452
 453ifdef::git-rev-list[]
 454Bisection Helpers
 455~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 456
 457--bisect::
 458
 459Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
 460the included and excluded commits. Thus, if
 461
 462-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 463        $ git-rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
 464-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 465
 466outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
 467
 468-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 469        $ git-rev-list foo ^midpoint
 470        $ git-rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
 471-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 472
 473would be of roughly the same length.  Finding the change which
 474introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
 475generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
 476one.
 477
 478--bisect-vars::
 479
 480This calculates the same as `--bisect`, but outputs text ready
 481to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the name of
 482the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
 483expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is
 484tested to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be
 485tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`,
 486the expected number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev`
 487turns out to be bad to `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits
 488we are bisecting right now to `bisect_all`.
 489
 490--bisect-all::
 491
 492This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
 493commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
 494commits. The farthest from them is displayed first. (This is the only
 495one displayed by `--bisect`.)
 496
 497This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
 498test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
 499may not compile for example).
 500
 501This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
 502after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
 503`--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
 504endif::git-rev-list[]
 505
 506
 507Commit Ordering
 508~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 509
 510By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
 511
 512--topo-order::
 513
 514        This option makes them appear in topological order (i.e.
 515        descendant commits are shown before their parents).
 516
 517--date-order::
 518
 519        This option is similar to '--topo-order' in the sense that no
 520        parent comes before all of its children, but otherwise things
 521        are still ordered in the commit timestamp order.
 522
 523--reverse::
 524
 525        Output the commits in reverse order.
 526        Cannot be combined with '\--walk-reflogs'.
 527
 528Object Traversal
 529~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 530
 531These options are mostly targeted for packing of git repositories.
 532
 533--objects::
 534
 535        Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
 536        commits.  '--objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me
 537        all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
 538        object 'bar', but not 'foo'".
 539
 540--objects-edge::
 541
 542        Similar to '--objects', but also print the IDs of excluded
 543        commits prefixed with a "-" character.  This is used by
 544        linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build "thin" pack, which records
 545        objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
 546        excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
 547
 548--unpacked::
 549
 550        Only useful with '--objects'; print the object IDs that are not
 551        in packs.
 552
 553--no-walk::
 554
 555        Only show the given revs, but do not traverse their ancestors.
 556
 557--do-walk::
 558
 559        Overrides a previous --no-walk.