Documentation/notes: describe content of notes blobs

[thirdparty/git.git] / Documentation / git-notes.txt

git-notes(1)
============

NAME
----
git-notes - Add/inspect object notes

SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'git notes' [list [<object>]]
'git notes' add [-f] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
'git notes' copy [-f] ( --stdin | <from-object> <to-object> )
'git notes' append [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
'git notes' edit [<object>]
'git notes' show [<object>]
'git notes' remove [<object>]
'git notes' prune


DESCRIPTION
-----------
This command allows you to add/remove notes to/from objects, without
changing the objects themselves.

A typical use of notes is to extend a commit message without having
to change the commit itself. Such commit notes can be shown by `git log`
along with the original commit message. To discern these notes from the
message stored in the commit object, the notes are indented like the
message, after an unindented line saying "Notes (<refname>):" (or
"Notes:" for `refs/notes/commits`).

This command always manipulates the notes specified in "core.notesRef"
(see linkgit:git-config[1]), which can be overridden by GIT_NOTES_REF.
To change which notes are shown by 'git-log', see the
"notes.displayRef" configuration.

See the description of "notes.rewrite.<command>" in
linkgit:git-config[1] for a way of carrying your notes across commands
that rewrite commits.


SUBCOMMANDS
-----------

list::
	List the notes object for a given object. If no object is
	given, show a list of all note objects and the objects they
	annotate (in the format "<note object> <annotated object>").
	This is the default subcommand if no subcommand is given.

add::
	Add notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). Abort if the
	object already has notes (use `-f` to overwrite an
	existing note).

copy::
	Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object.
	Abort if the second object already has notes, or if the first
	object has none (use -f to overwrite existing notes to the
	second object). This subcommand is equivalent to:
	`git notes add [-f] -C $(git notes list <from-object>) <to-object>`
+
In `\--stdin` mode, take lines in the format
+
----------
<from-object> SP <to-object> [ SP <rest> ] LF
----------
+
on standard input, and copy the notes from each <from-object> to its
corresponding <to-object>.  (The optional `<rest>` is ignored so that
the command can read the input given to the `post-rewrite` hook.)

append::
	Append to the notes of an existing object (defaults to HEAD).
	Creates a new notes object if needed.

edit::
	Edit the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD).

show::
	Show the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD).

remove::
	Remove the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD).
	This is equivalent to specifying an empty note message to
	the `edit` subcommand.

prune::
	Remove all notes for non-existing/unreachable objects.

OPTIONS
-------
-f::
--force::
	When adding notes to an object that already has notes,
	overwrite the existing notes (instead of aborting).

-m <msg>::
--message=<msg>::
	Use the given note message (instead of prompting).
	If multiple `-m` options are given, their values
	are concatenated as separate paragraphs.
	Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a
	single line between paragraphs will be stripped out.

-F <file>::
--file=<file>::
	Take the note message from the given file.  Use '-' to
	read the note message from the standard input.
	Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a
	single line between paragraphs will be stripped out.

-C <object>::
--reuse-message=<object>::
	Take the note message from the given blob object (for
	example, another note).

-c <object>::
--reedit-message=<object>::
	Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that
	the user can further edit the note message.

--ref <ref>::
	Manipulate the notes tree in <ref>.  This overrides both
	GIT_NOTES_REF and the "core.notesRef" configuration.  The ref
	is taken to be in `refs/notes/` if it is not qualified.


DISCUSSION
----------

Commit notes are blobs containing extra information about an object
(usually information to supplement a commit's message).  These blobs
are taken from notes refs.  A notes ref is usually a branch which
contains "files" whose paths are the object names for the objects
they describe, with some directory separators included for performance
reasons footnote:[Permitted pathnames have the form
'ab'`/`'cd'`/`'ef'`/`'...'`/`'abcdef...': a sequence of directory
names of two hexadecimal digits each followed by a filename with the
rest of the object ID.].

Every notes change creates a new commit at the specified notes ref.
You can therefore inspect the history of the notes by invoking, e.g.,
`git log -p notes/commits`.  Currently the commit message only records
which operation triggered the update, and the commit authorship is
determined according to the usual rules (see linkgit:git-commit[1]).
These details may change in the future.

It is also permitted for a notes ref to point directly to a tree
object, in which case the history of the notes can be read with
`git log -p -g <refname>`.


EXAMPLES
--------

You can use notes to add annotations with information that was not
available at the time a commit was written.

------------
$ git notes add -m 'Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>' 72a144e2
$ git show -s 72a144e
[...]
    Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Notes:
    Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
------------

In principle, a note is a regular Git blob, and any kind of
(non-)format is accepted.  You can binary-safely create notes from
arbitrary files using 'git hash-object':

------------
$ cc *.c
$ blob=$(git hash-object -w a.out)
$ git notes --ref=built add -C "$blob" HEAD
------------

Of course, it doesn't make much sense to display non-text-format notes
with 'git log', so if you use such notes, you'll probably need to write
some special-purpose tools to do something useful with them.


Author
------
Written by Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> and
Johan Herland <johan@herland.net>

Documentation
-------------
Documentation by Johannes Schindelin and Johan Herland

GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite