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2cf565c5 DG |
1 | git-cat-file(1) |
2 | =============== | |
2cf565c5 DG |
3 | |
4 | NAME | |
5 | ---- | |
d83a42f3 | 6 | git-cat-file - Provide content or type and size information for repository objects |
2cf565c5 DG |
7 | |
8 | ||
9 | SYNOPSIS | |
10 | -------- | |
cdf222f5 | 11 | [verse] |
7bcf3414 | 12 | 'git cat-file' (-t [--allow-unknown-type]| -s [--allow-unknown-type]| -e | -p | <type> | --textconv | --filters ) [--path=<path>] <object> |
32145943 | 13 | 'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) [ --textconv | --filters ] [--follow-symlinks] |
2cf565c5 DG |
14 | |
15 | DESCRIPTION | |
16 | ----------- | |
d83a42f3 | 17 | In its first form, the command provides the content or the type of an object in |
23f8239b | 18 | the repository. The type is required unless `-t` or `-p` is used to find the |
b9e62f60 JS |
19 | object type, or `-s` is used to find the object size, or `--textconv` or |
20 | `--filters` is used (which imply type "blob"). | |
05d5667f | 21 | |
d83a42f3 | 22 | In the second form, a list of objects (separated by linefeeds) is provided on |
32145943 JS |
23 | stdin, and the SHA-1, type, and size of each object is printed on stdout. The |
24 | output format can be overridden using the optional `<format>` argument. If | |
25 | either `--textconv` or `--filters` was specified, the input is expected to | |
26 | list the object names followed by the path name, separated by a single white | |
27 | space, so that the appropriate drivers can be determined. | |
2cf565c5 DG |
28 | |
29 | OPTIONS | |
30 | ------- | |
31 | <object>:: | |
8933364d AK |
32 | The name of the object to show. |
33 | For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see | |
9d83e382 | 34 | the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7]. |
2cf565c5 DG |
35 | |
36 | -t:: | |
37 | Instead of the content, show the object type identified by | |
38 | <object>. | |
39 | ||
62bb9960 JH |
40 | -s:: |
41 | Instead of the content, show the object size identified by | |
42 | <object>. | |
43 | ||
7950571a PA |
44 | -e:: |
45 | Suppress all output; instead exit with zero status if <object> | |
46 | exists and is a valid object. | |
47 | ||
ed90cbf5 JK |
48 | -p:: |
49 | Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type. | |
50 | ||
2cf565c5 DG |
51 | <type>:: |
52 | Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking | |
f73ae1fc | 53 | for a type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given |
2cf565c5 DG |
54 | <object> is also permitted. An example is to ask for a |
55 | "tree" with <object> being a commit object that contains it, | |
56 | or to ask for a "blob" with <object> being a tag object that | |
57 | points at it. | |
58 | ||
9f77fe02 MG |
59 | --textconv:: |
60 | Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case, | |
16dcc299 JS |
61 | <object> has to be of the form <tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path> in |
62 | order to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at | |
63 | <path>. | |
9f77fe02 | 64 | |
b9e62f60 JS |
65 | --filters:: |
66 | Show the content as converted by the filters configured in | |
67 | the current working tree for the given <path> (i.e. smudge filters, | |
68 | end-of-line conversion, etc). In this case, <object> has to be of | |
69 | the form <tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path>. | |
70 | ||
7bcf3414 JS |
71 | --path=<path>:: |
72 | For use with --textconv or --filters, to allow specifying an object | |
73 | name and a path separately, e.g. when it is difficult to figure out | |
74 | the revision from which the blob came. | |
75 | ||
a8128ed6 | 76 | --batch:: |
93d2a607 JK |
77 | --batch=<format>:: |
78 | Print object information and contents for each object provided | |
32145943 JS |
79 | on stdin. May not be combined with any other options or arguments |
80 | except `--textconv` or `--filters`, in which case the input lines | |
81 | also need to specify the path, separated by white space. See the | |
82 | section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. | |
a8128ed6 | 83 | |
05d5667f | 84 | --batch-check:: |
93d2a607 JK |
85 | --batch-check=<format>:: |
86 | Print object information for each object provided on stdin. May | |
32145943 JS |
87 | not be combined with any other options or arguments except |
88 | `--textconv` or `--filters`, in which case the input lines also | |
89 | need to specify the path, separated by white space. See the | |
93d2a607 | 90 | section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. |
05d5667f | 91 | |
6a951937 JK |
92 | --batch-all-objects:: |
93 | Instead of reading a list of objects on stdin, perform the | |
94 | requested batch operation on all objects in the repository and | |
95 | any alternate object stores (not just reachable objects). | |
96 | Requires `--batch` or `--batch-check` be specified. Note that | |
3115ee45 | 97 | the objects are visited in order sorted by their hashes. |
6a951937 | 98 | |
fc4937c3 JK |
99 | --buffer:: |
100 | Normally batch output is flushed after each object is output, so | |
101 | that a process can interactively read and write from | |
102 | `cat-file`. With this option, the output uses normal stdio | |
103 | buffering; this is much more efficient when invoking | |
104 | `--batch-check` on a large number of objects. | |
105 | ||
39e4ae38 KN |
106 | --allow-unknown-type:: |
107 | Allow -s or -t to query broken/corrupt objects of unknown type. | |
108 | ||
122d5346 DT |
109 | --follow-symlinks:: |
110 | With --batch or --batch-check, follow symlinks inside the | |
111 | repository when requesting objects with extended SHA-1 | |
112 | expressions of the form tree-ish:path-in-tree. Instead of | |
113 | providing output about the link itself, provide output about | |
114 | the linked-to object. If a symlink points outside the | |
115 | tree-ish (e.g. a link to /foo or a root-level link to ../foo), | |
116 | the portion of the link which is outside the tree will be | |
117 | printed. | |
118 | + | |
119 | This option does not (currently) work correctly when an object in the | |
120 | index is specified (e.g. `:link` instead of `HEAD:link`) rather than | |
121 | one in the tree. | |
122 | + | |
123 | This option cannot (currently) be used unless `--batch` or | |
124 | `--batch-check` is used. | |
125 | + | |
126 | For example, consider a git repository containing: | |
127 | + | |
128 | -- | |
129 | f: a file containing "hello\n" | |
130 | link: a symlink to f | |
131 | dir/link: a symlink to ../f | |
132 | plink: a symlink to ../f | |
133 | alink: a symlink to /etc/passwd | |
134 | -- | |
135 | + | |
136 | For a regular file `f`, `echo HEAD:f | git cat-file --batch` would print | |
137 | + | |
138 | -- | |
139 | ce013625030ba8dba906f756967f9e9ca394464a blob 6 | |
140 | -- | |
141 | + | |
142 | And `echo HEAD:link | git cat-file --batch --follow-symlinks` would | |
143 | print the same thing, as would `HEAD:dir/link`, as they both point at | |
144 | `HEAD:f`. | |
145 | + | |
146 | Without `--follow-symlinks`, these would print data about the symlink | |
147 | itself. In the case of `HEAD:link`, you would see | |
148 | + | |
149 | -- | |
150 | 4d1ae35ba2c8ec712fa2a379db44ad639ca277bd blob 1 | |
151 | -- | |
152 | + | |
153 | Both `plink` and `alink` point outside the tree, so they would | |
154 | respectively print: | |
155 | + | |
156 | -- | |
157 | symlink 4 | |
158 | ../f | |
159 | ||
160 | symlink 11 | |
161 | /etc/passwd | |
162 | -- | |
163 | ||
164 | ||
2cf565c5 DG |
165 | OUTPUT |
166 | ------ | |
23f8239b | 167 | If `-t` is specified, one of the <type>. |
7950571a | 168 | |
23f8239b | 169 | If `-s` is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes. |
7950571a | 170 | |
23f8239b | 171 | If `-e` is specified, no output. |
2cf565c5 | 172 | |
23f8239b | 173 | If `-p` is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed. |
ed90cbf5 | 174 | |
05d5667f AR |
175 | If <type> is specified, the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object> |
176 | will be returned. | |
177 | ||
93d2a607 JK |
178 | BATCH OUTPUT |
179 | ------------ | |
180 | ||
181 | If `--batch` or `--batch-check` is given, `cat-file` will read objects | |
97be0407 JK |
182 | from stdin, one per line, and print information about them. By default, |
183 | the whole line is considered as an object, as if it were fed to | |
184 | linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. | |
93d2a607 JK |
185 | |
186 | You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom | |
187 | `<format>`. The `<format>` is copied literally to stdout for each | |
188 | object, with placeholders of the form `%(atom)` expanded, followed by a | |
189 | newline. The available atoms are: | |
190 | ||
191 | `objectname`:: | |
192 | The 40-hex object name of the object. | |
193 | ||
194 | `objecttype`:: | |
195 | The type of of the object (the same as `cat-file -t` reports). | |
196 | ||
197 | `objectsize`:: | |
198 | The size, in bytes, of the object (the same as `cat-file -s` | |
199 | reports). | |
200 | ||
a4ac1061 JK |
201 | `objectsize:disk`:: |
202 | The size, in bytes, that the object takes up on disk. See the | |
203 | note about on-disk sizes in the `CAVEATS` section below. | |
204 | ||
65ea9c3c JK |
205 | `deltabase`:: |
206 | If the object is stored as a delta on-disk, this expands to the | |
207 | 40-hex sha1 of the delta base object. Otherwise, expands to the | |
208 | null sha1 (40 zeroes). See `CAVEATS` below. | |
209 | ||
97be0407 JK |
210 | `rest`:: |
211 | If this atom is used in the output string, input lines are split | |
212 | at the first whitespace boundary. All characters before that | |
213 | whitespace are considered to be the object name; characters | |
214 | after that first run of whitespace (i.e., the "rest" of the | |
215 | line) are output in place of the `%(rest)` atom. | |
216 | ||
93d2a607 JK |
217 | If no format is specified, the default format is `%(objectname) |
218 | %(objecttype) %(objectsize)`. | |
219 | ||
220 | If `--batch` is specified, the object information is followed by the | |
221 | object contents (consisting of `%(objectsize)` bytes), followed by a | |
222 | newline. | |
223 | ||
224 | For example, `--batch` without a custom format would produce: | |
a8128ed6 AR |
225 | |
226 | ------------ | |
227 | <sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF | |
228 | <contents> LF | |
229 | ------------ | |
230 | ||
93d2a607 | 231 | Whereas `--batch-check='%(objectname) %(objecttype)'` would produce: |
05d5667f AR |
232 | |
233 | ------------ | |
93d2a607 | 234 | <sha1> SP <type> LF |
05d5667f AR |
235 | ------------ |
236 | ||
93d2a607 JK |
237 | If a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object in |
238 | the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format and print: | |
2cf565c5 | 239 | |
05d5667f AR |
240 | ------------ |
241 | <object> SP missing LF | |
242 | ------------ | |
2cf565c5 | 243 | |
122d5346 DT |
244 | If --follow-symlinks is used, and a symlink in the repository points |
245 | outside the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format | |
246 | and print: | |
247 | ||
248 | ------------ | |
249 | symlink SP <size> LF | |
250 | <symlink> LF | |
251 | ------------ | |
252 | ||
253 | The symlink will either be absolute (beginning with a /), or relative | |
254 | to the tree root. For instance, if dir/link points to ../../foo, then | |
255 | <symlink> will be ../foo. <size> is the size of the symlink in bytes. | |
256 | ||
257 | If --follow-symlinks is used, the following error messages will be | |
258 | displayed: | |
259 | ||
260 | ------------ | |
261 | <object> SP missing LF | |
262 | ------------ | |
263 | is printed when the initial symlink requested does not exist. | |
264 | ||
265 | ------------ | |
266 | dangling SP <size> LF | |
267 | <object> LF | |
268 | ------------ | |
269 | is printed when the initial symlink exists, but something that | |
270 | it (transitive-of) points to does not. | |
271 | ||
272 | ------------ | |
273 | loop SP <size> LF | |
274 | <object> LF | |
275 | ------------ | |
276 | is printed for symlink loops (or any symlinks that | |
277 | require more than 40 link resolutions to resolve). | |
278 | ||
279 | ------------ | |
280 | notdir SP <size> LF | |
281 | <object> LF | |
282 | ------------ | |
283 | is printed when, during symlink resolution, a file is used as a | |
284 | directory name. | |
a4ac1061 JK |
285 | |
286 | CAVEATS | |
287 | ------- | |
288 | ||
289 | Note that the sizes of objects on disk are reported accurately, but care | |
290 | should be taken in drawing conclusions about which refs or objects are | |
291 | responsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object may be | |
292 | much larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but the | |
293 | choice of which object is the base and which is the delta is arbitrary | |
65ea9c3c | 294 | and is subject to change during a repack. |
a4ac1061 | 295 | |
65ea9c3c JK |
296 | Note also that multiple copies of an object may be present in the object |
297 | database; in this case, it is undefined which copy's size or delta base | |
298 | will be reported. | |
a4ac1061 | 299 | |
2cf565c5 DG |
300 | GIT |
301 | --- | |
9e1f0a85 | 302 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |