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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] |
39e4ae38 | 12 | 'git cat-file' (-t [--allow-unknown-type]| -s [--allow-unknown-type]| -e | -p | <type> | --textconv ) <object> |
33e8fc87 | 13 | 'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) [--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 |
bcf9626a | 19 | object type, or `-s` is used to find the object size, or `--textconv` is used |
9f77fe02 | 20 | (which implies type "blob"). |
05d5667f | 21 | |
d83a42f3 | 22 | In the second form, a list of objects (separated by linefeeds) is provided on |
d5fa1f1a | 23 | stdin, and the SHA-1, type, and size of each object is printed on stdout. |
2cf565c5 DG |
24 | |
25 | OPTIONS | |
26 | ------- | |
27 | <object>:: | |
8933364d AK |
28 | The name of the object to show. |
29 | For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see | |
9d83e382 | 30 | the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7]. |
2cf565c5 DG |
31 | |
32 | -t:: | |
33 | Instead of the content, show the object type identified by | |
34 | <object>. | |
35 | ||
62bb9960 JH |
36 | -s:: |
37 | Instead of the content, show the object size identified by | |
38 | <object>. | |
39 | ||
7950571a PA |
40 | -e:: |
41 | Suppress all output; instead exit with zero status if <object> | |
42 | exists and is a valid object. | |
43 | ||
ed90cbf5 JK |
44 | -p:: |
45 | Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type. | |
46 | ||
2cf565c5 DG |
47 | <type>:: |
48 | Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking | |
f73ae1fc | 49 | for a type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given |
2cf565c5 DG |
50 | <object> is also permitted. An example is to ask for a |
51 | "tree" with <object> being a commit object that contains it, | |
52 | or to ask for a "blob" with <object> being a tag object that | |
53 | points at it. | |
54 | ||
9f77fe02 MG |
55 | --textconv:: |
56 | Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case, | |
bb8040f9 | 57 | <object> has be of the form <tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path> in order |
9f77fe02 MG |
58 | to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at <path>. |
59 | ||
a8128ed6 | 60 | --batch:: |
93d2a607 JK |
61 | --batch=<format>:: |
62 | Print object information and contents for each object provided | |
63 | on stdin. May not be combined with any other options or arguments. | |
64 | See the section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. | |
a8128ed6 | 65 | |
05d5667f | 66 | --batch-check:: |
93d2a607 JK |
67 | --batch-check=<format>:: |
68 | Print object information for each object provided on stdin. May | |
69 | not be combined with any other options or arguments. See the | |
70 | section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. | |
05d5667f | 71 | |
6a951937 JK |
72 | --batch-all-objects:: |
73 | Instead of reading a list of objects on stdin, perform the | |
74 | requested batch operation on all objects in the repository and | |
75 | any alternate object stores (not just reachable objects). | |
76 | Requires `--batch` or `--batch-check` be specified. Note that | |
3115ee45 | 77 | the objects are visited in order sorted by their hashes. |
6a951937 | 78 | |
fc4937c3 JK |
79 | --buffer:: |
80 | Normally batch output is flushed after each object is output, so | |
81 | that a process can interactively read and write from | |
82 | `cat-file`. With this option, the output uses normal stdio | |
83 | buffering; this is much more efficient when invoking | |
84 | `--batch-check` on a large number of objects. | |
85 | ||
39e4ae38 KN |
86 | --allow-unknown-type:: |
87 | Allow -s or -t to query broken/corrupt objects of unknown type. | |
88 | ||
122d5346 DT |
89 | --follow-symlinks:: |
90 | With --batch or --batch-check, follow symlinks inside the | |
91 | repository when requesting objects with extended SHA-1 | |
92 | expressions of the form tree-ish:path-in-tree. Instead of | |
93 | providing output about the link itself, provide output about | |
94 | the linked-to object. If a symlink points outside the | |
95 | tree-ish (e.g. a link to /foo or a root-level link to ../foo), | |
96 | the portion of the link which is outside the tree will be | |
97 | printed. | |
98 | + | |
99 | This option does not (currently) work correctly when an object in the | |
100 | index is specified (e.g. `:link` instead of `HEAD:link`) rather than | |
101 | one in the tree. | |
102 | + | |
103 | This option cannot (currently) be used unless `--batch` or | |
104 | `--batch-check` is used. | |
105 | + | |
106 | For example, consider a git repository containing: | |
107 | + | |
108 | -- | |
109 | f: a file containing "hello\n" | |
110 | link: a symlink to f | |
111 | dir/link: a symlink to ../f | |
112 | plink: a symlink to ../f | |
113 | alink: a symlink to /etc/passwd | |
114 | -- | |
115 | + | |
116 | For a regular file `f`, `echo HEAD:f | git cat-file --batch` would print | |
117 | + | |
118 | -- | |
119 | ce013625030ba8dba906f756967f9e9ca394464a blob 6 | |
120 | -- | |
121 | + | |
122 | And `echo HEAD:link | git cat-file --batch --follow-symlinks` would | |
123 | print the same thing, as would `HEAD:dir/link`, as they both point at | |
124 | `HEAD:f`. | |
125 | + | |
126 | Without `--follow-symlinks`, these would print data about the symlink | |
127 | itself. In the case of `HEAD:link`, you would see | |
128 | + | |
129 | -- | |
130 | 4d1ae35ba2c8ec712fa2a379db44ad639ca277bd blob 1 | |
131 | -- | |
132 | + | |
133 | Both `plink` and `alink` point outside the tree, so they would | |
134 | respectively print: | |
135 | + | |
136 | -- | |
137 | symlink 4 | |
138 | ../f | |
139 | ||
140 | symlink 11 | |
141 | /etc/passwd | |
142 | -- | |
143 | ||
144 | ||
2cf565c5 DG |
145 | OUTPUT |
146 | ------ | |
23f8239b | 147 | If `-t` is specified, one of the <type>. |
7950571a | 148 | |
23f8239b | 149 | If `-s` is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes. |
7950571a | 150 | |
23f8239b | 151 | If `-e` is specified, no output. |
2cf565c5 | 152 | |
23f8239b | 153 | If `-p` is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed. |
ed90cbf5 | 154 | |
05d5667f AR |
155 | If <type> is specified, the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object> |
156 | will be returned. | |
157 | ||
93d2a607 JK |
158 | BATCH OUTPUT |
159 | ------------ | |
160 | ||
161 | If `--batch` or `--batch-check` is given, `cat-file` will read objects | |
97be0407 JK |
162 | from stdin, one per line, and print information about them. By default, |
163 | the whole line is considered as an object, as if it were fed to | |
164 | linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. | |
93d2a607 JK |
165 | |
166 | You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom | |
167 | `<format>`. The `<format>` is copied literally to stdout for each | |
168 | object, with placeholders of the form `%(atom)` expanded, followed by a | |
169 | newline. The available atoms are: | |
170 | ||
171 | `objectname`:: | |
172 | The 40-hex object name of the object. | |
173 | ||
174 | `objecttype`:: | |
175 | The type of of the object (the same as `cat-file -t` reports). | |
176 | ||
177 | `objectsize`:: | |
178 | The size, in bytes, of the object (the same as `cat-file -s` | |
179 | reports). | |
180 | ||
a4ac1061 JK |
181 | `objectsize:disk`:: |
182 | The size, in bytes, that the object takes up on disk. See the | |
183 | note about on-disk sizes in the `CAVEATS` section below. | |
184 | ||
65ea9c3c JK |
185 | `deltabase`:: |
186 | If the object is stored as a delta on-disk, this expands to the | |
187 | 40-hex sha1 of the delta base object. Otherwise, expands to the | |
188 | null sha1 (40 zeroes). See `CAVEATS` below. | |
189 | ||
97be0407 JK |
190 | `rest`:: |
191 | If this atom is used in the output string, input lines are split | |
192 | at the first whitespace boundary. All characters before that | |
193 | whitespace are considered to be the object name; characters | |
194 | after that first run of whitespace (i.e., the "rest" of the | |
195 | line) are output in place of the `%(rest)` atom. | |
196 | ||
93d2a607 JK |
197 | If no format is specified, the default format is `%(objectname) |
198 | %(objecttype) %(objectsize)`. | |
199 | ||
200 | If `--batch` is specified, the object information is followed by the | |
201 | object contents (consisting of `%(objectsize)` bytes), followed by a | |
202 | newline. | |
203 | ||
204 | For example, `--batch` without a custom format would produce: | |
a8128ed6 AR |
205 | |
206 | ------------ | |
207 | <sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF | |
208 | <contents> LF | |
209 | ------------ | |
210 | ||
93d2a607 | 211 | Whereas `--batch-check='%(objectname) %(objecttype)'` would produce: |
05d5667f AR |
212 | |
213 | ------------ | |
93d2a607 | 214 | <sha1> SP <type> LF |
05d5667f AR |
215 | ------------ |
216 | ||
93d2a607 JK |
217 | If a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object in |
218 | the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format and print: | |
2cf565c5 | 219 | |
05d5667f AR |
220 | ------------ |
221 | <object> SP missing LF | |
222 | ------------ | |
2cf565c5 | 223 | |
122d5346 DT |
224 | If --follow-symlinks is used, and a symlink in the repository points |
225 | outside the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format | |
226 | and print: | |
227 | ||
228 | ------------ | |
229 | symlink SP <size> LF | |
230 | <symlink> LF | |
231 | ------------ | |
232 | ||
233 | The symlink will either be absolute (beginning with a /), or relative | |
234 | to the tree root. For instance, if dir/link points to ../../foo, then | |
235 | <symlink> will be ../foo. <size> is the size of the symlink in bytes. | |
236 | ||
237 | If --follow-symlinks is used, the following error messages will be | |
238 | displayed: | |
239 | ||
240 | ------------ | |
241 | <object> SP missing LF | |
242 | ------------ | |
243 | is printed when the initial symlink requested does not exist. | |
244 | ||
245 | ------------ | |
246 | dangling SP <size> LF | |
247 | <object> LF | |
248 | ------------ | |
249 | is printed when the initial symlink exists, but something that | |
250 | it (transitive-of) points to does not. | |
251 | ||
252 | ------------ | |
253 | loop SP <size> LF | |
254 | <object> LF | |
255 | ------------ | |
256 | is printed for symlink loops (or any symlinks that | |
257 | require more than 40 link resolutions to resolve). | |
258 | ||
259 | ------------ | |
260 | notdir SP <size> LF | |
261 | <object> LF | |
262 | ------------ | |
263 | is printed when, during symlink resolution, a file is used as a | |
264 | directory name. | |
a4ac1061 JK |
265 | |
266 | CAVEATS | |
267 | ------- | |
268 | ||
269 | Note that the sizes of objects on disk are reported accurately, but care | |
270 | should be taken in drawing conclusions about which refs or objects are | |
271 | responsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object may be | |
272 | much larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but the | |
273 | choice of which object is the base and which is the delta is arbitrary | |
65ea9c3c | 274 | and is subject to change during a repack. |
a4ac1061 | 275 | |
65ea9c3c JK |
276 | Note also that multiple copies of an object may be present in the object |
277 | database; in this case, it is undefined which copy's size or delta base | |
278 | will be reported. | |
a4ac1061 | 279 | |
2cf565c5 DG |
280 | GIT |
281 | --- | |
9e1f0a85 | 282 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |