Documentation/git-apply.txt

   1 git-apply(1)
   2 ============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-apply - Apply a patch to files and/or to the index
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git apply' [--stat] [--numstat] [--summary] [--check] [--index]
  13           [--apply] [--no-add] [--build-fake-ancestor=<file>] [-R | --reverse]
  14           [--allow-binary-replacement | --binary] [--reject] [-z]
  15           [-pNUM] [-CNUM] [--inaccurate-eof] [--recount] [--cached]
  16           [--ignore-space-change | --ignore-whitespace ]
  17           [--whitespace=<nowarn|warn|fix|error|error-all>]
  18           [--exclude=PATH] [--include=PATH] [--directory=<root>]
  19           [--verbose] [<patch>...]
  20
  21 DESCRIPTION
  22 -----------
  23 Reads the supplied diff output (i.e. "a patch") and applies it to files.
  24 With the `--index` option the patch is also applied to the index, and
  25 with the `--cache` option the patch is only applied to the index.
  26 Without these options, the command applies the patch only to files,
  27 and does not require them to be in a git repository.
  28
  29 OPTIONS
  30 -------
  31 <patch>...::
  32         The files to read the patch from.  '-' can be used to read
  33         from the standard input.
  34
  35 --stat::
  36         Instead of applying the patch, output diffstat for the
  37         input.  Turns off "apply".
  38
  39 --numstat::
  40         Similar to `--stat`, but shows the number of added and
  41         deleted lines in decimal notation and the pathname without
  42         abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
  43         binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
  44         `0 0`.  Turns off "apply".
  45
  46 --summary::
  47         Instead of applying the patch, output a condensed
  48         summary of information obtained from git diff extended
  49         headers, such as creations, renames and mode changes.
  50         Turns off "apply".
  51
  52 --check::
  53         Instead of applying the patch, see if the patch is
  54         applicable to the current working tree and/or the index
  55         file and detects errors.  Turns off "apply".
  56
  57 --index::
  58         When `--check` is in effect, or when applying the patch
  59         (which is the default when none of the options that
  60         disables it is in effect), make sure the patch is
  61         applicable to what the current index file records.  If
  62         the file to be patched in the working tree is not
  63         up-to-date, it is flagged as an error.  This flag also
  64         causes the index file to be updated.
  65
  66 --cached::
  67         Apply a patch without touching the working tree. Instead take the
  68         cached data, apply the patch, and store the result in the index
  69         without using the working tree. This implies `--index`.
  70
  71 --build-fake-ancestor=<file>::
  72         Newer 'git diff' output has embedded 'index information'
  73         for each blob to help identify the original version that
  74         the patch applies to.  When this flag is given, and if
  75         the original versions of the blobs are available locally,
  76         builds a temporary index containing those blobs.
  77 +
  78 When a pure mode change is encountered (which has no index information),
  79 the information is read from the current index instead.
  80
  81 -R::
  82 --reverse::
  83         Apply the patch in reverse.
  84
  85 --reject::
  86         For atomicity, 'git apply' by default fails the whole patch and
  87         does not touch the working tree when some of the hunks
  88         do not apply.  This option makes it apply
  89         the parts of the patch that are applicable, and leave the
  90         rejected hunks in corresponding *.rej files.
  91
  92 -z::
  93         When `--numstat` has been given, do not munge pathnames,
  94         but use a NUL-terminated machine-readable format.
  95 +
  96 Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double quotes,
  97 and backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, `\"`, and `\\`,
  98 respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
  99 any of those replacements occurred.
 100
 101 -p<n>::
 102         Remove <n> leading slashes from traditional diff paths. The
 103         default is 1.
 104
 105 -C<n>::
 106         Ensure at least <n> lines of surrounding context match before
 107         and after each change.  When fewer lines of surrounding
 108         context exist they all must match.  By default no context is
 109         ever ignored.
 110
 111 --unidiff-zero::
 112         By default, 'git apply' expects that the patch being
 113         applied is a unified diff with at least one line of context.
 114         This provides good safety measures, but breaks down when
 115         applying a diff generated with `--unified=0`. To bypass these
 116         checks use `--unidiff-zero`.
 117 +
 118 Note, for the reasons stated above usage of context-free patches is
 119 discouraged.
 120
 121 --apply::
 122         If you use any of the options marked "Turns off
 123         'apply'" above, 'git apply' reads and outputs the
 124         requested information without actually applying the
 125         patch.  Give this flag after those flags to also apply
 126         the patch.
 127
 128 --no-add::
 129         When applying a patch, ignore additions made by the
 130         patch.  This can be used to extract the common part between
 131         two files by first running 'diff' on them and applying
 132         the result with this option, which would apply the
 133         deletion part but not the addition part.
 134
 135 --allow-binary-replacement::
 136 --binary::
 137         Historically we did not allow binary patch applied
 138         without an explicit permission from the user, and this
 139         flag was the way to do so.  Currently we always allow binary
 140         patch application, so this is a no-op.
 141
 142 --exclude=<path-pattern>::
 143         Don't apply changes to files matching the given path pattern. This can
 144         be useful when importing patchsets, where you want to exclude certain
 145         files or directories.
 146
 147 --include=<path-pattern>::
 148         Apply changes to files matching the given path pattern. This can
 149         be useful when importing patchsets, where you want to include certain
 150         files or directories.
 151 +
 152 When `--exclude` and `--include` patterns are used, they are examined in the
 153 order they appear on the command line, and the first match determines if a
 154 patch to each path is used.  A patch to a path that does not match any
 155 include/exclude pattern is used by default if there is no include pattern
 156 on the command line, and ignored if there is any include pattern.
 157
 158 --ignore-space-change::
 159 --ignore-whitespace::
 160         When applying a patch, ignore changes in whitespace in context
 161         lines if necessary.
 162         Context lines will preserve their whitespace, and they will not
 163         undergo whitespace fixing regardless of the value of the
 164         `--whitespace` option. New lines will still be fixed, though.
 165
 166 --whitespace=<action>::
 167         When applying a patch, detect a new or modified line that has
 168         whitespace errors.  What are considered whitespace errors is
 169         controlled by `core.whitespace` configuration.  By default,
 170         trailing whitespaces (including lines that solely consist of
 171         whitespaces) and a space character that is immediately followed
 172         by a tab character inside the initial indent of the line are
 173         considered whitespace errors.
 174 +
 175 By default, the command outputs warning messages but applies the patch.
 176 When `git-apply` is used for statistics and not applying a
 177 patch, it defaults to `nowarn`.
 178 +
 179 You can use different `<action>` values to control this
 180 behavior:
 181 +
 182 * `nowarn` turns off the trailing whitespace warning.
 183 * `warn` outputs warnings for a few such errors, but applies the
 184   patch as-is (default).
 185 * `fix` outputs warnings for a few such errors, and applies the
 186   patch after fixing them (`strip` is a synonym --- the tool
 187   used to consider only trailing whitespace characters as errors, and the
 188   fix involved 'stripping' them, but modern gits do more).
 189 * `error` outputs warnings for a few such errors, and refuses
 190   to apply the patch.
 191 * `error-all` is similar to `error` but shows all errors.
 192
 193 --inaccurate-eof::
 194         Under certain circumstances, some versions of 'diff' do not correctly
 195         detect a missing new-line at the end of the file. As a result, patches
 196         created by such 'diff' programs do not record incomplete lines
 197         correctly. This option adds support for applying such patches by
 198         working around this bug.
 199
 200 -v::
 201 --verbose::
 202         Report progress to stderr. By default, only a message about the
 203         current patch being applied will be printed. This option will cause
 204         additional information to be reported.
 205
 206 --recount::
 207         Do not trust the line counts in the hunk headers, but infer them
 208         by inspecting the patch (e.g. after editing the patch without
 209         adjusting the hunk headers appropriately).
 210
 211 --directory=<root>::
 212         Prepend <root> to all filenames.  If a "-p" argument was also passed,
 213         it is applied before prepending the new root.
 214 +
 215 For example, a patch that talks about updating `a/git-gui.sh` to `b/git-gui.sh`
 216 can be applied to the file in the working tree `modules/git-gui/git-gui.sh` by
 217 running `git apply --directory=modules/git-gui`.
 218
 219 Configuration
 220 -------------
 221
 222 apply.ignorewhitespace::
 223         Set to 'change' if you want changes in whitespace to be ignored by default.
 224         Set to one of: no, none, never, false if you want changes in
 225         whitespace to be significant.
 226 apply.whitespace::
 227         When no `--whitespace` flag is given from the command
 228         line, this configuration item is used as the default.
 229
 230 Submodules
 231 ----------
 232 If the patch contains any changes to submodules then 'git apply'
 233 treats these changes as follows.
 234
 235 If `--index` is specified (explicitly or implicitly), then the submodule
 236 commits must match the index exactly for the patch to apply.  If any
 237 of the submodules are checked-out, then these check-outs are completely
 238 ignored, i.e., they are not required to be up-to-date or clean and they
 239 are not updated.
 240
 241 If `--index` is not specified, then the submodule commits in the patch
 242 are ignored and only the absence or presence of the corresponding
 243 subdirectory is checked and (if possible) updated.
 244
 245 Author
 246 ------
 247 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 248
 249 Documentation
 250 --------------
 251 Documentation by Junio C Hamano
 252
 253 GIT
 254 ---
 255 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite