Documentation/git-cat-file.txt

   1 git-cat-file(1)
   2 ===============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-cat-file - Provide content or type/size information for repository objects
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 'git-cat-file' [-t | -s | -e | -p | <type>] <object>
  12
  13 DESCRIPTION
  14 -----------
  15 Provides content or type of objects in the repository. The type
  16 is required unless '-t' or '-p' is used to find the object type,
  17 or '-s' is used to find the object size.
  18
  19 OPTIONS
  20 -------
  21 <object>::
  22         The name of the object to show.
  23         For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see
  24         "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1].
  25
  26 -t::
  27         Instead of the content, show the object type identified by
  28         <object>.
  29
  30 -s::
  31         Instead of the content, show the object size identified by
  32         <object>.
  33
  34 -e::
  35         Suppress all output; instead exit with zero status if <object>
  36         exists and is a valid object.
  37
  38 -p::
  39         Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type.
  40
  41 <type>::
  42         Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking
  43         for a type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given
  44         <object> is also permitted.  An example is to ask for a
  45         "tree" with <object> being a commit object that contains it,
  46         or to ask for a "blob" with <object> being a tag object that
  47         points at it.
  48
  49 OUTPUT
  50 ------
  51 If '-t' is specified, one of the <type>.
  52
  53 If '-s' is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes.
  54
  55 If '-e' is specified, no output.
  56
  57 If '-p' is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed.
  58
  59 Otherwise the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object> will
  60 be returned.
  61
  62
  63 Author
  64 ------
  65 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
  66
  67 Documentation
  68 --------------
  69 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
  70
  71 GIT
  72 ---
  73 Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite