Documentation/git-rev-list.txt

   1 git-rev-list(1)
   2 ===============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-rev-list - Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git-rev-list' [ \--max-count=number ]
  13              [ \--max-age=timestamp ]
  14              [ \--min-age=timestamp ]
  15              [ \--sparse ]
  16              [ \--no-merges ]
  17              [ \--remove-empty ]
  18              [ \--all ]
  19              [ [ \--merge-order [ \--show-breaks ] ] | [ \--topo-order ] ]
  20              [ \--parents ]
  21              [ \--objects [ \--unpacked ] ]
  22              [ \--pretty | \--header ]
  23              [ \--bisect ]
  24              <commit>... [ \-- <paths>... ]
  25
  26 DESCRIPTION
  27 -----------
  28 Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order starting at the
  29 given commit(s), taking ancestry relationship into account.  This is
  30 useful to produce human-readable log output.
  31
  32 Commits which are stated with a preceding '{caret}' cause listing to stop at
  33 that point. Their parents are implied. "git-rev-list foo bar {caret}baz" thus
  34 means "list all the commits which are included in 'foo' and 'bar', but
  35 not in 'baz'".
  36
  37 A special notation <commit1>..<commit2> can be used as a
  38 short-hand for {caret}<commit1> <commit2>.
  39
  40
  41 OPTIONS
  42 -------
  43 --pretty::
  44         Print the contents of the commit changesets in human-readable form.
  45
  46 --header::
  47         Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each
  48         record is separated with a NUL character.
  49
  50 --objects::
  51         Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed commits.
  52         'git-rev-list --objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me all object IDs
  53         which I need to download if I have the commit object 'bar', but
  54         not 'foo'".
  55
  56 --unpacked::
  57         Only useful with `--objects`; print the object IDs that
  58         are not in packs.
  59
  60 --bisect::
  61         Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway
  62         between the included and excluded commits. Thus, if 'git-rev-list
  63         --bisect foo ^bar ^baz' outputs 'midpoint', the output
  64         of 'git-rev-list foo ^midpoint' and 'git-rev-list midpoint
  65         ^bar ^baz' would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change
  66         which introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search:
  67         repeatedly generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain
  68         is of length one.
  69
  70 --max-count::
  71         Limit the number of commits output.
  72
  73 --max-age=timestamp, --min-age=timestamp::
  74         Limit the commits output to specified time range.
  75
  76 --sparse::
  77         When optional paths are given, the command outputs only
  78         the commits that changes at least one of them, and also
  79         ignores merges that do not touch the given paths.  This
  80         flag makes the command output all eligible commits
  81         (still subject to count and age limitation), but apply
  82         merge simplification nevertheless.
  83
  84 --remove-empty::
  85         Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
  86
  87 --all::
  88         Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/` are
  89         listed on the command line as <commit>.
  90
  91 --topo-order::
  92         By default, the commits are shown in reverse
  93         chronological order.  This option makes them appear in
  94         topological order (i.e. descendant commits are shown
  95         before their parents).
  96
  97 --merge-order::
  98         When specified the commit history is decomposed into a unique
  99         sequence of minimal, non-linear epochs and maximal, linear epochs.
 100         Non-linear epochs are then linearised by sorting them into merge
 101         order, which is described below.
 102 +
 103 Maximal, linear epochs correspond to periods of sequential development.
 104 Minimal, non-linear epochs correspond to periods of divergent development
 105 followed by a converging merge. The theory of epochs is described in more
 106 detail at
 107 link:http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/[http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/].
 108 +
 109 The merge order for a non-linear epoch is defined as a linearisation for which
 110 the following invariants are true:
 111 +
 112     1. if a commit P is reachable from commit N, commit P sorts after commit N
 113        in the linearised list.
 114     2. if Pi and Pj are any two parents of a merge M (with i < j), then any
 115        commit N, such that N is reachable from Pj but not reachable from Pi,
 116        sorts before all commits reachable from Pi.
 117 +
 118 Invariant 1 states that later commits appear before earlier commits they are
 119 derived from.
 120 +
 121 Invariant 2 states that commits unique to "later" parents in a merge, appear
 122 before all commits from "earlier" parents of a merge.
 123
 124 --show-breaks::
 125         Each item of the list is output with a 2-character prefix consisting
 126         of one of: (|), (^), (=) followed by a space.
 127 +
 128 Commits marked with (=) represent the boundaries of minimal, non-linear epochs
 129 and correspond either to the start of a period of divergent development or to
 130 the end of such a period.
 131 +
 132 Commits marked with (|) are direct parents of commits immediately preceding
 133 the marked commit in the list.
 134 +
 135 Commits marked with (^) are not parents of the immediately preceding commit.
 136 These "breaks" represent necessary discontinuities implied by trying to
 137 represent an arbitrary DAG in a linear form.
 138 +
 139 `--show-breaks` is only valid if `--merge-order` is also specified.
 140
 141
 142 Author
 143 ------
 144 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 145
 146 Original *--merge-order* logic by Jon Seymour <jon.seymour@gmail.com>
 147
 148 Documentation
 149 --------------
 150 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 151
 152 GIT
 153 ---
 154 Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 155