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1 Commit Limiting
2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3
4 Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the
5 special notations explained in the description, additional commit
6 limiting may be applied. Note that they are applied before commit
7 ordering and formatting options, such as '--reverse'.
8
9 --
10
11 -n 'number'::
12 --max-count=<number>::
13
14 Limit the number of commits to output.
15
16 --skip=<number>::
17
18 Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
19
20 --since=<date>::
21 --after=<date>::
22
23 Show commits more recent than a specific date.
24
25 --until=<date>::
26 --before=<date>::
27
28 Show commits older than a specific date.
29
30 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
31 --max-age=<timestamp>::
32 --min-age=<timestamp>::
33
34 Limit the commits output to specified time range.
35 endif::git-rev-list[]
36
37 --author=<pattern>::
38 --committer=<pattern>::
39
40 Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
41 header lines that match the specified pattern (regular expression).
42
43 --grep=<pattern>::
44
45 Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
46 matches the specified pattern (regular expression).
47
48 --all-match::
49 Limit the commits output to ones that match all given --grep,
50 --author and --committer instead of ones that match at least one.
51
52 -i::
53 --regexp-ignore-case::
54
55 Match the regexp limiting patterns without regard to letters case.
56
57 -E::
58 --extended-regexp::
59
60 Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
61 instead of the default basic regular expressions.
62
63 -F::
64 --fixed-strings::
65
66 Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
67 pattern as a regular expression).
68
69 --remove-empty::
70
71 Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
72
73 --merges::
74
75 Print only merge commits.
76
77 --no-merges::
78
79 Do not print commits with more than one parent.
80
81 --first-parent::
82 Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
83 commit. This option can give a better overview when
84 viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
85 because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
86 adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
87 this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
88 brought in to your history by such a merge.
89
90 --not::
91
92 Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
93 for all following revision specifiers, up to the next '--not'.
94
95 --all::
96
97 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the
98 command line as '<commit>'.
99
100 --branches[=<pattern>]::
101
102 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
103 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
104 branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
105 '*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
106
107 --tags[=<pattern>]::
108
109 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
110 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
111 tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '*',
112 or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
113
114 --remotes[=<pattern>]::
115
116 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
117 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
118 remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
119 If pattern lacks '?', '*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
120
121 --glob=<glob-pattern>::
122 Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob '<glob-pattern>'
123 are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/',
124 is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '*',
125 or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
126
127
128 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
129 --bisect::
130
131 Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
132 was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
133 bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
134 line.
135 endif::git-rev-list[]
136
137 --stdin::
138
139 In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
140 line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is
141 seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the
142 result.
143
144 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
145 --quiet::
146
147 Don't print anything to standard output. This form
148 is primarily meant to allow the caller to
149 test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
150 connected (or not). It is faster than redirecting stdout
151 to /dev/null as the output does not have to be formatted.
152 endif::git-rev-list[]
153
154 --cherry-mark::
155
156 Like `--cherry-pick` (see below) but mark equivalent commits
157 with `=` rather than omitting them, and inequivalent ones with `+`.
158
159 --cherry-pick::
160
161 Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
162 another commit on the "other side" when the set of
163 commits are limited with symmetric difference.
164 +
165 For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
166 to list all commits on only one side of them is with
167 `--left-right`, like the example above in the description of
168 that option. It however shows the commits that were cherry-picked
169 from the other branch (for example, "3rd on b" may be cherry-picked
170 from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are
171 excluded from the output.
172
173 --left-only::
174 --right-only::
175
176 List only commits on the respective side of a symmetric range,
177 i.e. only those which would be marked `<` resp. `>` by
178 `--left-right`.
179 +
180 For example, `--cherry-pick --right-only A...B` omits those
181 commits from `B` which are in `A` or are patch-equivalent to a commit in
182 `A`. In other words, this lists the `{plus}` commits from `git cherry A B`.
183 More precisely, `--cherry-pick --right-only --no-merges` gives the exact
184 list.
185
186 --cherry::
187
188 A synonym for `--right-only --cherry-mark --no-merges`; useful to
189 limit the output to the commits on our side and mark those that
190 have been applied to the other side of a forked history with
191 `git log --cherry upstream...mybranch`, similar to
192 `git cherry upstream mybranch`.
193
194 -g::
195 --walk-reflogs::
196
197 Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
198 reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
199 When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
200 exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
201 nor 'commit1\...commit2' notations cannot be used).
202 +
203 With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons),
204 this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
205 taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
206 used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as
207 'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
208 instead. Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is
209 prefixed with this information on the same line.
210 This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'.
211 See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
212
213 --merge::
214
215 After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
216 conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
217
218 --boundary::
219
220 Output uninteresting commits at the boundary, which are usually
221 not shown.
222
223 --
224
225 History Simplification
226 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
227
228 Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
229 commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
230 'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
231 is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
232
233 The following options select the commits to be shown:
234
235 <paths>::
236
237 Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
238
239 --simplify-by-decoration::
240
241 Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
242
243 Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
244
245 The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
246
247 Default mode::
248
249 Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
250 final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
251 branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
252 with the same content)
253
254 --full-history::
255
256 As the default mode but does not prune some history.
257
258 --dense::
259
260 Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
261 meaningful history.
262
263 --sparse::
264
265 All commits in the simplified history are shown.
266
267 --simplify-merges::
268
269 Additional option to '--full-history' to remove some needless
270 merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
271 commits contributing to this merge.
272
273 --ancestry-path::
274
275 When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2'
276 or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist
277 directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and
278 'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1',
279 and ancestors of 'commit2'.
280
281 A more detailed explanation follows.
282
283 Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
284 that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
285 filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
286
287 In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
288 illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume
289 that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
290 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
291 .-A---M---N---O---P
292 / / / / /
293 I B C D E
294 \ / / / /
295 `-------------'
296 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
297 The horizontal line of history A--P is taken to be the first parent of
298 each merge. The commits are:
299
300 * `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
301 "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux". Initial
302 commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
303
304 * In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo".
305
306 * `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and
307 hence TREESAME to all parents.
308
309 * `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar",
310 so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
311
312 * `D` sets `foo` to "baz". Its merge `O` combines the strings from
313 `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
314
315 * `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the
316 strings to "quux xyzzy". Despite appearing interesting, `P` is
317 TREESAME to all parents.
318
319 'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding
320 commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting
321 (via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used. The following settings
322 are available.
323
324 Default mode::
325
326 Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
327 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). If the
328 commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
329 only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME
330 parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all
331 parents.
332 +
333 This results in:
334 +
335 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
336 .-A---N---O
337 / / /
338 I---------D
339 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
340 +
341 Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
342 available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was
343 considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an
344 empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
345 +
346 Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does
347 not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
348 parent lines.
349
350 --full-history without parent rewriting::
351
352 This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
353 all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
354 Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
355 included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In
356 the example, we get
357 +
358 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
359 I A B N D O
360 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
361 +
362 `P` and `M` were excluded because they are TREESAME to a parent. `E`,
363 `C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
364 do not appear.
365 +
366 Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
367 about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
368 them disconnected.
369
370 --full-history with parent rewriting::
371
372 Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
373 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).
374 +
375 Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten:
376 Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
377 themselves. This results in
378 +
379 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
380 .-A---M---N---O---P
381 / / / / /
382 I B / D /
383 \ / / / /
384 `-------------'
385 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
386 +
387 Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above. Note that `E`
388 was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
389 rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and
390 `N`. Note also that `P` was included despite being TREESAME.
391
392 In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
393 affects inclusion:
394
395 --dense::
396
397 Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
398 to any parent.
399
400 --sparse::
401
402 All commits that are walked are included.
403 +
404 Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if
405 one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
406 sides of the merge are never walked.
407
408 --simplify-merges::
409
410 First, build a history graph in the same way that
411 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting does (see above).
412 +
413 Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
414 history according to the following rules:
415 +
416 --
417 * Set `C'` to `C`.
418 +
419 * Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`. In
420 the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents, and
421 remove duplicates.
422 +
423 * If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
424 zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
425 Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
426 --
427 +
428 The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
429 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting. The example turns into:
430 +
431 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
432 .-A---M---N---O
433 / / /
434 I B D
435 \ / /
436 `---------'
437 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
438 +
439 Note the major differences in `N` and `P` over '\--full-history':
440 +
441 --
442 * `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
443 other parent `M`. Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
444 +
445 * `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed. `P` was then
446 removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
447 --
448
449 Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available:
450
451 --ancestry-path::
452
453 Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry
454 chain between the "from" and "to" commits in the given commit
455 range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the "to"
456 commit, and descendants of the "from" commit.
457 +
458 As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
459 +
460 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
461 D---E-------F
462 / \ \
463 B---C---G---H---I---J
464 / \
465 A-------K---------------L--M
466 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
467 +
468 A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`,
469 but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see
470 what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense
471 that "what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`". The result in this
472 example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself,
473 of course).
474 +
475 When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the
476 bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view
477 only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e.
478 excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the '\--ancestry-path'
479 option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in:
480 +
481 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
482 E-------F
483 \ \
484 G---H---I---J
485 \
486 L--M
487 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
488
489 The '\--simplify-by-decoration' option allows you to view only the
490 big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
491 that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME
492 (in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
493 above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
494 contents of the paths given on the command line. All other
495 commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
496
497 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
498 Bisection Helpers
499 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
500
501 --bisect::
502
503 Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
504 included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
505 `refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
506 exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
507 added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
508 are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
509
510 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
511 $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
512 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
513
514 outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
515
516 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
517 $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
518 $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
519 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
520
521 would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which
522 introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
523 generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
524 one.
525
526 --bisect-vars::
527
528 This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
529 `refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
530 text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
531 name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
532 expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
533 to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if
534 `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected
535 number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
536 `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to
537 `bisect_all`.
538
539 --bisect-all::
540
541 This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
542 commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
543 commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
544 from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
545 `--bisect`.)
546 +
547 This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
548 test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
549 may not compile for example).
550 +
551 This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
552 after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
553 `--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
554 endif::git-rev-list[]
555
556
557 Commit Ordering
558 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
559
560 By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
561
562 --topo-order::
563
564 This option makes them appear in topological order (i.e.
565 descendant commits are shown before their parents).
566
567 --date-order::
568
569 This option is similar to '--topo-order' in the sense that no
570 parent comes before all of its children, but otherwise things
571 are still ordered in the commit timestamp order.
572
573 --reverse::
574
575 Output the commits in reverse order.
576 Cannot be combined with '\--walk-reflogs'.
577
578 Object Traversal
579 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
580
581 These options are mostly targeted for packing of git repositories.
582
583 --objects::
584
585 Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
586 commits. '--objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me
587 all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
588 object 'bar', but not 'foo'".
589
590 --objects-edge::
591
592 Similar to '--objects', but also print the IDs of excluded
593 commits prefixed with a "-" character. This is used by
594 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build "thin" pack, which records
595 objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
596 excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
597
598 --unpacked::
599
600 Only useful with '--objects'; print the object IDs that are not
601 in packs.
602
603 --no-walk::
604
605 Only show the given revs, but do not traverse their ancestors.
606
607 --do-walk::
608
609 Overrides a previous --no-walk.
610
611 Commit Formatting
612 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
613
614 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
615 Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
616 more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
617 linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
618 endif::git-rev-list[]
619
620 include::pretty-options.txt[]
621
622 --relative-date::
623
624 Synonym for `--date=relative`.
625
626 --date=(relative|local|default|iso|rfc|short|raw)::
627
628 Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such
629 as when using "--pretty". `log.date` config variable sets a default
630 value for log command's --date option.
631 +
632 `--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
633 e.g. "2 hours ago".
634 +
635 `--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local timezone.
636 +
637 `--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format.
638 +
639 `--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
640 format, often found in E-mail messages.
641 +
642 `--date=short` shows only date but not time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
643 +
644 `--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw git format `%s %z` format.
645 +
646 `--date=default` shows timestamps in the original timezone
647 (either committer's or author's).
648
649 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
650 --header::
651
652 Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
653 separated with a NUL character.
654 endif::git-rev-list[]
655
656 --parents::
657
658 Print also the parents of the commit (in the form "commit parent...").
659 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
660
661 --children::
662
663 Print also the children of the commit (in the form "commit child...").
664 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
665
666 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
667 --timestamp::
668 Print the raw commit timestamp.
669 endif::git-rev-list[]
670
671 --left-right::
672
673 Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from.
674 Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
675 the right with `>`. If combined with `--boundary`, those
676 commits are prefixed with `-`.
677 +
678 For example, if you have this topology:
679 +
680 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
681 y---b---b branch B
682 / \ /
683 / .
684 / / \
685 o---x---a---a branch A
686 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
687 +
688 you would get an output like this:
689 +
690 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
691 $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
692
693 >bbbbbbb... 3rd on b
694 >bbbbbbb... 2nd on b
695 <aaaaaaa... 3rd on a
696 <aaaaaaa... 2nd on a
697 -yyyyyyy... 1st on b
698 -xxxxxxx... 1st on a
699 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
700
701 --graph::
702
703 Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
704 on the left hand side of the output. This may cause extra lines
705 to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
706 to be drawn properly.
707 +
708 This enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
709 +
710 This implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the
711 '--date-order' option may also be specified.
712
713 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
714 --count::
715 Print a number stating how many commits would have been
716 listed, and suppress all other output. When used together
717 with '--left-right', instead print the counts for left and
718 right commits, separated by a tab.
719 endif::git-rev-list[]
720
721
722 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
723 Diff Formatting
724 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
725
726 Below are listed options that control the formatting of diff output.
727 Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
728 options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
729
730 -c::
731
732 With this option, diff output for a merge commit
733 shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
734 simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
735 and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
736 which were modified from all parents.
737
738 --cc::
739
740 This flag implies the '-c' options and further compresses the
741 patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
742 the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
743 one of them without modification.
744
745 -m::
746
747 This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
748 regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
749 and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
750 the first parent is shown when '--first-parent' option is given;
751 in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
752 brought _into_ the then-current branch.
753
754 -r::
755
756 Show recursive diffs.
757
758 -t::
759
760 Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies '-r'.
761
762 -s::
763 Suppress diff output.
764 endif::git-rev-list[]