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.
8 Using more options generally further limits the output (e.g.
9 `--since=<date1>` limits to commits newer than `<date1>`, and using it
10 with `--grep=<pattern>` further limits to commits whose log message
11 has a line that matches `<pattern>`), unless otherwise noted.
13 Note that these are applied before commit
14 ordering and formatting options, such as `--reverse`.
20 --max-count=<number>::
21 Limit the number of commits to output.
24 Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
28 Show commits more recent than a specific date.
32 Show commits older than a specific date.
35 --max-age=<timestamp>::
36 --min-age=<timestamp>::
37 Limit the commits output to specified time range.
41 --committer=<pattern>::
42 Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
43 header lines that match the specified pattern (regular
44 expression). With more than one `--author=<pattern>`,
45 commits whose author matches any of the given patterns are
46 chosen (similarly for multiple `--committer=<pattern>`).
48 --grep-reflog=<pattern>::
49 Limit the commits output to ones with reflog entries that
50 match the specified pattern (regular expression). With
51 more than one `--grep-reflog`, commits whose reflog message
52 matches any of the given patterns are chosen. It is an
53 error to use this option unless `--walk-reflogs` is in use.
56 Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
57 matches the specified pattern (regular expression). With
58 more than one `--grep=<pattern>`, commits whose message
59 matches any of the given patterns are chosen (but see
62 When `--show-notes` is in effect, the message from the notes as
63 if it is part of the log message.
66 Limit the commits output to ones that match all given `--grep`,
67 instead of ones that match at least one.
70 --regexp-ignore-case::
71 Match the regular expression limiting patterns without regard to letter
75 Consider the limiting patterns to be basic regular expressions;
80 Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
81 instead of the default basic regular expressions.
85 Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
86 pattern as a regular expression).
89 Consider the limiting patterns to be Perl-compatible regular expressions.
90 Requires libpcre to be compiled in.
93 Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
96 Print only merge commits. This is exactly the same as `--min-parents=2`.
99 Do not print commits with more than one parent. This is
100 exactly the same as `--max-parents=1`.
102 --min-parents=<number>::
103 --max-parents=<number>::
106 Show only commits which have at least (or at most) that many parent
107 commits. In particular, `--max-parents=1` is the same as `--no-merges`,
108 `--min-parents=2` is the same as `--merges`. `--max-parents=0`
109 gives all root commits and `--min-parents=3` all octopus merges.
111 `--no-min-parents` and `--no-max-parents` reset these limits (to no limit)
112 again. Equivalent forms are `--min-parents=0` (any commit has 0 or more
113 parents) and `--max-parents=-1` (negative numbers denote no upper limit).
116 Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
117 commit. This option can give a better overview when
118 viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
119 because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
120 adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
121 this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
122 brought in to your history by such a merge.
125 Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
126 for all following revision specifiers, up to the next `--not`.
129 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the
130 command line as '<commit>'.
132 --branches[=<pattern>]::
133 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
134 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
135 branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
136 '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
139 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
140 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
141 tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
142 or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
144 --remotes[=<pattern>]::
145 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
146 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
147 remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
148 If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
150 --glob=<glob-pattern>::
151 Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob '<glob-pattern>'
152 are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/',
153 is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
154 or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
157 Upon seeing an invalid object name in the input, pretend as if
158 the bad input was not given.
160 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
162 Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
163 was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
164 bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
166 endif::git-rev-list[]
169 In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
170 line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is
171 seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the
174 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
176 Don't print anything to standard output. This form
177 is primarily meant to allow the caller to
178 test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
179 connected (or not). It is faster than redirecting stdout
180 to `/dev/null` as the output does not have to be formatted.
181 endif::git-rev-list[]
184 Like `--cherry-pick` (see below) but mark equivalent commits
185 with `=` rather than omitting them, and inequivalent ones with `+`.
188 Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
189 another commit on the ``other side'' when the set of
190 commits are limited with symmetric difference.
192 For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
193 to list all commits on only one side of them is with
194 `--left-right` (see the example below in the description of
195 the `--left-right` option). However, it shows the commits that were
196 cherry-picked from the other branch (for example, ``3rd on b'' may be
197 cherry-picked from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are
198 excluded from the output.
202 List only commits on the respective side of a symmetric range,
203 i.e. only those which would be marked `<` resp. `>` by
206 For example, `--cherry-pick --right-only A...B` omits those
207 commits from `B` which are in `A` or are patch-equivalent to a commit in
208 `A`. In other words, this lists the `+` commits from `git cherry A B`.
209 More precisely, `--cherry-pick --right-only --no-merges` gives the exact
213 A synonym for `--right-only --cherry-mark --no-merges`; useful to
214 limit the output to the commits on our side and mark those that
215 have been applied to the other side of a forked history with
216 `git log --cherry upstream...mybranch`, similar to
217 `git cherry upstream mybranch`.
221 Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
222 reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
223 When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
224 exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
225 nor 'commit1\...commit2' notations cannot be used).
227 With `--pretty` format other than `oneline` (for obvious reasons),
228 this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
229 taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
230 used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as
231 'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
232 instead. Under `--pretty=oneline`, the commit message is
233 prefixed with this information on the same line.
234 This option cannot be combined with `--reverse`.
235 See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
238 After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
239 conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
242 Output excluded boundary commits. Boundary commits are
247 History Simplification
248 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
250 Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
251 commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
252 'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
253 is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
255 The following options select the commits to be shown:
258 Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
260 --simplify-by-decoration::
261 Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
263 Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
265 The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
268 Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
269 final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
270 branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
271 with the same content)
274 Same as the default mode, but does not prune some history.
277 Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
281 All commits in the simplified history are shown.
284 Additional option to `--full-history` to remove some needless
285 merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
286 commits contributing to this merge.
289 When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2'
290 or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist
291 directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and
292 'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1',
293 and ancestors of 'commit2'.
295 A more detailed explanation follows.
297 Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
298 that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
299 filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
301 In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
302 illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume
303 that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
304 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
305 .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
310 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
311 The horizontal line of history A---Q is taken to be the first parent of
312 each merge. The commits are:
314 * `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
315 ``asdf'', and a file `quux` exists with contents ``quux''. Initial
316 commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
318 * In `A`, `foo` contains just ``foo''.
320 * `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and
321 hence TREESAME to all parents.
323 * `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to ``foobar'',
324 so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
326 * `D` sets `foo` to ``baz''. Its merge `O` combines the strings from
327 `N` and `D` to ``foobarbaz''; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
329 * `E` changes `quux` to ``xyzzy'', and its merge `P` combines the
330 strings to ``quux xyzzy''. `P` is TREESAME to `O`, but not to `E`.
332 * `X` is an independent root commit that added a new file `side`, and `Y`
333 modified it. `Y` is TREESAME to `X`. Its merge `Q` added `side` to `P`, and
334 `Q` is TREESAME to `P`, but not to `Y`.
336 `rev-list` walks backwards through history, including or excluding
337 commits based on whether `--full-history` and/or parent rewriting
338 (via `--parents` or `--children`) are used. The following settings
342 Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
343 (though this can be changed, see `--sparse` below). If the
344 commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
345 only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME
346 parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all
351 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
355 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
357 Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
358 available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was
359 considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an
360 empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
362 Parent/child relations are only visible with `--parents`, but that does
363 not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
366 --full-history without parent rewriting::
367 This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
368 all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
369 Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
370 included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In
373 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
375 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
377 `M` was excluded because it is TREESAME to both parents. `E`,
378 `C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
381 Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
382 about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
385 --full-history with parent rewriting::
386 Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
387 (though this can be changed, see `--sparse` below).
389 Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten:
390 Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
391 themselves. This results in
393 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
394 .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
399 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
401 Compare to `--full-history` without rewriting above. Note that `E`
402 was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
403 rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and
404 `N`, and `X`, `Y` and `Q`.
406 In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
410 Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
414 All commits that are walked are included.
416 Note that without `--full-history`, this still simplifies merges: if
417 one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
418 sides of the merge are never walked.
421 First, build a history graph in the same way that
422 `--full-history` with parent rewriting does (see above).
424 Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
425 history according to the following rules:
430 * Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`. In
431 the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents or that are
432 root commits TREESAME to an empty tree, and remove duplicates, but take care
433 to never drop all parents that we are TREESAME to.
435 * If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
436 zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
437 Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
440 The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
441 `--full-history` with parent rewriting. The example turns into:
443 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
449 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
451 Note the major differences in `N`, `P`, and `Q` over `--full-history`:
454 * `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
455 other parent `M`. Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
457 * `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed. `P` was then
458 removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
460 * `Q`'s parent list had `Y` simplified to `X`. `X` was then removed, because it
461 was a TREESAME root. `Q` was then removed completely, because it had one
462 parent and is TREESAME.
465 Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available:
468 Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry
469 chain between the ``from'' and ``to'' commits in the given commit
470 range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the ``to''
471 commit and descendants of the ``from'' commit.
473 As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
475 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
478 B---C---G---H---I---J
480 A-------K---------------L--M
481 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
483 A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`,
484 but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see
485 what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense
486 that ``what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`''. The result in this
487 example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself,
490 When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the
491 bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view
492 only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e.
493 excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the `--ancestry-path`
494 option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in:
496 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
502 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
504 The `--simplify-by-decoration` option allows you to view only the
505 big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
506 that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME
507 (in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
508 above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
509 contents of the paths given on the command line. All other
510 commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
512 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
517 Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
518 included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
519 `refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
520 exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
521 added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
522 are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
524 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
525 $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
526 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
528 outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
530 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
531 $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
532 $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
533 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
535 would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which
536 introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
537 generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
541 This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
542 `refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
543 text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
544 name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
545 expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
546 to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if
547 `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected
548 number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
549 `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to
553 This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
554 commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
555 commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
556 from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
559 This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
560 test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
561 may not compile for example).
563 This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
564 after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
565 `--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
566 endif::git-rev-list[]
572 By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
575 Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
576 otherwise show commits in the commit timestamp order.
578 --author-date-order::
579 Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
580 otherwise show commits in the author timestamp order.
583 Show no parents before all of its children are shown, and
584 avoid showing commits on multiple lines of history
587 For example, in a commit history like this:
589 ----------------------------------------------------------------
595 ----------------------------------------------------------------
597 where the numbers denote the order of commit timestamps, `git
598 rev-list` and friends with `--date-order` show the commits in the
599 timestamp order: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.
601 With `--topo-order`, they would show 8 6 5 3 7 4 2 1 (or 8 7 4 2 6 5
602 3 1); some older commits are shown before newer ones in order to
603 avoid showing the commits from two parallel development track mixed
607 Output the commits in reverse order.
608 Cannot be combined with `--walk-reflogs`.
613 These options are mostly targeted for packing of Git repositories.
616 Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
617 commits. `--objects foo ^bar` thus means ``send me
618 all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
619 object _bar_ but not _foo_''.
622 Similar to `--objects`, but also print the IDs of excluded
623 commits prefixed with a ``-'' character. This is used by
624 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build ``thin'' pack, which records
625 objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
626 excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
629 Only useful with `--objects`; print the object IDs that are not
632 --no-walk[=(sorted|unsorted)]::
633 Only show the given commits, but do not traverse their ancestors.
634 This has no effect if a range is specified. If the argument
635 `unsorted` is given, the commits are shown in the order they were
636 given on the command line. Otherwise (if `sorted` or no argument
637 was given), the commits are shown in reverse chronological order
641 Overrides a previous `--no-walk`.
646 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
647 Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
648 more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
649 linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
650 endif::git-rev-list[]
652 include::pretty-options.txt[]
655 Synonym for `--date=relative`.
657 --date=(relative|local|default|iso|rfc|short|raw)::
658 Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such
659 as when using `--pretty`. `log.date` config variable sets a default
660 value for the log command's `--date` option.
662 `--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
663 e.g. ``2 hours ago''.
665 `--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local time zone.
667 `--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format.
669 `--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
670 format, often found in email messages.
672 `--date=short` shows only the date, but not the time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
674 `--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw Git format `%s %z` format.
676 `--date=default` shows timestamps in the original time zone
677 (either committer's or author's).
679 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
681 Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
682 separated with a NUL character.
683 endif::git-rev-list[]
686 Print also the parents of the commit (in the form "commit parent...").
687 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
690 Print also the children of the commit (in the form "commit child...").
691 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
693 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
695 Print the raw commit timestamp.
696 endif::git-rev-list[]
699 Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from.
700 Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
701 the right with `>`. If combined with `--boundary`, those
702 commits are prefixed with `-`.
704 For example, if you have this topology:
706 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
711 o---x---a---a branch A
712 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
714 you would get an output like this:
716 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
717 $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
725 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
728 Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
729 on the left hand side of the output. This may cause extra lines
730 to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
731 to be drawn properly.
733 This enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
735 This implies the `--topo-order` option by default, but the
736 `--date-order` option may also be specified.
738 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
740 Print a number stating how many commits would have been
741 listed, and suppress all other output. When used together
742 with `--left-right`, instead print the counts for left and
743 right commits, separated by a tab. When used together with
744 `--cherry-mark`, omit patch equivalent commits from these
745 counts and print the count for equivalent commits separated
747 endif::git-rev-list[]
749 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
753 Listed below are options that control the formatting of diff output.
754 Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
755 options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
758 With this option, diff output for a merge commit
759 shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
760 simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
761 and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
762 which were modified from all parents.
765 This flag implies the `-c` option and further compresses the
766 patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
767 the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
768 one of them without modification.
771 This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
772 regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
773 and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
774 the first parent is shown when `--first-parent` option is given;
775 in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
776 brought _into_ the then-current branch.
779 Show recursive diffs.
782 Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies `-r`.
783 endif::git-rev-list[]