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>::
22 Limit the number of commits to output.
26 Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
31 Show commits more recent than a specific date.
36 Show commits older than a specific date.
39 --max-age=<timestamp>::
40 --min-age=<timestamp>::
42 Limit the commits output to specified time range.
46 --committer=<pattern>::
48 Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
49 header lines that match the specified pattern (regular
50 expression). With more than one `--author=<pattern>`,
51 commits whose author matches any of the given patterns are
52 chosen (similarly for multiple `--committer=<pattern>`).
54 --grep-reflog=<pattern>::
56 Limit the commits output to ones with reflog entries that
57 match the specified pattern (regular expression). With
58 more than one `--grep-reflog`, commits whose reflog message
59 matches any of the given patterns are chosen. It is an
60 error to use this option unless `--walk-reflogs` is in use.
64 Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
65 matches the specified pattern (regular expression). With
66 more than one `--grep=<pattern>`, commits whose message
67 matches any of the given patterns are chosen (but see
70 When `--show-notes` is in effect, the message from the notes as
71 if it is part of the log message.
74 Limit the commits output to ones that match all given --grep,
75 instead of ones that match at least one.
78 --regexp-ignore-case::
80 Match the regexp limiting patterns without regard to letters case.
84 Consider the limiting patterns to be basic regular expressions;
90 Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
91 instead of the default basic regular expressions.
96 Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
97 pattern as a regular expression).
101 Consider the limiting patterns to be Perl-compatible regexp.
102 Requires libpcre to be compiled in.
106 Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
110 Print only merge commits. This is exactly the same as `--min-parents=2`.
114 Do not print commits with more than one parent. This is
115 exactly the same as `--max-parents=1`.
117 --min-parents=<number>::
118 --max-parents=<number>::
122 Show only commits which have at least (or at most) that many
123 commits. In particular, `--max-parents=1` is the same as `--no-merges`,
124 `--min-parents=2` is the same as `--merges`. `--max-parents=0`
125 gives all root commits and `--min-parents=3` all octopus merges.
127 `--no-min-parents` and `--no-max-parents` reset these limits (to no limit)
128 again. Equivalent forms are `--min-parents=0` (any commit has 0 or more
129 parents) and `--max-parents=-1` (negative numbers denote no upper limit).
132 Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
133 commit. This option can give a better overview when
134 viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
135 because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
136 adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
137 this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
138 brought in to your history by such a merge.
142 Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
143 for all following revision specifiers, up to the next '--not'.
147 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the
148 command line as '<commit>'.
150 --branches[=<pattern>]::
152 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
153 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
154 branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
155 '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
159 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
160 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
161 tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
162 or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
164 --remotes[=<pattern>]::
166 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
167 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
168 remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
169 If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
171 --glob=<glob-pattern>::
172 Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob '<glob-pattern>'
173 are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/',
174 is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
175 or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
179 Upon seeing an invalid object name in the input, pretend as if
180 the bad input was not given.
182 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
185 Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
186 was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
187 bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
189 endif::git-rev-list[]
193 In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
194 line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is
195 seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the
198 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
201 Don't print anything to standard output. This form
202 is primarily meant to allow the caller to
203 test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
204 connected (or not). It is faster than redirecting stdout
205 to /dev/null as the output does not have to be formatted.
206 endif::git-rev-list[]
210 Like `--cherry-pick` (see below) but mark equivalent commits
211 with `=` rather than omitting them, and inequivalent ones with `+`.
215 Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
216 another commit on the "other side" when the set of
217 commits are limited with symmetric difference.
219 For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
220 to list all commits on only one side of them is with
221 `--left-right` (see the example below in the description of
222 the `--left-right` option). It however shows the commits that were cherry-picked
223 from the other branch (for example, "3rd on b" may be cherry-picked
224 from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are
225 excluded from the output.
230 List only commits on the respective side of a symmetric range,
231 i.e. only those which would be marked `<` resp. `>` by
234 For example, `--cherry-pick --right-only A...B` omits those
235 commits from `B` which are in `A` or are patch-equivalent to a commit in
236 `A`. In other words, this lists the `+` commits from `git cherry A B`.
237 More precisely, `--cherry-pick --right-only --no-merges` gives the exact
242 A synonym for `--right-only --cherry-mark --no-merges`; useful to
243 limit the output to the commits on our side and mark those that
244 have been applied to the other side of a forked history with
245 `git log --cherry upstream...mybranch`, similar to
246 `git cherry upstream mybranch`.
251 Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
252 reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
253 When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
254 exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
255 nor 'commit1\...commit2' notations cannot be used).
257 With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons),
258 this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
259 taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
260 used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as
261 'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
262 instead. Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is
263 prefixed with this information on the same line.
264 This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'.
265 See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
269 After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
270 conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
274 Output uninteresting commits at the boundary, which are usually
279 History Simplification
280 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
282 Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
283 commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
284 'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
285 is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
287 The following options select the commits to be shown:
291 Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
293 --simplify-by-decoration::
295 Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
297 Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
299 The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
303 Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
304 final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
305 branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
306 with the same content)
310 Same as the default mode, but does not prune some history.
314 Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
319 All commits in the simplified history are shown.
323 Additional option to '--full-history' to remove some needless
324 merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
325 commits contributing to this merge.
329 When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2'
330 or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist
331 directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and
332 'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1',
333 and ancestors of 'commit2'.
335 A more detailed explanation follows.
337 Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
338 that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
339 filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
341 In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
342 illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume
343 that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
344 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
350 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
351 The horizontal line of history A---P is taken to be the first parent of
352 each merge. The commits are:
354 * `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
355 "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux". Initial
356 commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
358 * In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo".
360 * `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and
361 hence TREESAME to all parents.
363 * `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar",
364 so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
366 * `D` sets `foo` to "baz". Its merge `O` combines the strings from
367 `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
369 * `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the
370 strings to "quux xyzzy". `P` is TREESAME to `O`, but not to `E`.
372 'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding
373 commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting
374 (via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used. The following settings
379 Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
380 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). If the
381 commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
382 only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME
383 parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all
388 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
392 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
394 Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
395 available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was
396 considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an
397 empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
399 Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does
400 not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
403 --full-history without parent rewriting::
405 This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
406 all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
407 Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
408 included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In
411 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
413 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
415 `P` and `M` were excluded because they are TREESAME to a parent. `E`,
416 `C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
419 Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
420 about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
423 --full-history with parent rewriting::
425 Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
426 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).
428 Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten:
429 Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
430 themselves. This results in
432 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
438 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
440 Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above. Note that `E`
441 was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
442 rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and
443 `N`. Note also that `P` was included despite being TREESAME.
445 In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
450 Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
455 All commits that are walked are included.
457 Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if
458 one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
459 sides of the merge are never walked.
463 First, build a history graph in the same way that
464 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting does (see above).
466 Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
467 history according to the following rules:
472 * Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`. In
473 the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents, and
476 * If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
477 zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
478 Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
481 The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
482 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting. The example turns into:
484 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
490 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
492 Note the major differences in `N` and `P` over '--full-history':
495 * `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
496 other parent `M`. Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
498 * `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed. `P` was then
499 removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
502 Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available:
506 Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry
507 chain between the "from" and "to" commits in the given commit
508 range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the "to"
509 commit, and descendants of the "from" commit.
511 As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
513 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
516 B---C---G---H---I---J
518 A-------K---------------L--M
519 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
521 A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`,
522 but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see
523 what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense
524 that "what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`". The result in this
525 example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself,
528 When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the
529 bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view
530 only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e.
531 excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the '--ancestry-path'
532 option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in:
534 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
540 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
542 The '\--simplify-by-decoration' option allows you to view only the
543 big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
544 that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME
545 (in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
546 above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
547 contents of the paths given on the command line. All other
548 commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
550 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
556 Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
557 included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
558 `refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
559 exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
560 added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
561 are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
563 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
564 $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
565 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
567 outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
569 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
570 $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
571 $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
572 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
574 would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which
575 introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
576 generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
581 This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
582 `refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
583 text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
584 name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
585 expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
586 to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if
587 `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected
588 number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
589 `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to
594 This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
595 commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
596 commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
597 from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
600 This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
601 test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
602 may not compile for example).
604 This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
605 after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
606 `--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
607 endif::git-rev-list[]
613 By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
616 Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
617 otherwise show commits in the commit timestamp order.
620 Show no parents before all of its children are shown, and
621 avoid showing commits on multiple lines of history
624 For example, in a commit history like this:
626 ----------------------------------------------------------------
632 ----------------------------------------------------------------
634 where the numbers denote the order of commit timestamps, `git
635 rev-list` and friends with `--date-order` show the commits in the
636 timestamp order: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.
638 With `--topo-order`, they would show 8 6 5 3 7 4 2 1 (or 8 7 4 2 6 5
639 3 1); some older commits are shown before newer ones in order to
640 avoid showing the commits from two parallel development track mixed
645 Output the commits in reverse order.
646 Cannot be combined with '\--walk-reflogs'.
651 These options are mostly targeted for packing of Git repositories.
655 Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
656 commits. '--objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me
657 all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
658 object 'bar', but not 'foo'".
662 Similar to '--objects', but also print the IDs of excluded
663 commits prefixed with a "-" character. This is used by
664 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build "thin" pack, which records
665 objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
666 excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
670 Only useful with '--objects'; print the object IDs that are not
673 --no-walk[=(sorted|unsorted)]::
675 Only show the given commits, but do not traverse their ancestors.
676 This has no effect if a range is specified. If the argument
677 "unsorted" is given, the commits are show in the order they were
678 given on the command line. Otherwise (if "sorted" or no argument
679 was given), the commits are show in reverse chronological order
684 Overrides a previous --no-walk.
689 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
690 Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
691 more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
692 linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
693 endif::git-rev-list[]
695 include::pretty-options.txt[]
699 Synonym for `--date=relative`.
701 --date=(relative|local|default|iso|rfc|short|raw)::
703 Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such
704 as when using "--pretty". `log.date` config variable sets a default
705 value for log command's --date option.
707 `--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
710 `--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local timezone.
712 `--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format.
714 `--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
715 format, often found in E-mail messages.
717 `--date=short` shows only date but not time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
719 `--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw Git format `%s %z` format.
721 `--date=default` shows timestamps in the original timezone
722 (either committer's or author's).
724 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
727 Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
728 separated with a NUL character.
729 endif::git-rev-list[]
733 Print also the parents of the commit (in the form "commit parent...").
734 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
738 Print also the children of the commit (in the form "commit child...").
739 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
741 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
743 Print the raw commit timestamp.
744 endif::git-rev-list[]
748 Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from.
749 Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
750 the right with `>`. If combined with `--boundary`, those
751 commits are prefixed with `-`.
753 For example, if you have this topology:
755 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
760 o---x---a---a branch A
761 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
763 you would get an output like this:
765 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
766 $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
774 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
778 Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
779 on the left hand side of the output. This may cause extra lines
780 to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
781 to be drawn properly.
783 This enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
785 This implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the
786 '--date-order' option may also be specified.
788 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
790 Print a number stating how many commits would have been
791 listed, and suppress all other output. When used together
792 with '--left-right', instead print the counts for left and
793 right commits, separated by a tab. When used together with
794 '--cherry-mark', omit patch equivalent commits from these
795 counts and print the count for equivalent commits separated
797 endif::git-rev-list[]
800 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
804 Below are listed options that control the formatting of diff output.
805 Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
806 options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
810 With this option, diff output for a merge commit
811 shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
812 simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
813 and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
814 which were modified from all parents.
818 This flag implies the '-c' option and further compresses the
819 patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
820 the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
821 one of them without modification.
825 This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
826 regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
827 and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
828 the first parent is shown when '--first-parent' option is given;
829 in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
830 brought _into_ the then-current branch.
834 Show recursive diffs.
838 Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies '-r'.
841 Suppress diff output.
842 endif::git-rev-list[]