6 git-commit - Record changes to the repository
11 'git-commit' [-a | --interactive] [-s] [-v] [-u]
12 [(-c | -C) <commit> | -F <file> | -m <msg> | --amend]
13 [--allow-empty] [--no-verify] [-e] [--author <author>]
14 [--cleanup=<mode>] [--] [[-i | -o ]<file>...]
18 Use 'git commit' to store the current contents of the index in a new
19 commit along with a log message describing the changes you have made.
21 The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
23 1. by using linkgit:git-add[1] to incrementally "add" changes to the
24 index before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
25 files must be "added");
27 2. by using linkgit:git-rm[1] to remove files from the working tree
28 and the index, again before using the 'commit' command;
30 3. by listing files as arguments to the 'commit' command, in which
31 case the commit will ignore changes staged in the index, and instead
32 record the current content of the listed files;
34 4. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically
35 "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
36 listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
37 that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
40 5. by using the --interactive switch with the 'commit' command to decide one
41 by one which files should be part of the commit, before finalizing the
42 operation. Currently, this is done by invoking `git-add --interactive`.
44 The linkgit:git-status[1] command can be used to obtain a
45 summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
46 commit by giving the same set of parameters you would give to
49 If you make a commit and then found a mistake immediately after
50 that, you can recover from it with linkgit:git-reset[1].
56 Tell the command to automatically stage files that have
57 been modified and deleted, but new files you have not
58 told git about are not affected.
61 Take existing commit object, and reuse the log message
62 and the authorship information (including the timestamp)
63 when creating the commit. With '-C', the editor is not
64 invoked; with '-c' the user can further edit the commit
68 Take the commit message from the given file. Use '-' to
69 read the message from the standard input.
72 Override the author name used in the commit. Use
73 `A U Thor <author@example.com>` format.
75 -m <msg>|--message=<msg>::
76 Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
78 -t <file>|--template=<file>::
79 Use the contents of the given file as the initial version
80 of the commit message. The editor is invoked and you can
81 make subsequent changes. If a message is specified using
82 the `-m` or `-F` options, this option has no effect. This
83 overrides the `commit.template` configuration variable.
86 Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message.
89 This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks.
90 See also link:hooks.html[hooks].
93 Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its
94 sole parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you
95 from making such a commit. This option bypasses the safety, and
96 is primarily for use by foreign scm interface scripts.
99 This option sets how the commit message is cleaned up.
100 The '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace', 'strip',
101 and 'default'. The 'default' mode will strip leading and
102 trailing empty lines and #commentary from the commit message
103 only if the message is to be edited. Otherwise only whitespace
104 removed. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at all,
105 'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines
106 and 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
109 The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
110 `-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
111 commit log message unmodified. This option lets you
112 further edit the message taken from these sources.
116 Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
117 object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
118 (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
119 commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
120 tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
121 current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
122 the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
126 It is a rough equivalent for:
128 $ git reset --soft HEAD^
129 $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
130 $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
133 but can be used to amend a merge commit.
137 Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
138 stage the contents of paths given on the command line
139 as well. This is usually not what you want unless you
140 are concluding a conflicted merge.
142 -u|--untracked-files::
143 Show all untracked files, also those in uninteresting
144 directories, in the "Untracked files:" section of commit
145 message template. Without this option only its name and
146 a trailing slash are displayed for each untracked
150 Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what
151 would be committed at the bottom of the commit message
152 template. Note that this diff output doesn't have its
153 lines prefixed with '#'.
156 Suppress commit summary message.
159 Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
162 When files are given on the command line, the command
163 commits the contents of the named files, without
164 recording the changes already staged. The contents of
165 these files are also staged for the next commit on top
166 of what have been staged before.
171 When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
172 your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
173 called the "index" with linkgit:git-add[1]. A file can be
174 reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
175 to that of the last commit with `git-reset HEAD -- <file>`,
176 which effectively reverts `git-add` and prevents the changes to
177 this file from participating in the next commit. After building
178 the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
179 `git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
180 has been staged so far. This is the most basic form of the
190 Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
191 tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
192 contents are tracked in
193 your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
194 for you. That is, this example does the same as the earlier
195 example if there is no other change in your working tree:
203 The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
204 notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
205 and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.
207 After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
208 changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
209 When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
210 only records the changes made to the named paths:
213 $ edit hello.c hello.h
214 $ git add hello.c hello.h
216 $ git commit Makefile
219 This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
220 The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
221 in the resulting commit. However, their changes are not lost --
222 they are still staged and merely held back. After the above
229 this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
230 `hello.h` as expected.
232 After a merge (initiated by either linkgit:git-merge[1] or
233 linkgit:git-pull[1]) stops because of conflicts, cleanly merged
234 paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
235 conflicted are left in unmerged state. You would have to first
236 check which paths are conflicting with linkgit:git-status[1]
237 and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
238 stage the result as usual with linkgit:git-add[1]:
241 $ git status | grep unmerged
247 After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
248 would stop mentioning the conflicted path. When you are done,
249 run `git commit` to finally record the merge:
255 As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
256 option to save typing. One difference is that during a merge
257 resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
258 alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
259 should be recorded as a single commit. In fact, the command
260 refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).
266 Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
267 with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
268 change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
269 Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
270 on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.
274 ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
275 ---------------------------------------
276 The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
277 GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
278 VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
283 This command can run `commit-msg`, `prepare-commit-msg`, `pre-commit`,
284 and `post-commit` hooks. See link:hooks.html[hooks] for more
293 linkgit:git-merge[1],
294 linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
298 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
299 Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
304 Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite