5 Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
6 more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
7 linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
10 include::pretty-options.txt[]
14 Synonym for `--date=relative`.
16 --date=(relative|local|default|iso|rfc|short|raw)::
18 Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such
19 as when using "--pretty". `log.date` config variable sets a default
20 value for log command's --date option.
22 `--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
25 `--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local timezone.
27 `--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format.
29 `--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
30 format, often found in E-mail messages.
32 `--date=short` shows only date but not time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
34 `--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw git format `%s %z` format.
36 `--date=default` shows timestamps in the original timezone
37 (either committer's or author's).
42 Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
43 separated with a NUL character.
48 Print also the parents of the commit (in the form "commit parent...").
49 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
53 Print also the children of the commit (in the form "commit child...").
54 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
58 Print the raw commit timestamp.
63 Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from.
64 Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
65 the right with `>`. If combined with `--boundary`, those
66 commits are prefixed with `-`.
68 For example, if you have this topology:
70 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
75 o---x---a---a branch A
76 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
78 you would get an output like this:
80 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
81 $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
89 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
93 Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
94 on the left hand side of the output. This may cause extra lines
95 to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
98 This enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
100 This implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the
101 '--date-order' option may also be specified.
103 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
105 Print a number stating how many commits would have been
106 listed, and suppress all other output. When used together
107 with '--left-right', instead print the counts for left and
108 right commits, separated by a tab.
109 endif::git-rev-list[]
112 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
116 Below are listed options that control the formatting of diff output.
117 Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
118 options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
122 With this option, diff output for a merge commit
123 shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
124 simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
125 and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
126 which were modified from all parents.
130 This flag implies the '-c' options and further compresses the
131 patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
132 the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
133 one of them without modification.
137 This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
138 regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
139 and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
140 the first parent is shown when '--first-parent' option is given;
141 in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
142 brought _into_ the then-current branch.
146 Show recursive diffs.
150 Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies '-r'.
153 Suppress diff output.
154 endif::git-rev-list[]
159 Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the
160 special notations explained in the description, additional commit
161 limiting may be applied.
166 --max-count=<number>::
168 Limit the number of commits output.
172 Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
177 Show commits more recent than a specific date.
182 Show commits older than a specific date.
184 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
185 --max-age=<timestamp>::
186 --min-age=<timestamp>::
188 Limit the commits output to specified time range.
189 endif::git-rev-list[]
192 --committer=<pattern>::
194 Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
195 header lines that match the specified pattern (regular expression).
199 Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
200 matches the specified pattern (regular expression).
203 Limit the commits output to ones that match all given --grep,
204 --author and --committer instead of ones that match at least one.
207 --regexp-ignore-case::
209 Match the regexp limiting patterns without regard to letters case.
214 Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
215 instead of the default basic regular expressions.
220 Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
221 pattern as a regular expression).
225 Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
229 Print only merge commits.
233 Do not print commits with more than one parent.
236 Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
237 commit. This option can give a better overview when
238 viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
239 because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
240 adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
241 this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
242 brought in to your history by such a merge.
246 Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
247 for all following revision specifiers, up to the next '--not'.
251 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the
252 command line as '<commit>'.
254 --branches[=<pattern>]::
256 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
257 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
258 branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
259 '*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
263 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
264 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
265 tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '*',
266 or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
268 --remotes[=<pattern>]::
270 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
271 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
272 remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
273 If pattern lacks '?', '*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
275 --glob=<glob-pattern>::
276 Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob '<glob-pattern>'
277 are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/',
278 is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '*',
279 or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
282 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
285 Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
286 was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
287 bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
289 endif::git-rev-list[]
293 In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
294 line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is
295 seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the
298 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
301 Don't print anything to standard output. This form
302 is primarily meant to allow the caller to
303 test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
304 connected (or not). It is faster than redirecting stdout
305 to /dev/null as the output does not have to be formatted.
306 endif::git-rev-list[]
310 Like `--cherry-pick` (see below) but mark equivalent commits
311 with `=` rather than omitting them, and inequivalent ones with `+`.
315 Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
316 another commit on the "other side" when the set of
317 commits are limited with symmetric difference.
319 For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
320 to list all commits on only one side of them is with
321 `--left-right`, like the example above in the description of
322 that option. It however shows the commits that were cherry-picked
323 from the other branch (for example, "3rd on b" may be cherry-picked
324 from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are
325 excluded from the output.
330 List only commits on the respective side of a symmetric range,
331 i.e. only those which would be marked `<` resp. `>` by
334 For example, `--cherry-pick --right-only A...B` omits those
335 commits from `B` which are in `A` or are patch-equivalent to a commit in
336 `A`. In other words, this lists the `{plus}` commits from `git cherry A B`.
337 More precisely, `--cherry-pick --right-only --no-merges` gives the exact
342 A synonym for `--right-only --cherry-mark --no-merges`; useful to
343 limit the output to the commits on our side and mark those that
344 have been applied to the other side of a forked history with
345 `git log --cherry upstream...mybranch`, similar to
346 `git cherry upstream mybranch`.
351 Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
352 reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
353 When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
354 exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
355 nor 'commit1\...commit2' notations cannot be used).
357 With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons),
358 this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
359 taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
360 used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as
361 'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
362 instead. Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is
363 prefixed with this information on the same line.
364 This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'.
365 See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
369 After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
370 conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
374 Output uninteresting commits at the boundary, which are usually
379 History Simplification
380 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
382 Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
383 commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
384 'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
385 is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
387 The following options select the commits to be shown:
391 Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
393 --simplify-by-decoration::
395 Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
397 Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
399 The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
403 Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
404 final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
405 branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
406 with the same content)
410 As the default mode but does not prune some history.
414 Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
419 All commits in the simplified history are shown.
423 Additional option to '--full-history' to remove some needless
424 merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
425 commits contributing to this merge.
429 When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2'
430 or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist
431 directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and
432 'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1',
433 and ancestors of 'commit2'.
435 A more detailed explanation follows.
437 Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
438 that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
439 filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
441 In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
442 illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume
443 that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
444 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
450 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
451 The horizontal line of history A--P is taken to be the first parent of
452 each merge. The commits are:
454 * `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
455 "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux". Initial
456 commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
458 * In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo".
460 * `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and
461 hence TREESAME to all parents.
463 * `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar",
464 so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
466 * `D` sets `foo` to "baz". Its merge `O` combines the strings from
467 `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
469 * `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the
470 strings to "quux xyzzy". Despite appearing interesting, `P` is
471 TREESAME to all parents.
473 'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding
474 commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting
475 (via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used. The following settings
480 Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
481 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). If the
482 commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
483 only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME
484 parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all
489 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
493 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
495 Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
496 available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was
497 considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an
498 empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
500 Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does
501 not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
504 --full-history without parent rewriting::
506 This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
507 all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
508 Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
509 included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In
512 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
514 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
516 `P` and `M` were excluded because they are TREESAME to a parent. `E`,
517 `C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
520 Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
521 about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
524 --full-history with parent rewriting::
526 Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
527 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).
529 Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten:
530 Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
531 themselves. This results in
533 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
539 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
541 Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above. Note that `E`
542 was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
543 rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and
544 `N`. Note also that `P` was included despite being TREESAME.
546 In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
551 Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
556 All commits that are walked are included.
558 Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if
559 one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
560 sides of the merge are never walked.
564 First, build a history graph in the same way that
565 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting does (see above).
567 Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
568 history according to the following rules:
573 * Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`. In
574 the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents, and
577 * If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
578 zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
579 Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
582 The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
583 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting. The example turns into:
585 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
591 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
593 Note the major differences in `N` and `P` over '\--full-history':
596 * `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
597 other parent `M`. Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
599 * `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed. `P` was then
600 removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
603 Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available:
607 Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry
608 chain between the "from" and "to" commits in the given commit
609 range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the "to"
610 commit, and descendants of the "from" commit.
612 As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
614 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
617 B---C---G---H---I---J
619 A-------K---------------L--M
620 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
622 A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`,
623 but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see
624 what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense
625 that "what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`". The result in this
626 example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself,
629 When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the
630 bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view
631 only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e.
632 excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the '\--ancestry-path'
633 option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in:
635 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
641 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
643 The '\--simplify-by-decoration' option allows you to view only the
644 big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
645 that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME
646 (in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
647 above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
648 contents of the paths given on the command line. All other
649 commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
651 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
657 Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
658 included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
659 `refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
660 exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
661 added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
662 are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
664 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
665 $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
666 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
668 outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
670 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
671 $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
672 $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
673 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
675 would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which
676 introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
677 generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
682 This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
683 `refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
684 text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
685 name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
686 expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
687 to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if
688 `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected
689 number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
690 `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to
695 This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
696 commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
697 commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
698 from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
701 This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
702 test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
703 may not compile for example).
705 This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
706 after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
707 `--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
708 endif::git-rev-list[]
714 By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
718 This option makes them appear in topological order (i.e.
719 descendant commits are shown before their parents).
723 This option is similar to '--topo-order' in the sense that no
724 parent comes before all of its children, but otherwise things
725 are still ordered in the commit timestamp order.
729 Output the commits in reverse order.
730 Cannot be combined with '\--walk-reflogs'.
735 These options are mostly targeted for packing of git repositories.
739 Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
740 commits. '--objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me
741 all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
742 object 'bar', but not 'foo'".
746 Similar to '--objects', but also print the IDs of excluded
747 commits prefixed with a "-" character. This is used by
748 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build "thin" pack, which records
749 objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
750 excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
754 Only useful with '--objects'; print the object IDs that are not
759 Only show the given revs, but do not traverse their ancestors.
763 Overrides a previous --no-walk.