6 git-notes - Add or inspect object notes
11 'git notes' [list [<object>]]
12 'git notes' add [-f] [--allow-empty] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
13 'git notes' copy [-f] ( --stdin | <from-object> <to-object> )
14 'git notes' append [--allow-empty] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
15 'git notes' edit [--allow-empty] [<object>]
16 'git notes' show [<object>]
17 'git notes' merge [-v | -q] [-s <strategy> ] <notes-ref>
18 'git notes' merge --commit [-v | -q]
19 'git notes' merge --abort [-v | -q]
20 'git notes' remove [--ignore-missing] [--stdin] [<object>...]
21 'git notes' prune [-n | -v]
27 Adds, removes, or reads notes attached to objects, without touching
28 the objects themselves.
30 By default, notes are saved to and read from `refs/notes/commits`, but
31 this default can be overridden. See the OPTIONS, CONFIGURATION, and
32 ENVIRONMENT sections below. If this ref does not exist, it will be
33 quietly created when it is first needed to store a note.
35 A typical use of notes is to supplement a commit message without
36 changing the commit itself. Notes can be shown by 'git log' along with
37 the original commit message. To distinguish these notes from the
38 message stored in the commit object, the notes are indented like the
39 message, after an unindented line saying "Notes (<refname>):" (or
40 "Notes:" for `refs/notes/commits`).
42 Notes can also be added to patches prepared with `git format-patch` by
43 using the `--notes` option. Such notes are added as a patch commentary
44 after a three dash separator line.
46 To change which notes are shown by 'git log', see the
47 "notes.displayRef" configuration in linkgit:git-log[1].
49 See the "notes.rewrite.<command>" configuration for a way to carry
50 notes across commands that rewrite commits.
57 List the notes object for a given object. If no object is
58 given, show a list of all note objects and the objects they
59 annotate (in the format "<note object> <annotated object>").
60 This is the default subcommand if no subcommand is given.
63 Add notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). Abort if the
64 object already has notes (use `-f` to overwrite existing notes).
65 However, if you're using `add` interactively (using an editor
66 to supply the notes contents), then - instead of aborting -
67 the existing notes will be opened in the editor (like the `edit`
71 Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object.
72 Abort if the second object already has notes, or if the first
73 object has none (use -f to overwrite existing notes to the
74 second object). This subcommand is equivalent to:
75 `git notes add [-f] -C $(git notes list <from-object>) <to-object>`
77 In `--stdin` mode, take lines in the format
80 <from-object> SP <to-object> [ SP <rest> ] LF
83 on standard input, and copy the notes from each <from-object> to its
84 corresponding <to-object>. (The optional `<rest>` is ignored so that
85 the command can read the input given to the `post-rewrite` hook.)
88 Append to the notes of an existing object (defaults to HEAD).
89 Creates a new notes object if needed.
92 Edit the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD).
95 Show the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD).
98 Merge the given notes ref into the current notes ref.
99 This will try to merge the changes made by the given
100 notes ref (called "remote") since the merge-base (if
101 any) into the current notes ref (called "local").
103 If conflicts arise and a strategy for automatically resolving
104 conflicting notes (see the -s/--strategy option) is not given,
105 the "manual" resolver is used. This resolver checks out the
106 conflicting notes in a special worktree (`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`),
107 and instructs the user to manually resolve the conflicts there.
108 When done, the user can either finalize the merge with
109 'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with
110 'git notes merge --abort'.
113 Remove the notes for given objects (defaults to HEAD). When
114 giving zero or one object from the command line, this is
115 equivalent to specifying an empty note message to
116 the `edit` subcommand.
119 Remove all notes for non-existing/unreachable objects.
122 Print the current notes ref. This provides an easy way to
123 retrieve the current notes ref (e.g. from scripts).
129 When adding notes to an object that already has notes,
130 overwrite the existing notes (instead of aborting).
134 Use the given note message (instead of prompting).
135 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values
136 are concatenated as separate paragraphs.
137 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a
138 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out.
142 Take the note message from the given file. Use '-' to
143 read the note message from the standard input.
144 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a
145 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out.
148 --reuse-message=<object>::
149 Take the given blob object (for example, another note) as the
150 note message. (Use `git notes copy <object>` instead to
151 copy notes between objects.)
154 --reedit-message=<object>::
155 Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that
156 the user can further edit the note message.
159 Allow an empty note object to be stored. The default behavior is
160 to automatically remove empty notes.
163 Manipulate the notes tree in <ref>. This overrides
164 'GIT_NOTES_REF' and the "core.notesRef" configuration. The ref
165 specifies the full refname when it begins with `refs/notes/`; when it
166 begins with `notes/`, `refs/` and otherwise `refs/notes/` is prefixed
167 to form a full name of the ref.
170 Do not consider it an error to request removing notes from an
171 object that does not have notes attached to it.
174 Also read the object names to remove notes from from the standard
175 input (there is no reason you cannot combine this with object
176 names from the command line).
180 Do not remove anything; just report the object names whose notes
184 --strategy=<strategy>::
185 When merging notes, resolve notes conflicts using the given
186 strategy. The following strategies are recognized: "manual"
187 (default), "ours", "theirs", "union" and "cat_sort_uniq".
188 See the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section below for more
189 information on each notes merge strategy.
192 Finalize an in-progress 'git notes merge'. Use this option
193 when you have resolved the conflicts that 'git notes merge'
194 stored in .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. This amends the partial
195 merge commit created by 'git notes merge' (stored in
196 .git/NOTES_MERGE_PARTIAL) by adding the notes in
197 .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. The notes ref stored in the
198 .git/NOTES_MERGE_REF symref is updated to the resulting commit.
201 Abort/reset a in-progress 'git notes merge', i.e. a notes merge
202 with conflicts. This simply removes all files related to the
207 When merging notes, operate quietly.
211 When merging notes, be more verbose.
212 When pruning notes, report all object names whose notes are
219 Commit notes are blobs containing extra information about an object
220 (usually information to supplement a commit's message). These blobs
221 are taken from notes refs. A notes ref is usually a branch which
222 contains "files" whose paths are the object names for the objects
223 they describe, with some directory separators included for performance
224 reasons footnote:[Permitted pathnames have the form
225 'ab'`/`'cd'`/`'ef'`/`'...'`/`'abcdef...': a sequence of directory
226 names of two hexadecimal digits each followed by a filename with the
227 rest of the object ID.].
229 Every notes change creates a new commit at the specified notes ref.
230 You can therefore inspect the history of the notes by invoking, e.g.,
231 `git log -p notes/commits`. Currently the commit message only records
232 which operation triggered the update, and the commit authorship is
233 determined according to the usual rules (see linkgit:git-commit[1]).
234 These details may change in the future.
236 It is also permitted for a notes ref to point directly to a tree
237 object, in which case the history of the notes can be read with
238 `git log -p -g <refname>`.
241 NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES
242 ----------------------
244 The default notes merge strategy is "manual", which checks out
245 conflicting notes in a special work tree for resolving notes conflicts
246 (`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), and instructs the user to resolve the
247 conflicts in that work tree.
248 When done, the user can either finalize the merge with
249 'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with
250 'git notes merge --abort'.
252 "ours" automatically resolves conflicting notes in favor of the local
253 version (i.e. the current notes ref).
255 "theirs" automatically resolves notes conflicts in favor of the remote
256 version (i.e. the given notes ref being merged into the current notes
259 "union" automatically resolves notes conflicts by concatenating the
260 local and remote versions.
262 "cat_sort_uniq" is similar to "union", but in addition to concatenating
263 the local and remote versions, this strategy also sorts the resulting
264 lines, and removes duplicate lines from the result. This is equivalent
265 to applying the "cat | sort | uniq" shell pipeline to the local and
266 remote versions. This strategy is useful if the notes follow a line-based
267 format where one wants to avoid duplicated lines in the merge result.
268 Note that if either the local or remote version contain duplicate lines
269 prior to the merge, these will also be removed by this notes merge
276 You can use notes to add annotations with information that was not
277 available at the time a commit was written.
280 $ git notes add -m 'Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>' 72a144e2
281 $ git show -s 72a144e
283 Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
286 Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
289 In principle, a note is a regular Git blob, and any kind of
290 (non-)format is accepted. You can binary-safely create notes from
291 arbitrary files using 'git hash-object':
295 $ blob=$(git hash-object -w a.out)
296 $ git notes --ref=built add --allow-empty -C "$blob" HEAD
299 (You cannot simply use `git notes --ref=built add -F a.out HEAD`
300 because that is not binary-safe.)
301 Of course, it doesn't make much sense to display non-text-format notes
302 with 'git log', so if you use such notes, you'll probably need to write
303 some special-purpose tools to do something useful with them.
310 Notes ref to read and manipulate instead of
311 `refs/notes/commits`. Must be an unabbreviated ref name.
312 This setting can be overridden through the environment and
316 Which ref (or refs, if a glob or specified more than once), in
317 addition to the default set by `core.notesRef` or
318 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit
319 messages with the 'git log' family of commands.
320 This setting can be overridden on the command line or by the
321 'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF' environment variable.
322 See linkgit:git-log[1].
324 notes.rewrite.<command>::
325 When rewriting commits with <command> (currently `amend` or
326 `rebase`), if this variable is `false`, git will not copy
327 notes from the original to the rewritten commit. Defaults to
328 `true`. See also "`notes.rewriteRef`" below.
330 This setting can be overridden by the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF'
331 environment variable.
334 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target
335 commit already has a note. Must be one of `overwrite`,
336 `concatenate`, and `ignore`. Defaults to `concatenate`.
338 This setting can be overridden with the `GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE`
339 environment variable.
342 When copying notes during a rewrite, specifies the (fully
343 qualified) ref whose notes should be copied. May be a glob,
344 in which case notes in all matching refs will be copied. You
345 may also specify this configuration several times.
347 Does not have a default value; you must configure this variable to
348 enable note rewriting.
350 Can be overridden with the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' environment variable.
357 Which ref to manipulate notes from, instead of `refs/notes/commits`.
358 This overrides the `core.notesRef` setting.
360 'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF'::
361 Colon-delimited list of refs or globs indicating which refs,
362 in addition to the default from `core.notesRef` or
363 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit
365 This overrides the `notes.displayRef` setting.
367 A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist, but a glob that
368 does not match any refs is silently ignored.
370 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE'::
371 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target
372 commit already has a note.
373 Must be one of `overwrite`, `concatenate`, and `ignore`.
374 This overrides the `core.rewriteMode` setting.
376 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF'::
377 When rewriting commits, which notes to copy from the original
378 to the rewritten commit. Must be a colon-delimited list of
381 If not set in the environment, the list of notes to copy depends
382 on the `notes.rewrite.<command>` and `notes.rewriteRef` settings.
386 Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite