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 the parents of the commit. Also enables parent
49 rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
53 Print the children of the commit. Also enables parent
54 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 implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the
99 '--date-order' option may also be specified.
101 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
103 Print a number stating how many commits would have been
104 listed, and suppress all other output. When used together
105 with '--left-right', instead print the counts for left and
106 right commits, separated by a tab.
107 endif::git-rev-list[]
110 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
114 Below are listed options that control the formatting of diff output.
115 Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
116 options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
120 With this option, diff output for a merge commit
121 shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
122 simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
123 and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
124 which were modified from all parents.
128 This flag implies the '-c' options and further compresses the
129 patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
130 the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
131 one of them without modification.
135 This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
136 regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
137 and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
138 the first parent is shown when '--first-parent' option is given;
139 in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
140 brought _into_ the then-current branch.
144 Show recursive diffs.
148 Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies '-r'.
149 endif::git-rev-list[]
154 Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the
155 special notations explained in the description, additional commit
156 limiting may be applied.
161 --max-count=<number>::
163 Limit the number of commits output.
167 Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
172 Show commits more recent than a specific date.
177 Show commits older than a specific date.
179 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
180 --max-age=<timestamp>::
181 --min-age=<timestamp>::
183 Limit the commits output to specified time range.
184 endif::git-rev-list[]
187 --committer=<pattern>::
189 Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
190 header lines that match the specified pattern (regular expression).
194 Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
195 matches the specified pattern (regular expression).
198 Limit the commits output to ones that match all given --grep,
199 --author and --committer instead of ones that match at least one.
202 --regexp-ignore-case::
204 Match the regexp limiting patterns without regard to letters case.
209 Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
210 instead of the default basic regular expressions.
215 Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
216 pattern as a regular expression).
220 Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
224 Print only merge commits.
228 Do not print commits with more than one parent.
231 Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
232 commit. This option can give a better overview when
233 viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
234 because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
235 adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
236 this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
237 brought in to your history by such a merge.
241 Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
242 for all following revision specifiers, up to the next '--not'.
246 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the
247 command line as '<commit>'.
249 --branches[=pattern]::
251 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
252 on the command line as '<commit>'. If `pattern` is given, limit
253 branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
254 '*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
258 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
259 on the command line as '<commit>'. If `pattern` is given, limit
260 tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '*',
261 or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
263 --remotes[=pattern]::
265 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
266 on the command line as '<commit>'. If `pattern`is given, limit
267 remote tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
268 If pattern lacks '?', '*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
270 --glob=glob-pattern::
271 Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob `glob-pattern`
272 are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/',
273 is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '*',
274 or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
277 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
280 Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
281 was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
282 bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
284 endif::git-rev-list[]
288 In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
289 line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is
290 seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the
293 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
296 Don't print anything to standard output. This form
297 is primarily meant to allow the caller to
298 test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
299 connected (or not). It is faster than redirecting stdout
300 to /dev/null as the output does not have to be formatted.
301 endif::git-rev-list[]
305 Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
306 another commit on the "other side" when the set of
307 commits are limited with symmetric difference.
309 For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
310 to list all commits on only one side of them is with
311 `--left-right`, like the example above in the description of
312 that option. It however shows the commits that were cherry-picked
313 from the other branch (for example, "3rd on b" may be cherry-picked
314 from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are
315 excluded from the output.
320 Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
321 reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
322 When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
323 exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
324 nor 'commit1...commit2' notations cannot be used).
326 With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons),
327 this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
328 taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
329 used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as
330 'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
331 instead. Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is
332 prefixed with this information on the same line.
333 This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'.
334 See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
338 After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
339 conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
343 Output uninteresting commits at the boundary, which are usually
348 History Simplification
349 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
351 Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
352 commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
353 'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
354 is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
356 The following options select the commits to be shown:
360 Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
362 --simplify-by-decoration::
364 Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
366 Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
368 The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
372 Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
373 final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
374 branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
375 with the same content)
379 As the default mode but does not prune some history.
383 Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
388 All commits in the simplified history are shown.
392 Additional option to '--full-history' to remove some needless
393 merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
394 commits contributing to this merge.
396 A more detailed explanation follows.
398 Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
399 that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
400 filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
402 In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
403 illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume
404 that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
405 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
411 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
412 The horizontal line of history A--P is taken to be the first parent of
413 each merge. The commits are:
415 * `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
416 "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux". Initial
417 commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
419 * In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo".
421 * `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and
422 hence TREESAME to all parents.
424 * `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar",
425 so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
427 * `D` sets `foo` to "baz". Its merge `O` combines the strings from
428 `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
430 * `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the
431 strings to "quux xyzzy". Despite appearing interesting, `P` is
432 TREESAME to all parents.
434 'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding
435 commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting
436 (via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used. The following settings
441 Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
442 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). If the
443 commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
444 only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME
445 parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all
450 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
454 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
456 Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
457 available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was
458 considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an
459 empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
461 Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does
462 not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
465 --full-history without parent rewriting::
467 This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
468 all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
469 Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
470 included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In
473 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
475 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
477 `P` and `M` were excluded because they are TREESAME to a parent. `E`,
478 `C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
481 Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
482 about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
485 --full-history with parent rewriting::
487 Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
488 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).
490 Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten:
491 Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
492 themselves. This results in
494 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
500 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
502 Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above. Note that `E`
503 was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
504 rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and
505 `N`. Note also that `P` was included despite being TREESAME.
507 In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
512 Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
517 All commits that are walked are included.
519 Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if
520 one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
521 sides of the merge are never walked.
523 Finally, there is a fourth simplification mode available:
527 First, build a history graph in the same way that
528 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting does (see above).
530 Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
531 history according to the following rules:
536 * Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`. In
537 the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents, and
540 * If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
541 zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
542 Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
545 The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
546 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting. The example turns into:
548 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
554 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
556 Note the major differences in `N` and `P` over '\--full-history':
559 * `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
560 other parent `M`. Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
562 * `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed. `P` was then
563 removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
566 The '\--simplify-by-decoration' option allows you to view only the
567 big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
568 that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME
569 (in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
570 above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
571 contents of the paths given on the command line. All other
572 commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
574 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
580 Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
581 included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
582 `refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
583 exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
584 added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
585 are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
587 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
588 $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
589 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
591 outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
593 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
594 $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
595 $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
596 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
598 would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which
599 introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
600 generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
605 This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
606 `refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
607 text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
608 name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
609 expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
610 to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if
611 `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected
612 number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
613 `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to
618 This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
619 commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
620 commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
621 from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
624 This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
625 test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
626 may not compile for example).
628 This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
629 after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
630 `--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
631 endif::git-rev-list[]
637 By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
641 This option makes them appear in topological order (i.e.
642 descendant commits are shown before their parents).
646 This option is similar to '--topo-order' in the sense that no
647 parent comes before all of its children, but otherwise things
648 are still ordered in the commit timestamp order.
652 Output the commits in reverse order.
653 Cannot be combined with '\--walk-reflogs'.
658 These options are mostly targeted for packing of git repositories.
662 Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
663 commits. '--objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me
664 all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
665 object 'bar', but not 'foo'".
669 Similar to '--objects', but also print the IDs of excluded
670 commits prefixed with a "-" character. This is used by
671 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build "thin" pack, which records
672 objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
673 excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
677 Only useful with '--objects'; print the object IDs that are not
682 Only show the given revs, but do not traverse their ancestors.
686 Overrides a previous --no-walk.