git-format-patch.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
   2     "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
   3 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
   4 <head>
   5 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
   6 <meta name="generator" content="AsciiDoc 8.2.5" />
   7 <style type="text/css">
   8 /* Debug borders */
   9 p, li, dt, dd, div, pre, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
  10 /*
  11   border: 1px solid red;
  12 */
  13 }
  14
  15 body {
  16   margin: 1em 5% 1em 5%;
  17 }
  18
  19 a {
  20   color: blue;
  21   text-decoration: underline;
  22 }
  23 a:visited {
  24   color: fuchsia;
  25 }
  26
  27 em {
  28   font-style: italic;
  29 }
  30
  31 strong {
  32   font-weight: bold;
  33 }
  34
  35 tt {
  36   color: navy;
  37 }
  38
  39 h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
  40   color: #527bbd;
  41   font-family: sans-serif;
  42   margin-top: 1.2em;
  43   margin-bottom: 0.5em;
  44   line-height: 1.3;
  45 }
  46
  47 h1, h2, h3 {
  48   border-bottom: 2px solid silver;
  49 }
  50 h2 {
  51   padding-top: 0.5em;
  52 }
  53 h3 {
  54   float: left;
  55 }
  56 h3 + * {
  57   clear: left;
  58 }
  59
  60 div.sectionbody {
  61   font-family: serif;
  62   margin-left: 0;
  63 }
  64
  65 hr {
  66   border: 1px solid silver;
  67 }
  68
  69 p {
  70   margin-top: 0.5em;
  71   margin-bottom: 0.5em;
  72 }
  73
  74 pre {
  75   padding: 0;
  76   margin: 0;
  77 }
  78
  79 span#author {
  80   color: #527bbd;
  81   font-family: sans-serif;
  82   font-weight: bold;
  83   font-size: 1.1em;
  84 }
  85 span#email {
  86 }
  87 span#revision {
  88   font-family: sans-serif;
  89 }
  90
  91 div#footer {
  92   font-family: sans-serif;
  93   font-size: small;
  94   border-top: 2px solid silver;
  95   padding-top: 0.5em;
  96   margin-top: 4.0em;
  97 }
  98 div#footer-text {
  99   float: left;
 100   padding-bottom: 0.5em;
 101 }
 102 div#footer-badges {
 103   float: right;
 104   padding-bottom: 0.5em;
 105 }
 106
 107 div#preamble,
 108 div.tableblock, div.imageblock, div.exampleblock, div.verseblock,
 109 div.quoteblock, div.literalblock, div.listingblock, div.sidebarblock,
 110 div.admonitionblock {
 111   margin-right: 10%;
 112   margin-top: 1.5em;
 113   margin-bottom: 1.5em;
 114 }
 115 div.admonitionblock {
 116   margin-top: 2.5em;
 117   margin-bottom: 2.5em;
 118 }
 119
 120 div.content { /* Block element content. */
 121   padding: 0;
 122 }
 123
 124 /* Block element titles. */
 125 div.title, caption.title {
 126   font-family: sans-serif;
 127   font-weight: bold;
 128   text-align: left;
 129   margin-top: 1.0em;
 130   margin-bottom: 0.5em;
 131 }
 132 div.title + * {
 133   margin-top: 0;
 134 }
 135
 136 td div.title:first-child {
 137   margin-top: 0.0em;
 138 }
 139 div.content div.title:first-child {
 140   margin-top: 0.0em;
 141 }
 142 div.content + div.title {
 143   margin-top: 0.0em;
 144 }
 145
 146 div.sidebarblock > div.content {
 147   background: #ffffee;
 148   border: 1px solid silver;
 149   padding: 0.5em;
 150 }
 151
 152 div.listingblock {
 153   margin-right: 0%;
 154 }
 155 div.listingblock > div.content {
 156   border: 1px solid silver;
 157   background: #f4f4f4;
 158   padding: 0.5em;
 159 }
 160
 161 div.quoteblock > div.content {
 162   padding-left: 2.0em;
 163 }
 164
 165 div.attribution {
 166   text-align: right;
 167 }
 168 div.verseblock + div.attribution {
 169   text-align: left;
 170 }
 171
 172 div.admonitionblock .icon {
 173   vertical-align: top;
 174   font-size: 1.1em;
 175   font-weight: bold;
 176   text-decoration: underline;
 177   color: #527bbd;
 178   padding-right: 0.5em;
 179 }
 180 div.admonitionblock td.content {
 181   padding-left: 0.5em;
 182   border-left: 2px solid silver;
 183 }
 184
 185 div.exampleblock > div.content {
 186   border-left: 2px solid silver;
 187   padding: 0.5em;
 188 }
 189
 190 div.verseblock div.content {
 191   white-space: pre;
 192 }
 193
 194 div.imageblock div.content { padding-left: 0; }
 195 div.imageblock img { border: 1px solid silver; }
 196 span.image img { border-style: none; }
 197
 198 dl {
 199   margin-top: 0.8em;
 200   margin-bottom: 0.8em;
 201 }
 202 dt {
 203   margin-top: 0.5em;
 204   margin-bottom: 0;
 205   font-style: italic;
 206 }
 207 dd > *:first-child {
 208   margin-top: 0;
 209 }
 210
 211 ul, ol {
 212     list-style-position: outside;
 213 }
 214 div.olist2 ol {
 215   list-style-type: lower-alpha;
 216 }
 217
 218 div.tableblock > table {
 219   border: 3px solid #527bbd;
 220 }
 221 thead {
 222   font-family: sans-serif;
 223   font-weight: bold;
 224 }
 225 tfoot {
 226   font-weight: bold;
 227 }
 228
 229 div.hlist {
 230   margin-top: 0.8em;
 231   margin-bottom: 0.8em;
 232 }
 233 div.hlist td {
 234   padding-bottom: 5px;
 235 }
 236 td.hlist1 {
 237   vertical-align: top;
 238   font-style: italic;
 239   padding-right: 0.8em;
 240 }
 241 td.hlist2 {
 242   vertical-align: top;
 243 }
 244
 245 @media print {
 246   div#footer-badges { display: none; }
 247 }
 248
 249 div#toctitle {
 250   color: #527bbd;
 251   font-family: sans-serif;
 252   font-size: 1.1em;
 253   font-weight: bold;
 254   margin-top: 1.0em;
 255   margin-bottom: 0.1em;
 256 }
 257
 258 div.toclevel1, div.toclevel2, div.toclevel3, div.toclevel4 {
 259   margin-top: 0;
 260   margin-bottom: 0;
 261 }
 262 div.toclevel2 {
 263   margin-left: 2em;
 264   font-size: 0.9em;
 265 }
 266 div.toclevel3 {
 267   margin-left: 4em;
 268   font-size: 0.9em;
 269 }
 270 div.toclevel4 {
 271   margin-left: 6em;
 272   font-size: 0.9em;
 273 }
 274 include1::./stylesheets/xhtml11-manpage.css[]
 275 /* Workarounds for IE6's broken and incomplete CSS2. */
 276
 277 div.sidebar-content {
 278   background: #ffffee;
 279   border: 1px solid silver;
 280   padding: 0.5em;
 281 }
 282 div.sidebar-title, div.image-title {
 283   font-family: sans-serif;
 284   font-weight: bold;
 285   margin-top: 0.0em;
 286   margin-bottom: 0.5em;
 287 }
 288
 289 div.listingblock div.content {
 290   border: 1px solid silver;
 291   background: #f4f4f4;
 292   padding: 0.5em;
 293 }
 294
 295 div.quoteblock-content {
 296   padding-left: 2.0em;
 297 }
 298
 299 div.exampleblock-content {
 300   border-left: 2px solid silver;
 301   padding-left: 0.5em;
 302 }
 303
 304 /* IE6 sets dynamically generated links as visited. */
 305 div#toc a:visited { color: blue; }
 306 </style>
 307 <title>git-format-patch(1)</title>
 308 </head>
 309 <body>
 310 <div id="header">
 311 <h1>
 312 git-format-patch(1) Manual Page
 313 </h1>
 314 <h2>NAME</h2>
 315 <div class="sectionbody">
 316 <p>git-format-patch -
 317    Prepare patches for e-mail submission
 318 </p>
 319 </div>
 320 </div>
 321 <h2>SYNOPSIS</h2>
 322 <div class="sectionbody">
 323 <div class="verseblock">
 324 <div class="content"><em>git format-patch</em> [-k] [(-o|--output-directory) &lt;dir&gt; | --stdout]
 325                    [--thread[=&lt;style&gt;]]
 326                    [(--attach|--inline)[=&lt;boundary&gt;] | --no-attach]
 327                    [-s | --signoff]
 328                    [-n | --numbered | -N | --no-numbered]
 329                    [--start-number &lt;n&gt;] [--numbered-files]
 330                    [--in-reply-to=Message-Id] [--suffix=.&lt;sfx&gt;]
 331                    [--ignore-if-in-upstream]
 332                    [--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix]
 333                    [--cc=&lt;email&gt;]
 334                    [--cover-letter]
 335                    [&lt;common diff options&gt;]
 336                    [ &lt;since&gt; | &lt;revision range&gt; ]</div></div>
 337 </div>
 338 <h2 id="_description">DESCRIPTION</h2>
 339 <div class="sectionbody">
 340 <div class="para"><p>Prepare each commit with its patch in
 341 one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format.
 342 The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or
 343 for use with <em>git-am</em>.</p></div>
 344 <div class="para"><p>There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on.</p></div>
 345 <div class="olist"><ol>
 346 <li>
 347 <p>
 348 A single commit, &lt;since&gt;, specifies that the commits leading
 349    to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history
 350    that leads to the &lt;since&gt; to be output.
 351 </p>
 352 </li>
 353 <li>
 354 <p>
 355 Generic &lt;revision range&gt; expression (see "SPECIFYING
 356    REVISIONS" section in <a href="git-rev-parse.html">git-rev-parse(1)</a>) means the
 357    commits in the specified range.
 358 </p>
 359 </li>
 360 </ol></div>
 361 <div class="para"><p>The first rule takes precedence in the case of a single &lt;commit&gt;.  To
 362 apply the second rule, i.e., format everything since the beginning of
 363 history up until &lt;commit&gt;, use the <em>--root</em> option: "git format-patch
 364 --root &lt;commit&gt;".  If you want to format only &lt;commit&gt; itself, you
 365 can do this with "git format-patch -1 &lt;commit&gt;".</p></div>
 366 <div class="para"><p>By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the
 367 first line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as
 368 the filename. With the --numbered-files option, the output file names
 369 will only be numbers, without the first line of the commit appended.
 370 The names of the output files are printed to standard
 371 output, unless the --stdout option is specified.</p></div>
 372 <div class="para"><p>If -o is specified, output files are created in &lt;dir&gt;.  Otherwise
 373 they are created in the current working directory.</p></div>
 374 <div class="para"><p>By default, the subject of a single patch is "[PATCH] First Line" and
 375 the subject when multiple patches are output is "[PATCH n/m] First
 376 Line". To force 1/1 to be added for a single patch, use -n.  To omit
 377 patch numbers from the subject, use -N</p></div>
 378 <div class="para"><p>If given --thread, <em>git-format-patch</em> will generate In-Reply-To and
 379 References headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear
 380 as replies to the first mail; this also generates a Message-Id header to
 381 reference.</p></div>
 382 </div>
 383 <h2 id="_options">OPTIONS</h2>
 384 <div class="sectionbody">
 385 <div class="vlist"><dl>
 386 <dt>
 387 -p
 388 </dt>
 389 <dd>
 390 <p>
 391         Generate patches without diffstat.
 392 </p>
 393 </dd>
 394 <dt>
 395 -U&lt;n&gt;
 396 </dt>
 397 <dt>
 398 --unified=&lt;n&gt;
 399 </dt>
 400 <dd>
 401 <p>
 402         Generate diffs with &lt;n&gt; lines of context instead of
 403         the usual three. Implies "-p".
 404 </p>
 405 </dd>
 406 <dt>
 407 --raw
 408 </dt>
 409 <dd>
 410 <p>
 411         Generate the raw format.
 412
 413 </p>
 414 </dd>
 415 <dt>
 416 --patch-with-raw
 417 </dt>
 418 <dd>
 419 <p>
 420         Synonym for "-p --raw".
 421 </p>
 422 </dd>
 423 <dt>
 424 --patience
 425 </dt>
 426 <dd>
 427 <p>
 428         Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
 429 </p>
 430 </dd>
 431 <dt>
 432 --stat[=width[,name-width]]
 433 </dt>
 434 <dd>
 435 <p>
 436         Generate a diffstat.  You can override the default
 437         output width for 80-column terminal by "--stat=width".
 438         The width of the filename part can be controlled by
 439         giving another width to it separated by a comma.
 440 </p>
 441 </dd>
 442 <dt>
 443 --numstat
 444 </dt>
 445 <dd>
 446 <p>
 447         Similar to --stat, but shows number of added and
 448         deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
 449         abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
 450         binary files, outputs two <tt>-</tt> instead of saying
 451         <tt>0 0</tt>.
 452 </p>
 453 </dd>
 454 <dt>
 455 --shortstat
 456 </dt>
 457 <dd>
 458 <p>
 459         Output only the last line of the --stat format containing total
 460         number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
 461         lines.
 462 </p>
 463 </dd>
 464 <dt>
 465 --dirstat[=limit]
 466 </dt>
 467 <dd>
 468 <p>
 469         Output the distribution of relative amount of changes (number of lines added or
 470         removed) for each sub-directory. Directories with changes below
 471         a cut-off percent (3% by default) are not shown. The cut-off percent
 472         can be set with "--dirstat=limit". Changes in a child directory is not
 473         counted for the parent directory, unless "--cumulative" is used.
 474 </p>
 475 </dd>
 476 <dt>
 477 --dirstat-by-file[=limit]
 478 </dt>
 479 <dd>
 480 <p>
 481         Same as --dirstat, but counts changed files instead of lines.
 482 </p>
 483 </dd>
 484 <dt>
 485 --summary
 486 </dt>
 487 <dd>
 488 <p>
 489         Output a condensed summary of extended header information
 490         such as creations, renames and mode changes.
 491 </p>
 492 </dd>
 493 <dt>
 494 --patch-with-stat
 495 </dt>
 496 <dd>
 497 <p>
 498         Synonym for "-p --stat".
 499          This is the default.
 500 </p>
 501 </dd>
 502 <dt>
 503 -z
 504 </dt>
 505 <dd>
 506 <p>
 507         NUL-line termination on output.  This affects the --raw
 508         output field terminator.  Also output from commands such
 509         as "git-log" will be delimited with NUL between commits.
 510 </p>
 511 </dd>
 512 <dt>
 513 --name-only
 514 </dt>
 515 <dd>
 516 <p>
 517         Show only names of changed files.
 518 </p>
 519 </dd>
 520 <dt>
 521 --name-status
 522 </dt>
 523 <dd>
 524 <p>
 525         Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
 526         of the <tt>--diff-filter</tt> option on what the status letters mean.
 527 </p>
 528 </dd>
 529 <dt>
 530 --color
 531 </dt>
 532 <dd>
 533 <p>
 534         Show colored diff.
 535 </p>
 536 </dd>
 537 <dt>
 538 --no-color
 539 </dt>
 540 <dd>
 541 <p>
 542         Turn off colored diff, even when the configuration file
 543         gives the default to color output.
 544 </p>
 545 </dd>
 546 <dt>
 547 --color-words[=&lt;regex&gt;]
 548 </dt>
 549 <dd>
 550 <p>
 551         Show colored word diff, i.e., color words which have changed.
 552         By default, words are separated by whitespace.
 553 </p>
 554 <div class="para"><p>When a &lt;regex&gt; is specified, every non-overlapping match of the
 555 &lt;regex&gt; is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
 556 considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
 557 differences.  You may want to append <tt>|[^[:space:]]</tt> to your regular
 558 expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
 559 A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
 560 newline.</p></div>
 561 <div class="para"><p>The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
 562 <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(1)</a> or <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a>.  Giving it explicitly
 563 overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
 564 override configuration settings.</p></div>
 565 </dd>
 566 <dt>
 567 --no-renames
 568 </dt>
 569 <dd>
 570 <p>
 571         Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
 572         file gives the default to do so.
 573 </p>
 574 </dd>
 575 <dt>
 576 --check
 577 </dt>
 578 <dd>
 579 <p>
 580         Warn if changes introduce trailing whitespace
 581         or an indent that uses a space before a tab. Exits with
 582         non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible with
 583         --exit-code.
 584 </p>
 585 </dd>
 586 <dt>
 587 --full-index
 588 </dt>
 589 <dd>
 590 <p>
 591         Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
 592         pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
 593         line when generating patch format output.
 594 </p>
 595 </dd>
 596 <dt>
 597 --binary
 598 </dt>
 599 <dd>
 600 <p>
 601         In addition to --full-index, output "binary diff" that
 602         can be applied with "git apply".
 603 </p>
 604 </dd>
 605 <dt>
 606 --abbrev[=&lt;n&gt;]
 607 </dt>
 608 <dd>
 609 <p>
 610         Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 611         name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 612         lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
 613         independent of --full-index option above, which controls
 614         the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 615         digits can be specified with --abbrev=&lt;n&gt;.
 616 </p>
 617 </dd>
 618 <dt>
 619 -B
 620 </dt>
 621 <dd>
 622 <p>
 623         Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create.
 624 </p>
 625 </dd>
 626 <dt>
 627 -M
 628 </dt>
 629 <dd>
 630 <p>
 631         Detect renames.
 632 </p>
 633 </dd>
 634 <dt>
 635 -C
 636 </dt>
 637 <dd>
 638 <p>
 639         Detect copies as well as renames.  See also <tt>--find-copies-harder</tt>.
 640 </p>
 641 </dd>
 642 <dt>
 643 --diff-filter=[ACDMRTUXB*]
 644 </dt>
 645 <dd>
 646 <p>
 647         Select only files that are Added (<tt>A</tt>), Copied (<tt>C</tt>),
 648         Deleted (<tt>D</tt>), Modified (<tt>M</tt>), Renamed (<tt>R</tt>), have their
 649         type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, &#8230;) changed (<tt>T</tt>),
 650         are Unmerged (<tt>U</tt>), are
 651         Unknown (<tt>X</tt>), or have had their pairing Broken (<tt>B</tt>).
 652         Any combination of the filter characters may be used.
 653         When <tt>*</tt> (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 654         paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 655         other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 656         that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 657 </p>
 658 </dd>
 659 <dt>
 660 --find-copies-harder
 661 </dt>
 662 <dd>
 663 <p>
 664         For performance reasons, by default, <tt>-C</tt> option finds copies only
 665         if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 666         changeset.  This flag makes the command
 667         inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 668         copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 669         projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 670         <tt>-C</tt> option has the same effect.
 671 </p>
 672 </dd>
 673 <dt>
 674 -l&lt;num&gt;
 675 </dt>
 676 <dd>
 677 <p>
 678         -M and -C options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 679         is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 680         option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 681         the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 682         number.
 683 </p>
 684 </dd>
 685 <dt>
 686 -S&lt;string&gt;
 687 </dt>
 688 <dd>
 689 <p>
 690         Look for differences that introduce or remove an instance of
 691         &lt;string&gt;. Note that this is different than the string simply
 692         appearing in diff output; see the <em>pickaxe</em> entry in
 693         <a href="gitdiffcore.html">gitdiffcore(7)</a> for more details.
 694 </p>
 695 </dd>
 696 <dt>
 697 --pickaxe-all
 698 </dt>
 699 <dd>
 700 <p>
 701         When -S finds a change, show all the changes in that
 702         changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 703         in &lt;string&gt;.
 704 </p>
 705 </dd>
 706 <dt>
 707 --pickaxe-regex
 708 </dt>
 709 <dd>
 710 <p>
 711         Make the &lt;string&gt; not a plain string but an extended POSIX
 712         regex to match.
 713 </p>
 714 </dd>
 715 <dt>
 716 -O&lt;orderfile&gt;
 717 </dt>
 718 <dd>
 719 <p>
 720         Output the patch in the order specified in the
 721         &lt;orderfile&gt;, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
 722 </p>
 723 </dd>
 724 <dt>
 725 -R
 726 </dt>
 727 <dd>
 728 <p>
 729         Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 730         on-disk file to tree contents.
 731 </p>
 732 </dd>
 733 <dt>
 734 --relative[=&lt;path&gt;]
 735 </dt>
 736 <dd>
 737 <p>
 738         When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
 739         told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
 740         pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
 741         not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
 742         can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
 743         to by giving a &lt;path&gt; as an argument.
 744 </p>
 745 </dd>
 746 <dt>
 747 -a
 748 </dt>
 749 <dt>
 750 --text
 751 </dt>
 752 <dd>
 753 <p>
 754         Treat all files as text.
 755 </p>
 756 </dd>
 757 <dt>
 758 --ignore-space-at-eol
 759 </dt>
 760 <dd>
 761 <p>
 762         Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 763 </p>
 764 </dd>
 765 <dt>
 766 -b
 767 </dt>
 768 <dt>
 769 --ignore-space-change
 770 </dt>
 771 <dd>
 772 <p>
 773         Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 774         at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 775         more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 776 </p>
 777 </dd>
 778 <dt>
 779 -w
 780 </dt>
 781 <dt>
 782 --ignore-all-space
 783 </dt>
 784 <dd>
 785 <p>
 786         Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
 787         differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
 788         line has none.
 789 </p>
 790 </dd>
 791 <dt>
 792 --inter-hunk-context=&lt;lines&gt;
 793 </dt>
 794 <dd>
 795 <p>
 796         Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
 797         of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
 798 </p>
 799 </dd>
 800 <dt>
 801 --exit-code
 802 </dt>
 803 <dd>
 804 <p>
 805         Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 806         That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 807         0 means no differences.
 808 </p>
 809 </dd>
 810 <dt>
 811 --quiet
 812 </dt>
 813 <dd>
 814 <p>
 815         Disable all output of the program. Implies --exit-code.
 816 </p>
 817 </dd>
 818 <dt>
 819 --ext-diff
 820 </dt>
 821 <dd>
 822 <p>
 823         Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 824         external diff driver with <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a>, you need
 825         to use this option with <a href="git-log.html">git-log(1)</a> and friends.
 826 </p>
 827 </dd>
 828 <dt>
 829 --no-ext-diff
 830 </dt>
 831 <dd>
 832 <p>
 833         Disallow external diff drivers.
 834 </p>
 835 </dd>
 836 <dt>
 837 --ignore-submodules
 838 </dt>
 839 <dd>
 840 <p>
 841         Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation.
 842 </p>
 843 </dd>
 844 <dt>
 845 --src-prefix=&lt;prefix&gt;
 846 </dt>
 847 <dd>
 848 <p>
 849         Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
 850 </p>
 851 </dd>
 852 <dt>
 853 --dst-prefix=&lt;prefix&gt;
 854 </dt>
 855 <dd>
 856 <p>
 857         Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
 858 </p>
 859 </dd>
 860 <dt>
 861 --no-prefix
 862 </dt>
 863 <dd>
 864 <p>
 865         Do not show any source or destination prefix.
 866 </p>
 867 </dd>
 868 </dl></div>
 869 <div class="para"><p>For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 870 <a href="gitdiffcore.html">gitdiffcore(7)</a>.</p></div>
 871 <div class="vlist"><dl>
 872 <dt>
 873 -&lt;n&gt;
 874 </dt>
 875 <dd>
 876 <p>
 877         Limits the number of patches to prepare.
 878 </p>
 879 </dd>
 880 <dt>
 881 -o &lt;dir&gt;
 882 </dt>
 883 <dt>
 884 --output-directory &lt;dir&gt;
 885 </dt>
 886 <dd>
 887 <p>
 888         Use &lt;dir&gt; to store the resulting files, instead of the
 889         current working directory.
 890 </p>
 891 </dd>
 892 <dt>
 893 -n
 894 </dt>
 895 <dt>
 896 --numbered
 897 </dt>
 898 <dd>
 899 <p>
 900         Name output in <em>[PATCH n/m]</em> format, even with a single patch.
 901 </p>
 902 </dd>
 903 <dt>
 904 -N
 905 </dt>
 906 <dt>
 907 --no-numbered
 908 </dt>
 909 <dd>
 910 <p>
 911         Name output in <em>[PATCH]</em> format.
 912 </p>
 913 </dd>
 914 <dt>
 915 --start-number &lt;n&gt;
 916 </dt>
 917 <dd>
 918 <p>
 919         Start numbering the patches at &lt;n&gt; instead of 1.
 920 </p>
 921 </dd>
 922 <dt>
 923 --numbered-files
 924 </dt>
 925 <dd>
 926 <p>
 927         Output file names will be a simple number sequence
 928         without the default first line of the commit appended.
 929 </p>
 930 </dd>
 931 <dt>
 932 -k
 933 </dt>
 934 <dt>
 935 --keep-subject
 936 </dt>
 937 <dd>
 938 <p>
 939         Do not strip/add <em>[PATCH]</em> from the first line of the
 940         commit log message.
 941 </p>
 942 </dd>
 943 <dt>
 944 -s
 945 </dt>
 946 <dt>
 947 --signoff
 948 </dt>
 949 <dd>
 950 <p>
 951         Add <tt>Signed-off-by:</tt> line to the commit message, using
 952         the committer identity of yourself.
 953 </p>
 954 </dd>
 955 <dt>
 956 --stdout
 957 </dt>
 958 <dd>
 959 <p>
 960         Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format,
 961         instead of creating a file for each one.
 962 </p>
 963 </dd>
 964 <dt>
 965 --attach[=&lt;boundary&gt;]
 966 </dt>
 967 <dd>
 968 <p>
 969         Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of
 970         which is the commit message and the patch itself in the
 971         second part, with "Content-Disposition: attachment".
 972 </p>
 973 </dd>
 974 <dt>
 975 --no-attach
 976 </dt>
 977 <dd>
 978 <p>
 979         Disable the creation of an attachment, overriding the
 980         configuration setting.
 981 </p>
 982 </dd>
 983 <dt>
 984 --inline[=&lt;boundary&gt;]
 985 </dt>
 986 <dd>
 987 <p>
 988         Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of
 989         which is the commit message and the patch itself in the
 990         second part, with "Content-Disposition: inline".
 991 </p>
 992 </dd>
 993 <dt>
 994 --thread[=&lt;style&gt;]
 995 </dt>
 996 <dd>
 997 <p>
 998         Add In-Reply-To and References headers to make the second and
 999         subsequent mails appear as replies to the first.  Also generates
1000         the Message-Id header to reference.
1001 </p>
1002 <div class="para"><p>The optional &lt;style&gt; argument can be either <tt>shallow</tt> or <tt>deep</tt>.
1003 <em>shallow</em> threading makes every mail a reply to the head of the
1004 series, where the head is chosen from the cover letter, the
1005 <tt>--in-reply-to</tt>, and the first patch mail, in this order.  <em>deep</em>
1006 threading makes every mail a reply to the previous one.  If not
1007 specified, defaults to the <em>format.thread</em> configuration, or <tt>shallow</tt>
1008 if that is not set.</p></div>
1009 </dd>
1010 <dt>
1011 --in-reply-to=Message-Id
1012 </dt>
1013 <dd>
1014 <p>
1015         Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a
1016         reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to
1017         provide a new patch series.
1018 </p>
1019 </dd>
1020 <dt>
1021 --ignore-if-in-upstream
1022 </dt>
1023 <dd>
1024 <p>
1025         Do not include a patch that matches a commit in
1026         &lt;until&gt;..&lt;since&gt;.  This will examine all patches reachable
1027         from &lt;since&gt; but not from &lt;until&gt; and compare them with the
1028         patches being generated, and any patch that matches is
1029         ignored.
1030 </p>
1031 </dd>
1032 <dt>
1033 --subject-prefix=&lt;Subject-Prefix&gt;
1034 </dt>
1035 <dd>
1036 <p>
1037         Instead of the standard <em>[PATCH]</em> prefix in the subject
1038         line, instead use <em>[&lt;Subject-Prefix&gt;]</em>. This
1039         allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be
1040         combined with the --numbered option.
1041 </p>
1042 </dd>
1043 <dt>
1044 --cc=&lt;email&gt;
1045 </dt>
1046 <dd>
1047 <p>
1048         Add a "Cc:" header to the email headers. This is in addition
1049         to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times.
1050 </p>
1051 </dd>
1052 <dt>
1053 --add-header=&lt;header&gt;
1054 </dt>
1055 <dd>
1056 <p>
1057         Add an arbitrary header to the email headers.  This is in addition
1058         to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times.
1059         For example, --add-header="Organization: git-foo"
1060 </p>
1061 </dd>
1062 <dt>
1063 --cover-letter
1064 </dt>
1065 <dd>
1066 <p>
1067         In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file
1068         containing the shortlog and the overall diffstat.  You can
1069         fill in a description in the file before sending it out.
1070 </p>
1071 </dd>
1072 <dt>
1073 --suffix=.&lt;sfx&gt;
1074 </dt>
1075 <dd>
1076 <p>
1077         Instead of using <tt>.patch</tt> as the suffix for generated
1078         filenames, use specified suffix.  A common alternative is
1079         <tt>--suffix=.txt</tt>.  Leaving this empty will remove the <tt>.patch</tt>
1080         suffix.
1081 </p>
1082 <div class="para"><p>Note that the leading character does not have to be a dot; for example,
1083 you can use <tt>--suffix=-patch</tt> to get <tt>0001-description-of-my-change-patch</tt>.</p></div>
1084 </dd>
1085 <dt>
1086 --no-binary
1087 </dt>
1088 <dd>
1089 <p>
1090         Do not output contents of changes in binary files, instead
1091         display a notice that those files changed.  Patches generated
1092         using this option cannot be applied properly, but they are
1093         still useful for code review.
1094 </p>
1095 </dd>
1096 <dt>
1097 --root
1098 </dt>
1099 <dd>
1100 <p>
1101         Treat the revision argument as a &lt;revision range&gt;, even if it
1102         is just a single commit (that would normally be treated as a
1103         &lt;since&gt;).  Note that root commits included in the specified
1104         range are always formatted as creation patches, independently
1105         of this flag.
1106 </p>
1107 </dd>
1108 </dl></div>
1109 </div>
1110 <h2 id="_configuration">CONFIGURATION</h2>
1111 <div class="sectionbody">
1112 <div class="para"><p>You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message,
1113 defaults for the subject prefix and file suffix, number patches when
1114 outputting more than one patch, add "Cc:" headers, configure attachments,
1115 and sign off patches with configuration variables.</p></div>
1116 <div class="listingblock">
1117 <div class="content">
1118 <pre><tt>[format]
1119         headers = "Organization: git-foo\n"
1120         subjectprefix = CHANGE
1121         suffix = .txt
1122         numbered = auto
1123         cc = &lt;email&gt;
1124         attach [ = mime-boundary-string ]
1125         signoff = true</tt></pre>
1126 </div></div>
1127 </div>
1128 <h2 id="_examples">EXAMPLES</h2>
1129 <div class="sectionbody">
1130 <div class="ilist"><ul>
1131 <li>
1132 <p>
1133 Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of
1134 the current branch using <em>git-am</em> to cherry-pick them:
1135 </p>
1136 <div class="listingblock">
1137 <div class="content">
1138 <pre><tt>$ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git am -3 -k</tt></pre>
1139 </div></div>
1140 </li>
1141 <li>
1142 <p>
1143 Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the
1144 origin branch:
1145 </p>
1146 <div class="listingblock">
1147 <div class="content">
1148 <pre><tt>$ git format-patch origin</tt></pre>
1149 </div></div>
1150 <div class="para"><p>For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory.</p></div>
1151 </li>
1152 <li>
1153 <p>
1154 Extract all commits that lead to <em>origin</em> since the inception of the
1155 project:
1156 </p>
1157 <div class="listingblock">
1158 <div class="content">
1159 <pre><tt>$ git format-patch --root origin</tt></pre>
1160 </div></div>
1161 </li>
1162 <li>
1163 <p>
1164 The same as the previous one:
1165 </p>
1166 <div class="listingblock">
1167 <div class="content">
1168 <pre><tt>$ git format-patch -M -B origin</tt></pre>
1169 </div></div>
1170 <div class="para"><p>Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites
1171 intelligently to produce a renaming patch.  A renaming patch reduces
1172 the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review.
1173 Note that non-git "patch" programs won't understand renaming patches, so
1174 use it only when you know the recipient uses git to apply your patch.</p></div>
1175 </li>
1176 <li>
1177 <p>
1178 Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them
1179 as e-mailable patches:
1180 </p>
1181 <div class="listingblock">
1182 <div class="content">
1183 <pre><tt>$ git format-patch -3</tt></pre>
1184 </div></div>
1185 </li>
1186 </ul></div>
1187 </div>
1188 <h2 id="_see_also">SEE ALSO</h2>
1189 <div class="sectionbody">
1190 <div class="para"><p><a href="git-am.html">git-am(1)</a>, <a href="git-send-email.html">git-send-email(1)</a></p></div>
1191 </div>
1192 <h2 id="_author">Author</h2>
1193 <div class="sectionbody">
1194 <div class="para"><p>Written by Junio C Hamano &lt;gitster@pobox.com&gt;</p></div>
1195 </div>
1196 <h2 id="_documentation">Documentation</h2>
1197 <div class="sectionbody">
1198 <div class="para"><p>Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list &lt;git@vger.kernel.org&gt;.</p></div>
1199 </div>
1200 <h2 id="_git">GIT</h2>
1201 <div class="sectionbody">
1202 <div class="para"><p>Part of the <a href="git.html">git(1)</a> suite</p></div>
1203 </div>
1204 <div id="footer">
1205 <div id="footer-text">
1206 Last updated 2009-04-25 08:29:43 UTC
1207 </div>
1208 </div>
1209 </body>
1210 </html>