4 Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the
5 special notations explained in the description, additional commit
6 limiting may be applied. Note that they are applied before commit
7 ordering and formatting options, such as '--reverse'.
12 --max-count=<number>::
14 Limit the number of commits to output.
18 Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
23 Show commits more recent than a specific date.
28 Show commits older than a specific date.
31 --max-age=<timestamp>::
32 --min-age=<timestamp>::
34 Limit the commits output to specified time range.
38 --committer=<pattern>::
40 Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
41 header lines that match the specified pattern (regular expression).
45 Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
46 matches the specified pattern (regular expression).
49 Limit the commits output to ones that match all given --grep,
50 --author and --committer instead of ones that match at least one.
53 --regexp-ignore-case::
55 Match the regexp limiting patterns without regard to letters case.
60 Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
61 instead of the default basic regular expressions.
66 Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
67 pattern as a regular expression).
71 Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
75 Print only merge commits. This is exactly the same as `--min-parents=2`.
79 Do not print commits with more than one parent. This is
80 exactly the same as `--max-parents=1`.
82 --min-parents=<number>::
83 --max-parents=<number>::
87 Show only commits which have at least (or at most) that many
88 commits. In particular, `--max-parents=1` is the same as `--no-merges`,
89 `--min-parents=2` is the same as `--merges`. `--max-parents=0`
90 gives all root commits and `--min-parents=3` all octopus merges.
92 `--no-min-parents` and `--no-max-parents` reset these limits (to no limit)
93 again. Equivalent forms are `--min-parents=0` (any commit has 0 or more
94 parents) and `--max-parents=-1` (negative numbers denote no upper limit).
97 Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
98 commit. This option can give a better overview when
99 viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
100 because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
101 adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
102 this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
103 brought in to your history by such a merge.
107 Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
108 for all following revision specifiers, up to the next '--not'.
112 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the
113 command line as '<commit>'.
115 --branches[=<pattern>]::
117 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
118 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
119 branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
120 '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
124 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
125 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
126 tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
127 or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
129 --remotes[=<pattern>]::
131 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
132 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
133 remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
134 If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
136 --glob=<glob-pattern>::
137 Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob '<glob-pattern>'
138 are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/',
139 is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
140 or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
144 Upon seeing an invalid object name in the input, pretend as if
145 the bad input was not given.
147 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
150 Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
151 was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
152 bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
154 endif::git-rev-list[]
158 In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
159 line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is
160 seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the
163 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
166 Don't print anything to standard output. This form
167 is primarily meant to allow the caller to
168 test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
169 connected (or not). It is faster than redirecting stdout
170 to /dev/null as the output does not have to be formatted.
171 endif::git-rev-list[]
175 Like `--cherry-pick` (see below) but mark equivalent commits
176 with `=` rather than omitting them, and inequivalent ones with `+`.
180 Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
181 another commit on the "other side" when the set of
182 commits are limited with symmetric difference.
184 For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
185 to list all commits on only one side of them is with
186 `--left-right` (see the example below in the description of
187 the `--left-right` option). It however shows the commits that were cherry-picked
188 from the other branch (for example, "3rd on b" may be cherry-picked
189 from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are
190 excluded from the output.
195 List only commits on the respective side of a symmetric range,
196 i.e. only those which would be marked `<` resp. `>` by
199 For example, `--cherry-pick --right-only A...B` omits those
200 commits from `B` which are in `A` or are patch-equivalent to a commit in
201 `A`. In other words, this lists the `+` commits from `git cherry A B`.
202 More precisely, `--cherry-pick --right-only --no-merges` gives the exact
207 A synonym for `--right-only --cherry-mark --no-merges`; useful to
208 limit the output to the commits on our side and mark those that
209 have been applied to the other side of a forked history with
210 `git log --cherry upstream...mybranch`, similar to
211 `git cherry upstream mybranch`.
216 Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
217 reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
218 When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
219 exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
220 nor 'commit1\...commit2' notations cannot be used).
222 With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons),
223 this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
224 taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
225 used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as
226 'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
227 instead. Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is
228 prefixed with this information on the same line.
229 This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'.
230 See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
234 After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
235 conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
239 Output uninteresting commits at the boundary, which are usually
244 History Simplification
245 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
247 Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
248 commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
249 'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
250 is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
252 The following options select the commits to be shown:
256 Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
258 --simplify-by-decoration::
260 Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
262 Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
264 The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
268 Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
269 final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
270 branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
271 with the same content)
275 Same as the default mode, but does not prune some history.
279 Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
284 All commits in the simplified history are shown.
288 Additional option to '--full-history' to remove some needless
289 merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
290 commits contributing to this merge.
294 When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2'
295 or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist
296 directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and
297 'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1',
298 and ancestors of 'commit2'.
300 A more detailed explanation follows.
302 Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
303 that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
304 filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
306 In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
307 illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume
308 that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
309 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
315 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
316 The horizontal line of history A---P is taken to be the first parent of
317 each merge. The commits are:
319 * `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
320 "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux". Initial
321 commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
323 * In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo".
325 * `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and
326 hence TREESAME to all parents.
328 * `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar",
329 so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
331 * `D` sets `foo` to "baz". Its merge `O` combines the strings from
332 `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
334 * `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the
335 strings to "quux xyzzy". Despite appearing interesting, `P` is
336 TREESAME to all parents.
338 'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding
339 commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting
340 (via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used. The following settings
345 Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
346 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). If the
347 commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
348 only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME
349 parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all
354 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
358 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
360 Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
361 available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was
362 considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an
363 empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
365 Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does
366 not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
369 --full-history without parent rewriting::
371 This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
372 all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
373 Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
374 included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In
377 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
379 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
381 `P` and `M` were excluded because they are TREESAME to a parent. `E`,
382 `C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
385 Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
386 about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
389 --full-history with parent rewriting::
391 Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
392 (though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).
394 Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten:
395 Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
396 themselves. This results in
398 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
404 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
406 Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above. Note that `E`
407 was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
408 rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and
409 `N`. Note also that `P` was included despite being TREESAME.
411 In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
416 Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
421 All commits that are walked are included.
423 Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if
424 one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
425 sides of the merge are never walked.
429 First, build a history graph in the same way that
430 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting does (see above).
432 Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
433 history according to the following rules:
438 * Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`. In
439 the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents, and
442 * If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
443 zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
444 Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
447 The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
448 '\--full-history' with parent rewriting. The example turns into:
450 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
456 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
458 Note the major differences in `N` and `P` over '--full-history':
461 * `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
462 other parent `M`. Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
464 * `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed. `P` was then
465 removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
468 Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available:
472 Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry
473 chain between the "from" and "to" commits in the given commit
474 range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the "to"
475 commit, and descendants of the "from" commit.
477 As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
479 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
482 B---C---G---H---I---J
484 A-------K---------------L--M
485 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
487 A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`,
488 but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see
489 what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense
490 that "what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`". The result in this
491 example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself,
494 When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the
495 bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view
496 only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e.
497 excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the '--ancestry-path'
498 option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in:
500 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
506 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
508 The '\--simplify-by-decoration' option allows you to view only the
509 big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
510 that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME
511 (in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
512 above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
513 contents of the paths given on the command line. All other
514 commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
516 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
522 Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
523 included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
524 `refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
525 exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
526 added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
527 are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
529 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
530 $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
531 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
533 outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
535 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
536 $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
537 $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
538 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
540 would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which
541 introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
542 generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
547 This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
548 `refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
549 text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
550 name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
551 expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
552 to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if
553 `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected
554 number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
555 `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to
560 This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
561 commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
562 commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
563 from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
566 This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
567 test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
568 may not compile for example).
570 This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
571 after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
572 `--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
573 endif::git-rev-list[]
579 By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
583 This option makes them appear in topological order (i.e.
584 descendant commits are shown before their parents).
588 This option is similar to '--topo-order' in the sense that no
589 parent comes before all of its children, but otherwise things
590 are still ordered in the commit timestamp order.
594 Output the commits in reverse order.
595 Cannot be combined with '\--walk-reflogs'.
600 These options are mostly targeted for packing of git repositories.
604 Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
605 commits. '--objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me
606 all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
607 object 'bar', but not 'foo'".
611 Similar to '--objects', but also print the IDs of excluded
612 commits prefixed with a "-" character. This is used by
613 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build "thin" pack, which records
614 objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
615 excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
619 Only useful with '--objects'; print the object IDs that are not
624 Only show the given revs, but do not traverse their ancestors.
625 This has no effect if a range is specified.
629 Overrides a previous --no-walk.
634 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
635 Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
636 more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
637 linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
638 endif::git-rev-list[]
640 include::pretty-options.txt[]
644 Synonym for `--date=relative`.
646 --date=(relative|local|default|iso|rfc|short|raw)::
648 Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such
649 as when using "--pretty". `log.date` config variable sets a default
650 value for log command's --date option.
652 `--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
655 `--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local timezone.
657 `--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format.
659 `--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
660 format, often found in E-mail messages.
662 `--date=short` shows only date but not time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
664 `--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw git format `%s %z` format.
666 `--date=default` shows timestamps in the original timezone
667 (either committer's or author's).
669 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
672 Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
673 separated with a NUL character.
674 endif::git-rev-list[]
678 Print also the parents of the commit (in the form "commit parent...").
679 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
683 Print also the children of the commit (in the form "commit child...").
684 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
686 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
688 Print the raw commit timestamp.
689 endif::git-rev-list[]
693 Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from.
694 Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
695 the right with `>`. If combined with `--boundary`, those
696 commits are prefixed with `-`.
698 For example, if you have this topology:
700 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
705 o---x---a---a branch A
706 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
708 you would get an output like this:
710 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
711 $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
719 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
723 Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
724 on the left hand side of the output. This may cause extra lines
725 to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
726 to be drawn properly.
728 This enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
730 This implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the
731 '--date-order' option may also be specified.
733 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
735 Print a number stating how many commits would have been
736 listed, and suppress all other output. When used together
737 with '--left-right', instead print the counts for left and
738 right commits, separated by a tab. When used together with
739 '--cherry-mark', omit patch equivalent commits from these
740 counts and print the count for equivalent commits separated
742 endif::git-rev-list[]
745 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
749 Below are listed options that control the formatting of diff output.
750 Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
751 options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
755 With this option, diff output for a merge commit
756 shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
757 simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
758 and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
759 which were modified from all parents.
763 This flag implies the '-c' option and further compresses the
764 patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
765 the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
766 one of them without modification.
770 This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
771 regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
772 and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
773 the first parent is shown when '--first-parent' option is given;
774 in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
775 brought _into_ the then-current branch.
779 Show recursive diffs.
783 Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies '-r'.
786 Suppress diff output.
787 endif::git-rev-list[]