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.
8 Using more options generally further limits the output (e.g.
9 `--since=<date1>` limits to commits newer than `<date1>`, and using it
10 with `--grep=<pattern>` further limits to commits whose log message
11 has a line that matches `<pattern>`), unless otherwise noted.
13 Note that these are applied before commit
14 ordering and formatting options, such as `--reverse`.
20 --max-count=<number>::
21 Limit the number of commits to output.
24 Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.
28 Show commits more recent than a specific date.
32 Show commits older than a specific date.
35 --max-age=<timestamp>::
36 --min-age=<timestamp>::
37 Limit the commits output to specified time range.
41 --committer=<pattern>::
42 Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
43 header lines that match the specified pattern (regular
44 expression). With more than one `--author=<pattern>`,
45 commits whose author matches any of the given patterns are
46 chosen (similarly for multiple `--committer=<pattern>`).
48 --grep-reflog=<pattern>::
49 Limit the commits output to ones with reflog entries that
50 match the specified pattern (regular expression). With
51 more than one `--grep-reflog`, commits whose reflog message
52 matches any of the given patterns are chosen. It is an
53 error to use this option unless `--walk-reflogs` is in use.
56 Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
57 matches the specified pattern (regular expression). With
58 more than one `--grep=<pattern>`, commits whose message
59 matches any of the given patterns are chosen (but see
62 When `--show-notes` is in effect, the message from the notes as
63 if it is part of the log message.
66 Limit the commits output to ones that match all given `--grep`,
67 instead of ones that match at least one.
70 --regexp-ignore-case::
71 Match the regular expression limiting patterns without regard to letter
75 Consider the limiting patterns to be basic regular expressions;
80 Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
81 instead of the default basic regular expressions.
85 Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
86 pattern as a regular expression).
89 Consider the limiting patterns to be Perl-compatible regular expressions.
90 Requires libpcre to be compiled in.
93 Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
96 Print only merge commits. This is exactly the same as `--min-parents=2`.
99 Do not print commits with more than one parent. This is
100 exactly the same as `--max-parents=1`.
102 --min-parents=<number>::
103 --max-parents=<number>::
106 Show only commits which have at least (or at most) that many parent
107 commits. In particular, `--max-parents=1` is the same as `--no-merges`,
108 `--min-parents=2` is the same as `--merges`. `--max-parents=0`
109 gives all root commits and `--min-parents=3` all octopus merges.
111 `--no-min-parents` and `--no-max-parents` reset these limits (to no limit)
112 again. Equivalent forms are `--min-parents=0` (any commit has 0 or more
113 parents) and `--max-parents=-1` (negative numbers denote no upper limit).
116 Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
117 commit. This option can give a better overview when
118 viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
119 because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
120 adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
121 this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
122 brought in to your history by such a merge.
125 Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
126 for all following revision specifiers, up to the next `--not`.
129 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the
130 command line as '<commit>'.
132 --branches[=<pattern>]::
133 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
134 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
135 branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
136 '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
139 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
140 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
141 tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
142 or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
144 --remotes[=<pattern>]::
145 Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
146 on the command line as '<commit>'. If '<pattern>' is given, limit
147 remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
148 If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}', or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
150 --glob=<glob-pattern>::
151 Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob '<glob-pattern>'
152 are listed on the command line as '<commit>'. Leading 'refs/',
153 is automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks '?', '{asterisk}',
154 or '[', '/{asterisk}' at the end is implied.
156 --exclude=<glob-pattern>::
158 Do not include refs matching '<glob-pattern>' that the next `--all`,
159 `--branches`, `--tags`, `--remotes`, or `--glob` would otherwise
160 consider. Repetitions of this option accumulate exclusion patterns
161 up to the next `--all`, `--branches`, `--tags`, `--remotes`, or
162 `--glob` option (other options or arguments do not clear
163 accumlated patterns).
165 The patterns given should not begin with `refs/heads`, `refs/tags`, or
166 `refs/remotes` when applied to `--branches`, `--tags`, or `--remotes`,
167 respectively, and they must begin with `refs/` when applied to `--glob`
168 or `--all`. If a trailing '/{asterisk}' is intended, it must be given
172 Upon seeing an invalid object name in the input, pretend as if
173 the bad input was not given.
175 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
177 Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
178 was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
179 bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
181 endif::git-rev-list[]
184 In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
185 line, read them from the standard input. If a '--' separator is
186 seen, stop reading commits and start reading paths to limit the
189 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
191 Don't print anything to standard output. This form
192 is primarily meant to allow the caller to
193 test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
194 connected (or not). It is faster than redirecting stdout
195 to `/dev/null` as the output does not have to be formatted.
196 endif::git-rev-list[]
199 Like `--cherry-pick` (see below) but mark equivalent commits
200 with `=` rather than omitting them, and inequivalent ones with `+`.
203 Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
204 another commit on the ``other side'' when the set of
205 commits are limited with symmetric difference.
207 For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
208 to list all commits on only one side of them is with
209 `--left-right` (see the example below in the description of
210 the `--left-right` option). However, it shows the commits that were
211 cherry-picked from the other branch (for example, ``3rd on b'' may be
212 cherry-picked from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are
213 excluded from the output.
217 List only commits on the respective side of a symmetric range,
218 i.e. only those which would be marked `<` resp. `>` by
221 For example, `--cherry-pick --right-only A...B` omits those
222 commits from `B` which are in `A` or are patch-equivalent to a commit in
223 `A`. In other words, this lists the `+` commits from `git cherry A B`.
224 More precisely, `--cherry-pick --right-only --no-merges` gives the exact
228 A synonym for `--right-only --cherry-mark --no-merges`; useful to
229 limit the output to the commits on our side and mark those that
230 have been applied to the other side of a forked history with
231 `git log --cherry upstream...mybranch`, similar to
232 `git cherry upstream mybranch`.
236 Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
237 reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
238 When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
239 exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
240 and 'commit1\...commit2' notations cannot be used).
242 With `--pretty` format other than `oneline` (for obvious reasons),
243 this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
244 taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
245 used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as
246 'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
247 instead. Under `--pretty=oneline`, the commit message is
248 prefixed with this information on the same line.
249 This option cannot be combined with `--reverse`.
250 See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].
253 After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
254 conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.
257 Output excluded boundary commits. Boundary commits are
260 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
263 Try to speed up the traversal using the pack bitmap index (if
264 one is available). Note that when traversing with `--objects`,
265 trees and blobs will not have their associated path printed.
266 endif::git-rev-list[]
270 History Simplification
271 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
273 Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
274 commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
275 'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
276 is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.
278 The following options select the commits to be shown:
281 Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
283 --simplify-by-decoration::
284 Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
286 Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
288 The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:
291 Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
292 final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
293 branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
294 with the same content)
297 Same as the default mode, but does not prune some history.
300 Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
304 All commits in the simplified history are shown.
307 Additional option to `--full-history` to remove some needless
308 merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
309 commits contributing to this merge.
312 When given a range of commits to display (e.g. 'commit1..commit2'
313 or 'commit2 {caret}commit1'), only display commits that exist
314 directly on the ancestry chain between the 'commit1' and
315 'commit2', i.e. commits that are both descendants of 'commit1',
316 and ancestors of 'commit2'.
318 A more detailed explanation follows.
320 Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
321 that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
322 filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)
324 In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
325 illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume
326 that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
327 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
328 .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
333 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
334 The horizontal line of history A---Q is taken to be the first parent of
335 each merge. The commits are:
337 * `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
338 ``asdf'', and a file `quux` exists with contents ``quux''. Initial
339 commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
341 * In `A`, `foo` contains just ``foo''.
343 * `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and
344 hence TREESAME to all parents.
346 * `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to ``foobar'',
347 so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
349 * `D` sets `foo` to ``baz''. Its merge `O` combines the strings from
350 `N` and `D` to ``foobarbaz''; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
352 * `E` changes `quux` to ``xyzzy'', and its merge `P` combines the
353 strings to ``quux xyzzy''. `P` is TREESAME to `O`, but not to `E`.
355 * `X` is an independent root commit that added a new file `side`, and `Y`
356 modified it. `Y` is TREESAME to `X`. Its merge `Q` added `side` to `P`, and
357 `Q` is TREESAME to `P`, but not to `Y`.
359 `rev-list` walks backwards through history, including or excluding
360 commits based on whether `--full-history` and/or parent rewriting
361 (via `--parents` or `--children`) are used. The following settings
365 Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
366 (though this can be changed, see `--sparse` below). If the
367 commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
368 only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME
369 parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all
374 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
378 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
380 Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
381 available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was
382 considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an
383 empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
385 Parent/child relations are only visible with `--parents`, but that does
386 not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
389 --full-history without parent rewriting::
390 This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
391 all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
392 Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
393 included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In
396 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
398 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
400 `M` was excluded because it is TREESAME to both parents. `E`,
401 `C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
404 Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
405 about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
408 --full-history with parent rewriting::
409 Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
410 (though this can be changed, see `--sparse` below).
412 Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten:
413 Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
414 themselves. This results in
416 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
417 .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
422 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
424 Compare to `--full-history` without rewriting above. Note that `E`
425 was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
426 rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and
427 `N`, and `X`, `Y` and `Q`.
429 In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
433 Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
437 All commits that are walked are included.
439 Note that without `--full-history`, this still simplifies merges: if
440 one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
441 sides of the merge are never walked.
444 First, build a history graph in the same way that
445 `--full-history` with parent rewriting does (see above).
447 Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
448 history according to the following rules:
453 * Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`. In
454 the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents or that are
455 root commits TREESAME to an empty tree, and remove duplicates, but take care
456 to never drop all parents that we are TREESAME to.
458 * If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
459 zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
460 Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
463 The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
464 `--full-history` with parent rewriting. The example turns into:
466 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
472 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
474 Note the major differences in `N`, `P`, and `Q` over `--full-history`:
477 * `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
478 other parent `M`. Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
480 * `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed. `P` was then
481 removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
483 * `Q`'s parent list had `Y` simplified to `X`. `X` was then removed, because it
484 was a TREESAME root. `Q` was then removed completely, because it had one
485 parent and is TREESAME.
488 Finally, there is a fifth simplification mode available:
491 Limit the displayed commits to those directly on the ancestry
492 chain between the ``from'' and ``to'' commits in the given commit
493 range. I.e. only display commits that are ancestor of the ``to''
494 commit and descendants of the ``from'' commit.
496 As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
498 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
501 B---C---G---H---I---J
503 A-------K---------------L--M
504 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
506 A regular 'D..M' computes the set of commits that are ancestors of `M`,
507 but excludes the ones that are ancestors of `D`. This is useful to see
508 what happened to the history leading to `M` since `D`, in the sense
509 that ``what does `M` have that did not exist in `D`''. The result in this
510 example would be all the commits, except `A` and `B` (and `D` itself,
513 When we want to find out what commits in `M` are contaminated with the
514 bug introduced by `D` and need fixing, however, we might want to view
515 only the subset of 'D..M' that are actually descendants of `D`, i.e.
516 excluding `C` and `K`. This is exactly what the `--ancestry-path`
517 option does. Applied to the 'D..M' range, it results in:
519 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
525 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
527 The `--simplify-by-decoration` option allows you to view only the
528 big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
529 that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME
530 (in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
531 above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
532 contents of the paths given on the command line. All other
533 commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
535 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
540 Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
541 included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
542 `refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
543 exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
544 added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
545 are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
547 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
548 $ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
549 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
551 outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands
553 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
554 $ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
555 $ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
556 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
558 would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which
559 introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
560 generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
564 This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
565 `refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
566 text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
567 name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
568 expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
569 to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be tested if
570 `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`, the expected
571 number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
572 `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits we are bisecting right now to
576 This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
577 commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
578 commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
579 from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
582 This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
583 test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
584 may not compile for example).
586 This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
587 after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
588 `--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
589 endif::git-rev-list[]
595 By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
598 Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
599 otherwise show commits in the commit timestamp order.
601 --author-date-order::
602 Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
603 otherwise show commits in the author timestamp order.
606 Show no parents before all of its children are shown, and
607 avoid showing commits on multiple lines of history
610 For example, in a commit history like this:
612 ----------------------------------------------------------------
618 ----------------------------------------------------------------
620 where the numbers denote the order of commit timestamps, `git
621 rev-list` and friends with `--date-order` show the commits in the
622 timestamp order: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.
624 With `--topo-order`, they would show 8 6 5 3 7 4 2 1 (or 8 7 4 2 6 5
625 3 1); some older commits are shown before newer ones in order to
626 avoid showing the commits from two parallel development track mixed
630 Output the commits in reverse order.
631 Cannot be combined with `--walk-reflogs`.
636 These options are mostly targeted for packing of Git repositories.
639 Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
640 commits. `--objects foo ^bar` thus means ``send me
641 all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
642 object _bar_ but not _foo_''.
645 Similar to `--objects`, but also print the IDs of excluded
646 commits prefixed with a ``-'' character. This is used by
647 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build ``thin'' pack, which records
648 objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
649 excluded commits to reduce network traffic.
652 Only useful with `--objects`; print the object IDs that are not
655 --no-walk[=(sorted|unsorted)]::
656 Only show the given commits, but do not traverse their ancestors.
657 This has no effect if a range is specified. If the argument
658 `unsorted` is given, the commits are shown in the order they were
659 given on the command line. Otherwise (if `sorted` or no argument
660 was given), the commits are shown in reverse chronological order
664 Overrides a previous `--no-walk`.
669 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
670 Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
671 more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
672 linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
673 endif::git-rev-list[]
675 include::pretty-options.txt[]
678 Synonym for `--date=relative`.
680 --date=(relative|local|default|iso|rfc|short|raw)::
681 Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such
682 as when using `--pretty`. `log.date` config variable sets a default
683 value for the log command's `--date` option.
685 `--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
686 e.g. ``2 hours ago''.
688 `--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local time zone.
690 `--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format.
692 `--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
693 format, often found in email messages.
695 `--date=short` shows only the date, but not the time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
697 `--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw Git format `%s %z` format.
699 `--date=default` shows timestamps in the original time zone
700 (either committer's or author's).
702 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
704 Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
705 separated with a NUL character.
706 endif::git-rev-list[]
709 Print also the parents of the commit (in the form "commit parent...").
710 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
713 Print also the children of the commit (in the form "commit child...").
714 Also enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
716 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
718 Print the raw commit timestamp.
719 endif::git-rev-list[]
722 Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from.
723 Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
724 the right with `>`. If combined with `--boundary`, those
725 commits are prefixed with `-`.
727 For example, if you have this topology:
729 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
734 o---x---a---a branch A
735 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
737 you would get an output like this:
739 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
740 $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
748 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
751 Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
752 on the left hand side of the output. This may cause extra lines
753 to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
754 to be drawn properly.
756 This enables parent rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.
758 This implies the `--topo-order` option by default, but the
759 `--date-order` option may also be specified.
761 --show-linear-break[=<barrier>]::
762 When --graph is not used, all history branches are flattened
763 which can make it hard to see that the two consecutive commits
764 do not belong to a linear branch. This option puts a barrier
765 in between them in that case. If `<barrier>` is specified, it
766 is the string that will be shown instead of the default one.
768 ifdef::git-rev-list[]
770 Print a number stating how many commits would have been
771 listed, and suppress all other output. When used together
772 with `--left-right`, instead print the counts for left and
773 right commits, separated by a tab. When used together with
774 `--cherry-mark`, omit patch equivalent commits from these
775 counts and print the count for equivalent commits separated
777 endif::git-rev-list[]
779 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
783 Listed below are options that control the formatting of diff output.
784 Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
785 options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.
788 With this option, diff output for a merge commit
789 shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
790 simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
791 and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
792 which were modified from all parents.
795 This flag implies the `-c` option and further compresses the
796 patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
797 the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
798 one of them without modification.
801 This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
802 regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
803 and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
804 the first parent is shown when `--first-parent` option is given;
805 in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
806 brought _into_ the then-current branch.
809 Show recursive diffs.
812 Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies `-r`.
813 endif::git-rev-list[]