rev-list-options.txt

Commit Formatting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ifdef::git-rev-list[]
Using these options, linkgit:git-rev-list[1] will act similar to the
more specialized family of commit log tools: linkgit:git-log[1],
linkgit:git-show[1], and linkgit:git-whatchanged[1]
endif::git-rev-list[]

include::pretty-options.txt[]

--relative-date::

Synonym for `--date=relative`.

--date={relative,local,default,iso,rfc,short,raw}::

Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format, such
as when using "--pretty". `log.date` config variable sets a default
value for log command's --date option.
+
`--date=relative` shows dates relative to the current time,
e.g. "2 hours ago".
+
`--date=local` shows timestamps in user's local timezone.
+
`--date=iso` (or `--date=iso8601`) shows timestamps in ISO 8601 format.
+
`--date=rfc` (or `--date=rfc2822`) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
format, often found in E-mail messages.
+
`--date=short` shows only date but not time, in `YYYY-MM-DD` format.
+
`--date=raw` shows the date in the internal raw git format `%s %z` format.
+
`--date=default` shows timestamps in the original timezone
(either committer's or author's).

ifdef::git-rev-list[]
--header::

Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
separated with a NUL character.
endif::git-rev-list[]

--parents::

Print the parents of the commit. Also enables parent
rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.

--children::

Print the children of the commit. Also enables parent
rewriting, see 'History Simplification' below.

ifdef::git-rev-list[]
--timestamp::
Print the raw commit timestamp.
endif::git-rev-list[]

--left-right::

Mark which side of a symmetric diff a commit is reachable from.
Commits from the left side are prefixed with `<` and those from
the right with `>`. If combined with `--boundary`, those
commits are prefixed with `-`.
+
For example, if you have this topology:
+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 y---b---b branch B
 / \ /
 / .
 / / \
 o---x---a---a branch A
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
you would get an output like this:
+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
$ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B

>bbbbbbb... 3rd on b
>bbbbbbb... 2nd on b
<aaaaaaa... 3rd on a
<aaaaaaa... 2nd on a
-yyyyyyy... 1st on b
-xxxxxxx... 1st on a
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

--graph::

Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history
on the left hand side of the output. This may cause extra lines
to be printed in between commits, in order for the graph history
to be drawn properly.
+
This implies the '--topo-order' option by default, but the
'--date-order' option may also be specified.

ifndef::git-rev-list[]
Diff Formatting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Below are listed options that control the formatting of diff output.
Some of them are specific to linkgit:git-rev-list[1], however other diff
options may be given. See linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for more options.

-c::

This flag changes the way a merge commit is displayed. It shows
the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
which were modified from all parents.

--cc::

This flag implies the '-c' options and further compresses the
patch output by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in
the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
one of them without modification.

-r::

Show recursive diffs.

-t::

Show the tree objects in the diff output. This implies '-r'.
endif::git-rev-list[]

Commit Limiting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using the
special notations explained in the description, additional commit
limiting may be applied.

--

-n 'number'::
--max-count=<number>::

Limit the number of commits output.

--skip=<number>::

Skip 'number' commits before starting to show the commit output.

--since=<date>::
--after=<date>::

Show commits more recent than a specific date.

--until=<date>::
--before=<date>::

Show commits older than a specific date.

ifdef::git-rev-list[]
--max-age=<timestamp>::
--min-age=<timestamp>::

Limit the commits output to specified time range.
endif::git-rev-list[]

--author=<pattern>::
--committer=<pattern>::

Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer
header lines that match the specified pattern (regular expression).

--grep=<pattern>::

Limit the commits output to ones with log message that
matches the specified pattern (regular expression).

--all-match::
Limit the commits output to ones that match all given --grep,
--author and --committer instead of ones that match at least one.

-i::
--regexp-ignore-case::

Match the regexp limiting patterns without regard to letters case.

-E::
--extended-regexp::

Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular expressions
instead of the default basic regular expressions.

-F::
--fixed-strings::

Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don't interpret
pattern as a regular expression).

--remove-empty::

Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.

--merges::

Print only merge commits.

--no-merges::

Do not print commits with more than one parent.

--first-parent::
Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge
commit. This option can give a better overview when
viewing the evolution of a particular topic branch,
because merges into a topic branch tend to be only about
adjusting to updated upstream from time to time, and
this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
brought in to your history by such a merge.

--not::

Reverses the meaning of the '{caret}' prefix (or lack thereof)
for all following revision specifiers, up to the next '--not'.

--all::

Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/` are listed on the
command line as '<commit>'.

--branches::

Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads` are listed
on the command line as '<commit>'.

--tags::

Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags` are listed
on the command line as '<commit>'.

--remotes::

Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes` are listed
on the command line as '<commit>'.

ifdef::git-rev-list[]
--stdin::

In addition to the '<commit>' listed on the command
line, read them from the standard input.

--quiet::

Don't print anything to standard output. This form
is primarily meant to allow the caller to
test the exit status to see if a range of objects is fully
connected (or not). It is faster than redirecting stdout
to /dev/null as the output does not have to be formatted.
endif::git-rev-list[]

--cherry-pick::

Omit any commit that introduces the same change as
another commit on the "other side" when the set of
commits are limited with symmetric difference.
+
For example, if you have two branches, `A` and `B`, a usual way
to list all commits on only one side of them is with
`--left-right`, like the example above in the description of
that option. It however shows the commits that were cherry-picked
from the other branch (for example, "3rd on b" may be cherry-picked
from branch A). With this option, such pairs of commits are
excluded from the output.

-g::
--walk-reflogs::

Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk
reflog entries from the most recent one to older ones.
When this option is used you cannot specify commits to
exclude (that is, '{caret}commit', 'commit1..commit2',
nor 'commit1...commit2' notations cannot be used).
+
With '\--pretty' format other than oneline (for obvious reasons),
this causes the output to have two extra lines of information
taken from the reflog. By default, 'commit@\{Nth}' notation is
used in the output. When the starting commit is specified as
'commit@\{now}', output also uses 'commit@\{timestamp}' notation
instead. Under '\--pretty=oneline', the commit message is
prefixed with this information on the same line.
This option cannot be combined with '\--reverse'.
See also linkgit:git-reflog[1].

--merge::

After a failed merge, show refs that touch files having a
conflict and don't exist on all heads to merge.

--boundary::

Output uninteresting commits at the boundary, which are usually
not shown.

--

History Simplification
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for example the
commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are two parts of
'History Simplification', one part is selecting the commits and the other
is how to do it, as there are various strategies to simplify the history.

The following options select the commits to be shown:

<paths>::

Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.

--simplify-by-decoration::

Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.

Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.

The following options affect the way the simplification is performed:

Default mode::

Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
with the same content)

--full-history::

As the default mode but does not prune some history.

--dense::

Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
meaningful history.

--sparse::

All commits in the simplified history are shown.

--simplify-merges::

Additional option to '--full-history' to remove some needless
merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
commits contributing to this merge.

A more detailed explanation follows.

Suppose you specified `foo` as the <paths>. We shall call commits
that modify `foo` !TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
filtered for `foo`, they look different and equal, respectively.)

In the following, we will always refer to the same example history to
illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We assume
that you are filtering for a file `foo` in this commit graph:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 .-A---M---N---O---P
 / / / / /
I B C D E
 \ / / / /
 `-------------'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The horizontal line of history A--P is taken to be the first parent of
each merge. The commits are:

* `I` is the initial commit, in which `foo` exists with contents
 "asdf", and a file `quux` exists with contents "quux". Initial
 commits are compared to an empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.

* In `A`, `foo` contains just "foo".

* `B` contains the same change as `A`. Its merge `M` is trivial and
 hence TREESAME to all parents.

* `C` does not change `foo`, but its merge `N` changes it to "foobar",
 so it is not TREESAME to any parent.

* `D` sets `foo` to "baz". Its merge `O` combines the strings from
 `N` and `D` to "foobarbaz"; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.

* `E` changes `quux` to "xyzzy", and its merge `P` combines the
 strings to "quux xyzzy". Despite appearing interesting, `P` is
 TREESAME to all parents.

'rev-list' walks backwards through history, including or excluding
commits based on whether '\--full-history' and/or parent rewriting
(via '\--parents' or '\--children') are used. The following settings
are available.

Default mode::

Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
(though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below). If the
commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME
parents, follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all
parents.
+
This results in:
+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 .-A---N---O
 / /
I---------D
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one is
available, removed `B` from consideration entirely. `C` was
considered via `N`, but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared to an
empty tree, so `I` is !TREESAME.
+
Parent/child relations are only visible with --parents, but that does
not affect the commits selected in default mode, so we have shown the
parent lines.

--full-history without parent rewriting::

This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In
the example, we get
+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I A B N D O
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
`P` and `M` were excluded because they are TREESAME to a parent. `E`,
`C` and `B` were all walked, but only `B` was !TREESAME, so the others
do not appear.
+
Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible to talk
about the parent/child relationships between the commits, so we show
them disconnected.

--full-history with parent rewriting::

Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
(though this can be changed, see '\--sparse' below).
+
Merges are always included. However, their parent list is rewritten:
Along each parent, prune away commits that are not included
themselves. This results in
+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 .-A---M---N---O---P
 / / / / /
I B / D /
 \ / / / /
 `-------------'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Compare to '\--full-history' without rewriting above. Note that `E`
was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of P was
rewritten to contain `E`'s parent `I`. The same happened for `C` and
`N`. Note also that `P` was included despite being TREESAME.

In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
affects inclusion:

--dense::

Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
to any parent.

--sparse::

All commits that are walked are included.
+
Note that without '\--full-history', this still simplifies merges: if
one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that one, so the other
sides of the merge are never walked.

Finally, there is a fourth simplification mode available:

--simplify-merges::

First, build a history graph in the same way that
'\--full-history' with parent rewriting does (see above).
+
Then simplify each commit `C` to its replacement `C'` in the final
history according to the following rules:
+
--
* Set `C'` to `C`.
+
* Replace each parent `P` of `C'` with its simplification `P'`. In
 the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other parents, and
 remove duplicates.
+
* If after this parent rewriting, `C'` is a root or merge commit (has
 zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or !TREESAME, it remains.
 Otherwise, it is replaced with its only parent.
--
+
The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
'\--full-history' with parent rewriting. The example turns into:
+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 .-A---M---N---O
 / / /
I B D
 \ / /
 `---------'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Note the major differences in `N` and `P` over '\--full-history':
+
--
* `N`'s parent list had `I` removed, because it is an ancestor of the
 other parent `M`. Still, `N` remained because it is !TREESAME.
+
* `P`'s parent list similarly had `I` removed. `P` was then
 removed completely, because it had one parent and is TREESAME.
--

The '\--simplify-by-decoration' option allows you to view only the
big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME
(in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
contents of the paths given on the command line. All other
commits are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).

ifdef::git-rev-list[]
Bisection Helpers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--bisect::

Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
the included and excluded commits. Thus, if

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
$ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

outputs 'midpoint', the output of the two commands

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
$ git rev-list foo ^midpoint
$ git rev-list midpoint ^bar ^baz
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which
introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search: repeatedly
generate and test new 'midpoint's until the commit chain is of length
one.

--bisect-vars::

This calculates the same as `--bisect`, but outputs text ready
to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the name of
the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is
tested to `bisect_nr`, the expected number of commits to be
tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be good to `bisect_good`,
the expected number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev`
turns out to be bad to `bisect_bad`, and the number of commits
we are bisecting right now to `bisect_all`.

--bisect-all::

This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
commits. The farthest from them is displayed first. (This is the only
one displayed by `--bisect`.)
+
This is useful because it makes it easy to choose a good commit to
test when you want to avoid to test some of them for some reason (they
may not compile for example).
+
This option can be used along with `--bisect-vars`, in this case,
after all the sorted commit objects, there will be the same text as if
`--bisect-vars` had been used alone.
endif::git-rev-list[]


Commit Ordering
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.

--topo-order::

This option makes them appear in topological order (i.e.
descendant commits are shown before their parents).

--date-order::

This option is similar to '--topo-order' in the sense that no
parent comes before all of its children, but otherwise things
are still ordered in the commit timestamp order.

--reverse::

Output the commits in reverse order.
Cannot be combined with '\--walk-reflogs'.

Object Traversal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These options are mostly targeted for packing of git repositories.

--objects::

Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
commits. '--objects foo ^bar' thus means "send me
all object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit
object 'bar', but not 'foo'".

--objects-edge::

Similar to '--objects', but also print the IDs of excluded
commits prefixed with a "-" character. This is used by
linkgit:git-pack-objects[1] to build "thin" pack, which records
objects in deltified form based on objects contained in these
excluded commits to reduce network traffic.

--unpacked::

Only useful with '--objects'; print the object IDs that are not
in packs.

--no-walk::

Only show the given revs, but do not traverse their ancestors.

--do-walk::

Overrides a previous --no-walk.