git-ls-files.txt

git-ls-files(1)
===============

NAME
----
git-ls-files - Show information about files in the index and the working tree


SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'git-ls-files' [-z] [-t] [-v]
(--[cached|deleted|others|ignored|stage|unmerged|killed|modified])\*
(-[c|d|o|i|s|u|k|m])\*
[-x <pattern>|--exclude=<pattern>]
[-X <file>|--exclude-from=<file>]
[--exclude-per-directory=<file>]
[--error-unmatch]
[--full-name] [--abbrev] [--] [<file>]\*

DESCRIPTION
-----------
This merges the file listing in the directory cache index with the
actual working directory list, and shows different combinations of the
two.

One or more of the options below may be used to determine the files
shown:

OPTIONS
-------
-c|--cached::
Show cached files in the output (default)

-d|--deleted::
Show deleted files in the output

-m|--modified::
Show modified files in the output

-o|--others::
Show other files in the output

-i|--ignored::
Show ignored files in the output.
Note that this also reverses any exclude list present.

-s|--stage::
Show stage files in the output

--directory::
If a whole directory is classified as "other", show just its
name (with a trailing slash) and not its whole contents.

--no-empty-directory::
Do not list empty directories. Has no effect without --directory.

-u|--unmerged::
Show unmerged files in the output (forces --stage)

-k|--killed::
Show files on the filesystem that need to be removed due
to file/directory conflicts for checkout-index to
succeed.

-z::
\0 line termination on output.

-x|--exclude=<pattern>::
Skips files matching pattern.
Note that pattern is a shell wildcard pattern.

-X|--exclude-from=<file>::
exclude patterns are read from <file>; 1 per line.

--exclude-per-directory=<file>::
read additional exclude patterns that apply only to the
directory and its subdirectories in <file>.

--error-unmatch::
If any <file> does not appear in the index, treat this as an
error (return 1).

-t::
Identify the file status with the following tags (followed by
a space) at the start of each line:
H::	cached
M::	unmerged
R::	removed/deleted
C::	modified/changed
K::	to be killed
?::	other

-v::
Similar to `-t`, but use lowercase letters for files
that are marked as 'always matching index'.

--full-name::
When run from a subdirectory, the command usually
outputs paths relative to the current directory. This
option forces paths to be output relative to the project
top directory.

--abbrev[=<n>]::
Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
lines, show only handful hexdigits prefix.
Non default number of digits can be specified with --abbrev=<n>.

\--::
Do not interpret any more arguments as options.

<file>::
Files to show. If no files are given all files which match the other
specified criteria are shown.

Output
------
show files just outputs the filename unless '--stage' is specified in
which case it outputs:

 [<tag> ]<mode> <object> <stage> <file>

"git-ls-files --unmerged" and "git-ls-files --stage" can be used to examine
detailed information on unmerged paths.

For an unmerged path, instead of recording a single mode/SHA1 pair,
the index records up to three such pairs; one from tree O in stage
1, A in stage 2, and B in stage 3. This information can be used by
the user (or the porcelain) to see what should eventually be recorded at the
path. (see git-read-tree for more information on state)

When `-z` option is not used, TAB, LF, and backslash characters
in pathnames are represented as `\t`, `\n`, and `\\`,
respectively.


Exclude Patterns
----------------

'git-ls-files' can use a list of "exclude patterns" when
traversing the directory tree and finding files to show when the
flags --others or --ignored are specified.

These exclude patterns come from these places:

 1. command line flag --exclude=<pattern> specifies a single
 pattern.

 2. command line flag --exclude-from=<file> specifies a list of
 patterns stored in a file.

 3. command line flag --exclude-per-directory=<name> specifies
 a name of the file in each directory 'git-ls-files'
 examines, and if exists, its contents are used as an
 additional list of patterns.

An exclude pattern file used by (2) and (3) contains one pattern
per line. A line that starts with a '#' can be used as comment
for readability.

There are three lists of patterns that are in effect at a given
time. They are built and ordered in the following way:

 * --exclude=<pattern> from the command line; patterns are
 ordered in the same order as they appear on the command line.

 * lines read from --exclude-from=<file>; patterns are ordered
 in the same order as they appear in the file.

 * When --exclude-per-directory=<name> is specified, upon
 entering a directory that has such a file, its contents are
 appended at the end of the current "list of patterns". They
 are popped off when leaving the directory.

Each pattern in the pattern list specifies "a match pattern" and
optionally the fate; either a file that matches the pattern is
considered excluded or included. A filename is matched against
the patterns in the three lists; the --exclude-from list is
checked first, then the --exclude-per-directory list, and then
finally the --exclude list. The last match determines its fate.
If there is no match in the three lists, the fate is "included".

A pattern specified on the command line with --exclude or read
from the file specified with --exclude-from is relative to the
top of the directory tree. A pattern read from a file specified
by --exclude-per-directory is relative to the directory that the
pattern file appears in.

An exclude pattern is of the following format:

 - an optional prefix '!' which means that the fate this pattern
 specifies is "include", not the usual "exclude"; the
 remainder of the pattern string is interpreted according to
 the following rules.

 - if it does not contain a slash '/', it is a shell glob
 pattern and used to match against the filename without
 leading directories.

 - otherwise, it is a shell glob pattern, suitable for
 consumption by fnmatch(3) with FNM_PATHNAME flag. I.e. a
 slash in the pattern must match a slash in the pathname.
 "Documentation/\*.html" matches "Documentation/git.html" but
 not "ppc/ppc.html". As a natural exception, "/*.c" matches
 "cat-file.c" but not "mozilla-sha1/sha1.c".

An example:

--------------------------------------------------------------
 $ cat .git/info/exclude
 # ignore objects and archives, anywhere in the tree.
 *.[oa]
 $ cat Documentation/.gitignore
 # ignore generated html files,
 *.html
 # except foo.html which is maintained by hand
 !foo.html
 $ git-ls-files --ignored \
 --exclude='Documentation/*.[0-9]' \
 --exclude-from=.git/info/exclude \
 --exclude-per-directory=.gitignore
--------------------------------------------------------------

Another example:

--------------------------------------------------------------
 $ cat .gitignore
 vmlinux*
 $ ls arch/foo/kernel/vm*
 arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
 $ echo '!/vmlinux*' >arch/foo/kernel/.gitignore
--------------------------------------------------------------

The second .gitignore keeps `arch/foo/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S` file
from getting ignored.


See Also
--------
gitlink:git-read-tree[1]


Author
------
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

Documentation
--------------
Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.

GIT
---
Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite