6 git-notes - Add or inspect object notes
11 'git notes' [list [<object>]]
12 'git notes' add [-f] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
13 'git notes' copy [-f] ( --stdin | <from-object> <to-object> )
14 'git notes' append [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
15 'git notes' edit [<object>]
16 'git notes' show [<object>]
17 'git notes' merge [-v | -q] [-s <strategy> ] <notes_ref>
18 'git notes' merge --commit [-v | -q]
19 'git notes' merge --abort [-v | -q]
20 'git notes' remove [--ignore-missing] [--stdin] [<object>...]
21 'git notes' prune [-n | -v]
27 Adds, removes, or reads notes attached to objects, without touching
28 the objects themselves.
30 By default, notes are saved to and read from `refs/notes/commits`, but
31 this default can be overridden. See the OPTIONS, CONFIGURATION, and
32 ENVIRONMENT sections below. If this ref does not exist, it will be
33 quietly created when it is first needed to store a note.
35 A typical use of notes is to supplement a commit message without
36 changing the commit itself. Notes can be shown by 'git log' along with
37 the original commit message. To distinguish these notes from the
38 message stored in the commit object, the notes are indented like the
39 message, after an unindented line saying "Notes (<refname>):" (or
40 "Notes:" for `refs/notes/commits`).
42 To change which notes are shown by 'git log', see the
43 "notes.displayRef" configuration in linkgit:git-log[1].
45 See the "notes.rewrite.<command>" configuration for a way to carry
46 notes across commands that rewrite commits.
53 List the notes object for a given object. If no object is
54 given, show a list of all note objects and the objects they
55 annotate (in the format "<note object> <annotated object>").
56 This is the default subcommand if no subcommand is given.
59 Add notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). Abort if the
60 object already has notes (use `-f` to overwrite existing notes).
61 However, if you're using `add` interactively (using an editor
62 to supply the notes contents), then - instead of aborting -
63 the existing notes will be opened in the editor (like the `edit`
67 Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object.
68 Abort if the second object already has notes, or if the first
69 object has none (use -f to overwrite existing notes to the
70 second object). This subcommand is equivalent to:
71 `git notes add [-f] -C $(git notes list <from-object>) <to-object>`
73 In `--stdin` mode, take lines in the format
76 <from-object> SP <to-object> [ SP <rest> ] LF
79 on standard input, and copy the notes from each <from-object> to its
80 corresponding <to-object>. (The optional `<rest>` is ignored so that
81 the command can read the input given to the `post-rewrite` hook.)
84 Append to the notes of an existing object (defaults to HEAD).
85 Creates a new notes object if needed.
88 Edit the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD).
91 Show the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD).
94 Merge the given notes ref into the current notes ref.
95 This will try to merge the changes made by the given
96 notes ref (called "remote") since the merge-base (if
97 any) into the current notes ref (called "local").
99 If conflicts arise and a strategy for automatically resolving
100 conflicting notes (see the -s/--strategy option) is not given,
101 the "manual" resolver is used. This resolver checks out the
102 conflicting notes in a special worktree (`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`),
103 and instructs the user to manually resolve the conflicts there.
104 When done, the user can either finalize the merge with
105 'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with
106 'git notes merge --abort'.
109 Remove the notes for given objects (defaults to HEAD). When
110 giving zero or one object from the command line, this is
111 equivalent to specifying an empty note message to
112 the `edit` subcommand.
115 Remove all notes for non-existing/unreachable objects.
118 Print the current notes ref. This provides an easy way to
119 retrieve the current notes ref (e.g. from scripts).
125 When adding notes to an object that already has notes,
126 overwrite the existing notes (instead of aborting).
130 Use the given note message (instead of prompting).
131 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values
132 are concatenated as separate paragraphs.
133 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a
134 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out.
138 Take the note message from the given file. Use '-' to
139 read the note message from the standard input.
140 Lines starting with `#` and empty lines other than a
141 single line between paragraphs will be stripped out.
144 --reuse-message=<object>::
145 Take the given blob object (for example, another note) as the
146 note message. (Use `git notes copy <object>` instead to
147 copy notes between objects.)
150 --reedit-message=<object>::
151 Like '-C', but with '-c' the editor is invoked, so that
152 the user can further edit the note message.
155 Manipulate the notes tree in <ref>. This overrides
156 'GIT_NOTES_REF' and the "core.notesRef" configuration. The ref
157 is taken to be in `refs/notes/` if it is not qualified.
160 Do not consider it an error to request removing notes from an
161 object that does not have notes attached to it.
164 Also read the object names to remove notes from from the standard
165 input (there is no reason you cannot combine this with object
166 names from the command line).
170 Do not remove anything; just report the object names whose notes
174 --strategy=<strategy>::
175 When merging notes, resolve notes conflicts using the given
176 strategy. The following strategies are recognized: "manual"
177 (default), "ours", "theirs", "union" and "cat_sort_uniq".
178 See the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section below for more
179 information on each notes merge strategy.
182 Finalize an in-progress 'git notes merge'. Use this option
183 when you have resolved the conflicts that 'git notes merge'
184 stored in .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. This amends the partial
185 merge commit created by 'git notes merge' (stored in
186 .git/NOTES_MERGE_PARTIAL) by adding the notes in
187 .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. The notes ref stored in the
188 .git/NOTES_MERGE_REF symref is updated to the resulting commit.
191 Abort/reset a in-progress 'git notes merge', i.e. a notes merge
192 with conflicts. This simply removes all files related to the
197 When merging notes, operate quietly.
201 When merging notes, be more verbose.
202 When pruning notes, report all object names whose notes are
209 Commit notes are blobs containing extra information about an object
210 (usually information to supplement a commit's message). These blobs
211 are taken from notes refs. A notes ref is usually a branch which
212 contains "files" whose paths are the object names for the objects
213 they describe, with some directory separators included for performance
214 reasons footnote:[Permitted pathnames have the form
215 'ab'`/`'cd'`/`'ef'`/`'...'`/`'abcdef...': a sequence of directory
216 names of two hexadecimal digits each followed by a filename with the
217 rest of the object ID.].
219 Every notes change creates a new commit at the specified notes ref.
220 You can therefore inspect the history of the notes by invoking, e.g.,
221 `git log -p notes/commits`. Currently the commit message only records
222 which operation triggered the update, and the commit authorship is
223 determined according to the usual rules (see linkgit:git-commit[1]).
224 These details may change in the future.
226 It is also permitted for a notes ref to point directly to a tree
227 object, in which case the history of the notes can be read with
228 `git log -p -g <refname>`.
231 NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES
232 ----------------------
234 The default notes merge strategy is "manual", which checks out
235 conflicting notes in a special work tree for resolving notes conflicts
236 (`.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE`), and instructs the user to resolve the
237 conflicts in that work tree.
238 When done, the user can either finalize the merge with
239 'git notes merge --commit', or abort the merge with
240 'git notes merge --abort'.
242 "ours" automatically resolves conflicting notes in favor of the local
243 version (i.e. the current notes ref).
245 "theirs" automatically resolves notes conflicts in favor of the remote
246 version (i.e. the given notes ref being merged into the current notes
249 "union" automatically resolves notes conflicts by concatenating the
250 local and remote versions.
252 "cat_sort_uniq" is similar to "union", but in addition to concatenating
253 the local and remote versions, this strategy also sorts the resulting
254 lines, and removes duplicate lines from the result. This is equivalent
255 to applying the "cat | sort | uniq" shell pipeline to the local and
256 remote versions. This strategy is useful if the notes follow a line-based
257 format where one wants to avoid duplicated lines in the merge result.
258 Note that if either the local or remote version contain duplicate lines
259 prior to the merge, these will also be removed by this notes merge
266 You can use notes to add annotations with information that was not
267 available at the time a commit was written.
270 $ git notes add -m 'Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>' 72a144e2
271 $ git show -s 72a144e
273 Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
276 Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
279 In principle, a note is a regular Git blob, and any kind of
280 (non-)format is accepted. You can binary-safely create notes from
281 arbitrary files using 'git hash-object':
285 $ blob=$(git hash-object -w a.out)
286 $ git notes --ref=built add -C "$blob" HEAD
289 (You cannot simply use `git notes --ref=built add -F a.out HEAD`
290 because that is not binary-safe.)
291 Of course, it doesn't make much sense to display non-text-format notes
292 with 'git log', so if you use such notes, you'll probably need to write
293 some special-purpose tools to do something useful with them.
300 Notes ref to read and manipulate instead of
301 `refs/notes/commits`. Must be an unabbreviated ref name.
302 This setting can be overridden through the environment and
306 Which ref (or refs, if a glob or specified more than once), in
307 addition to the default set by `core.notesRef` or
308 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit
309 messages with the 'git log' family of commands.
310 This setting can be overridden on the command line or by the
311 'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF' environment variable.
312 See linkgit:git-log[1].
314 notes.rewrite.<command>::
315 When rewriting commits with <command> (currently `amend` or
316 `rebase`), if this variable is `false`, git will not copy
317 notes from the original to the rewritten commit. Defaults to
318 `true`. See also "`notes.rewriteRef`" below.
320 This setting can be overridden by the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF'
321 environment variable.
324 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target
325 commit already has a note. Must be one of `overwrite`,
326 `concatenate`, and `ignore`. Defaults to `concatenate`.
328 This setting can be overridden with the `GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE`
329 environment variable.
332 When copying notes during a rewrite, specifies the (fully
333 qualified) ref whose notes should be copied. May be a glob,
334 in which case notes in all matching refs will be copied. You
335 may also specify this configuration several times.
337 Does not have a default value; you must configure this variable to
338 enable note rewriting.
340 Can be overridden with the 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF' environment variable.
347 Which ref to manipulate notes from, instead of `refs/notes/commits`.
348 This overrides the `core.notesRef` setting.
350 'GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF'::
351 Colon-delimited list of refs or globs indicating which refs,
352 in addition to the default from `core.notesRef` or
353 'GIT_NOTES_REF', to read notes from when showing commit
355 This overrides the `notes.displayRef` setting.
357 A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist, but a glob that
358 does not match any refs is silently ignored.
360 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE'::
361 When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target
362 commit already has a note.
363 Must be one of `overwrite`, `concatenate`, and `ignore`.
364 This overrides the `core.rewriteMode` setting.
366 'GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF'::
367 When rewriting commits, which notes to copy from the original
368 to the rewritten commit. Must be a colon-delimited list of
371 If not set in the environment, the list of notes to copy depends
372 on the `notes.rewrite.<command>` and `notes.rewriteRef` settings.
377 Written by Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> and
378 Johan Herland <johan@herland.net>
382 Documentation by Johannes Schindelin and Johan Herland
386 Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite
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