1 git-interpret-trailers(1)
2 =========================
6 git-interpret-trailers - Add or parse structured information in commit messages
11 'git interpret-trailers' [<options>] [(--trailer <token>[(=|:)<value>])...] [<file>...]
12 'git interpret-trailers' [<options>] [--parse] [<file>...]
16 Help parsing or adding 'trailers' lines, that look similar to RFC 822 e-mail
17 headers, at the end of the otherwise free-form part of a commit
20 This command reads some patches or commit messages from either the
21 <file> arguments or the standard input if no <file> is specified. If
22 `--parse` is specified, the output consists of the parsed trailers.
24 Otherwise, this command applies the arguments passed using the
25 `--trailer` option, if any, to the commit message part of each input
26 file. The result is emitted on the standard output.
28 Some configuration variables control the way the `--trailer` arguments
29 are applied to each commit message and the way any existing trailer in
30 the commit message is changed. They also make it possible to
31 automatically add some trailers.
33 By default, a '<token>=<value>' or '<token>:<value>' argument given
34 using `--trailer` will be appended after the existing trailers only if
35 the last trailer has a different (<token>, <value>) pair (or if there
36 is no existing trailer). The <token> and <value> parts will be trimmed
37 to remove starting and trailing whitespace, and the resulting trimmed
38 <token> and <value> will appear in the message like this:
40 ------------------------------------------------
42 ------------------------------------------------
44 This means that the trimmed <token> and <value> will be separated by
45 `': '` (one colon followed by one space).
47 By default the new trailer will appear at the end of all the existing
48 trailers. If there is no existing trailer, the new trailer will appear
49 after the commit message part of the output, and, if there is no line
50 with only spaces at the end of the commit message part, one blank line
51 will be added before the new trailer.
53 Existing trailers are extracted from the input message by looking for
54 a group of one or more lines that (i) is all trailers, or (ii) contains at
55 least one Git-generated or user-configured trailer and consists of at
57 The group must be preceded by one or more empty (or whitespace-only) lines.
58 The group must either be at the end of the message or be the last
59 non-whitespace lines before a line that starts with '---' (followed by a
60 space or the end of the line). Such three minus signs start the patch
61 part of the message. See also `--no-divider` below.
63 When reading trailers, there can be whitespaces after the
64 token, the separator and the value. There can also be whitespaces
65 inside the token and the value. The value may be split over multiple lines with
66 each subsequent line starting with whitespace, like the "folding" in RFC 822.
68 Note that 'trailers' do not follow and are not intended to follow many
69 rules for RFC 822 headers. For example they do not follow
70 the encoding rules and probably many other rules.
75 Edit the files in place.
78 If the <value> part of any trailer contains only whitespace,
79 the whole trailer will be removed from the resulting message.
80 This applies to existing trailers as well as new trailers.
82 --trailer <token>[(=|:)<value>]::
83 Specify a (<token>, <value>) pair that should be applied as a
84 trailer to the input messages. See the description of this
89 Specify where all new trailers will be added. A setting
90 provided with '--where' overrides all configuration variables
91 and applies to all '--trailer' options until the next occurrence of
92 '--where' or '--no-where'. Possible values are `after`, `before`,
95 --if-exists <action>::
97 Specify what action will be performed when there is already at
98 least one trailer with the same <token> in the message. A setting
99 provided with '--if-exists' overrides all configuration variables
100 and applies to all '--trailer' options until the next occurrence of
101 '--if-exists' or '--no-if-exists'. Possible actions are `addIfDifferent`,
102 `addIfDifferentNeighbor`, `add`, `replace` and `doNothing`.
104 --if-missing <action>::
106 Specify what action will be performed when there is no other
107 trailer with the same <token> in the message. A setting
108 provided with '--if-missing' overrides all configuration variables
109 and applies to all '--trailer' options until the next occurrence of
110 '--if-missing' or '--no-if-missing'. Possible actions are `doNothing`
114 Output only the trailers, not any other parts of the input.
117 Output only trailers that exist in the input; do not add any
118 from the command-line or by following configured `trailer.*`
122 Remove any whitespace-continuation in trailers, so that each
123 trailer appears on a line by itself with its full content.
126 A convenience alias for `--only-trailers --only-input
130 Do not treat `---` as the end of the commit message. Use this
131 when you know your input contains just the commit message itself
132 (and not an email or the output of `git format-patch`).
134 CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
135 -----------------------
138 This option tells which characters are recognized as trailer
139 separators. By default only ':' is recognized as a trailer
140 separator, except that '=' is always accepted on the command
141 line for compatibility with other git commands.
143 The first character given by this option will be the default character
144 used when another separator is not specified in the config for this
147 For example, if the value for this option is "%=$", then only lines
148 using the format '<token><sep><value>' with <sep> containing '%', '='
149 or '$' and then spaces will be considered trailers. And '%' will be
150 the default separator used, so by default trailers will appear like:
151 '<token>% <value>' (one percent sign and one space will appear between
152 the token and the value).
155 This option tells where a new trailer will be added.
157 This can be `end`, which is the default, `start`, `after` or `before`.
159 If it is `end`, then each new trailer will appear at the end of the
162 If it is `start`, then each new trailer will appear at the start,
163 instead of the end, of the existing trailers.
165 If it is `after`, then each new trailer will appear just after the
166 last trailer with the same <token>.
168 If it is `before`, then each new trailer will appear just before the
169 first trailer with the same <token>.
172 This option makes it possible to choose what action will be
173 performed when there is already at least one trailer with the
174 same <token> in the message.
176 The valid values for this option are: `addIfDifferentNeighbor` (this
177 is the default), `addIfDifferent`, `add`, `replace` or `doNothing`.
179 With `addIfDifferentNeighbor`, a new trailer will be added only if no
180 trailer with the same (<token>, <value>) pair is above or below the line
181 where the new trailer will be added.
183 With `addIfDifferent`, a new trailer will be added only if no trailer
184 with the same (<token>, <value>) pair is already in the message.
186 With `add`, a new trailer will be added, even if some trailers with
187 the same (<token>, <value>) pair are already in the message.
189 With `replace`, an existing trailer with the same <token> will be
190 deleted and the new trailer will be added. The deleted trailer will be
191 the closest one (with the same <token>) to the place where the new one
194 With `doNothing`, nothing will be done; that is no new trailer will be
195 added if there is already one with the same <token> in the message.
198 This option makes it possible to choose what action will be
199 performed when there is not yet any trailer with the same
200 <token> in the message.
202 The valid values for this option are: `add` (this is the default) and
205 With `add`, a new trailer will be added.
207 With `doNothing`, nothing will be done.
209 trailer.<token>.key::
210 This `key` will be used instead of <token> in the trailer. At
211 the end of this key, a separator can appear and then some
212 space characters. By default the only valid separator is ':',
213 but this can be changed using the `trailer.separators` config
216 If there is a separator, then the key will be used instead of both the
217 <token> and the default separator when adding the trailer.
219 trailer.<token>.where::
220 This option takes the same values as the 'trailer.where'
221 configuration variable and it overrides what is specified by
222 that option for trailers with the specified <token>.
224 trailer.<token>.ifexists::
225 This option takes the same values as the 'trailer.ifexists'
226 configuration variable and it overrides what is specified by
227 that option for trailers with the specified <token>.
229 trailer.<token>.ifmissing::
230 This option takes the same values as the 'trailer.ifmissing'
231 configuration variable and it overrides what is specified by
232 that option for trailers with the specified <token>.
234 trailer.<token>.command::
235 This option can be used to specify a shell command that will
236 be called to automatically add or modify a trailer with the
239 When this option is specified, the behavior is as if a special
240 '<token>=<value>' argument were added at the beginning of the command
241 line, where <value> is taken to be the standard output of the
242 specified command with any leading and trailing whitespace trimmed
245 If the command contains the `$ARG` string, this string will be
246 replaced with the <value> part of an existing trailer with the same
247 <token>, if any, before the command is launched.
249 If some '<token>=<value>' arguments are also passed on the command
250 line, when a 'trailer.<token>.command' is configured, the command will
251 also be executed for each of these arguments. And the <value> part of
252 these arguments, if any, will be used to replace the `$ARG` string in
258 * Configure a 'sign' trailer with a 'Signed-off-by' key, and then
259 add two of these trailers to a message:
262 $ git config trailer.sign.key "Signed-off-by"
267 $ cat msg.txt | git interpret-trailers --trailer 'sign: Alice <alice@example.com>' --trailer 'sign: Bob <bob@example.com>'
272 Signed-off-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
273 Signed-off-by: Bob <bob@example.com>
276 * Use the `--in-place` option to edit a message file in place:
284 Signed-off-by: Bob <bob@example.com>
285 $ git interpret-trailers --trailer 'Acked-by: Alice <alice@example.com>' --in-place msg.txt
291 Signed-off-by: Bob <bob@example.com>
292 Acked-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
295 * Extract the last commit as a patch, and add a 'Cc' and a
296 'Reviewed-by' trailer to it:
299 $ git format-patch -1
301 $ git interpret-trailers --trailer 'Cc: Alice <alice@example.com>' --trailer 'Reviewed-by: Bob <bob@example.com>' 0001-foo.patch >0001-bar.patch
304 * Configure a 'sign' trailer with a command to automatically add a
305 'Signed-off-by: ' with the author information only if there is no
306 'Signed-off-by: ' already, and show how it works:
309 $ git config trailer.sign.key "Signed-off-by: "
310 $ git config trailer.sign.ifmissing add
311 $ git config trailer.sign.ifexists doNothing
312 $ git config trailer.sign.command 'echo "$(git config user.name) <$(git config user.email)>"'
313 $ git interpret-trailers <<EOF
316 Signed-off-by: Bob <bob@example.com>
317 $ git interpret-trailers <<EOF
318 > Signed-off-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
321 Signed-off-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
324 * Configure a 'fix' trailer with a key that contains a '#' and no
325 space after this character, and show how it works:
328 $ git config trailer.separators ":#"
329 $ git config trailer.fix.key "Fix #"
330 $ echo "subject" | git interpret-trailers --trailer fix=42
336 * Configure a 'see' trailer with a command to show the subject of a
337 commit that is related, and show how it works:
340 $ git config trailer.see.key "See-also: "
341 $ git config trailer.see.ifExists "replace"
342 $ git config trailer.see.ifMissing "doNothing"
343 $ git config trailer.see.command "git log -1 --oneline --format=\"%h (%s)\" --abbrev-commit --abbrev=14 \$ARG"
344 $ git interpret-trailers <<EOF
355 See-also: fe3187489d69c4 (subject of related commit)
358 * Configure a commit template with some trailers with empty values
359 (using sed to show and keep the trailing spaces at the end of the
360 trailers), then configure a commit-msg hook that uses
361 'git interpret-trailers' to remove trailers with empty values and
362 to add a 'git-version' trailer:
365 $ sed -e 's/ Z$/ /' >commit_template.txt <<EOF
375 $ git config commit.template commit_template.txt
376 $ cat >.git/hooks/commit-msg <<EOF
378 > git interpret-trailers --trim-empty --trailer "git-version: \$(git describe)" "\$1" > "\$1.new"
381 $ chmod +x .git/hooks/commit-msg
386 linkgit:git-commit[1], linkgit:git-format-patch[1], linkgit:git-config[1]
390 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite