1GIT-NOTES(1)                      Git Manual                      GIT-NOTES(1)
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NAME

6       git-notes - Add or inspect object notes
7

SYNOPSIS

9       git notes [list [<object>]]
10       git notes add [-f] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
11       git notes copy [-f] ( --stdin | <from-object> <to-object> )
12       git notes append [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
13       git notes edit [<object>]
14       git notes show [<object>]
15       git notes merge [-v | -q] [-s <strategy> ] <notes_ref>
16       git notes merge --commit [-v | -q]
17       git notes merge --abort [-v | -q]
18       git notes remove [--ignore-missing] [--stdin] [<object>...]
19       git notes prune [-n | -v]
20       git notes get-ref
21
22

DESCRIPTION

24       Adds, removes, or reads notes attached to objects, without touching the
25       objects themselves.
26
27       By default, notes are saved to and read from refs/notes/commits, but
28       this default can be overridden. See the OPTIONS, CONFIGURATION, and
29       ENVIRONMENT sections below. If this ref does not exist, it will be
30       quietly created when it is first needed to store a note.
31
32       A typical use of notes is to supplement a commit message without
33       changing the commit itself. Notes can be shown by git log along with
34       the original commit message. To distinguish these notes from the
35       message stored in the commit object, the notes are indented like the
36       message, after an unindented line saying "Notes (<refname>):" (or
37       "Notes:" for refs/notes/commits).
38
39       Notes can also be added to patches prepared with git format-patch by
40       using the --notes option. Such notes are added as a patch commentary
41       after a three dash separator line.
42
43       To change which notes are shown by git log, see the "notes.displayRef"
44       configuration in git-log(1).
45
46       See the "notes.rewrite.<command>" configuration for a way to carry
47       notes across commands that rewrite commits.
48

SUBCOMMANDS

50       list
51           List the notes object for a given object. If no object is given,
52           show a list of all note objects and the objects they annotate (in
53           the format "<note object> <annotated object>"). This is the default
54           subcommand if no subcommand is given.
55
56       add
57           Add notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). Abort if the
58           object already has notes (use -f to overwrite existing notes).
59           However, if you’re using add interactively (using an editor to
60           supply the notes contents), then - instead of aborting - the
61           existing notes will be opened in the editor (like the edit
62           subcommand).
63
64       copy
65           Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object. Abort
66           if the second object already has notes, or if the first object has
67           none (use -f to overwrite existing notes to the second object).
68           This subcommand is equivalent to: git notes add [-f] -C $(git notes
69           list <from-object>) <to-object>
70
71           In --stdin mode, take lines in the format
72
73               <from-object> SP <to-object> [ SP <rest> ] LF
74
75           on standard input, and copy the notes from each <from-object> to
76           its corresponding <to-object>. (The optional <rest> is ignored so
77           that the command can read the input given to the post-rewrite
78           hook.)
79
80       append
81           Append to the notes of an existing object (defaults to HEAD).
82           Creates a new notes object if needed.
83
84       edit
85           Edit the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD).
86
87       show
88           Show the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD).
89
90       merge
91           Merge the given notes ref into the current notes ref. This will try
92           to merge the changes made by the given notes ref (called "remote")
93           since the merge-base (if any) into the current notes ref (called
94           "local").
95
96           If conflicts arise and a strategy for automatically resolving
97           conflicting notes (see the -s/--strategy option) is not given, the
98           "manual" resolver is used. This resolver checks out the conflicting
99           notes in a special worktree (.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE), and
100           instructs the user to manually resolve the conflicts there. When
101           done, the user can either finalize the merge with git notes merge
102           --commit, or abort the merge with git notes merge --abort.
103
104       remove
105           Remove the notes for given objects (defaults to HEAD). When giving
106           zero or one object from the command line, this is equivalent to
107           specifying an empty note message to the edit subcommand.
108
109       prune
110           Remove all notes for non-existing/unreachable objects.
111
112       get-ref
113           Print the current notes ref. This provides an easy way to retrieve
114           the current notes ref (e.g. from scripts).
115

OPTIONS

117       -f, --force
118           When adding notes to an object that already has notes, overwrite
119           the existing notes (instead of aborting).
120
121       -m <msg>, --message=<msg>
122           Use the given note message (instead of prompting). If multiple -m
123           options are given, their values are concatenated as separate
124           paragraphs. Lines starting with # and empty lines other than a
125           single line between paragraphs will be stripped out.
126
127       -F <file>, --file=<file>
128           Take the note message from the given file. Use - to read the note
129           message from the standard input. Lines starting with # and empty
130           lines other than a single line between paragraphs will be stripped
131           out.
132
133       -C <object>, --reuse-message=<object>
134           Take the given blob object (for example, another note) as the note
135           message. (Use git notes copy <object> instead to copy notes between
136           objects.)
137
138       -c <object>, --reedit-message=<object>
139           Like -C, but with -c the editor is invoked, so that the user can
140           further edit the note message.
141
142       --ref <ref>
143           Manipulate the notes tree in <ref>. This overrides GIT_NOTES_REF
144           and the "core.notesRef" configuration. The ref is taken to be in
145           refs/notes/ if it is not qualified.
146
147       --ignore-missing
148           Do not consider it an error to request removing notes from an
149           object that does not have notes attached to it.
150
151       --stdin
152           Also read the object names to remove notes from from the standard
153           input (there is no reason you cannot combine this with object names
154           from the command line).
155
156       -n, --dry-run
157           Do not remove anything; just report the object names whose notes
158           would be removed.
159
160       -s <strategy>, --strategy=<strategy>
161           When merging notes, resolve notes conflicts using the given
162           strategy. The following strategies are recognized: "manual"
163           (default), "ours", "theirs", "union" and "cat_sort_uniq". See the
164           "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section below for more information on each
165           notes merge strategy.
166
167       --commit
168           Finalize an in-progress git notes merge. Use this option when you
169           have resolved the conflicts that git notes merge stored in
170           .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. This amends the partial merge commit
171           created by git notes merge (stored in .git/NOTES_MERGE_PARTIAL) by
172           adding the notes in .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. The notes ref stored
173           in the .git/NOTES_MERGE_REF symref is updated to the resulting
174           commit.
175
176       --abort
177           Abort/reset a in-progress git notes merge, i.e. a notes merge with
178           conflicts. This simply removes all files related to the notes
179           merge.
180
181       -q, --quiet
182           When merging notes, operate quietly.
183
184       -v, --verbose
185           When merging notes, be more verbose. When pruning notes, report all
186           object names whose notes are removed.
187

DISCUSSION

189       Commit notes are blobs containing extra information about an object
190       (usually information to supplement a commit’s message). These blobs are
191       taken from notes refs. A notes ref is usually a branch which contains
192       "files" whose paths are the object names for the objects they describe,
193       with some directory separators included for performance reasons [1].
194
195       Every notes change creates a new commit at the specified notes ref. You
196       can therefore inspect the history of the notes by invoking, e.g., git
197       log -p notes/commits. Currently the commit message only records which
198       operation triggered the update, and the commit authorship is determined
199       according to the usual rules (see git-commit(1)). These details may
200       change in the future.
201
202       It is also permitted for a notes ref to point directly to a tree
203       object, in which case the history of the notes can be read with git log
204       -p -g <refname>.
205

NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES

207       The default notes merge strategy is "manual", which checks out
208       conflicting notes in a special work tree for resolving notes conflicts
209       (.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE), and instructs the user to resolve the
210       conflicts in that work tree. When done, the user can either finalize
211       the merge with git notes merge --commit, or abort the merge with git
212       notes merge --abort.
213
214       "ours" automatically resolves conflicting notes in favor of the local
215       version (i.e. the current notes ref).
216
217       "theirs" automatically resolves notes conflicts in favor of the remote
218       version (i.e. the given notes ref being merged into the current notes
219       ref).
220
221       "union" automatically resolves notes conflicts by concatenating the
222       local and remote versions.
223
224       "cat_sort_uniq" is similar to "union", but in addition to concatenating
225       the local and remote versions, this strategy also sorts the resulting
226       lines, and removes duplicate lines from the result. This is equivalent
227       to applying the "cat | sort | uniq" shell pipeline to the local and
228       remote versions. This strategy is useful if the notes follow a
229       line-based format where one wants to avoid duplicated lines in the
230       merge result. Note that if either the local or remote version contain
231       duplicate lines prior to the merge, these will also be removed by this
232       notes merge strategy.
233

EXAMPLES

235       You can use notes to add annotations with information that was not
236       available at the time a commit was written.
237
238           $ git notes add -m 'Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>' 72a144e2
239           $ git show -s 72a144e
240           [...]
241               Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
242
243           Notes:
244               Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
245
246
247       In principle, a note is a regular Git blob, and any kind of
248       (non-)format is accepted. You can binary-safely create notes from
249       arbitrary files using git hash-object:
250
251           $ cc *.c
252           $ blob=$(git hash-object -w a.out)
253           $ git notes --ref=built add -C "$blob" HEAD
254
255
256       (You cannot simply use git notes --ref=built add -F a.out HEAD because
257       that is not binary-safe.) Of course, it doesn’t make much sense to
258       display non-text-format notes with git log, so if you use such notes,
259       you’ll probably need to write some special-purpose tools to do
260       something useful with them.
261

CONFIGURATION

263       core.notesRef
264           Notes ref to read and manipulate instead of refs/notes/commits.
265           Must be an unabbreviated ref name. This setting can be overridden
266           through the environment and command line.
267
268       notes.displayRef
269           Which ref (or refs, if a glob or specified more than once), in
270           addition to the default set by core.notesRef or GIT_NOTES_REF, to
271           read notes from when showing commit messages with the git log
272           family of commands. This setting can be overridden on the command
273           line or by the GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF environment variable. See git-
274           log(1).
275
276       notes.rewrite.<command>
277           When rewriting commits with <command> (currently amend or rebase),
278           if this variable is false, git will not copy notes from the
279           original to the rewritten commit. Defaults to true. See also
280           "notes.rewriteRef" below.
281
282           This setting can be overridden by the GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF
283           environment variable.
284
285       notes.rewriteMode
286           When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target
287           commit already has a note. Must be one of overwrite, concatenate,
288           and ignore. Defaults to concatenate.
289
290           This setting can be overridden with the GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE
291           environment variable.
292
293       notes.rewriteRef
294           When copying notes during a rewrite, specifies the (fully
295           qualified) ref whose notes should be copied. May be a glob, in
296           which case notes in all matching refs will be copied. You may also
297           specify this configuration several times.
298
299           Does not have a default value; you must configure this variable to
300           enable note rewriting.
301
302           Can be overridden with the GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF environment
303           variable.
304

ENVIRONMENT

306       GIT_NOTES_REF
307           Which ref to manipulate notes from, instead of refs/notes/commits.
308           This overrides the core.notesRef setting.
309
310       GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF
311           Colon-delimited list of refs or globs indicating which refs, in
312           addition to the default from core.notesRef or GIT_NOTES_REF, to
313           read notes from when showing commit messages. This overrides the
314           notes.displayRef setting.
315
316           A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist, but a glob
317           that does not match any refs is silently ignored.
318
319       GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE
320           When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target
321           commit already has a note. Must be one of overwrite, concatenate,
322           and ignore. This overrides the core.rewriteMode setting.
323
324       GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF
325           When rewriting commits, which notes to copy from the original to
326           the rewritten commit. Must be a colon-delimited list of refs or
327           globs.
328
329           If not set in the environment, the list of notes to copy depends on
330           the notes.rewrite.<command> and notes.rewriteRef settings.
331

AUTHOR

333       Written by Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de[2]> and
334       Johan Herland <johan@herland.net[3]>
335

DOCUMENTATION

337       Documentation by Johannes Schindelin and Johan Herland
338

GIT

340       Part of the git(7) suite
341

NOTES

343        1. Permitted pathnames have the form ab/cd/ef/.../abcdef...: a
344           sequence of directory names of two hexadecimal digits each followed
345           by a filename with the rest of the object ID.
346
347        2. johannes.schindelin@gmx.de
348           mailto:johannes.schindelin@gmx.de
349
350        3. johan@herland.net
351           mailto:johan@herland.net
352
353
354
355Git 1.8.3.1                       11/19/2018                      GIT-NOTES(1)
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