1GIT-CAT-FILE(1)                   Git Manual                   GIT-CAT-FILE(1)
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NAME

6       git-cat-file - Provide content or type and size information for
7       repository objects
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SYNOPSIS

10       git cat-file (-t [--allow-unknown-type]| -s [--allow-unknown-type]| -e | -p | <type> | --textconv | --filters ) [--path=<path>] <object>
11       git cat-file (--batch | --batch-check) [ --textconv | --filters ] [--follow-symlinks]
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13

DESCRIPTION

15       In its first form, the command provides the content or the type of an
16       object in the repository. The type is required unless -t or -p is used
17       to find the object type, or -s is used to find the object size, or
18       --textconv or --filters is used (which imply type "blob").
19
20       In the second form, a list of objects (separated by linefeeds) is
21       provided on stdin, and the SHA-1, type, and size of each object is
22       printed on stdout. The output format can be overridden using the
23       optional <format> argument. If either --textconv or --filters was
24       specified, the input is expected to list the object names followed by
25       the path name, separated by a single whitespace, so that the
26       appropriate drivers can be determined.
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OPTIONS

29       <object>
30           The name of the object to show. For a more complete list of ways to
31           spell object names, see the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in
32           gitrevisions(7).
33
34       -t
35           Instead of the content, show the object type identified by
36           <object>.
37
38       -s
39           Instead of the content, show the object size identified by
40           <object>.
41
42       -e
43           Exit with zero status if <object> exists and is a valid object. If
44           <object> is of an invalid format exit with non-zero and emits an
45           error on stderr.
46
47       -p
48           Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type.
49
50       <type>
51           Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking for a
52           type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given <object> is
53           also permitted. An example is to ask for a "tree" with <object>
54           being a commit object that contains it, or to ask for a "blob" with
55           <object> being a tag object that points at it.
56
57       --textconv
58           Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case,
59           <object> has to be of the form <tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path> in
60           order to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at
61           <path>.
62
63       --filters
64           Show the content as converted by the filters configured in the
65           current working tree for the given <path> (i.e. smudge filters,
66           end-of-line conversion, etc). In this case, <object> has to be of
67           the form <tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path>.
68
69       --path=<path>
70           For use with --textconv or --filters, to allow specifying an object
71           name and a path separately, e.g. when it is difficult to figure out
72           the revision from which the blob came.
73
74       --batch, --batch=<format>
75           Print object information and contents for each object provided on
76           stdin. May not be combined with any other options or arguments
77           except --textconv or --filters, in which case the input lines also
78           need to specify the path, separated by whitespace. See the section
79           BATCH OUTPUT below for details.
80
81       --batch-check, --batch-check=<format>
82           Print object information for each object provided on stdin. May not
83           be combined with any other options or arguments except --textconv
84           or --filters, in which case the input lines also need to specify
85           the path, separated by whitespace. See the section BATCH OUTPUT
86           below for details.
87
88       --batch-all-objects
89           Instead of reading a list of objects on stdin, perform the
90           requested batch operation on all objects in the repository and any
91           alternate object stores (not just reachable objects). Requires
92           --batch or --batch-check be specified. Note that the objects are
93           visited in order sorted by their hashes.
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95       --buffer
96           Normally batch output is flushed after each object is output, so
97           that a process can interactively read and write from cat-file. With
98           this option, the output uses normal stdio buffering; this is much
99           more efficient when invoking --batch-check on a large number of
100           objects.
101
102       --unordered
103           When --batch-all-objects is in use, visit objects in an order which
104           may be more efficient for accessing the object contents than hash
105           order. The exact details of the order are unspecified, but if you
106           do not require a specific order, this should generally result in
107           faster output, especially with --batch. Note that cat-file will
108           still show each object only once, even if it is stored multiple
109           times in the repository.
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111       --allow-unknown-type
112           Allow -s or -t to query broken/corrupt objects of unknown type.
113
114       --follow-symlinks
115           With --batch or --batch-check, follow symlinks inside the
116           repository when requesting objects with extended SHA-1 expressions
117           of the form tree-ish:path-in-tree. Instead of providing output
118           about the link itself, provide output about the linked-to object.
119           If a symlink points outside the tree-ish (e.g. a link to /foo or a
120           root-level link to ../foo), the portion of the link which is
121           outside the tree will be printed.
122
123           This option does not (currently) work correctly when an object in
124           the index is specified (e.g.  :link instead of HEAD:link) rather
125           than one in the tree.
126
127           This option cannot (currently) be used unless --batch or
128           --batch-check is used.
129
130           For example, consider a git repository containing:
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132               f: a file containing "hello\n"
133               link: a symlink to f
134               dir/link: a symlink to ../f
135               plink: a symlink to ../f
136               alink: a symlink to /etc/passwd
137
138           For a regular file f, echo HEAD:f | git cat-file --batch would
139           print
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141               ce013625030ba8dba906f756967f9e9ca394464a blob 6
142
143           And echo HEAD:link | git cat-file --batch --follow-symlinks would
144           print the same thing, as would HEAD:dir/link, as they both point at
145           HEAD:f.
146
147           Without --follow-symlinks, these would print data about the symlink
148           itself. In the case of HEAD:link, you would see
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150               4d1ae35ba2c8ec712fa2a379db44ad639ca277bd blob 1
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152           Both plink and alink point outside the tree, so they would
153           respectively print:
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155               symlink 4
156               ../f
157
158               symlink 11
159               /etc/passwd
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OUTPUT

162       If -t is specified, one of the <type>.
163
164       If -s is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes.
165
166       If -e is specified, no output, unless the <object> is malformed.
167
168       If -p is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed.
169
170       If <type> is specified, the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the
171       <object> will be returned.
172

BATCH OUTPUT

174       If --batch or --batch-check is given, cat-file will read objects from
175       stdin, one per line, and print information about them. By default, the
176       whole line is considered as an object, as if it were fed to git-rev-
177       parse(1).
178
179       You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom
180       <format>. The <format> is copied literally to stdout for each object,
181       with placeholders of the form %(atom) expanded, followed by a newline.
182       The available atoms are:
183
184       objectname
185           The 40-hex object name of the object.
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187       objecttype
188           The type of the object (the same as cat-file -t reports).
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190       objectsize
191           The size, in bytes, of the object (the same as cat-file -s
192           reports).
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194       objectsize:disk
195           The size, in bytes, that the object takes up on disk. See the note
196           about on-disk sizes in the CAVEATS section below.
197
198       deltabase
199           If the object is stored as a delta on-disk, this expands to the
200           40-hex sha1 of the delta base object. Otherwise, expands to the
201           null sha1 (40 zeroes). See CAVEATS below.
202
203       rest
204           If this atom is used in the output string, input lines are split at
205           the first whitespace boundary. All characters before that
206           whitespace are considered to be the object name; characters after
207           that first run of whitespace (i.e., the "rest" of the line) are
208           output in place of the %(rest) atom.
209
210       If no format is specified, the default format is %(objectname)
211       %(objecttype) %(objectsize).
212
213       If --batch is specified, the object information is followed by the
214       object contents (consisting of %(objectsize) bytes), followed by a
215       newline.
216
217       For example, --batch without a custom format would produce:
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219           <sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF
220           <contents> LF
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222
223       Whereas --batch-check='%(objectname) %(objecttype)' would produce:
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225           <sha1> SP <type> LF
226
227
228       If a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object in
229       the repository, then cat-file will ignore any custom format and print:
230
231           <object> SP missing LF
232
233
234       If a name is specified that might refer to more than one object (an
235       ambiguous short sha), then cat-file will ignore any custom format and
236       print:
237
238           <object> SP ambiguous LF
239
240
241       If --follow-symlinks is used, and a symlink in the repository points
242       outside the repository, then cat-file will ignore any custom format and
243       print:
244
245           symlink SP <size> LF
246           <symlink> LF
247
248
249       The symlink will either be absolute (beginning with a /), or relative
250       to the tree root. For instance, if dir/link points to ../../foo, then
251       <symlink> will be ../foo. <size> is the size of the symlink in bytes.
252
253       If --follow-symlinks is used, the following error messages will be
254       displayed:
255
256           <object> SP missing LF
257
258
259       is printed when the initial symlink requested does not exist.
260
261           dangling SP <size> LF
262           <object> LF
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264
265       is printed when the initial symlink exists, but something that it
266       (transitive-of) points to does not.
267
268           loop SP <size> LF
269           <object> LF
270
271
272       is printed for symlink loops (or any symlinks that require more than 40
273       link resolutions to resolve).
274
275           notdir SP <size> LF
276           <object> LF
277
278
279       is printed when, during symlink resolution, a file is used as a
280       directory name.
281

CAVEATS

283       Note that the sizes of objects on disk are reported accurately, but
284       care should be taken in drawing conclusions about which refs or objects
285       are responsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object
286       may be much larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but
287       the choice of which object is the base and which is the delta is
288       arbitrary and is subject to change during a repack.
289
290       Note also that multiple copies of an object may be present in the
291       object database; in this case, it is undefined which copy’s size or
292       delta base will be reported.
293

GIT

295       Part of the git(1) suite
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299Git 2.21.0                        02/24/2019                   GIT-CAT-FILE(1)
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