1GIT-COMMIT(1) Git Manual GIT-COMMIT(1)
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6 git-commit - Record changes to the repository
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9 git commit [-a | --interactive | --patch] [-s] [-v] [-u<mode>] [--amend]
10 [--dry-run] [(-c | -C | --fixup | --squash) <commit>]
11 [-F <file> | -m <msg>] [--reset-author] [--allow-empty]
12 [--allow-empty-message] [--no-verify] [-e] [--author=<author>]
13 [--date=<date>] [--cleanup=<mode>] [--[no-]status]
14 [-i | -o] [-S[<keyid>]] [--] [<file>...]
15
18 Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along with a
19 log message from the user describing the changes.
20 The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
22 1. by using git add to incrementally "add" changes to the index before
24 using the commit command (Note: even modified files must be
25 "added");
26 2. by using git rm to remove files from the working tree and the
28 index, again before using the commit command;
29 3. by listing files as arguments to the commit command, in which case
31 the commit will ignore changes staged in the index, and instead
32 record the current content of the listed files (which must already
33 be known to Git);
34 4. by using the -a switch with the commit command to automatically
36 "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
37 listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
38 that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
39 actual commit;
40 5. by using the --interactive or --patch switches with the commit
42 command to decide one by one which files or hunks should be part of
43 the commit, before finalizing the operation. See the “Interactive
44 Mode” section of git-add(1) to learn how to operate these modes.
45 The --dry-run option can be used to obtain a summary of what is
47 included by any of the above for the next commit by giving the same set
48 of parameters (options and paths).
49 If you make a commit and then find a mistake immediately after that,
51 you can recover from it with git reset.
52
54 -a, --all
55 Tell the command to automatically stage files that have been
56 modified and deleted, but new files you have not told Git about are
57 not affected.
58 -p, --patch
60 Use the interactive patch selection interface to chose which
61 changes to commit. See git-add(1) for details.
62 -C <commit>, --reuse-message=<commit>
64 Take an existing commit object, and reuse the log message and the
65 authorship information (including the timestamp) when creating the
66 commit.
67 -c <commit>, --reedit-message=<commit>
69 Like -C, but with -c the editor is invoked, so that the user can
70 further edit the commit message.
71 --fixup=<commit>
73 Construct a commit message for use with rebase --autosquash. The
74 commit message will be the subject line from the specified commit
75 with a prefix of "fixup! ". See git-rebase(1) for details.
76 --squash=<commit>
78 Construct a commit message for use with rebase --autosquash. The
79 commit message subject line is taken from the specified commit with
80 a prefix of "squash! ". Can be used with additional commit message
81 options (-m/-c/-C/-F). See git-rebase(1) for details.
82 --reset-author
84 When used with -C/-c/--amend options, or when committing after a a
85 conflicting cherry-pick, declare that the authorship of the
86 resulting commit now belongs of the committer. This also renews the
87 author timestamp.
88 --short
90 When doing a dry-run, give the output in the short-format. See git-
91 status(1) for details. Implies --dry-run.
92 --branch
94 Show the branch and tracking info even in short-format.
95 --porcelain
97 When doing a dry-run, give the output in a porcelain-ready format.
98 See git-status(1) for details. Implies --dry-run.
99 --long
101 When doing a dry-run, give the output in a the long-format. Implies
102 --dry-run.
103 -z, --null
105 When showing short or porcelain status output, terminate entries in
106 the status output with NUL, instead of LF. If no format is given,
107 implies the --porcelain output format.
108 -F <file>, --file=<file>
110 Take the commit message from the given file. Use - to read the
111 message from the standard input.
112 --author=<author>
114 Override the commit author. Specify an explicit author using the
115 standard A U Thor <author@example.com> format. Otherwise <author>
116 is assumed to be a pattern and is used to search for an existing
117 commit by that author (i.e. rev-list --all -i --author=<author>);
118 the commit author is then copied from the first such commit found.
119 --date=<date>
121 Override the author date used in the commit.
122 -m <msg>, --message=<msg>
124 Use the given <msg> as the commit message. If multiple -m options
125 are given, their values are concatenated as separate paragraphs.
126 -t <file>, --template=<file>
128 When editing the commit message, start the editor with the contents
129 in the given file. The commit.template configuration variable is
130 often used to give this option implicitly to the command. This
131 mechanism can be used by projects that want to guide participants
132 with some hints on what to write in the message in what order. If
133 the user exits the editor without editing the message, the commit
134 is aborted. This has no effect when a message is given by other
135 means, e.g. with the -m or -F options.
136 -s, --signoff
138 Add Signed-off-by line by the committer at the end of the commit
139 log message.
140 -n, --no-verify
142 This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks. See also
143 githooks(5).
144 --allow-empty
146 Usually recording a commit that has the exact same tree as its sole
147 parent commit is a mistake, and the command prevents you from
148 making such a commit. This option bypasses the safety, and is
149 primarily for use by foreign SCM interface scripts.
150 --allow-empty-message
152 Like --allow-empty this command is primarily for use by foreign SCM
153 interface scripts. It allows you to create a commit with an empty
154 commit message without using plumbing commands like git-commit-
155 tree(1).
156 --cleanup=<mode>
158 This option determines how the supplied commit message should be
159 cleaned up before committing. The <mode> can be strip, whitespace,
160 verbatim, or default.
161 strip
163 Strip leading and trailing empty lines, trailing whitespace,
164 and #commentary and collapse consecutive empty lines.
165 whitespace
167 Same as strip except #commentary is not removed.
168 verbatim
170 Do not change the message at all.
171 default
173 Same as strip if the message is to be edited. Otherwise
174 whitespace.
175 The default can be changed by the commit.cleanup configuration
177 variable (see git-config(1)).
178 -e, --edit
180 The message taken from file with -F, command line with -m, and from
181 commit object with -C are usually used as the commit log message
182 unmodified. This option lets you further edit the message taken
183 from these sources.
184 --no-edit
186 Use the selected commit message without launching an editor. For
187 example, git commit --amend --no-edit amends a commit without
188 changing its commit message.
189 --amend
191 Replace the tip of the current branch by creating a new commit. The
192 recorded tree is prepared as usual (including the effect of the -i
193 and -o options and explicit pathspec), and the message from the
194 original commit is used as the starting point, instead of an empty
195 message, when no other message is specified from the command line
196 via options such as -m, -F, -c, etc. The new commit has the same
197 parents and author as the current one (the --reset-author option
198 can countermand this).
199 It is a rough equivalent for:
201 $ git reset --soft HEAD^
203 $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
204 $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
205 but can be used to amend a merge commit.
207 You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you
209 amend a commit that has already been published. (See the
210 "RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in git-rebase(1).)
211 --no-post-rewrite
213 Bypass the post-rewrite hook.
214 -i, --include
216 Before making a commit out of staged contents so far, stage the
217 contents of paths given on the command line as well. This is
218 usually not what you want unless you are concluding a conflicted
219 merge.
220 -o, --only
222 Make a commit only from the paths specified on the command line,
223 disregarding any contents that have been staged so far. This is the
224 default mode of operation of git commit if any paths are given on
225 the command line, in which case this option can be omitted. If this
226 option is specified together with --amend, then no paths need to be
227 specified, which can be used to amend the last commit without
228 committing changes that have already been staged.
229 -u[<mode>], --untracked-files[=<mode>]
231 Show untracked files.
232 The mode parameter is optional (defaults to all), and is used to
234 specify the handling of untracked files; when -u is not used, the
235 default is normal, i.e. show untracked files and directories.
236 The possible options are:
238 · no - Show no untracked files
240 · normal - Shows untracked files and directories
242 · all - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
244 The default can be changed using the status.showUntrackedFiles
246 configuration variable documented in git-config(1).
247 -v, --verbose
249 Show unified diff between the HEAD commit and what would be
250 committed at the bottom of the commit message template. Note that
251 this diff output doesn’t have its lines prefixed with #.
252 -q, --quiet
254 Suppress commit summary message.
255 --dry-run
257 Do not create a commit, but show a list of paths that are to be
258 committed, paths with local changes that will be left uncommitted
259 and paths that are untracked.
260 --status
262 Include the output of git-status(1) in the commit message template
263 when using an editor to prepare the commit message. Defaults to on,
264 but can be used to override configuration variable commit.status.
265 --no-status
267 Do not include the output of git-status(1) in the commit message
268 template when using an editor to prepare the default commit
269 message.
270 -S[<keyid>], --gpg-sign[=<keyid>]
272 GPG-sign commit.
273 --
275 Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
276 <file>...
278 When files are given on the command line, the command commits the
279 contents of the named files, without recording the changes already
280 staged. The contents of these files are also staged for the next
281 commit on top of what have been staged before.
282
284 The GIT_AUTHOR_DATE, GIT_COMMITTER_DATE environment variables and the
285 --date option support the following date formats:
286 Git internal format
288 It is <unix timestamp> <timezone offset>, where <unix timestamp> is
289 the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch. <timezone offset> is a
290 positive or negative offset from UTC. For example CET (which is 2
291 hours ahead UTC) is +0200.
292 RFC 2822
294 The standard email format as described by RFC 2822, for example
295 Thu, 07 Apr 2005 22:13:13 +0200.
296 ISO 8601
298 Time and date specified by the ISO 8601 standard, for example
299 2005-04-07T22:13:13. The parser accepts a space instead of the T
300 character as well.
301 Note
303 In addition, the date part is accepted in the following
304 formats: YYYY.MM.DD, MM/DD/YYYY and DD.MM.YYYY.
305
307 When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in your
308 working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area called the
309 "index" with git add. A file can be reverted back, only in the index
310 but not in the working tree, to that of the last commit with git reset
311 HEAD -- <file>, which effectively reverts git add and prevents the
312 changes to this file from participating in the next commit. After
313 building the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
314 git commit (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what has
315 been staged so far. This is the most basic form of the command. An
316 example:
317 $ edit hello.c
319 $ git rm goodbye.c
320 $ git add hello.c
321 $ git commit
322 Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can tell git
325 commit to notice the changes to the files whose contents are tracked in
326 your working tree and do corresponding git add and git rm for you. That
327 is, this example does the same as the earlier example if there is no
328 other change in your working tree:
329 $ edit hello.c
331 $ rm goodbye.c
332 $ git commit -a
333 The command git commit -a first looks at your working tree, notices
336 that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c, and performs
337 necessary git add and git rm for you.
338 After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
340 changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to git commit. When
341 pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that only records the
342 changes made to the named paths:
343 $ edit hello.c hello.h
345 $ git add hello.c hello.h
346 $ edit Makefile
347 $ git commit Makefile
348 This makes a commit that records the modification to Makefile. The
351 changes staged for hello.c and hello.h are not included in the
352 resulting commit. However, their changes are not lost — they are still
353 staged and merely held back. After the above sequence, if you do:
354 $ git commit
356 this second commit would record the changes to hello.c and hello.h as
359 expected.
360 After a merge (initiated by git merge or git pull) stops because of
362 conflicts, cleanly merged paths are already staged to be committed for
363 you, and paths that conflicted are left in unmerged state. You would
364 have to first check which paths are conflicting with git status and
365 after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would stage the
366 result as usual with git add:
367 $ git status | grep unmerged
369 unmerged: hello.c
370 $ edit hello.c
371 $ git add hello.c
372 After resolving conflicts and staging the result, git ls-files -u would
375 stop mentioning the conflicted path. When you are done, run git commit
376 to finally record the merge:
377 $ git commit
379 As with the case to record your own changes, you can use -a option to
382 save typing. One difference is that during a merge resolution, you
383 cannot use git commit with pathnames to alter the order the changes are
384 committed, because the merge should be recorded as a single commit. In
385 fact, the command refuses to run when given pathnames (but see -i
386 option).
387
389 Though not required, it’s a good idea to begin the commit message with
390 a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the change,
391 followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description. The text
392 up to the first blank line in a commit message is treated as the commit
393 title, and that title is used throughout Git. For example, git-format-
394 patch(1) turns a commit into email, and it uses the title on the
395 Subject line and the rest of the commit in the body.
396 At the core level, Git is character encoding agnostic.
398 · The pathnames recorded in the index and in the tree objects are
400 treated as uninterpreted sequences of non-NUL bytes. What
401 readdir(2) returns are what are recorded and compared with the data
402 Git keeps track of, which in turn are expected to be what lstat(2)
403 and creat(2) accepts. There is no such thing as pathname encoding
404 translation.
405 · The contents of the blob objects are uninterpreted sequences of
407 bytes. There is no encoding translation at the core level.
408 · The commit log messages are uninterpreted sequences of non-NUL
410 bytes.
411 Although we encourage that the commit log messages are encoded in
413 UTF-8, both the core and Git Porcelain are designed not to force UTF-8
414 on projects. If all participants of a particular project find it more
415 convenient to use legacy encodings, Git does not forbid it. However,
416 there are a few things to keep in mind.
417 1. git commit and git commit-tree issues a warning if the commit log
419 message given to it does not look like a valid UTF-8 string, unless
420 you explicitly say your project uses a legacy encoding. The way to
421 say this is to have i18n.commitencoding in .git/config file, like
422 this:
423 [i18n]
425 commitencoding = ISO-8859-1
426 Commit objects created with the above setting record the value of
428 i18n.commitencoding in its encoding header. This is to help other
429 people who look at them later. Lack of this header implies that the
430 commit log message is encoded in UTF-8.
431 2. git log, git show, git blame and friends look at the encoding
433 header of a commit object, and try to re-code the log message into
434 UTF-8 unless otherwise specified. You can specify the desired
435 output encoding with i18n.logoutputencoding in .git/config file,
436 like this:
437 [i18n]
439 logoutputencoding = ISO-8859-1
440 If you do not have this configuration variable, the value of
442 i18n.commitencoding is used instead.
443 Note that we deliberately chose not to re-code the commit log message
445 when a commit is made to force UTF-8 at the commit object level,
446 because re-coding to UTF-8 is not necessarily a reversible operation.
447
449 The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
450 GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration
451 variable, the VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment
452 variable (in that order). See git-var(1) for details.
453
455 This command can run commit-msg, prepare-commit-msg, pre-commit, and
456 post-commit hooks. See githooks(5) for more information.
457
459 $GIT_DIR/COMMIT_EDITMSG
460 This file contains the commit message of a commit in progress. If
461 git commit exits due to an error before creating a commit, any
462 commit message that has been provided by the user (e.g., in an
463 editor session) will be available in this file, but will be
464 overwritten by the next invocation of git commit.
465
467 git-add(1), git-rm(1), git-mv(1), git-merge(1), git-commit-tree(1)
468
470 Part of the git(1) suite
471Git 1.8.3.1 11/19/2018 GIT-COMMIT(1)