1GIT-FOR-EACH-REF(1)               Git Manual               GIT-FOR-EACH-REF(1)
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NAME

6       git-for-each-ref - Output information on each ref
7

SYNOPSIS

9       git for-each-ref [--count=<count>] [--shell|--perl|--python|--tcl]
10                          [(--sort=<key>)...] [--format=<format>] [<pattern>...]
11                          [--points-at=<object>]
12                          [--merged[=<object>]] [--no-merged[=<object>]]
13                          [--contains[=<object>]] [--no-contains[=<object>]]
14

DESCRIPTION

16       Iterate over all refs that match <pattern> and show them according to
17       the given <format>, after sorting them according to the given set of
18       <key>. If <count> is given, stop after showing that many refs. The
19       interpolated values in <format> can optionally be quoted as string
20       literals in the specified host language allowing their direct
21       evaluation in that language.
22

OPTIONS

24       <pattern>...
25           If one or more patterns are given, only refs are shown that match
26           against at least one pattern, either using fnmatch(3) or literally,
27           in the latter case matching completely or from the beginning up to
28           a slash.
29
30       --count=<count>
31           By default the command shows all refs that match <pattern>. This
32           option makes it stop after showing that many refs.
33
34       --sort=<key>
35           A field name to sort on. Prefix - to sort in descending order of
36           the value. When unspecified, refname is used. You may use the
37           --sort=<key> option multiple times, in which case the last key
38           becomes the primary key.
39
40       --format=<format>
41           A string that interpolates %(fieldname) from a ref being shown and
42           the object it points at. If fieldname is prefixed with an asterisk
43           (*) and the ref points at a tag object, use the value for the field
44           in the object which the tag object refers to (instead of the field
45           in the tag object). When unspecified, <format> defaults to
46           %(objectname) SPC %(objecttype) TAB %(refname). It also
47           interpolates %% to %, and %xx where xx are hex digits interpolates
48           to character with hex code xx; for example %00 interpolates to \0
49           (NUL), %09 to \t (TAB) and %0a to \n (LF).
50
51       --color[=<when>]
52           Respect any colors specified in the --format option. The <when>
53           field must be one of always, never, or auto (if <when> is absent,
54           behave as if always was given).
55
56       --shell, --perl, --python, --tcl
57           If given, strings that substitute %(fieldname) placeholders are
58           quoted as string literals suitable for the specified host language.
59           This is meant to produce a scriptlet that can directly be `eval`ed.
60
61       --points-at=<object>
62           Only list refs which points at the given object.
63
64       --merged[=<object>]
65           Only list refs whose tips are reachable from the specified commit
66           (HEAD if not specified).
67
68       --no-merged[=<object>]
69           Only list refs whose tips are not reachable from the specified
70           commit (HEAD if not specified).
71
72       --contains[=<object>]
73           Only list refs which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not
74           specified).
75
76       --no-contains[=<object>]
77           Only list refs which don’t contain the specified commit (HEAD if
78           not specified).
79
80       --ignore-case
81           Sorting and filtering refs are case insensitive.
82

FIELD NAMES

84       Various values from structured fields in referenced objects can be used
85       to interpolate into the resulting output, or as sort keys.
86
87       For all objects, the following names can be used:
88
89       refname
90           The name of the ref (the part after $GIT_DIR/). For a non-ambiguous
91           short name of the ref append :short. The option
92           core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict abbreviation
93           mode. If lstrip=<N> (rstrip=<N>) is appended, strips <N>
94           slash-separated path components from the front (back) of the
95           refname (e.g.  %(refname:lstrip=2) turns refs/tags/foo into foo and
96           %(refname:rstrip=2) turns refs/tags/foo into refs). If <N> is a
97           negative number, strip as many path components as necessary from
98           the specified end to leave -<N> path components (e.g.
99           %(refname:lstrip=-2) turns refs/tags/foo into tags/foo and
100           %(refname:rstrip=-1) turns refs/tags/foo into refs). When the ref
101           does not have enough components, the result becomes an empty string
102           if stripping with positive <N>, or it becomes the full refname if
103           stripping with negative <N>. Neither is an error.
104
105           strip can be used as a synonym to lstrip.
106
107       objecttype
108           The type of the object (blob, tree, commit, tag).
109
110       objectsize
111           The size of the object (the same as git cat-file -s reports).
112           Append :disk to get the size, in bytes, that the object takes up on
113           disk. See the note about on-disk sizes in the CAVEATS section
114           below.
115
116       objectname
117           The object name (aka SHA-1). For a non-ambiguous abbreviation of
118           the object name append :short. For an abbreviation of the object
119           name with desired length append :short=<length>, where the minimum
120           length is MINIMUM_ABBREV. The length may be exceeded to ensure
121           unique object names.
122
123       deltabase
124           This expands to the object name of the delta base for the given
125           object, if it is stored as a delta. Otherwise it expands to the
126           null object name (all zeroes).
127
128       upstream
129           The name of a local ref which can be considered “upstream” from the
130           displayed ref. Respects :short, :lstrip and :rstrip in the same way
131           as refname above. Additionally respects :track to show "[ahead N,
132           behind M]" and :trackshort to show the terse version: ">" (ahead),
133           "<" (behind), "<>" (ahead and behind), or "=" (in sync).  :track
134           also prints "[gone]" whenever unknown upstream ref is encountered.
135           Append :track,nobracket to show tracking information without
136           brackets (i.e "ahead N, behind M").
137
138           For any remote-tracking branch %(upstream), %(upstream:remotename)
139           and %(upstream:remoteref) refer to the name of the remote and the
140           name of the tracked remote ref, respectively. In other words, the
141           remote-tracking branch can be updated explicitly and individually
142           by using the refspec %(upstream:remoteref):%(upstream) to fetch
143           from %(upstream:remotename).
144
145           Has no effect if the ref does not have tracking information
146           associated with it. All the options apart from nobracket are
147           mutually exclusive, but if used together the last option is
148           selected.
149
150       push
151           The name of a local ref which represents the @{push} location for
152           the displayed ref. Respects :short, :lstrip, :rstrip, :track,
153           :trackshort, :remotename, and :remoteref options as upstream does.
154           Produces an empty string if no @{push} ref is configured.
155
156       HEAD
157           * if HEAD matches current ref (the checked out branch), ' '
158           otherwise.
159
160       color
161           Change output color. Followed by :<colorname>, where color names
162           are described under Values in the "CONFIGURATION FILE" section of
163           git-config(1). For example, %(color:bold red).
164
165       align
166           Left-, middle-, or right-align the content between %(align:...) and
167           %(end). The "align:" is followed by width=<width> and
168           position=<position> in any order separated by a comma, where the
169           <position> is either left, right or middle, default being left and
170           <width> is the total length of the content with alignment. For
171           brevity, the "width=" and/or "position=" prefixes may be omitted,
172           and bare <width> and <position> used instead. For instance,
173           %(align:<width>,<position>). If the contents length is more than
174           the width then no alignment is performed. If used with --quote
175           everything in between %(align:...) and %(end) is quoted, but if
176           nested then only the topmost level performs quoting.
177
178       if
179           Used as %(if)...%(then)...%(end) or %(if)...%(then)...%(else)...
180           %(end). If there is an atom with value or string literal after the
181           %(if) then everything after the %(then) is printed, else if the
182           %(else) atom is used, then everything after %(else) is printed. We
183           ignore space when evaluating the string before %(then), this is
184           useful when we use the %(HEAD) atom which prints either "*" or " "
185           and we want to apply the if condition only on the HEAD ref. Append
186           ":equals=<string>" or ":notequals=<string>" to compare the value
187           between the %(if:...) and %(then) atoms with the given string.
188
189       symref
190           The ref which the given symbolic ref refers to. If not a symbolic
191           ref, nothing is printed. Respects the :short, :lstrip and :rstrip
192           options in the same way as refname above.
193
194       worktreepath
195           The absolute path to the worktree in which the ref is checked out,
196           if it is checked out in any linked worktree. Empty string
197           otherwise.
198
199       In addition to the above, for commit and tag objects, the header field
200       names (tree, parent, object, type, and tag) can be used to specify the
201       value in the header field. Fields tree and parent can also be used with
202       modifier :short and :short=<length> just like objectname.
203
204       For commit and tag objects, the special creatordate and creator fields
205       will correspond to the appropriate date or name-email-date tuple from
206       the committer or tagger fields depending on the object type. These are
207       intended for working on a mix of annotated and lightweight tags.
208
209       Fields that have name-email-date tuple as its value (author, committer,
210       and tagger) can be suffixed with name, email, and date to extract the
211       named component. For email fields (authoremail, committeremail and
212       taggeremail), :trim can be appended to get the email without angle
213       brackets, and :localpart to get the part before the @ symbol out of the
214       trimmed email.
215
216       The raw data in an object is raw.
217
218       raw:size
219           The raw data size of the object.
220
221       Note that --format=%(raw) can not be used with --python, --shell,
222       --tcl, because such language may not support arbitrary binary data in
223       their string variable type.
224
225       The message in a commit or a tag object is contents, from which
226       contents:<part> can be used to extract various parts out of:
227
228       contents:size
229           The size in bytes of the commit or tag message.
230
231       contents:subject
232           The first paragraph of the message, which typically is a single
233           line, is taken as the "subject" of the commit or the tag message.
234           Instead of contents:subject, field subject can also be used to
235           obtain same results.  :sanitize can be appended to subject for
236           subject line suitable for filename.
237
238       contents:body
239           The remainder of the commit or the tag message that follows the
240           "subject".
241
242       contents:signature
243           The optional GPG signature of the tag.
244
245       contents:lines=N
246           The first N lines of the message.
247
248       Additionally, the trailers as interpreted by git-interpret-trailers(1)
249       are obtained as trailers[:options] (or by using the historical alias
250       contents:trailers[:options]). For valid [:option] values see trailers
251       section of git-log(1).
252
253       For sorting purposes, fields with numeric values sort in numeric order
254       (objectsize, authordate, committerdate, creatordate, taggerdate). All
255       other fields are used to sort in their byte-value order.
256
257       There is also an option to sort by versions, this can be done by using
258       the fieldname version:refname or its alias v:refname.
259
260       In any case, a field name that refers to a field inapplicable to the
261       object referred by the ref does not cause an error. It returns an empty
262       string instead.
263
264       As a special case for the date-type fields, you may specify a format
265       for the date by adding : followed by date format name (see the values
266       the --date option to git-rev-list(1) takes).
267
268       Some atoms like %(align) and %(if) always require a matching %(end). We
269       call them "opening atoms" and sometimes denote them as %($open).
270
271       When a scripting language specific quoting is in effect, everything
272       between a top-level opening atom and its matching %(end) is evaluated
273       according to the semantics of the opening atom and only its result from
274       the top-level is quoted.
275

EXAMPLES

277       An example directly producing formatted text. Show the most recent 3
278       tagged commits:
279
280           #!/bin/sh
281
282           git for-each-ref --count=3 --sort='-*authordate' \
283           --format='From: %(*authorname) %(*authoremail)
284           Subject: %(*subject)
285           Date: %(*authordate)
286           Ref: %(*refname)
287
288           %(*body)
289           ' 'refs/tags'
290
291       A simple example showing the use of shell eval on the output,
292       demonstrating the use of --shell. List the prefixes of all heads:
293
294           #!/bin/sh
295
296           git for-each-ref --shell --format="ref=%(refname)" refs/heads | \
297           while read entry
298           do
299                   eval "$entry"
300                   echo `dirname $ref`
301           done
302
303       A bit more elaborate report on tags, demonstrating that the format may
304       be an entire script:
305
306           #!/bin/sh
307
308           fmt='
309                   r=%(refname)
310                   t=%(*objecttype)
311                   T=${r#refs/tags/}
312
313                   o=%(*objectname)
314                   n=%(*authorname)
315                   e=%(*authoremail)
316                   s=%(*subject)
317                   d=%(*authordate)
318                   b=%(*body)
319
320                   kind=Tag
321                   if test "z$t" = z
322                   then
323                           # could be a lightweight tag
324                           t=%(objecttype)
325                           kind="Lightweight tag"
326                           o=%(objectname)
327                           n=%(authorname)
328                           e=%(authoremail)
329                           s=%(subject)
330                           d=%(authordate)
331                           b=%(body)
332                   fi
333                   echo "$kind $T points at a $t object $o"
334                   if test "z$t" = zcommit
335                   then
336                           echo "The commit was authored by $n $e
337           at $d, and titled
338
339               $s
340
341           Its message reads as:
342           "
343                           echo "$b" | sed -e "s/^/    /"
344                           echo
345                   fi
346           '
347
348           eval=`git for-each-ref --shell --format="$fmt" \
349                   --sort='*objecttype' \
350                   --sort=-taggerdate \
351                   refs/tags`
352           eval "$eval"
353
354       An example to show the usage of %(if)...%(then)...%(else)...%(end).
355       This prefixes the current branch with a star.
356
357           git for-each-ref --format="%(if)%(HEAD)%(then)* %(else)  %(end)%(refname:short)" refs/heads/
358
359       An example to show the usage of %(if)...%(then)...%(end). This prints
360       the authorname, if present.
361
362           git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)%(if)%(authorname)%(then) Authored by: %(authorname)%(end)"
363

CAVEATS

365       Note that the sizes of objects on disk are reported accurately, but
366       care should be taken in drawing conclusions about which refs or objects
367       are responsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object
368       may be much larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but
369       the choice of which object is the base and which is the delta is
370       arbitrary and is subject to change during a repack.
371
372       Note also that multiple copies of an object may be present in the
373       object database; in this case, it is undefined which copy’s size or
374       delta base will be reported.
375

NOTES

377       When combining multiple --contains and --no-contains filters, only
378       references that contain at least one of the --contains commits and
379       contain none of the --no-contains commits are shown.
380
381       When combining multiple --merged and --no-merged filters, only
382       references that are reachable from at least one of the --merged commits
383       and from none of the --no-merged commits are shown.
384

SEE ALSO

386       git-show-ref(1)
387

GIT

389       Part of the git(1) suite
390
391
392
393Git 2.39.1                        2023-01-13               GIT-FOR-EACH-REF(1)
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