1GIT-CAT-FILE(1) Git Manual GIT-CAT-FILE(1)
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6 git-cat-file - Provide contents or details of repository objects
7
9 git cat-file <type> <object>
10 git cat-file (-e | -p) <object>
11 git cat-file (-t | -s) [--allow-unknown-type] <object>
12 git cat-file (--textconv | --filters)
13 [<rev>:<path|tree-ish> | --path=<path|tree-ish> <rev>]
14 git cat-file (--batch | --batch-check | --batch-command) [--batch-all-objects]
15 [--buffer] [--follow-symlinks] [--unordered]
16 [--textconv | --filters] [-Z]
17
19 Output the contents or other properties such as size, type or delta
20 information of one or more objects.
21 This command can operate in two modes, depending on whether an option
23 from the --batch family is specified.
24 In non-batch mode, the command provides information on an object named
26 on the command line.
27 In batch mode, arguments are read from standard input.
29
31 <object>
32 The name of the object to show. For a more complete list of ways to
33 spell object names, see the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in
34 gitrevisions(7).
35 -t
37 Instead of the content, show the object type identified by
38 <object>.
39 -s
41 Instead of the content, show the object size identified by
42 <object>. If used with --use-mailmap option, will show the size of
43 updated object after replacing idents using the mailmap mechanism.
44 -e
46 Exit with zero status if <object> exists and is a valid object. If
47 <object> is of an invalid format, exit with non-zero status and
48 emit an error on stderr.
49 -p
51 Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type.
52 <type>
54 Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking for a
55 type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given <object> is
56 also permitted. An example is to ask for a "tree" with <object>
57 being a commit object that contains it, or to ask for a "blob" with
58 <object> being a tag object that points at it.
59 --[no-]mailmap, --[no-]use-mailmap
61 Use mailmap file to map author, committer and tagger names and
62 email addresses to canonical real names and email addresses. See
63 git-shortlog(1).
64 --textconv
66 Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case,
67 <object> has to be of the form <tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path> in
68 order to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at
69 <path>.
70 --filters
72 Show the content as converted by the filters configured in the
73 current working tree for the given <path> (i.e. smudge filters,
74 end-of-line conversion, etc). In this case, <object> has to be of
75 the form <tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path>.
76 --path=<path>
78 For use with --textconv or --filters, to allow specifying an object
79 name and a path separately, e.g. when it is difficult to figure out
80 the revision from which the blob came.
81 --batch, --batch=<format>
83 Print object information and contents for each object provided on
84 stdin. May not be combined with any other options or arguments
85 except --textconv, --filters, or --use-mailmap.
86 • When used with --textconv or --filters, the input lines must
88 specify the path, separated by whitespace. See the section
89 BATCH OUTPUT below for details.
90 • When used with --use-mailmap, for commit and tag objects, the
92 contents part of the output shows the identities replaced using
93 the mailmap mechanism, while the information part of the output
94 shows the size of the object as if it actually recorded the
95 replacement identities.
96 --batch-check, --batch-check=<format>
98 Print object information for each object provided on stdin. May not
99 be combined with any other options or arguments except --textconv,
100 --filters or --use-mailmap.
101 • When used with --textconv or --filters, the input lines must
103 specify the path, separated by whitespace. See the section
104 BATCH OUTPUT below for details.
105 • When used with --use-mailmap, for commit and tag objects, the
107 printed object information shows the size of the object as if
108 the identities recorded in it were replaced by the mailmap
109 mechanism.
110 --batch-command, --batch-command=<format>
112 Enter a command mode that reads commands and arguments from stdin.
113 May only be combined with --buffer, --textconv, --use-mailmap or
114 --filters.
115 • When used with --textconv or --filters, the input lines must
117 specify the path, separated by whitespace. See the section
118 BATCH OUTPUT below for details.
119 • When used with --use-mailmap, for commit and tag objects, the
121 contents command shows the identities replaced using the
122 mailmap mechanism, while the info command shows the size of the
123 object as if it actually recorded the replacement identities.
124 --batch-command recognizes the following commands:
126 contents <object>
128 Print object contents for object reference <object>. This
129 corresponds to the output of --batch.
130 info <object>
132 Print object info for object reference <object>. This
133 corresponds to the output of --batch-check.
134 flush
136 Used with --buffer to execute all preceding commands that were
137 issued since the beginning or since the last flush was issued.
138 When --buffer is used, no output will come until a flush is
139 issued. When --buffer is not used, commands are flushed each
140 time without issuing flush.
141 --batch-all-objects
143 Instead of reading a list of objects on stdin, perform the
144 requested batch operation on all objects in the repository and any
145 alternate object stores (not just reachable objects). Requires
146 --batch or --batch-check be specified. By default, the objects are
147 visited in order sorted by their hashes; see also --unordered
148 below. Objects are presented as-is, without respecting the
149 "replace" mechanism of git-replace(1).
150 --buffer
152 Normally batch output is flushed after each object is output, so
153 that a process can interactively read and write from cat-file. With
154 this option, the output uses normal stdio buffering; this is much
155 more efficient when invoking --batch-check or --batch-command on a
156 large number of objects.
157 --unordered
159 When --batch-all-objects is in use, visit objects in an order which
160 may be more efficient for accessing the object contents than hash
161 order. The exact details of the order are unspecified, but if you
162 do not require a specific order, this should generally result in
163 faster output, especially with --batch. Note that cat-file will
164 still show each object only once, even if it is stored multiple
165 times in the repository.
166 --allow-unknown-type
168 Allow -s or -t to query broken/corrupt objects of unknown type.
169 --follow-symlinks
171 With --batch or --batch-check, follow symlinks inside the
172 repository when requesting objects with extended SHA-1 expressions
173 of the form tree-ish:path-in-tree. Instead of providing output
174 about the link itself, provide output about the linked-to object.
175 If a symlink points outside the tree-ish (e.g. a link to /foo or a
176 root-level link to ../foo), the portion of the link which is
177 outside the tree will be printed.
178 This option does not (currently) work correctly when an object in
180 the index is specified (e.g. :link instead of HEAD:link) rather
181 than one in the tree.
182 This option cannot (currently) be used unless --batch or
184 --batch-check is used.
185 For example, consider a git repository containing:
187 f: a file containing "hello\n"
189 link: a symlink to f
190 dir/link: a symlink to ../f
191 plink: a symlink to ../f
192 alink: a symlink to /etc/passwd
193 For a regular file f, echo HEAD:f | git cat-file --batch would
195 print
196 ce013625030ba8dba906f756967f9e9ca394464a blob 6
198 And echo HEAD:link | git cat-file --batch --follow-symlinks would
200 print the same thing, as would HEAD:dir/link, as they both point at
201 HEAD:f.
202 Without --follow-symlinks, these would print data about the symlink
204 itself. In the case of HEAD:link, you would see
205 4d1ae35ba2c8ec712fa2a379db44ad639ca277bd blob 1
207 Both plink and alink point outside the tree, so they would
209 respectively print:
210 symlink 4
212 ../f
213 symlink 11
215 /etc/passwd
216 -Z
218 Only meaningful with --batch, --batch-check, or --batch-command;
219 input and output is NUL-delimited instead of newline-delimited.
220 -z
222 Only meaningful with --batch, --batch-check, or --batch-command;
223 input is NUL-delimited instead of newline-delimited. This option is
224 deprecated in favor of -Z as the output can otherwise be ambiguous.
225
227 If -t is specified, one of the <type>.
228 If -s is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes.
230 If -e is specified, no output, unless the <object> is malformed.
232 If -p is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed.
234 If <type> is specified, the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the
236 <object> will be returned.
237
239 If --batch or --batch-check is given, cat-file will read objects from
240 stdin, one per line, and print information about them. By default, the
241 whole line is considered as an object, as if it were fed to git-rev-
242 parse(1).
243 When --batch-command is given, cat-file will read commands from stdin,
245 one per line, and print information based on the command given. With
246 --batch-command, the info command followed by an object will print
247 information about the object the same way --batch-check would, and the
248 contents command followed by an object prints contents in the same way
249 --batch would.
250 You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom
252 <format>. The <format> is copied literally to stdout for each object,
253 with placeholders of the form %(atom) expanded, followed by a newline.
254 The available atoms are:
255 objectname
257 The full hex representation of the object name.
258 objecttype
260 The type of the object (the same as cat-file -t reports).
261 objectsize
263 The size, in bytes, of the object (the same as cat-file -s
264 reports).
265 objectsize:disk
267 The size, in bytes, that the object takes up on disk. See the note
268 about on-disk sizes in the CAVEATS section below.
269 deltabase
271 If the object is stored as a delta on-disk, this expands to the
272 full hex representation of the delta base object name. Otherwise,
273 expands to the null OID (all zeroes). See CAVEATS below.
274 rest
276 If this atom is used in the output string, input lines are split at
277 the first whitespace boundary. All characters before that
278 whitespace are considered to be the object name; characters after
279 that first run of whitespace (i.e., the "rest" of the line) are
280 output in place of the %(rest) atom.
281 If no format is specified, the default format is %(objectname)
283 %(objecttype) %(objectsize).
284 If --batch is specified, or if --batch-command is used with the
286 contents command, the object information is followed by the object
287 contents (consisting of %(objectsize) bytes), followed by a newline.
288 For example, --batch without a custom format would produce:
290 <oid> SP <type> SP <size> LF
292 <contents> LF
293 Whereas --batch-check='%(objectname) %(objecttype)' would produce:
295 <oid> SP <type> LF
297 If a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object in
299 the repository, then cat-file will ignore any custom format and print:
300 <object> SP missing LF
302 If a name is specified that might refer to more than one object (an
304 ambiguous short sha), then cat-file will ignore any custom format and
305 print:
306 <object> SP ambiguous LF
308 If --follow-symlinks is used, and a symlink in the repository points
310 outside the repository, then cat-file will ignore any custom format and
311 print:
312 symlink SP <size> LF
314 <symlink> LF
315 The symlink will either be absolute (beginning with a /), or relative
317 to the tree root. For instance, if dir/link points to ../../foo, then
318 <symlink> will be ../foo. <size> is the size of the symlink in bytes.
319 If --follow-symlinks is used, the following error messages will be
321 displayed:
322 <object> SP missing LF
324 is printed when the initial symlink requested does not exist.
326 dangling SP <size> LF
328 <object> LF
329 is printed when the initial symlink exists, but something that it
331 (transitive-of) points to does not.
332 loop SP <size> LF
334 <object> LF
335 is printed for symlink loops (or any symlinks that require more than 40
337 link resolutions to resolve).
338 notdir SP <size> LF
340 <object> LF
341 is printed when, during symlink resolution, a file is used as a
343 directory name.
344 Alternatively, when -Z is passed, the line feeds in any of the above
346 examples are replaced with NUL terminators. This ensures that output
347 will be parsable if the output itself would contain a linefeed and is
348 thus recommended for scripting purposes.
349
351 Note that the sizes of objects on disk are reported accurately, but
352 care should be taken in drawing conclusions about which refs or objects
353 are responsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object
354 may be much larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but
355 the choice of which object is the base and which is the delta is
356 arbitrary and is subject to change during a repack.
357 Note also that multiple copies of an object may be present in the
359 object database; in this case, it is undefined which copy’s size or
360 delta base will be reported.
361
363 Part of the git(1) suite
364Git 2.43.0 11/20/2023 GIT-CAT-FILE(1)