# git-log

## NAME



           git-log - Show commit logs
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **git log**[_< options>_] [_< revision-range>_] [[**--**] _< path>_...]
    


## DESCRIPTION



           Shows the commit logs.
    
           List commits that are reachable by following the **parent** links from
           the given commit(s), but exclude commits that are reachable from
           the one(s) given with a _^_ in front of them. The output is given in
           reverse chronological order by default.
    
           You can think of this as a set operation. Commits reachable from
           any of the commits given on the command line form a set, and then
           commits reachable from any of the ones given with _^_ in front are
           subtracted from that set. The remaining commits are what comes out
           in the command’s output. Various other options and paths
           parameters can be used to further limit the result.
    
           Thus, the following command:
    
               $ git log foo bar ^baz
    
           means "list all the commits which are reachable from _foo_ or _bar_ ,
           but not from _baz_ ".
    
           A special notation "_< commit1>_**..**_< commit2>_" can be used as a
           short-hand for "**^**_< commit1> <commit2>_". For example, either of the
           following may be used interchangeably:
    
               $ git log origin..HEAD
               $ git log HEAD ^origin
    
           Another special notation is "_< commit1>_**...**_< commit2>_" which is
           useful for merges. The resulting set of commits is the symmetric
           difference between the two operands. The following two commands
           are equivalent:
    
               $ git log A B --not $(git merge-base --all A B)
               $ git log A...B
    
           The command takes options applicable to the git-rev-list(1)
           command to control what is shown and how, and options applicable
           to the git-diff(1) command to control how the changes each commit
           introduces are shown.
    


## OPTIONS



           **--follow**
               Continue listing the history of a file beyond renames (works
               only for a single file).
    
           **--no-decorate** , **--decorate**[**=**(**short** |**full** |**auto** |**no**)]
               Print out the ref names of any commits that are shown.
               Possible values are:
    
                   `short`;; the ref name prefixes `refs/heads/`, `refs/tags/` and
                           `refs/remotes/` are not printed.
                   `full`;; the full ref name (including prefix) is printed.
                   `auto`:: if the output is going to a terminal, the ref names
                           are shown as if `short` were given, otherwise no ref names are
                           shown.
    
               The option **--decorate** is short-hand for **--decorate=short**.
               Default to configuration value of **log.decorate** if configured,
               otherwise, **auto**.
    
           **--decorate-refs=**_< pattern>_, **--decorate-refs-exclude=**_< pattern>_
               For each candidate reference, do not use it for decoration if
               it matches any of the _< pattern>_ parameters given to
               **--decorate-refs-exclude** or if it doesn’t match any of the
               _< pattern>_ parameters given to **--decorate-refs**. The
               **log.excludeDecoration** config option allows excluding refs from
               the decorations, but an explicit **--decorate-refs** pattern will
               override a match in **log.excludeDecoration**.
    
               If none of these options or config settings are given, then
               references are used as decoration if they match **HEAD** ,
               **refs/heads/** , **refs/remotes/** , **refs/stash/** , or **refs/tags/**.
    
           **--clear-decorations**
               When specified, this option clears all previous
               **--decorate-refs** or **--decorate-refs-exclude** options and relaxes
               the default decoration filter to include all references. This
               option is assumed if the config value **log.initialDecorationSet**
               is set to **all**.
    
           **--source**
               Print out the ref name given on the command line by which each
               commit was reached.
    
           **--**[**no-**]**mailmap** , **--**[**no-**]**use-mailmap**
               Use mailmap file to map author and committer names and email
               addresses to canonical real names and email addresses. See
               git-shortlog(1).
    
           **--full-diff**
               Without this flag, **git log -p** _< path>_... shows commits that
               touch the specified paths, and diffs about the same specified
               paths. With this, the full diff is shown for commits that
               touch the specified paths; this means that "_< path>_..." limits
               only commits, and doesn’t limit diff for those commits.
    
               Note that this affects all diff-based output types, e.g. those
               produced by **--stat** , etc.
    
           **--log-size**
               Include a line **log size** _< number>_ in the output for each
               commit, where _< number>_ is the length of that commit’s message
               in bytes. Intended to speed up tools that read log messages
               from **git log** output by allowing them to allocate space in
               advance.
    
           **-L** _< start>_**,**_< end>_**:**_< file>_, **-L:**_< funcname>_**:**_< file>_
               Trace the evolution of the line range given by _< start>_**,**_< end>_,
               or by the function name regex _< funcname>_, within the _< file>_.
               You may not give any pathspec limiters. This is currently
               limited to a walk starting from a single revision, i.e., you
               may only give zero or one positive revision arguments, and
               _< start>_ and _< end>_ (or _< funcname>_) must exist in the starting
               revision. You can specify this option more than once. Implies
               **--patch**. Patch output can be suppressed using **--no-patch** , but
               other diff formats (namely **--raw** , **--numstat** , **--shortstat** ,
               **--dirstat** , **--summary** , **--name-only** , **--name-status** , **--check**) are
               not currently implemented.
    
               _< start>_ and _< end>_ can take one of these forms:
    
               •   _< number>_
    
                   If _< start>_ or _< end>_ is a number, it specifies an absolute
                   line number (lines count from 1).
    
               •   **/**_< regex>_**/**
    
                   This form will use the first line matching the given POSIX
                   _< regex>_. If _< start>_ is a regex, it will search from the
                   end of the previous **-L** range, if any, otherwise from the
                   start of file. If _< start>_ is **^/**_< regex>_**/** , it will search
                   from the start of file. If _< end>_ is a regex, it will
                   search starting at the line given by _< start>_.
    
               •   **+**_< offset>_ or **-**_< offset>_
    
                   This is only valid for _< end>_ and will specify a number of
                   lines before or after the line given by _< start>_.
    
               If **:**_< funcname>_ is given in place of _< start>_ and _< end>_, it is a
               regular expression that denotes the range from the first
               funcname line that matches _< funcname>_, up to the next funcname
               line.  **:**_< funcname>_ searches from the end of the previous **-L**
               range, if any, otherwise from the start of file.  **^:**_< funcname>_
               searches from the start of file. The function names are
               determined in the same way as **git diff** works out patch hunk
               headers (see _Defining a custom hunk-header_ in
               gitattributes(5)).
    
           _< revision-range>_
               Show only commits in the specified revision range. When no
               _< revision-range>_ is specified, it defaults to **HEAD**(i.e. the
               whole history leading to the current commit).  **origin..HEAD**
               specifies all the commits reachable from the current commit
               (i.e.  **HEAD**), but not from **origin**. For a complete list of ways
               to spell _< revision-range>_, see the _Specifying Ranges_ section
               of gitrevisions(7).
    
           [**--**] _< path>_...
               Show only commits that are enough to explain how the files
               that match the specified paths came to be. See _History_
               _Simplification_ below for details and other simplification
               modes.
    
               Paths may need to be prefixed with **--** to separate them from
               options or the revision range, when confusion arises.
    
       **Commit Limiting**
           Besides specifying a range of commits that should be listed using
           the special notations explained in the description, additional
           commit limiting may be applied.
    
           Using more options generally further limits the output (e.g.
           **--since=**_< date1>_ limits to commits newer than _< date1>_, and using it
           with **--grep=**_< pattern>_ further limits to commits whose log message
           has a line that matches _< pattern>_), unless otherwise noted.
    
           Note that these are applied before commit ordering and formatting
           options, such as **--reverse**.
    
           **-**_< number>_, **-n** _< number>_, **--max-count=**_< number>_
               Limit the output to _< number>_ commits.
    
           **--skip=**_< number>_
               Skip _< number>_ commits before starting to show the commit
               output.
    
           **--since=**_< date>_, **--after=**_< date>_
               Show commits more recent than _< date>_.
    
           **--since-as-filter=**_< date>_
               Show all commits more recent than _< date>_. This visits all
               commits in the range, rather than stopping at the first commit
               which is older than _< date>_.
    
           **--until=**_< date>_, **--before=**_< date>_
               Show commits older than _< date>_.
    
           **--author=**_< pattern>_, **--committer=**_< pattern>_
               Limit the commits output to ones with author/committer header
               lines that match the _< pattern>_ regular expression. With more
               than one **--author=**_< pattern>_, commits whose author matches any
               of the _< pattern>_ are chosen (similarly for multiple
               **--committer=**_< pattern>_).
    
           **--grep-reflog=**_< pattern>_
               Limit the commits output to ones with reflog entries that
               match the _< pattern>_ regular expression. With more than one
               **--grep-reflog** , commits whose reflog message matches any of the
               given patterns are chosen. It is an error to use this option
               unless **--walk-reflogs** is in use.
    
           **--grep=**_< pattern>_
               Limit the commits output to ones with a log message that
               matches the _< pattern>_ regular expression. With more than one
               **--grep=**_< pattern>_, commits whose message matches any of the
               _< pattern>_ are chosen (but see **--all-match**).
    
               When **--notes** is in effect, the message from the notes is
               matched as if it were part of the log message.
    
           **--all-match**
               Limit the commits output to ones that match all given **--grep** ,
               instead of ones that match at least one.
    
           **--invert-grep**
               Limit the commits output to ones with a log message that do
               not match the _< pattern>_ specified with **--grep=**_< pattern>_.
    
           **-i** , **--regexp-ignore-case**
               Match the regular expression limiting patterns without regard
               to letter case.
    
           **--basic-regexp**
               Consider the limiting patterns to be basic regular
               expressions; this is the default.
    
           **-E** , **--extended-regexp**
               Consider the limiting patterns to be extended regular
               expressions instead of the default basic regular expressions.
    
           **-F** , **--fixed-strings**
               Consider the limiting patterns to be fixed strings (don’t
               interpret pattern as a regular expression).
    
           **-P** , **--perl-regexp**
               Consider the limiting patterns to be Perl-compatible regular
               expressions.
    
               Support for these types of regular expressions is an optional
               compile-time dependency. If Git wasn’t compiled with support
               for them providing this option will cause it to die.
    
           **--remove-empty**
               Stop when a given path disappears from the tree.
    
           **--merges**
               Print only merge commits. This is exactly the same as
               **--min-parents=2**.
    
           **--no-merges**
               Do not print commits with more than one parent. This is
               exactly the same as **--max-parents=1**.
    
           **--min-parents=**_< number>_, **--max-parents=**_< number>_, **--no-min-parents** ,
           **--no-max-parents**
               Show only commits which have at least (or at most) that many
               parent commits. In particular, **--max-parents=1** is the same as
               **--no-merges** , **--min-parents=2** is the same as **--merges**.
               **--max-parents=0** gives all root commits and **--min-parents=3** all
               octopus merges.
    
               **--no-min-parents** and **--no-max-parents** reset these limits (to
               no limit) again. Equivalent forms are **--min-parents=0**(any
               commit has 0 or more parents) and **--max-parents=-1**(negative
               numbers denote no upper limit).
    
           **--first-parent**
               When finding commits to include, follow only the first parent
               commit upon seeing a merge commit. This option can give a
               better overview when viewing the evolution of a particular
               topic branch, because merges into a topic branch tend to be
               only about adjusting to updated upstream from time to time,
               and this option allows you to ignore the individual commits
               brought in to your history by such a merge.
    
               This option also changes default diff format for merge commits
               to **first-parent** , see **--diff-merges=first-parent** for details.
    
           **--exclude-first-parent-only**
               When finding commits to exclude (with a _^_), follow only the
               first parent commit upon seeing a merge commit. This can be
               used to find the set of changes in a topic branch from the
               point where it diverged from the remote branch, given that
               arbitrary merges can be valid topic branch changes.
    
           **--not**
               Reverses the meaning of the _^_ prefix (or lack thereof) for all
               following revision specifiers, up to the next **--not**. When used
               on the command line before --stdin, the revisions passed
               through stdin will not be affected by it. Conversely, when
               passed via standard input, the revisions passed on the command
               line will not be affected by it.
    
           **--all**
               Pretend as if all the refs in **refs/** , along with **HEAD** , are
               listed on the command line as _< commit>_.
    
           **--branches**[**=**_< pattern>_]
               Pretend as if all the refs in **refs/heads** are listed on the
               command line as _< commit>_. If _< pattern>_ is given, limit
               branches to ones matching given shell glob. If _< pattern>_ lacks
               _?_ , _*_ , or _[_ , _/*_ at the end is implied.
    
           **--tags**[**=**_< pattern>_]
               Pretend as if all the refs in **refs/tags** are listed on the
               command line as _< commit>_. If _< pattern>_ is given, limit tags to
               ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks _?_ , _*_ , or _[_ ,
               _/*_ at the end is implied.
    
           **--remotes**[**=**_< pattern>_]
               Pretend as if all the refs in **refs/remotes** are listed on the
               command line as _< commit>_. If _< pattern>_ is given, limit
               remote-tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob. If
               pattern lacks _?_ , _*_ , or _[_ , _/*_ at the end is implied.
    
           **--glob=**_< glob-pattern>_
               Pretend as if all the refs matching shell glob _< glob-pattern>_
               are listed on the command line as _< commit>_. Leading _refs/_ , is
               automatically prepended if missing. If pattern lacks _?_ , _*_ , or
               _[_ , _/*_ at the end is implied.
    
           **--exclude=**_< glob-pattern>_
               Do not include refs matching _< glob-pattern>_ that the next
               **--all** , **--branches** , **--tags** , **--remotes** , or **--glob** would
               otherwise consider. Repetitions of this option accumulate
               exclusion patterns up to the next **--all** , **--branches** , **--tags** ,
               **--remotes** , or **--glob** option (other options or arguments do not
               clear accumulated patterns).
    
               The patterns given should not begin with **refs/heads** ,
               **refs/tags** , or **refs/remotes** when applied to **--branches** , **--tags** ,
               or **--remotes** , respectively, and they must begin with **refs/**
               when applied to **--glob** or **--all**. If a trailing _/*_ is intended,
               it must be given explicitly.
    
           **--exclude-hidden=**(**fetch** |**receive** |**uploadpack**)
               Do not include refs that would be hidden by **git-fetch** ,
               **git-receive-pack** or **git-upload-pack** by consulting the
               appropriate **fetch.hideRefs** , **receive.hideRefs** or
               **uploadpack.hideRefs** configuration along with **transfer.hideRefs**
               (see git-config(1)). This option affects the next pseudo-ref
               option **--all** or **--glob** and is cleared after processing them.
    
           **--reflog**
               Pretend as if all objects mentioned by reflogs are listed on
               the command line as _< commit>_.
    
           **--alternate-refs**
               Pretend as if all objects mentioned as ref tips of alternate
               repositories were listed on the command line. An alternate
               repository is any repository whose object directory is
               specified in **objects/info/alternates**. The set of included
               objects may be modified by **core.alternateRefsCommand** , etc. See
               git-config(1).
    
           **--single-worktree**
               By default, all working trees will be examined by the
               following options when there are more than one (see
               git-worktree(1)): **--all** , **--reflog** and **--indexed-objects**. This
               option forces them to examine the current working tree only.
    
           **--ignore-missing**
               Upon seeing an invalid object name in the input, pretend as if
               the bad input was not given.
    
           **--bisect**
               Pretend as if the bad bisection ref **refs/bisect/bad** was listed
               and as if it was followed by **--not** and the good bisection refs
               **refs/bisect/good-*** on the command line.
    
           **--stdin**
               In addition to getting arguments from the command line, read
               them from standard input as well. This accepts commits and
               pseudo-options like **--all** and **--glob=**. When a **--** separator is
               seen, the following input is treated as paths and used to
               limit the result. Flags like **--not** which are read via standard
               input are only respected for arguments passed in the same way
               and will not influence any subsequent command line arguments.
    
           **--cherry-mark**
               Like **--cherry-pick**(see below) but mark equivalent commits
               with **=** rather than omitting them, and inequivalent ones with
               **+**.
    
           **--cherry-pick**
               Omit any commit that introduces the same change as another
               commit on the “other side” when the set of commits are limited
               with symmetric difference.
    
               For example, if you have two branches, **A** and **B** , a usual way to
               list all commits on only one side of them is with **--left-right**
               (see the example below in the description of the **--left-right**
               option). However, it shows the commits that were cherry-picked
               from the other branch (for example, “3rd on b” may be
               cherry-picked from branch A). With this option, such pairs of
               commits are excluded from the output.
    
           **--left-only** , **--right-only**
               List only commits on the respective side of a symmetric
               difference, i.e. only those which would be marked < resp. > by
               **--left-right**.
    
               For example, **--cherry-pick --right-only A...B** omits those
               commits from **B** which are in **A** or are patch-equivalent to a
               commit in **A**. In other words, this lists the **+** commits from **git**
               **cherry A B**. More precisely, **--cherry-pick --right-only**
               **--no-merges** gives the exact list.
    
           **--cherry**
               A synonym for **--right-only --cherry-mark --no-merges** ; useful
               to limit the output to the commits on our side and mark those
               that have been applied to the other side of a forked history
               with **git log --cherry upstream...mybranch** , similar to **git**
               **cherry upstream mybranch**.
    
           **-g** , **--walk-reflogs**
               Instead of walking the commit ancestry chain, walk reflog
               entries from the most recent one to older ones. When this
               option is used you cannot specify commits to exclude (that is,
               **^**_< commit>_, _< commit1>_**..**_< commit2>_, and _< commit1>_**...**_< commit2>_
               notations cannot be used).
    
               With **--pretty** format other than **oneline** and **reference**(for
               obvious reasons), this causes the output to have two extra
               lines of information taken from the reflog. The reflog
               designator in the output may be shown as **ref@**{_< Nth>_} (where
               _< Nth>_ is the reverse-chronological index in the reflog) or as
               **ref@**{_< timestamp>_} (with the _< timestamp>_ for that entry),
               depending on a few rules:
    
                1. If the starting point is specified as **ref@**{_< Nth>_}, show
                   the index format.
    
                2. If the starting point was specified as **ref@**{now}, show the
                   timestamp format.
    
                3. If neither was used, but **--date** was given on the command
                   line, show the timestamp in the format requested by
                   **--date**.
    
                4. Otherwise, show the index format.
    
               Under **--pretty=oneline** , the commit message is prefixed with
               this information on the same line. This option cannot be
               combined with **--reverse**. See also git-reflog(1).
    
               Under **--pretty=reference** , this information will not be shown
               at all.
    
           **--merge**
               Show commits touching conflicted paths in the range
               **HEAD...**_< other>_, where _< other>_ is the first existing pseudoref
               in **MERGE_HEAD** , **CHERRY_PICK_HEAD** , **REVERT_HEAD** or **REBASE_HEAD**.
               Only works when the index has unmerged entries. This option
               can be used to show relevant commits when resolving conflicts
               from a 3-way merge.
    
           **--boundary**
               Output excluded boundary commits. Boundary commits are
               prefixed with **-**.
    
       **History Simplification**
           Sometimes you are only interested in parts of the history, for
           example the commits modifying a particular <path>. But there are
           two parts of _History Simplification_ , one part is selecting the
           commits and the other is how to do it, as there are various
           strategies to simplify the history.
    
           The following options select the commits to be shown:
    
           _< paths>_
               Commits modifying the given <paths> are selected.
    
           **--simplify-by-decoration**
               Commits that are referred by some branch or tag are selected.
    
           Note that extra commits can be shown to give a meaningful history.
    
           The following options affect the way the simplification is
           performed:
    
           **Default mode**
               Simplifies the history to the simplest history explaining the
               final state of the tree. Simplest because it prunes some side
               branches if the end result is the same (i.e. merging branches
               with the same content)
    
           **--show-pulls**
               Include all commits from the default mode, but also any merge
               commits that are not TREESAME to the first parent but are
               TREESAME to a later parent. This mode is helpful for showing
               the merge commits that "first introduced" a change to a
               branch.
    
           **--full-history**
               Same as the default mode, but does not prune some history.
    
           **--dense**
               Only the selected commits are shown, plus some to have a
               meaningful history.
    
           **--sparse**
               All commits in the simplified history are shown.
    
           **--simplify-merges**
               Additional option to **--full-history** to remove some needless
               merges from the resulting history, as there are no selected
               commits contributing to this merge.
    
           **--ancestry-path**[**=**_< commit>_]
               When given a range of commits to display (e.g.
               _< commit1>_**..**_< commit2>_ or _< commit2>_ **^**_< commit1>_), and a commit
               _< commit>_ in that range, only display commits in that range
               that are ancestors of _< commit>_, descendants of _< commit>_, or
               _< commit>_ itself. If no commit is specified, use _< commit1>_ (the
               excluded part of the range) as _< commit>_. Can be passed
               multiple times; if so, a commit is included if it is any of
               the commits given or if it is an ancestor or descendant of one
               of them.
    
           A more detailed explanation follows.
    
           Suppose you specified **foo** as the _< paths>_. We shall call commits
           that modify **foo**!TREESAME, and the rest TREESAME. (In a diff
           filtered for **foo** , they look different and equal, respectively.)
    
           In the following, we will always refer to the same example history
           to illustrate the differences between simplification settings. We
           assume that you are filtering for a file **foo** in this commit graph:
    
                         .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
                        /     /   /   /   /   /
                       I     B   C   D   E   Y
                        \   /   /   /   /   /
                         `-------------'   X
    
           The horizontal line of history A---Q is taken to be the first
           parent of each merge. The commits are:
    
           •   **I** is the initial commit, in which **foo** exists with contents
               **asdf** , and a file **quux** exists with contents **quux**. Initial
               commits are compared to an empty tree, so **I** is !TREESAME.
    
           •   In **A** , **foo** contains just **foo**.
    
           •   **B** contains the same change as **A**. Its merge **M** is trivial and
               hence TREESAME to all parents.
    
           •   **C** does not change **foo** , but its merge **N** changes it to **foobar** ,
               so it is not TREESAME to any parent.
    
           •   **D** sets **foo** to **baz**. Its merge **O** combines the strings from **N** and
               **D** to **foobarbaz** ; i.e., it is not TREESAME to any parent.
    
           •   **E** changes **quux** to **xyzzy** , and its merge **P** combines the strings
               to **quux xyzzy**.  **P** is TREESAME to **O** , but not to **E**.
    
           •   **X** is an independent root commit that added a new file **side** ,
               and **Y** modified it.  **Y** is TREESAME to **X**. Its merge **Q** added **side**
               to **P** , and **Q** is TREESAME to **P** , but not to **Y**.
    
           **rev-list** walks backwards through history, including or excluding
           commits based on whether **--full-history** and/or parent rewriting
           (via **--parents** or **--children**) are used. The following settings are
           available.
    
           Default mode
               Commits are included if they are not TREESAME to any parent
               (though this can be changed, see **--sparse** below). If the
               commit was a merge, and it was TREESAME to one parent, follow
               only that parent. (Even if there are several TREESAME parents,
               follow only one of them.) Otherwise, follow all parents.
    
               This results in:
    
                             .-A---N---O
                            /     /   /
                           I---------D
    
               Note how the rule to only follow the TREESAME parent, if one
               is available, removed **B** from consideration entirely.  **C** was
               considered via **N** , but is TREESAME. Root commits are compared
               to an empty tree, so **I** is !TREESAME.
    
               Parent/child relations are only visible with **--parents** , but
               that does not affect the commits selected in default mode, so
               we have shown the parent lines.
    
           **--full-history** without parent rewriting
               This mode differs from the default in one point: always follow
               all parents of a merge, even if it is TREESAME to one of them.
               Even if more than one side of the merge has commits that are
               included, this does not imply that the merge itself is! In the
               example, we get
    
                           I  A  B  N  D  O  P  Q
    
               **M** was excluded because it is TREESAME to both parents.  **E** , **C**
               and **B** were all walked, but only **B** was !TREESAME, so the others
               do not appear.
    
               Note that without parent rewriting, it is not really possible
               to talk about the parent/child relationships between the
               commits, so we show them disconnected.
    
           **--full-history** with parent rewriting
               Ordinary commits are only included if they are !TREESAME
               (though this can be changed, see **--sparse** below).
    
               Merges are always included. However, their parent list is
               rewritten: Along each parent, prune away commits that are not
               included themselves. This results in
    
                             .-A---M---N---O---P---Q
                            /     /   /   /   /
                           I     B   /   D   /
                            \   /   /   /   /
                             `-------------'
    
               Compare to **--full-history** without rewriting above. Note that **E**
               was pruned away because it is TREESAME, but the parent list of
               P was rewritten to contain **E** 's parent **I**. The same happened for
               **C** and **N** , and **X** , **Y** and **Q**.
    
           In addition to the above settings, you can change whether TREESAME
           affects inclusion:
    
           **--dense**
               Commits that are walked are included if they are not TREESAME
               to any parent.
    
           **--sparse**
               All commits that are walked are included.
    
               Note that without **--full-history** , this still simplifies
               merges: if one of the parents is TREESAME, we follow only that
               one, so the other sides of the merge are never walked.
    
           **--simplify-merges**
               First, build a history graph in the same way that
               **--full-history** with parent rewriting does (see above).
    
               Then simplify each commit **C** to its replacement **C** ' in the final
               history according to the following rules:
    
               •   Set **C** ' to **C**.
    
               •   Replace each parent **P** of **C** ' with its simplification **P** '. In
                   the process, drop parents that are ancestors of other
                   parents or that are root commits TREESAME to an empty
                   tree, and remove duplicates, but take care to never drop
                   all parents that we are TREESAME to.
    
               •   If after this parent rewriting, **C** ' is a root or merge
                   commit (has zero or >1 parents), a boundary commit, or
                   !TREESAME, it remains. Otherwise, it is replaced with its
                   only parent.
    
               The effect of this is best shown by way of comparing to
               **--full-history** with parent rewriting. The example turns into:
    
                             .-A---M---N---O
                            /     /       /
                           I     B       D
                            \   /       /
                             `---------'
    
               Note the major differences in **N** , **P** , and **Q** over **--full-history** :
    
               •   **N** 's parent list had **I** removed, because it is an ancestor
                   of the other parent **M**. Still, **N** remained because it is
                   !TREESAME.
    
               •   **P** 's parent list similarly had **I** removed.  **P** was then
                   removed completely, because it had one parent and is
                   TREESAME.
    
               •   **Q** 's parent list had **Y** simplified to **X**.  **X** was then
                   removed, because it was a TREESAME root.  **Q** was then
                   removed completely, because it had one parent and is
                   TREESAME.
    
           There is another simplification mode available:
    
           **--ancestry-path**[**=**_< commit>_]
               Limit the displayed commits to those which are an ancestor of
               _< commit>_, or which are a descendant of _< commit>_, or are
               _< commit>_ itself.
    
               As an example use case, consider the following commit history:
    
                               D---E-------F
                              /     \       \
                             B---C---G---H---I---J
                            /                     \
                           A-------K---------------L--M
    
               A regular _D..M_ computes the set of commits that are ancestors
               of **M** , but excludes the ones that are ancestors of **D**. This is
               useful to see what happened to the history leading to **M** since
               **D** , in the sense that "what does **M** have that did not exist in
               **D** ". The result in this example would be all the commits,
               except **A** and **B**(and **D** itself, of course).
    
               When we want to find out what commits in **M** are contaminated
               with the bug introduced by **D** and need fixing, however, we
               might want to view only the subset of **D..M** that are actually
               descendants of **D** , i.e. excluding **C** and **K**. This is exactly what
               the **--ancestry-path** option does. Applied to the **D..M** range, it
               results in:
    
                                   E-------F
                                    \       \
                                     G---H---I---J
                                                  \
                                                   L--M
    
               We can also use **--ancestry-path=D** instead of **--ancestry-path**
               which means the same thing when applied to the **D..M** range but
               is just more explicit.
    
               If we instead are interested in a given topic within this
               range, and all commits affected by that topic, we may only
               want to view the subset of **D..M** which contain that topic in
               their ancestry path. So, using **--ancestry-path=H D..M** for
               example would result in:
    
                                   E
                                    \
                                 C---G---H---I---J
                                                  \
                                                   L--M
    
               Whereas **--ancestry-path=K D..M** would result in
    
                                   K---------------L--M
    
           Before discussing another option, **--show-pulls** , we need to create
           a new example history.
    
           A common problem users face when looking at simplified history is
           that a commit they know changed a file somehow does not appear in
           the file’s simplified history. Let’s demonstrate a new example and
           show how options such as **--full-history** and **--simplify-merges**
           works in that case:
    
                         .-A---M-----C--N---O---P
                        /     / \  \  \/   /   /
                       I     B   \  R-'`-Z'   /
                        \   /     \/         /
                         \ /      /\        /
                          `---X--'  `---Y--'
    
           For this example, suppose **I** created **file.txt** which was modified by
           **A** , **B** , and **X** in different ways. The single-parent commits **C** , **Z** , and
           **Y** do not change **file.txt**. The merge commit **M** was created by
           resolving the merge conflict to include both changes from **A** and **B**
           and hence is not TREESAME to either. The merge commit **R** , however,
           was created by ignoring the contents of **file.txt** at **M** and taking
           only the contents of **file.txt** at **X**. Hence, **R** is TREESAME to **X** but
           not **M**. Finally, the natural merge resolution to create **N** is to
           take the contents of **file.txt** at **R** , so **N** is TREESAME to **R** but not
           **C**. The merge commits **O** and **P** are TREESAME to their first parents,
           but not to their second parents, **Z** and **Y** respectively.
    
           When using the default mode, **N** and **R** both have a TREESAME parent,
           so those edges are walked and the others are ignored. The
           resulting history graph is:
    
                       I---X
    
           When using **--full-history** , Git walks every edge. This will
           discover the commits **A** and **B** and the merge **M** , but also will reveal
           the merge commits **O** and **P**. With parent rewriting, the resulting
           graph is:
    
                         .-A---M--------N---O---P
                        /     / \  \  \/   /   /
                       I     B   \  R-'`--'   /
                        \   /     \/         /
                         \ /      /\        /
                          `---X--'  `------'
    
           Here, the merge commits **O** and **P** contribute extra noise, as they
           did not actually contribute a change to **file.txt**. They only merged
           a topic that was based on an older version of **file.txt**. This is a
           common issue in repositories using a workflow where many
           contributors work in parallel and merge their topic branches along
           a single trunk: many unrelated merges appear in the **--full-history**
           results.
    
           When using the **--simplify-merges** option, the commits **O** and **P**
           disappear from the results. This is because the rewritten second
           parents of **O** and **P** are reachable from their first parents. Those
           edges are removed and then the commits look like single-parent
           commits that are TREESAME to their parent. This also happens to
           the commit **N** , resulting in a history view as follows:
    
                         .-A---M--.
                        /     /    \
                       I     B      R
                        \   /      /
                         \ /      /
                          `---X--'
    
           In this view, we see all of the important single-parent changes
           from **A** , **B** , and **X**. We also see the carefully-resolved merge **M** and
           the not-so-carefully-resolved merge **R**. This is usually enough
           information to determine why the commits **A** and **B** "disappeared"
           from history in the default view. However, there are a few issues
           with this approach.
    
           The first issue is performance. Unlike any previous option, the
           **--simplify-merges** option requires walking the entire commit
           history before returning a single result. This can make the option
           difficult to use for very large repositories.
    
           The second issue is one of auditing. When many contributors are
           working on the same repository, it is important which merge
           commits introduced a change into an important branch. The
           problematic merge **R** above is not likely to be the merge commit
           that was used to merge into an important branch. Instead, the
           merge **N** was used to merge **R** and **X** into the important branch. This
           commit may have information about why the change **X** came to
           override the changes from **A** and **B** in its commit message.
    
           **--show-pulls**
               In addition to the commits shown in the default history, show
               each merge commit that is not TREESAME to its first parent but
               is TREESAME to a later parent.
    
               When a merge commit is included by **--show-pulls** , the merge is
               treated as if it "pulled" the change from another branch. When
               using **--show-pulls** on this example (and no other options) the
               resulting graph is:
    
                           I---X---R---N
    
               Here, the merge commits **R** and **N** are included because they
               pulled the commits **X** and **R** into the base branch, respectively.
               These merges are the reason the commits **A** and **B** do not appear
               in the default history.
    
               When **--show-pulls** is paired with **--simplify-merges** , the graph
               includes all of the necessary information:
    
                             .-A---M--.   N
                            /     /    \ /
                           I     B      R
                            \   /      /
                             \ /      /
                              `---X--'
    
               Notice that since **M** is reachable from **R** , the edge from **N** to **M**
               was simplified away. However, **N** still appears in the history
               as an important commit because it "pulled" the change **R** into
               the main branch.
    
           The **--simplify-by-decoration** option allows you to view only the
           big picture of the topology of the history, by omitting commits
           that are not referenced by tags. Commits are marked as !TREESAME
           (in other words, kept after history simplification rules described
           above) if (1) they are referenced by tags, or (2) they change the
           contents of the paths given on the command line. All other commits
           are marked as TREESAME (subject to be simplified away).
    
       **Commit Ordering**
           By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological order.
    
           **--date-order**
               Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
               otherwise show commits in the commit timestamp order.
    
           **--author-date-order**
               Show no parents before all of its children are shown, but
               otherwise show commits in the author timestamp order.
    
           **--topo-order**
               Show no parents before all of its children are shown, and
               avoid showing commits on multiple lines of history intermixed.
    
               For example, in a commit history like this:
    
                       ---1----2----4----7
                           \              \
                            3----5----6----8---
    
               where the numbers denote the order of commit timestamps, **git**
               **rev-list** and friends with **--date-order** show the commits in the
               timestamp order: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.
    
               With **--topo-order** , they would show 8 6 5 3 7 4 2 1 (or 8 7 4 2
               6 5 3 1); some older commits are shown before newer ones in
               order to avoid showing the commits from two parallel
               development track mixed together.
    
           **--reverse**
               Output the commits chosen to be shown (see _Commit Limiting_
               section above) in reverse order. Cannot be combined with
               **--walk-reflogs**.
    
       **Object Traversal**
           These options are mostly targeted for packing of Git repositories.
    
           **--no-walk**[**=**(**sorted** |**unsorted**)]
               Only show the given commits, but do not traverse their
               ancestors. This has no effect if a range is specified. If the
               argument **unsorted** is given, the commits are shown in the order
               they were given on the command line. Otherwise (if **sorted** or
               no argument was given), the commits are shown in reverse
               chronological order by commit time. Cannot be combined with
               **--graph**.
    
           **--do-walk**
               Overrides a previous **--no-walk**.
    
       **Commit Formatting**
           **--pretty**[**=**_< format>_], **--format=**_< format>_
               Pretty-print the contents of the commit logs in a given
               format, where _< format>_ can be one of **oneline** , **short** , **medium** ,
               **full** , **fuller** , **reference** , **email** , **raw** , **format:**_< string>_ and
               **tformat:**_< string>_. When _< format>_ is none of the above, and has
               **%**_< placeholder>_ in it, it acts as if **--pretty=tformat:**_< format>_
               were given.
    
               See the "PRETTY FORMATS" section for some additional details
               for each format. When **=**_< format>_ part is omitted, it defaults
               to **medium**.
    
                   **Note**
                   you can specify the default pretty format in the
                   repository configuration (see git-config(1)).
    
           **--abbrev-commit**
               Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal commit object
               name, show a prefix that names the object uniquely.
               **--abbrev=**_< n>_ (which also modifies diff output, if it is
               displayed) option can be used to specify the minimum length of
               the prefix.
    
               This should make **--pretty=oneline** a whole lot more readable
               for people using 80-column terminals.
    
           **--no-abbrev-commit**
               Show the full 40-byte hexadecimal commit object name. This
               negates **--abbrev-commit** , either explicit or implied by other
               options such as **--oneline**. It also overrides the
               **log.abbrevCommit** variable.
    
           **--oneline**
               This is a shorthand for **--pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit** used
               together.
    
           **--encoding=**_< encoding>_
               Commit objects record the character encoding used for the log
               message in their encoding header; this option can be used to
               tell the command to re-code the commit log message in the
               encoding preferred by the user. For non plumbing commands this
               defaults to UTF-8. Note that if an object claims to be encoded
               in **X** and we are outputting in **X** , we will output the object
               verbatim; this means that invalid sequences in the original
               commit may be copied to the output. Likewise, if iconv(3)
               fails to convert the commit, we will quietly output the
               original object verbatim.
    
           **--expand-tabs=**_< n>_, **--expand-tabs** , **--no-expand-tabs**
               Perform a tab expansion (replace each tab with enough spaces
               to fill to the next display column that is a multiple of _< n>_)
               in the log message before showing it in the output.
               **--expand-tabs** is a short-hand for **--expand-tabs=8** , and
               **--no-expand-tabs** is a short-hand for **--expand-tabs=0** , which
               disables tab expansion.
    
               By default, tabs are expanded in pretty formats that indent
               the log message by 4 spaces (i.e.  **medium** , which is the
               default, **full** , and **fuller**).
    
           **--notes**[**=**_< ref>_]
               Show the notes (see git-notes(1)) that annotate the commit,
               when showing the commit log message. This is the default for
               **git log** , **git show** and **git whatchanged** commands when there is
               no **--pretty** , **--format** , or **--oneline** option given on the
               command line.
    
               By default, the notes shown are from the notes refs listed in
               the **core.notesRef** and **notes.displayRef** variables (or
               corresponding environment overrides). See git-config(1) for
               more details.
    
               With an optional _< ref>_ argument, use the ref to find the notes
               to display. The ref can specify the full refname when it
               begins with **refs/notes/** ; when it begins with **notes/** , **refs/** and
               otherwise **refs/notes/** is prefixed to form the full name of the
               ref.
    
               Multiple **--notes** options can be combined to control which
               notes are being displayed. Examples: "**--notes=foo** " will show
               only notes from **refs/notes/foo** ; "**--notes=foo --notes** " will
               show both notes from "refs/notes/foo" and from the default
               notes ref(s).
    
           **--no-notes**
               Do not show notes. This negates the above **--notes** option, by
               resetting the list of notes refs from which notes are shown.
               Options are parsed in the order given on the command line, so
               e.g. "**--notes --notes=foo --no-notes --notes=bar** " will only
               show notes from **refs/notes/bar**.
    
           **--show-notes-by-default**
               Show the default notes unless options for displaying specific
               notes are given.
    
           **--show-notes**[**=**_< ref>_], **--standard-notes** , **--no-standard-notes**
               These options are deprecated. Use the above **--notes** /**--no-notes**
               options instead.
    
           **--show-signature**
               Check the validity of a signed commit object by passing the
               signature to **gpg --verify** and show the output.
    
           **--relative-date**
               Synonym for **--date=relative**.
    
           **--date=**_< format>_
               Only takes effect for dates shown in human-readable format,
               such as when using **--pretty**.  **log.date** config variable sets a
               default value for the log command’s **--date** option. By default,
               dates are shown in the original time zone (either committer’s
               or author’s). If **-local** is appended to the format (e.g.,
               **iso-local**), the user’s local time zone is used instead.
    
               **--date=relative** shows dates relative to the current time, e.g.
               “2 hours ago”. The **-local** option has no effect for
               **--date=relative**.
    
               **--date=local** is an alias for **--date=default-local**.
    
               **--date=iso**(or **--date=iso8601**) shows timestamps in a ISO
               8601-like format. The differences to the strict ISO 8601
               format are:
    
               •   a space instead of the **T** date/time delimiter
    
               •   a space between time and time zone
    
               •   no colon between hours and minutes of the time zone
    
               **--date=iso-strict**(or **--date=iso8601-strict**) shows timestamps
               in strict ISO 8601 format.
    
               **--date=rfc**(or **--date=rfc2822**) shows timestamps in RFC 2822
               format, often found in email messages.
    
               **--date=short** shows only the date, but not the time, in
               **YYYY-MM-DD** format.
    
               **--date=raw** shows the date as seconds since the epoch
               (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC), followed by a space, and then the
               timezone as an offset from UTC (a **+** or **-** with four digits; the
               first two are hours, and the second two are minutes). I.e., as
               if the timestamp were formatted with **strftime**("%s **%z** ")). Note
               that the **-local** option does not affect the seconds-since-epoch
               value (which is always measured in UTC), but does switch the
               accompanying timezone value.
    
               **--date=human** shows the timezone if the timezone does not match
               the current time-zone, and doesn’t print the whole date if
               that matches (ie skip printing year for dates that are "this
               year", but also skip the whole date itself if it’s in the last
               few days and we can just say what weekday it was). For older
               dates the hour and minute is also omitted.
    
               **--date=unix** shows the date as a Unix epoch timestamp (seconds
               since 1970). As with **--raw** , this is always in UTC and
               therefore **-local** has no effect.
    
               **--date=format:**_< format>_ feeds the _< format>_ to your system
               **strftime** , except for **%s** , **%z** , and **%Z** , which are handled
               internally. Use **--date=format:%c** to show the date in your
               system locale’s preferred format. See the strftime(3) manual
               for a complete list of format placeholders. When using **-local** ,
               the correct syntax is **--date=format-local:**_< format>_.
    
               **--date=default** is the default format, and is based on ctime(3)
               output. It shows a single line with three-letter day of the
               week, three-letter month, day-of-month, hour-minute-seconds in
               "HH:MM:SS" format, followed by 4-digit year, plus timezone
               information, unless the local time zone is used, e.g.  **Thu Jan**
               **1 00:00:00 1970 +0000**.
    
           **--parents**
               Print also the parents of the commit (in the form "commit
               parent..."). Also enables parent rewriting, see _History_
               _Simplification_ above.
    
           **--children**
               Print also the children of the commit (in the form "commit
               child..."). Also enables parent rewriting, see _History_
               _Simplification_ above.
    
           **--left-right**
               Mark which side of a symmetric difference a commit is
               reachable from. Commits from the left side are prefixed with <
               and those from the right with >. If combined with **--boundary** ,
               those commits are prefixed with **-**.
    
               For example, if you have this topology:
    
                                y---b---b  branch B
                               / \ /
                              /   .
                             /   / \
                            o---x---a---a  branch A
    
               you would get an output like this:
    
                           $ git rev-list --left-right --boundary --pretty=oneline A...B
    
                           >bbbbbbb... 3rd on b
                           >bbbbbbb... 2nd on b
                           <aaaaaaa... 3rd on a
                           <aaaaaaa... 2nd on a
                           -yyyyyyy... 1st on b
                           -xxxxxxx... 1st on a
    
           **--graph**
               Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit
               history on the left hand side of the output. This may cause
               extra lines to be printed in between commits, in order for the
               graph history to be drawn properly. Cannot be combined with
               **--no-walk**.
    
               This enables parent rewriting, see _History Simplification_
               above.
    
               This implies the **--topo-order** option by default, but the
               **--date-order** option may also be specified.
    
           **--show-linear-break**[**=**_< barrier>_]
               When **--graph** is not used, all history branches are flattened
               which can make it hard to see that the two consecutive commits
               do not belong to a linear branch. This option puts a barrier
               in between them in that case. If _< barrier>_ is specified, it is
               the string that will be shown instead of the default one.
    


## PRETTY FORMATS



           If the commit is a merge, and if the pretty-format is not **oneline** ,
           **email** or **raw** , an additional line is inserted before the **Author:**
           line. This line begins with "Merge: " and the hashes of ancestral
           commits are printed, separated by spaces. Note that the listed
           commits may not necessarily be the list of the _direct_ parent
           commits if you have limited your view of history: for example, if
           you are only interested in changes related to a certain directory
           or file.
    
           There are several built-in formats, and you can define additional
           formats by setting a pretty.<name> config option to either another
           format name, or a **format:** string, as described below (see
           git-config(1)). Here are the details of the built-in formats:
    
           •   **oneline**
    
                   <hash> <title-line>
    
               This is designed to be as compact as possible.
    
           •   **short**
    
                   commit <hash>
                   Author: <author>
    
                   <title-line>
    
           •   **medium**
    
                   commit <hash>
                   Author: <author>
                   Date:   <author-date>
    
                   <title-line>
    
                   <full-commit-message>
    
           •   **full**
    
                   commit <hash>
                   Author: <author>
                   Commit: <committer>
    
                   <title-line>
    
                   <full-commit-message>
    
           •   **fuller**
    
                   commit <hash>
                   Author:     <author>
                   AuthorDate: <author-date>
                   Commit:     <committer>
                   CommitDate: <committer-date>
    
                   <title-line>
    
                   <full-commit-message>
    
           •   **reference**
    
                   <abbrev-hash> (<title-line>, <short-author-date>)
    
               This format is used to refer to another commit in a commit
               message and is the same as **--pretty='format:%C(auto)%h (%s,**
               **%ad)'**. By default, the date is formatted with **--date=short**
               unless another **--date** option is explicitly specified. As with
               any **format:** with format placeholders, its output is not
               affected by other options like **--decorate** and **--walk-reflogs**.
    
           •   **email**
    
                   From <hash> <date>
                   From: <author>
                   Date: <author-date>
                   Subject: [PATCH] <title-line>
    
                   <full-commit-message>
    
           •   **mboxrd**
    
               Like **email** , but lines in the commit message starting with
               "From " (preceded by zero or more ">") are quoted with ">" so
               they aren’t confused as starting a new commit.
    
           •   **raw**
    
               The **raw** format shows the entire commit exactly as stored in
               the commit object. Notably, the hashes are displayed in full,
               regardless of whether **--abbrev** or **--no-abbrev** are used, and
               _parents_ information show the true parent commits, without
               taking grafts or history simplification into account. Note
               that this format affects the way commits are displayed, but
               not the way the diff is shown e.g. with **git log --raw**. To get
               full object names in a raw diff format, use **--no-abbrev**.
    
           •   **format:**_< format-string>_
    
               The **format:**_< format-string>_ format allows you to specify which
               information you want to show. It works a little bit like
               printf format, with the notable exception that you get a
               newline with **%n** instead of **\n**.
    
               E.g, _format:"The author of %h was %an, %ar%nThe title was_
               _> >%s<<%n"_ would show something like this:
    
                   The author of fe6e0ee was Junio C Hamano, 23 hours ago
                   The title was >>t4119: test autocomputing -p<n> for traditional diff input.<<
    
               The placeholders are:
    
               •   Placeholders that expand to a single literal character:
    
                   **%n**
                       newline
    
                   **%%**
                       a raw **%**
    
                   **%x00**
                       **%x** followed by two hexadecimal digits is replaced with
                       a byte with the hexadecimal digits' value (we will
                       call this "literal formatting code" in the rest of
                       this document).
    
               •   Placeholders that affect formatting of later placeholders:
    
                   **%Cred**
                       switch color to red
    
                   **%Cgreen**
                       switch color to green
    
                   **%Cblue**
                       switch color to blue
    
                   **%Creset**
                       reset color
    
                   **%C(**_< spec>_**)**
                       color specification, as described under Values in the
                       "CONFIGURATION FILE" section of git-config(1). By
                       default, colors are shown only when enabled for log
                       output (by **color.diff** , **color.ui** , or **--color** , and
                       respecting the **auto** settings of the former if we are
                       going to a terminal).  **%C(auto,**_< spec>_**)** is accepted as
                       a historical synonym for the default (e.g.,
                       **%C(auto,red)**). Specifying **%C(always,**_< spec>_**)** will show
                       the colors even when color is not otherwise enabled
                       (though consider just using **--color=always** to enable
                       color for the whole output, including this format and
                       anything else git might color).  **auto** alone (i.e.
                       **%C(auto)**) will turn on auto coloring on the next
                       placeholders until the color is switched again.
    
                   **%m**
                       left (<), right (>) or boundary (**-**) mark
    
                   **%w(**[_< w>_[**,**_< i1>_[**,**_< i2>_]]]**)**
                       switch line wrapping, like the **-w** option of
                       git-shortlog(1).
    
                   **% <(**_< n>_[**,**(**trunc** |**ltrunc** |**mtrunc**)]**)**
                       make the next placeholder take at least N column
                       widths, padding spaces on the right if necessary.
                       Optionally truncate (with ellipsis ..) at the left
                       (ltrunc) **..ft** , the middle (mtrunc) **mi..le** , or the end
                       (trunc) **rig.**., if the output is longer than _< n>_
                       columns. Note 1: that truncating only works correctly
                       with _< n>_ >= 2. Note 2: spaces around the _< n>_ and _< m>_
                       (see below) values are optional. Note 3: Emojis and
                       other wide characters will take two display columns,
                       which may over-run column boundaries. Note 4:
                       decomposed character combining marks may be misplaced
                       at padding boundaries.
    
                   **% <|(**_< m>_ **)**
                       make the next placeholder take at least until _< m>_ th
                       display column, padding spaces on the right if
                       necessary. Use negative _< m>_ values for column
                       positions measured from the right hand edge of the
                       terminal window.
    
                   **% >(**_< n>_**)** , **% >|(**_< m>_**)**
                       similar to **% <(**_< n>_**)** , **% <|(**_< m>_**)** respectively, but padding
                       spaces on the left
    
                   **% >>(**_< n>_**)** , **% >>|(**_< m>_**)**
                       similar to **% >(**_< n>_**)** , **% >|(**_< m>_**)** respectively, except that
                       if the next placeholder takes more spaces than given
                       and there are spaces on its left, use those spaces
    
                   **% ><(**_< n>_**)** , **% ><|(**_< m>_**)**
                       similar to **% <(**_< n>_**)** , **% <|(**_< m>_**)** respectively, but padding
                       both sides (i.e. the text is centered)
    
               •   Placeholders that expand to information extracted from the
                   commit:
    
                   **%H**
                       commit hash
    
                   **%h**
                       abbreviated commit hash
    
                   **%T**
                       tree hash
    
                   **%t**
                       abbreviated tree hash
    
                   **%P**
                       parent hashes
    
                   **%p**
                       abbreviated parent hashes
    
                   **%an**
                       author name
    
                   **%aN**
                       author name (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1)
                       or git-blame(1))
    
                   **%ae**
                       author email
    
                   **%aE**
                       author email (respecting .mailmap, see git-shortlog(1)
                       or git-blame(1))
    
                   **%al**
                       author email local-part (the part before the **@** sign)
    
                   **%aL**
                       author local-part (see **%al**) respecting .mailmap, see
                       git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
    
                   **%ad**
                       author date (format respects --date= option)
    
                   **%aD**
                       author date, RFC2822 style
    
                   **%ar**
                       author date, relative
    
                   **%at**
                       author date, UNIX timestamp
    
                   **%ai**
                       author date, ISO 8601-like format
    
                   **%aI**
                       author date, strict ISO 8601 format
    
                   **%as**
                       author date, short format (**YYYY-MM-DD**)
    
                   **%ah**
                       author date, human style (like the **--date=human** option
                       of git-rev-list(1))
    
                   **%cn**
                       committer name
    
                   **%cN**
                       committer name (respecting .mailmap, see
                       git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
    
                   **%ce**
                       committer email
    
                   **%cE**
                       committer email (respecting .mailmap, see
                       git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
    
                   **%cl**
                       committer email local-part (the part before the **@**
                       sign)
    
                   **%cL**
                       committer local-part (see **%cl**) respecting .mailmap,
                       see git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
    
                   **%cd**
                       committer date (format respects --date= option)
    
                   **%cD**
                       committer date, RFC2822 style
    
                   **%cr**
                       committer date, relative
    
                   **%ct**
                       committer date, UNIX timestamp
    
                   **%ci**
                       committer date, ISO 8601-like format
    
                   **%cI**
                       committer date, strict ISO 8601 format
    
                   **%cs**
                       committer date, short format (**YYYY-MM-DD**)
    
                   **%ch**
                       committer date, human style (like the **--date=human**
                       option of git-rev-list(1))
    
                   **%d**
                       ref names, like the --decorate option of git-log(1)
    
                   **%D**
                       ref names without the " (", ")" wrapping.
    
                   **%(decorate**[**:**_< option>_**,**...]**)**
                       ref names with custom decorations. The **decorate** string
                       may be followed by a colon and zero or more
                       comma-separated options. Option values may contain
                       literal formatting codes. These must be used for
                       commas (**%x2C**) and closing parentheses (**%x29**), due to
                       their role in the option syntax.
    
                       •   **prefix=**_< value>_: Shown before the list of ref
                           names. Defaults to " +(+".
    
                       •   **suffix=**_< value>_: Shown after the list of ref names.
                           Defaults to "**)** ".
    
                       •   **separator=**_< value>_: Shown between ref names.
                           Defaults to "**,** ".
    
                       •   **pointer=**_< value>_: Shown between HEAD and the branch
                           it points to, if any. Defaults to " +→+ ".
    
                       •   **tag=**_< value>_: Shown before tag names. Defaults to
                           "**tag:** ".
    
                       For example, to produce decorations with no wrapping
                       or tag annotations, and spaces as separators:
    
                       **%(decorate:prefix=,suffix=,tag=,separator= )**
    
                   **%(describe**[**:**_< option>_**,**...]**)**
                       human-readable name, like git-describe(1); empty
                       string for undescribable commits. The **describe** string
                       may be followed by a colon and zero or more
                       comma-separated options. Descriptions can be
                       inconsistent when tags are added or removed at the
                       same time.
    
                       •   **tags**[**=**_< bool-value>_]: Instead of only considering
                           annotated tags, consider lightweight tags as well.
    
                       •   **abbrev=**_< number>_: Instead of using the default
                           number of hexadecimal digits (which will vary
                           according to the number of objects in the
                           repository with a default of 7) of the abbreviated
                           object name, use <number> digits, or as many
                           digits as needed to form a unique object name.
    
                       •   **match=**_< pattern>_: Only consider tags matching the
                           given **glob**(**7**) _< pattern>_, excluding the **refs/tags/**
                           prefix.
    
                       •   **exclude=**_< pattern>_: Do not consider tags matching
                           the given **glob**(**7**) _< pattern>_, excluding the
                           **refs/tags/** prefix.
    
                   **%S**
                       ref name given on the command line by which the commit
                       was reached (like **git log --source**), only works with
                       **git log**
    
                   **%e**
                       encoding
    
                   **%s**
                       subject
    
                   **%f**
                       sanitized subject line, suitable for a filename
    
                   **%b**
                       body
    
                   **%B**
                       raw body (unwrapped subject and body)
    
                   **%N**
                       commit notes
    
                   **%GG**
                       raw verification message from GPG for a signed commit
    
                   **%G?**
                       show "G" for a good (valid) signature, "B" for a bad
                       signature, "U" for a good signature with unknown
                       validity, "X" for a good signature that has expired,
                       "Y" for a good signature made by an expired key, "R"
                       for a good signature made by a revoked key, "E" if the
                       signature cannot be checked (e.g. missing key) and "N"
                       for no signature
    
                   **%GS**
                       show the name of the signer for a signed commit
    
                   **%GK**
                       show the key used to sign a signed commit
    
                   **%GF**
                       show the fingerprint of the key used to sign a signed
                       commit
    
                   **%GP**
                       show the fingerprint of the primary key whose subkey
                       was used to sign a signed commit
    
                   **%GT**
                       show the trust level for the key used to sign a signed
                       commit
    
                   **%gD**
                       reflog selector, e.g., **refs/stash@**{1} or **refs/stash@**{2
                       **minutes ago**}; the format follows the rules described
                       for the **-g** option. The portion before the **@** is the
                       refname as given on the command line (so **git log -g**
                       **refs/heads/master** would yield **refs/heads/master@**{0}).
    
                   **%gd**
                       shortened reflog selector; same as **%gD** , but the
                       refname portion is shortened for human readability (so
                       **refs/heads/master** becomes just **master**).
    
                   **%gn**
                       reflog identity name
    
                   **%gN**
                       reflog identity name (respecting .mailmap, see
                       git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
    
                   **%ge**
                       reflog identity email
    
                   **%gE**
                       reflog identity email (respecting .mailmap, see
                       git-shortlog(1) or git-blame(1))
    
                   **%gs**
                       reflog subject
    
                   **%(trailers**[**:**_< option>_**,**...]**)**
                       display the trailers of the body as interpreted by
                       git-interpret-trailers(1). The **trailers** string may be
                       followed by a colon and zero or more comma-separated
                       options. If any option is provided multiple times, the
                       last occurrence wins.
    
                       •   **key=**_< key>_: only show trailers with specified
                           <key>. Matching is done case-insensitively and
                           trailing colon is optional. If option is given
                           multiple times trailer lines matching any of the
                           keys are shown. This option automatically enables
                           the **only** option so that non-trailer lines in the
                           trailer block are hidden. If that is not desired
                           it can be disabled with **only=false**. E.g.,
                           **%(trailers:key=Reviewed-by)** shows trailer lines
                           with key **Reviewed-by**.
    
                       •   **only**[**=**_< bool>_]: select whether non-trailer lines
                           from the trailer block should be included.
    
                       •   **separator=**_< sep>_: specify the separator inserted
                           between trailer lines. Defaults to a line feed
                           character. The string <sep> may contain the
                           literal formatting codes described above. To use
                           comma as separator one must use **%x2C** as it would
                           otherwise be parsed as next option. E.g.,
                           **%(trailers:key=Ticket,separator=%x2C )** shows all
                           trailer lines whose key is "Ticket" separated by a
                           comma and a space.
    
                       •   **unfold**[**=**_< bool>_]: make it behave as if
                           interpret-trailer’s **--unfold** option was given.
                           E.g., **%(trailers:only,unfold=true)** unfolds and
                           shows all trailer lines.
    
                       •   **keyonly**[**=**_< bool>_]: only show the key part of the
                           trailer.
    
                       •   **valueonly**[**=**_< bool>_]: only show the value part of
                           the trailer.
    
                       •   **key_value_separator=**_< sep>_: specify the separator
                           inserted between the key and value of each
                           trailer. Defaults to ": ". Otherwise it shares the
                           same semantics as **separator=**_< sep>_ above.
    
               **Note**
    
               Some placeholders may depend on other options given to the
               revision traversal engine. For example, the **%g*** reflog options
               will insert an empty string unless we are traversing reflog
               entries (e.g., by **git log -g**). The **%d** and **%D** placeholders will
               use the "short" decoration format if **--decorate** was not
               already provided on the command line.
    
           The boolean options accept an optional value [**=**_< bool-value>_]. The
           values taken by **--type=bool git-config**(1), like **yes** and **off** , are
           all accepted. Giving a boolean option without **=**_< value>_ is
           equivalent to giving it with **=true**.
    
           If you add a **+**(plus sign) after **%** of a placeholder, a line-feed
           is inserted immediately before the expansion if and only if the
           placeholder expands to a non-empty string.
    
           If you add a **-**(minus sign) after **%** of a placeholder, all
           consecutive line-feeds immediately preceding the expansion are
           deleted if and only if the placeholder expands to an empty string.
    
           If you add a ' ' (space) after **%** of a placeholder, a space is
           inserted immediately before the expansion if and only if the
           placeholder expands to a non-empty string.
    
           •   **tformat:**
    
               The **tformat:** format works exactly like **format:** , except that it
               provides "terminator" semantics instead of "separator"
               semantics. In other words, each commit has the message
               terminator character (usually a newline) appended, rather than
               a separator placed between entries. This means that the final
               entry of a single-line format will be properly terminated with
               a new line, just as the "oneline" format does. For example:
    
                   $ git log -2 --pretty=format:%h 4da45bef \
                     | perl -pe '$_ .= " -- NO NEWLINE\n" unless /\n/'
                   4da45be
                   7134973 -- NO NEWLINE
    
                   $ git log -2 --pretty=tformat:%h 4da45bef \
                     | perl -pe '$_ .= " -- NO NEWLINE\n" unless /\n/'
                   4da45be
                   7134973
    
               In addition, any unrecognized string that has a **%** in it is
               interpreted as if it has **tformat:** in front of it. For example,
               these two are equivalent:
    
                   $ git log -2 --pretty=tformat:%h 4da45bef
                   $ git log -2 --pretty=%h 4da45bef
    


## DIFF FORMATTING



           By default, **git log** does not generate any diff output. The options
           below can be used to show the changes made by each commit.
    
           Note that unless one of **--diff-merges** variants (including short
           **-m** , **-c** , **--cc** , and **--dd** options) is explicitly given, merge commits
           will not show a diff, even if a diff format like **--patch** is
           selected, nor will they match search options like **-S**. The
           exception is when **--first-parent** is in use, in which case
           **first-parent** is the default format for merge commits.
    
           **-p** , **-u** , **--patch**
               Generate patch (see the section called “GENERATING PATCH TEXT
               WITH -P”).
    
           **-s** , **--no-patch**
               Suppress all output from the diff machinery. Useful for
               commands like **git show** that show the patch by default to
               squelch their output, or to cancel the effect of options like
               **--patch** , **--stat** earlier on the command line in an alias.
    
           **-m**
               Show diffs for merge commits in the default format. This is
               similar to **--diff-merges=on** , except **-m** will produce no output
               unless **-p** is given as well.
    
           **-c**
               Produce combined diff output for merge commits. Shortcut for
               **--diff-merges=combined -p**.
    
           **--cc**
               Produce dense combined diff output for merge commits. Shortcut
               for **--diff-merges=dense-combined -p**.
    
           **--dd**
               Produce diff with respect to first parent for both merge and
               regular commits. Shortcut for **--diff-merges=first-parent -p**.
    
           **--remerge-diff**
               Produce remerge-diff output for merge commits. Shortcut for
               **--diff-merges=remerge -p**.
    
           **--no-diff-merges**
               Synonym for **--diff-merges=off**.
    
           **--diff-merges=**_< format>_
               Specify diff format to be used for merge commits. Default is **f**
               unless **--first-parent** is in use, in which case **first-parent** is
               the default.
    
               The following formats are supported:
    
               **off** , **none**
                   Disable output of diffs for merge commits. Useful to
                   override implied value.
    
               **on** , **m**
                   Make diff output for merge commits to be shown in the
                   default format. The default format can be changed using
                   **log.diffMerges** configuration variable, whose default value
                   is **separate**.
    
               **first-parent** , **1**
                   Show full diff with respect to first parent. This is the
                   same format as **--patch** produces for non-merge commits.
    
               **separate**
                   Show full diff with respect to each of parents. Separate
                   log entry and diff is generated for each parent.
    
               **combined** , **c**
                   Show differences from each of the parents to the merge
                   result simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff
                   between a parent and the result one at a time.
                   Furthermore, it lists only files which were modified from
                   all parents.
    
               **dense-combined** , **cc**
                   Further compress output produced by **--diff-merges=combined**
                   by omitting uninteresting hunks whose contents in the
                   parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
                   one of them without modification.
    
               **remerge** , **r**
                   Remerge two-parent merge commits to create a temporary
                   tree object—potentially containing files with conflict
                   markers and such. A diff is then shown between that
                   temporary tree and the actual merge commit.
    
               The output emitted when this option is used is subject to
               change, and so is its interaction with other options (unless
               explicitly documented).
    
           **--combined-all-paths**
               Cause combined diffs (used for merge commits) to list the name
               of the file from all parents. It thus only has effect when
               **--diff-merges=**[**dense-**]**combined** is in use, and is likely only
               useful if filename changes are detected (i.e. when either
               rename or copy detection have been requested).
    
           **-U** _< n>_, **--unified=**_< n>_
               Generate diffs with _< n>_ lines of context instead of the usual
               three. Implies **--patch**.
    
           **--output=**_< file>_
               Output to a specific file instead of stdout.
    
           **--output-indicator-new=**_< char>_, **--output-indicator-old=**_< char>_,
           **--output-indicator-context=**_< char>_
               Specify the character used to indicate new, old or context
               lines in the generated patch. Normally they are **+** , **-** and ' '
               respectively.
    
           **--raw**
               For each commit, show a summary of changes using the raw diff
               format. See the "RAW OUTPUT FORMAT" section of git-diff(1).
               This is different from showing the log itself in raw format,
               which you can achieve with **--format=raw**.
    
           **--patch-with-raw**
               Synonym for **-p --raw**.
    
           **-t**
               Show the tree objects in the diff output.
    
           **--indent-heuristic**
               Enable the heuristic that shifts diff hunk boundaries to make
               patches easier to read. This is the default.
    
           **--no-indent-heuristic**
               Disable the indent heuristic.
    
           **--minimal**
               Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
               produced.
    
           **--patience**
               Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
    
           **--histogram**
               Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
    
           **--anchored=**_< text>_
               Generate a diff using the "anchored diff" algorithm.
    
               This option may be specified more than once.
    
               If a line exists in both the source and destination, exists
               only once, and starts with _< text>_, this algorithm attempts to
               prevent it from appearing as a deletion or addition in the
               output. It uses the "patience diff" algorithm internally.
    
           **--diff-algorithm=**(**patience** |**minimal** |**histogram** |**myers**)
               Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
    
               **default** , **myers**
                   The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the
                   default.
    
               **minimal**
                   Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff
                   is produced.
    
               **patience**
                   Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
    
               **histogram**
                   This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
                   low-occurrence common elements".
    
               For instance, if you configured the **diff.algorithm** variable to
               a non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
               have to use **--diff-algorithm=default** option.
    
           **--stat**[**=**_< width>_[**,**_< name-width>_[**,**_< count>_]]]
               Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
               will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
               part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
               if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
               _< width>_. The width of the filename part can be limited by
               giving another width _< name-width>_ after a comma or by setting
               **diff.statNameWidth=**_< name-width>_. The width of the graph part
               can be limited by using **--stat-graph-width=**_< graph-width>_ or by
               setting **diff.statGraphWidth=**_< graph-width>_. Using **--stat** or
               **--stat-graph-width** affects all commands generating a stat
               graph, while setting **diff.statNameWidth** or **diff.statGraphWidth**
               does not affect **git format-patch**. By giving a third parameter
               _< count>_, you can limit the output to the first _< count>_ lines,
               followed by ... if there are more.
    
               These parameters can also be set individually with
               **--stat-width=**_< width>_, **--stat-name-width=**_< name-width>_ and
               **--stat-count=**_< count>_.
    
           **--compact-summary**
               Output a condensed summary of extended header information such
               as file creations or deletions ("new" or "gone", optionally **+l**
               if it’s a symlink) and mode changes (**+x** or **-x** for adding or
               removing executable bit respectively) in diffstat. The
               information is put between the filename part and the graph
               part. Implies **--stat**.
    
           **--numstat**
               Similar to **--stat** , but shows number of added and deleted lines
               in decimal notation and pathname without abbreviation, to make
               it more machine friendly. For binary files, outputs two **-**
               instead of saying **0 0**.
    
           **--shortstat**
               Output only the last line of the **--stat** format containing
               total number of modified files, as well as number of added and
               deleted lines.
    
           **-X**[_< param>_**,**...], **--dirstat**[**=**_< param>_**,**...]
               Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
               sub-directory. The behavior of **--dirstat** can be customized by
               passing it a comma separated list of parameters. The defaults
               are controlled by the **diff.dirstat** configuration variable (see
               git-config(1)). The following parameters are available:
    
               **changes**
                   Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that
                   have been removed from the source, or added to the
                   destination. This ignores the amount of pure code
                   movements within a file. In other words, rearranging lines
                   in a file is not counted as much as other changes. This is
                   the default behavior when no parameter is given.
    
               **lines**
                   Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular
                   line-based diff analysis, and summing the removed/added
                   line counts. (For binary files, count 64-byte chunks
                   instead, since binary files have no natural concept of
                   lines). This is a more expensive **--dirstat** behavior than
                   the **changes** behavior, but it does count rearranged lines
                   within a file as much as other changes. The resulting
                   output is consistent with what you get from the other
                   **--*stat** options.
    
               **files**
                   Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of
                   files changed. Each changed file counts equally in the
                   dirstat analysis. This is the computationally cheapest
                   **--dirstat** behavior, since it does not have to look at the
                   file contents at all.
    
               **cumulative**
                   Count changes in a child directory for the parent
                   directory as well. Note that when using **cumulative** , the
                   sum of the percentages reported may exceed 100%. The
                   default (non-cumulative) behavior can be specified with
                   the **noncumulative** parameter.
    
               _< limit>_
                   An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by
                   default). Directories contributing less than this
                   percentage of the changes are not shown in the output.
    
               Example: The following will count changed files, while
               ignoring directories with less than 10% of the total amount of
               changed files, and accumulating child directory counts in the
               parent directories: **--dirstat=files** ,10,cumulative.
    
           **--cumulative**
               Synonym for **--dirstat=cumulative**.
    
           **--dirstat-by-file**[**=**_< param>_**,**...]
               Synonym for **--dirstat=files** ,_< param>_**,**....
    
           **--summary**
               Output a condensed summary of extended header information such
               as creations, renames and mode changes.
    
           **--patch-with-stat**
               Synonym for **-p --stat**.
    
           **-z**
               Separate the commits with _NUL_ s instead of newlines.
    
               Also, when **--raw** or **--numstat** has been given, do not munge
               pathnames and use _NUL_ s as output field terminators.
    
               Without this option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are
               quoted as explained for the configuration variable
               **core.quotePath**(see git-config(1)).
    
           **--name-only**
               Show only the name of each changed file in the post-image
               tree. The file names are often encoded in UTF-8. For more
               information see the discussion about encoding in the
               git-log(1) manual page.
    
           **--name-status**
               Show only the name(s) and status of each changed file. See the
               description of the **--diff-filter** option on what the status
               letters mean. Just like **--name-only** the file names are often
               encoded in UTF-8.
    
           **--submodule**[**=**_< format>_]
               Specify how differences in submodules are shown. When
               specifying **--submodule=short** the **short** format is used. This
               format just shows the names of the commits at the beginning
               and end of the range. When **--submodule** or **--submodule=log** is
               specified, the **log** format is used. This format lists the
               commits in the range like git-submodule(1) **summary** does. When
               **--submodule=diff** is specified, the **diff** format is used. This
               format shows an inline diff of the changes in the submodule
               contents between the commit range. Defaults to **diff.submodule**
               or the **short** format if the config option is unset.
    
           **--color**[**=**_< when>_]
               Show colored diff.  **--color**(i.e. without **=**_< when>_) is the same
               as **--color=always**.  _< when>_ can be one of **always** , **never** , or
               **auto**.
    
           **--no-color**
               Turn off colored diff. It is the same as **--color=never**.
    
           **--color-moved**[**=**_< mode>_]
               Moved lines of code are colored differently. The _< mode>_
               defaults to **no** if the option is not given and to **zebra** if the
               option with no mode is given. The mode must be one of:
    
               **no**
                   Moved lines are not highlighted.
    
               **default**
                   Is a synonym for **zebra**. This may change to a more sensible
                   mode in the future.
    
               **plain**
                   Any line that is added in one location and was removed in
                   another location will be colored with **color.diff.newMoved**.
                   Similarly **color.diff.oldMoved** will be used for removed
                   lines that are added somewhere else in the diff. This mode
                   picks up any moved line, but it is not very useful in a
                   review to determine if a block of code was moved without
                   permutation.
    
               **blocks**
                   Blocks of moved text of at least 20 alphanumeric
                   characters are detected greedily. The detected blocks are
                   painted using either the **color.diff.**(**old** |**new**)**Moved** color.
                   Adjacent blocks cannot be told apart.
    
               **zebra**
                   Blocks of moved text are detected as in **blocks** mode. The
                   blocks are painted using either the
                   **color.diff.**(**old** |**new**)**Moved** color or
                   **color.diff.**(**old** |**new**)**MovedAlternative**. The change between
                   the two colors indicates that a new block was detected.
    
               **dimmed-zebra**
                   Similar to **zebra** , but additional dimming of uninteresting
                   parts of moved code is performed. The bordering lines of
                   two adjacent blocks are considered interesting, the rest
                   is uninteresting.  **dimmed_zebra** is a deprecated synonym.
    
           **--no-color-moved**
               Turn off move detection. This can be used to override
               configuration settings. It is the same as **--color-moved=no**.
    
           **--color-moved-ws=**_< mode>_**,**...
               This configures how whitespace is ignored when performing the
               move detection for **--color-moved**. These modes can be given as
               a comma separated list:
    
               **no**
                   Do not ignore whitespace when performing move detection.
    
               **ignore-space-at-eol**
                   Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
    
               **ignore-space-change**
                   Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores
                   whitespace at line end, and considers all other sequences
                   of one or more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
    
               **ignore-all-space**
                   Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores
                   differences even if one line has whitespace where the
                   other line has none.
    
               **allow-indentation-change**
                   Initially ignore any whitespace in the move detection,
                   then group the moved code blocks only into a block if the
                   change in whitespace is the same per line. This is
                   incompatible with the other modes.
    
           **--no-color-moved-ws**
               Do not ignore whitespace when performing move detection. This
               can be used to override configuration settings. It is the same
               as **--color-moved-ws=no**.
    
           **--word-diff**[**=**_< mode>_]
               By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
               **--word-diff-regex** below. The _< mode>_ defaults to **plain** , and
               must be one of:
    
               **color**
                   Highlight changed words using only colors. Implies
                   **--color**.
    
               **plain**
                   Show words as **[-removed-]** and **{added**}. Makes no attempts
                   to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input, so
                   the output may be ambiguous.
    
               **porcelain**
                   Use a special line-based format intended for script
                   consumption. Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in
                   the usual unified diff format, starting with a **+** /**-** /` `
                   character at the beginning of the line and extending to
                   the end of the line. Newlines in the input are represented
                   by a tilde **~** on a line of its own.
    
               **none**
                   Disable word diff again.
    
               Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
               highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
    
           **--word-diff-regex=**_< regex>_
               Use _< regex>_ to decide what a word is, instead of considering
               runs of non-whitespace to be a word. Also implies **--word-diff**
               unless it was already enabled.
    
               Every non-overlapping match of the _< regex>_ is considered a
               word. Anything between these matches is considered whitespace
               and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding differences. You
               may want to append |[**^**[**:space:**]] to your regular expression to
               make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters. A
               match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
               newline.
    
               For example, **--word-diff-regex=.** will treat each character as
               a word and, correspondingly, show differences character by
               character.
    
               The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration
               option, see gitattributes(5) or git-config(1). Giving it
               explicitly overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.
               Diff drivers override configuration settings.
    
           **--color-words**[**=**_< regex>_]
               Equivalent to **--word-diff=color** plus (if a regex was
               specified) **--word-diff-regex=**_< regex>_.
    
           **--no-renames**
               Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration file
               gives the default to do so.
    
           **--**[**no-**]**rename-empty**
               Whether to use empty blobs as rename source.
    
           **--check**
               Warn if changes introduce conflict markers or whitespace
               errors. What are considered whitespace errors is controlled by
               **core.whitespace** configuration. By default, trailing
               whitespaces (including lines that consist solely of
               whitespaces) and a space character that is immediately
               followed by a tab character inside the initial indent of the
               line are considered whitespace errors. Exits with non-zero
               status if problems are found. Not compatible with **--exit-code**.
    
           **--ws-error-highlight=**_< kind>_
               Highlight whitespace errors in the **context** , **old** or **new** lines
               of the diff. Multiple values are separated by comma, **none**
               resets previous values, **default** reset the list to **new** and **all**
               is a shorthand for **old** ,new,context. When this option is not
               given, and the configuration variable **diff.wsErrorHighlight** is
               not set, only whitespace errors in **new** lines are highlighted.
               The whitespace errors are colored with **color.diff.whitespace**.
    
           **--full-index**
               Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full pre-
               and post-image blob object names on the "index" line when
               generating patch format output.
    
           **--binary**
               In addition to **--full-index** , output a binary diff that can be
               applied with **git-apply**. Implies **--patch**.
    
           **--abbrev**[**=**_< n>_]
               Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object name in
               diff-raw format output and diff-tree header lines, show the
               shortest prefix that is at least _< n>_ hexdigits long that
               uniquely refers the object. In diff-patch output format,
               **--full-index** takes higher precedence, i.e. if **--full-index** is
               specified, full blob names will be shown regardless of
               **--abbrev**. Non default number of digits can be specified with
               **--abbrev=**_< n>_.
    
           **-B**[_< n>_][**/**_< m>_], **--break-rewrites**[**=**[_< n>_][**/**_< m>_]]
               Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
               create. This serves two purposes:
    
               It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of
               a file not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed
               together with a very few lines that happen to match textually
               as the context, but as a single deletion of everything old
               followed by a single insertion of everything new, and the
               number _< m>_ controls this aspect of the **-B** option (defaults to
               60%).  **-B/70%** specifies that less than 30% of the original
               should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
               rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series
               of deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
    
               When used with **-M** , a totally-rewritten file is also considered
               as the source of a rename (usually **-M** only considers a file
               that disappeared as the source of a rename), and the number
               _< n>_ controls this aspect of the **-B** option (defaults to 50%).
               **-B20%** specifies that a change with addition and deletion
               compared to 20% or more of the file’s size are eligible for
               being picked up as a possible source of a rename to another
               file.
    
           **-M**[_< n>_], **--find-renames**[**=**_< n>_]
               If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each
               commit. For following files across renames while traversing
               history, see **--follow**. If _< n>_ is specified, it is a threshold
               on the similarity index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions
               compared to the file’s size). For example, **-M90%** means Git
               should consider a delete/add pair to be a rename if more than
               90% of the file hasn’t changed. Without a **%** sign, the number
               is to be read as a fraction, with a decimal point before it.
               I.e., **-M5** becomes 0.5, and is thus the same as **-M50%**.
               Similarly, **-M05** is the same as **-M5%**. To limit detection to
               exact renames, use **-M100%**. The default similarity index is
               50%.
    
           **-C**[_< n>_], **--find-copies**[**=**_< n>_]
               Detect copies as well as renames. See also
               **--find-copies-harder**. If _< n>_ is specified, it has the same
               meaning as for **-M** _< n>_.
    
           **--find-copies-harder**
               For performance reasons, by default, **-C** option finds copies
               only if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
               changeset. This flag makes the command inspect unmodified
               files as candidates for the source of copy. This is a very
               expensive operation for large projects, so use it with
               caution. Giving more than one **-C** option has the same effect.
    
           **-D** , **--irreversible-delete**
               Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but
               not the diff between the preimage and **/dev/null**. The resulting
               patch is not meant to be applied with **patch** or **git apply** ; this
               is solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing
               the text after the change. In addition, the output obviously
               lacks enough information to apply such a patch in reverse,
               even manually, hence the name of the option.
    
               When used together with **-B** , omit also the preimage in the
               deletion part of a delete/create pair.
    
           **-l** _< num>_
               The **-M** and **-C** options involve some preliminary steps that can
               detect subsets of renames/copies cheaply, followed by an
               exhaustive fallback portion that compares all remaining
               unpaired destinations to all relevant sources. (For renames,
               only remaining unpaired sources are relevant; for copies, all
               original sources are relevant.) For N sources and
               destinations, this exhaustive check is O(N^2). This option
               prevents the exhaustive portion of rename/copy detection from
               running if the number of source/destination files involved
               exceeds the specified number. Defaults to **diff.renameLimit**.
               Note that a value of 0 is treated as unlimited.
    
           **--diff-filter=**[(**A** |**C** |**D** |**M** |**R** |**T** |**U** |**X** |**B**)**...**[*****]]
               Select only files that are Added (**A**), Copied (**C**), Deleted (**D**),
               Modified (**M**), Renamed (**R**), have their type (i.e. regular file,
               symlink, submodule, ...) changed (**T**), are Unmerged (**U**), are
               Unknown (**X**), or have had their pairing Broken (**B**). Any
               combination of the filter characters (including none) can be
               used. When *****(All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
               paths are selected if there is any file that matches other
               criteria in the comparison; if there is no file that matches
               other criteria, nothing is selected.
    
               Also, these upper-case letters can be downcased to exclude.
               E.g.  **--diff-filter=ad** excludes added and deleted paths.
    
               Note that not all diffs can feature all types. For instance,
               copied and renamed entries cannot appear if detection for
               those types is disabled.
    
           **-S** _< string>_
               Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
               the specified _< string>_ (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
               Intended for the scripter’s use.
    
               It is useful when you’re looking for an exact block of code
               (like a struct), and want to know the history of that block
               since it first came into being: use the feature iteratively to
               feed the interesting block in the preimage back into **-S** , and
               keep going until you get the very first version of the block.
    
               Binary files are searched as well.
    
           **-G** _< regex>_
               Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
               lines that match _< regex>_.
    
               To illustrate the difference between **-S** _< regex>_ **--pickaxe-regex**
               and **-G** _< regex>_, consider a commit with the following diff in
               the same file:
    
                   +    return frotz(nitfol, two->ptr, 1, 0);
                   ...
                   -    hit = frotz(nitfol, mf2.ptr, 1, 0);
    
               While **git log -G** "frotz\(**nitfol** " will show this commit, **git log**
               **-S** "frotz\(**nitfol** " **--pickaxe-regex** will not (because the number
               of occurrences of that string did not change).
    
               Unless **--text** is supplied patches of binary files without a
               textconv filter will be ignored.
    
               See the _pickaxe_ entry in gitdiffcore(7) for more information.
    
           **--find-object=**_< object-id>_
               Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
               the specified object. Similar to **-S** , just the argument is
               different in that it doesn’t search for a specific string but
               for a specific object id.
    
               The object can be a blob or a submodule commit. It implies the
               **-t** option in **git-log** to also find trees.
    
           **--pickaxe-all**
               When **-S** or **-G** finds a change, show all the changes in that
               changeset, not just the files that contain the change in
               _< string>_.
    
           **--pickaxe-regex**
               Treat the _< string>_ given to **-S** as an extended POSIX regular
               expression to match.
    
           **-O** _< orderfile>_
               Control the order in which files appear in the output. This
               overrides the **diff.orderFile** configuration variable (see
               git-config(1)). To cancel **diff.orderFile** , use **-O/dev/null**.
    
               The output order is determined by the order of glob patterns
               in _< orderfile>_. All files with pathnames that match the first
               pattern are output first, all files with pathnames that match
               the second pattern (but not the first) are output next, and so
               on. All files with pathnames that do not match any pattern are
               output last, as if there was an implicit match-all pattern at
               the end of the file. If multiple pathnames have the same rank
               (they match the same pattern but no earlier patterns), their
               output order relative to each other is the normal order.
    
               _< orderfile>_ is parsed as follows:
    
               •   Blank lines are ignored, so they can be used as separators
                   for readability.
    
               •   Lines starting with a hash ("#") are ignored, so they can
                   be used for comments. Add a backslash ("**\** ") to the
                   beginning of the pattern if it starts with a hash.
    
               •   Each other line contains a single pattern.
    
               Patterns have the same syntax and semantics as patterns used
               for fnmatch(3) without the **FNM_PATHNAME** flag, except a
               pathname also matches a pattern if removing any number of the
               final pathname components matches the pattern. For example,
               the pattern "**foo*bar** " matches "**fooasdfbar** " and
               "**foo/bar/baz/asdf** " but not "**foobarx** ".
    
           **--skip-to=**_< file>_, **--rotate-to=**_< file>_
               Discard the files before the named _< file>_ from the output
               (i.e.  _skip to_), or move them to the end of the output (i.e.
               _rotate to_). These options were invented primarily for the use
               of the **git difftool** command, and may not be very useful
               otherwise.
    
           **-R**
               Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
               on-disk file to tree contents.
    
           **--relative**[**=**_< path>_], **--no-relative**
               When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be told to
               exclude changes outside the directory and show pathnames
               relative to it with this option. When you are not in a
               subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you can name which
               subdirectory to make the output relative to by giving a _< path>_
               as an argument.  **--no-relative** can be used to countermand both
               **diff.relative** config option and previous **--relative**.
    
           **-a** , **--text**
               Treat all files as text.
    
           **--ignore-cr-at-eol**
               Ignore carriage-return at the end of line when doing a
               comparison.
    
           **--ignore-space-at-eol**
               Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
    
           **-b** , **--ignore-space-change**
               Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores
               whitespace at line end, and considers all other sequences of
               one or more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
    
           **-w** , **--ignore-all-space**
               Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores
               differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
               line has none.
    
           **--ignore-blank-lines**
               Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
    
           **-I** _< regex>_, **--ignore-matching-lines=**_< regex>_
               Ignore changes whose all lines match _< regex>_. This option may
               be specified more than once.
    
           **--inter-hunk-context=**_< number>_
               Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified
               _< number>_ of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each
               other. Defaults to **diff.interHunkContext** or 0 if the config
               option is unset.
    
           **-W** , **--function-context**
               Show whole function as context lines for each change. The
               function names are determined in the same way as **git diff**
               works out patch hunk headers (see "Defining a custom
               hunk-header" in gitattributes(5)).
    
           **--ext-diff**
               Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
               external diff driver with gitattributes(5), you need to use
               this option with git-log(1) and friends.
    
           **--no-ext-diff**
               Disallow external diff drivers.
    
           **--textconv** , **--no-textconv**
               Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
               when comparing binary files. See gitattributes(5) for details.
               Because textconv filters are typically a one-way conversion,
               the resulting diff is suitable for human consumption, but
               cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv filters are
               enabled by default only for git-diff(1) and git-log(1), but
               not for git-format-patch(1) or diff plumbing commands.
    
           **--ignore-submodules**[**=**(**none** |**untracked** |**dirty** |**all**)]
               Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation.  **all** is
               the default. Using **none** will consider the submodule modified
               when it either contains untracked or modified files or its
               **HEAD** differs from the commit recorded in the superproject and
               can be used to override any settings of the **ignore** option in
               git-config(1) or gitmodules(5). When **untracked** is used
               submodules are not considered dirty when they only contain
               untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
               content). Using **dirty** ignores all changes to the work tree of
               submodules, only changes to the commits stored in the
               superproject are shown (this was the behavior until 1.7.0).
               Using **all** hides all changes to submodules.
    
           **--src-prefix=**_< prefix>_
               Show the given source _< prefix>_ instead of "a/".
    
           **--dst-prefix=**_< prefix>_
               Show the given destination _< prefix>_ instead of "b/".
    
           **--no-prefix**
               Do not show any source or destination prefix.
    
           **--default-prefix**
               Use the default source and destination prefixes ("a/" and
               "b/"). This overrides configuration variables such as
               **diff.noprefix** , **diff.srcPrefix** , **diff.dstPrefix** , and
               **diff.mnemonicPrefix**(see git-config(1)).
    
           **--line-prefix=**_< prefix>_
               Prepend an additional _< prefix>_ to every line of output.
    
           **--ita-invisible-in-index**
               By default entries added by **git add -N** appear as an existing
               empty file in **git diff** and a new file in **git diff --cached**.
               This option makes the entry appear as a new file in **git diff**
               and non-existent in **git diff --cached**. This option could be
               reverted with **--ita-visible-in-index**. Both options are
               experimental and could be removed in future.
    
           For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
           gitdiffcore(7).
    


## GENERATING PATCH TEXT WITH -P



           Running git-diff(1), git-log(1), git-show(1), git-diff-index(1),
           git-diff-tree(1), or git-diff-files(1) with the **-p** option produces
           patch text. You can customize the creation of patch text via the
           **GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF** and the **GIT_DIFF_OPTS** environment variables (see
           git(1)), and the **diff** attribute (see gitattributes(5)).
    
           What the **-p** option produces is slightly different from the
           traditional diff format:
    
            1. It is preceded by a "git diff" header that looks like this:
    
                   diff --git a/file1 b/file2
    
               The **a/** and **b/** filenames are the same unless rename/copy is
               involved. Especially, even for a creation or a deletion,
               **/dev/null** is _not_ used in place of the **a/** or **b/** filenames.
    
               When a rename/copy is involved, **file1** and **file2** show the name
               of the source file of the rename/copy and the name of the file
               that the rename/copy produces, respectively.
    
            2. It is followed by one or more extended header lines:
    
                   **old mode** _< mode>_
                   **new mode** _< mode>_
                   **deleted file mode** _< mode>_
                   **new file mode** _< mode>_
                   **copy from** _< path>_
                   **copy to** _< path>_
                   **rename from** _< path>_
                   **rename to** _< path>_
                   **similarity index** _< number>_
                   **dissimilarity index** _< number>_
                   **index** _< hash>_**..**_< hash> <mode>_
    
               File modes _< mode>_ are printed as 6-digit octal numbers
               including the file type and file permission bits.
    
               Path names in extended headers do not include the **a/** and **b/**
               prefixes.
    
               The similarity index is the percentage of unchanged lines, and
               the dissimilarity index is the percentage of changed lines. It
               is a rounded down integer, followed by a percent sign. The
               similarity index value of 100% is thus reserved for two equal
               files, while 100% dissimilarity means that no line from the
               old file made it into the new one.
    
               The index line includes the blob object names before and after
               the change. The _< mode>_ is included if the file mode does not
               change; otherwise, separate lines indicate the old and the new
               mode.
    
            3. Pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as explained
               for the configuration variable **core.quotePath**(see
               git-config(1)).
    
            4. All the **file1** files in the output refer to files before the
               commit, and all the **file2** files refer to files after the
               commit. It is incorrect to apply each change to each file
               sequentially. For example, this patch will swap a and b:
    
                   diff --git a/a b/b
                   rename from a
                   rename to b
                   diff --git a/b b/a
                   rename from b
                   rename to a
    
            5. Hunk headers mention the name of the function to which the
               hunk applies. See "Defining a custom hunk-header" in
               gitattributes(5) for details of how to tailor this to specific
               languages.
    


## COMBINED DIFF FORMAT



           Any diff-generating command can take the **-c** or **--cc** option to
           produce a _combined diff_ when showing a merge. This is the default
           format when showing merges with git-diff(1) or git-show(1). Note
           also that you can give suitable **--diff-merges** option to any of
           these commands to force generation of diffs in a specific format.
    
           A "combined diff" format looks like this:
    
               diff --combined describe.c
               index fabadb8,cc95eb0..4866510
               --- a/describe.c
               +++ b/describe.c
               @@@ -98,20 -98,12 +98,20 @@@
                       return (a_date > b_date) ? -1 : (a_date == b_date) ? 0 : 1;
                 }
    
               - static void describe(char *arg)
                -static void describe(struct commit *cmit, int last_one)
               ++static void describe(char *arg, int last_one)
                 {
                +      unsigned char sha1[20];
                +      struct commit *cmit;
                       struct commit_list *list;
                       static int initialized = 0;
                       struct commit_name *n;
    
                +      if (get_sha1(arg, sha1) < 0)
                +              usage(describe_usage);
                +      cmit = lookup_commit_reference(sha1);
                +      if (!cmit)
                +              usage(describe_usage);
                +
                       if (!initialized) {
                               initialized = 1;
                               for_each_ref(get_name);
    
            1. It is preceded by a "git diff" header, that looks like this
               (when the **-c** option is used):
    
                   diff --combined file
    
               or like this (when the **--cc** option is used):
    
                   diff --cc file
    
            2. It is followed by one or more extended header lines (this
               example shows a merge with two parents):
    
                   **index** _< hash>_**,**_< hash>_**..**_< hash>_
                   **mode** _< mode>_**,**_< mode>_**..**_< mode>_
                   **new file mode** _< mode>_
                   **deleted file mode** _< mode>_**,**_< mode>_
    
               The **mode** _< mode>_**,**_< mode>_**..**_< mode>_ line appears only if at least
               one of the <mode> is different from the rest. Extended headers
               with information about detected content movement (renames and
               copying detection) are designed to work with the diff of two
               _< tree-ish>_ and are not used by combined diff format.
    
            3. It is followed by a two-line from-file/to-file header:
    
                   --- a/file
                   +++ b/file
    
               Similar to the two-line header for the traditional _unified_
               diff format, **/dev/null** is used to signal created or deleted
               files.
    
               However, if the --combined-all-paths option is provided,
               instead of a two-line from-file/to-file, you get an N+1 line
               from-file/to-file header, where N is the number of parents in
               the merge commit:
    
                   --- a/file
                   --- a/file
                   --- a/file
                   +++ b/file
    
               This extended format can be useful if rename or copy detection
               is active, to allow you to see the original name of the file
               in different parents.
    
            4. Chunk header format is modified to prevent people from
               accidentally feeding it to **patch -p1**. Combined diff format was
               created for review of merge commit changes, and was not meant
               to be applied. The change is similar to the change in the
               extended _index_ header:
    
                   @@@ <from-file-range> <from-file-range> <to-file-range> @@@
    
               There are (number of parents + 1) **@** characters in the chunk
               header for combined diff format.
    
           Unlike the traditional _unified_ diff format, which shows two files
           A and B with a single column that has **-**(minus — appears in A but
           removed in B), **+**(plus — missing in A but added to B), or " "
           (space — unchanged) prefix, this format compares two or more files
           file1, file2,... with one file X, and shows how X differs from
           each of fileN. One column for each of fileN is prepended to the
           output line to note how X’s line is different from it.
    
           A **-** character in the column N means that the line appears in fileN
           but it does not appear in the result. A **+** character in the column
           N means that the line appears in the result, and fileN does not
           have that line (in other words, the line was added, from the point
           of view of that parent).
    
           In the above example output, the function signature was changed
           from both files (hence two **-** removals from both file1 and file2,
           plus **++** to mean one line that was added does not appear in either
           file1 or file2). Also, eight other lines are the same from file1
           but do not appear in file2 (hence prefixed with **+**).
    
           When shown by **git diff-tree -c** , it compares the parents of a merge
           commit with the merge result (i.e. file1..fileN are the parents).
           When shown by **git diff-files -c** , it compares the two unresolved
           merge parents with the working tree file (i.e. file1 is stage 2
           aka "our version", file2 is stage 3 aka "their version").
    


## EXAMPLES



           **git log --no-merges**
               Show the whole commit history, but skip any merges
    
           **git log v2.6.12.. include/scsi drivers/scsi**
               Show all commits since version _v2.6.12_ that changed any file
               in the **include/scsi** or **drivers/scsi** subdirectories
    
           **git log --since=** "2 **weeks ago** " **-- gitk**
               Show the changes during the last two weeks to the file **gitk**.
               The **--** is necessary to avoid confusion with the **branch** named
               **gitk**
    
           **git log --name-status release..test**
               Show the commits that are in the "**test** " branch but not yet in
               the "**release** " branch, along with the list of paths each commit
               modifies.
    
           **git log --follow builtin/rev-list.c**
               Shows the commits that changed **builtin/rev-list.c** , including
               those commits that occurred before the file was given its
               present name.
    
           **git log --branches --not --remotes=origin**
               Shows all commits that are in any of local branches but not in
               any of remote-tracking branches for **origin**(what you have that
               origin doesn’t).
    
           **git log master --not --remotes=*/master**
               Shows all commits that are in local master but not in any
               remote repository master branches.
    
           **git log -p -m --first-parent**
               Shows the history including change diffs, but only from the
               “main branch” perspective, skipping commits that come from
               merged branches, and showing full diffs of changes introduced
               by the merges. This makes sense only when following a strict
               policy of merging all topic branches when staying on a single
               integration branch.
    
           **git log -L** '/int **main/** ',/^}/:main.c
               Shows how the function **main**() in the file **main.c** evolved over
               time.
    
           **git log -3**
               Limits the number of commits to show to 3.
    


## DISCUSSION



           Git is to some extent character encoding agnostic.
    
           •   The contents of the blob objects are uninterpreted sequences
               of bytes. There is no encoding translation at the core level.
    
           •   Path names are encoded in UTF-8 normalization form C. This
               applies to tree objects, the index file, ref names, as well as
               path names in command line arguments, environment variables
               and config files (**.git/config**(see git-config(1)),
               gitignore(5), gitattributes(5) and gitmodules(5)).
    
               Note that Git at the core level treats path names simply as
               sequences of non-NUL bytes, there are no path name encoding
               conversions (except on Mac and Windows). Therefore, using
               non-ASCII path names will mostly work even on platforms and
               file systems that use legacy extended ASCII encodings.
               However, repositories created on such systems will not work
               properly on UTF-8-based systems (e.g. Linux, Mac, Windows) and
               vice versa. Additionally, many Git-based tools simply assume
               path names to be UTF-8 and will fail to display other
               encodings correctly.
    
           •   Commit log messages are typically encoded in UTF-8, but other
               extended ASCII encodings are also supported. This includes
               ISO-8859-x, CP125x and many others, but _not_ UTF-16/32, EBCDIC
               and CJK multi-byte encodings (GBK, Shift-JIS, Big5, EUC-x,
               CP9xx etc.).
    
           Although we encourage that the commit log messages are encoded in
           UTF-8, both the core and Git Porcelain are designed not to force
           UTF-8 on projects. If all participants of a particular project
           find it more convenient to use legacy encodings, Git does not
           forbid it. However, there are a few things to keep in mind.
    
            1. **git commit** and **git commit-tree** issue a warning if the commit
               log message given to it does not look like a valid UTF-8
               string, unless you explicitly say your project uses a legacy
               encoding. The way to say this is to have **i18n.commitEncoding**
               in **.git/config** file, like this:
    
                   [i18n]
                           commitEncoding = ISO-8859-1
    
               Commit objects created with the above setting record the value
               of **i18n.commitEncoding** in their **encoding** header. This is to
               help other people who look at them later. Lack of this header
               implies that the commit log message is encoded in UTF-8.
    
            2. **git log** , **git show** , **git blame** and friends look at the **encoding**
               header of a commit object, and try to re-code the log message
               into UTF-8 unless otherwise specified. You can specify the
               desired output encoding with **i18n.logOutputEncoding** in
               **.git/config** file, like this:
    
                   [i18n]
                           logOutputEncoding = ISO-8859-1
    
               If you do not have this configuration variable, the value of
               **i18n.commitEncoding** is used instead.
    
           Note that we deliberately chose not to re-code the commit log
           message when a commit is made to force UTF-8 at the commit object
           level, because re-coding to UTF-8 is not necessarily a reversible
           operation.
    


## CONFIGURATION



           See git-config(1) for core variables and git-diff(1) for settings
           related to diff generation.
    
           **format.pretty**
               Default for the **--format** option. (See _Pretty Formats_ above.)
               Defaults to **medium**.
    
           **i18n.logOutputEncoding**
               Encoding to use when displaying logs. (See _Discussion_ above.)
               Defaults to the value of **i18n.commitEncoding** if set, and UTF-8
               otherwise.
    
           Everything above this line in this section isn’t included from the
           git-config(1) documentation. The content that follows is the same
           as what’s found there:
    
           **log.abbrevCommit**
               If **true** , make git-log(1), git-show(1), and git-whatchanged(1)
               assume **--abbrev-commit**. You may override this option with
               **--no-abbrev-commit**.
    
           **log.date**
               Set the default date-time mode for the **log** command. Setting a
               value for log.date is similar to using **git log** 's **--date**
               option. See git-log(1) for details.
    
               If the format is set to "auto:foo" and the pager is in use,
               format "foo" will be used for the date format. Otherwise,
               "default" will be used.
    
           **log.decorate**
               Print out the ref names of any commits that are shown by the
               log command. Possible values are:
    
                   `short`;; the ref name prefixes `refs/heads/`, `refs/tags/` and
                           `refs/remotes/` are not printed.
                   `full`;; the full ref name (including prefix) are printed.
                   `auto`;; if the output is going to a terminal,
                           the ref names are shown as if `short` were given, otherwise no ref
                           names are shown.
    
               This is the same as the **--decorate** option of the **git log**.
    
           **log.initialDecorationSet**
               By default, **git log** only shows decorations for certain known
               ref namespaces. If _all_ is specified, then show all refs as
               decorations.
    
           **log.excludeDecoration**
               Exclude the specified patterns from the log decorations. This
               is similar to the **--decorate-refs-exclude** command-line option,
               but the config option can be overridden by the **--decorate-refs**
               option.
    
           **log.diffMerges**
               Set diff format to be used when **--diff-merges=on** is specified,
               see **--diff-merges** in git-log(1) for details. Defaults to
               **separate**.
    
           **log.follow**
               If **true** , **git log** will act as if the **--follow** option was used
               when a single <path> is given. This has the same limitations
               as **--follow** , i.e. it cannot be used to follow multiple files
               and does not work well on non-linear history.
    
           **log.graphColors**
               A list of colors, separated by commas, that can be used to
               draw history lines in **git log --graph**.
    
           **log.showRoot**
               If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation
               event. This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
               Tools like git-log(1) or git-whatchanged(1), which normally
               hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
    
           **log.showSignature**
               If true, makes git-log(1), git-show(1), and git-whatchanged(1)
               assume **--show-signature**.
    
           **log.mailmap**
               If true, makes git-log(1), git-show(1), and git-whatchanged(1)
               assume **--use-mailmap** , otherwise assume **--no-use-mailmap**. True
               by default.
    
           **notes.mergeStrategy**
               Which merge strategy to choose by default when resolving notes
               conflicts. Must be one of **manual** , **ours** , **theirs** , **union** , or
               **cat_sort_uniq**. Defaults to **manual**. See the "NOTES MERGE
               STRATEGIES" section of git-notes(1) for more information on
               each strategy.
    
               This setting can be overridden by passing the **--strategy**
               option to git-notes(1).
    
           **notes.**_< name>_**.mergeStrategy**
               Which merge strategy to choose when doing a notes merge into
               **refs/notes/**_< name>_. This overrides the more general
               **notes.mergeStrategy**. See the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section
               in git-notes(1) for more information on the available
               strategies.
    
           **notes.displayRef**
               Which ref (or refs, if a glob or specified more than once), in
               addition to the default set by **core.notesRef** or **GIT_NOTES_REF** ,
               to read notes from when showing commit messages with the **git**
               **log** family of commands.
    
               This setting can be overridden with the **GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF**
               environment variable, which must be a colon separated list of
               refs or globs.
    
               A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist, but a
               glob that does not match any refs is silently ignored.
    
               This setting can be disabled by the **--no-notes** option to the
               git-log(1) family of commands, or by the **--notes=**_< ref>_ option
               accepted by those commands.
    
               The effective value of **core.notesRef**(possibly overridden by
               **GIT_NOTES_REF**) is also implicitly added to the list of refs to
               be displayed.
    
           **notes.rewrite.**_< command>_
               When rewriting commits with _< command>_ (currently **amend** or
               **rebase**), if this variable is **false** , git will not copy notes
               from the original to the rewritten commit. Defaults to **true**.
               See also **notes.rewriteRef** below.
    
               This setting can be overridden with the **GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF**
               environment variable, which must be a colon separated list of
               refs or globs.
    
           **notes.rewriteMode**
               When copying notes during a rewrite (see the
               **notes.rewrite.**_< command>_ option), determines what to do if the
               target commit already has a note. Must be one of **overwrite** ,
               **concatenate** , **cat_sort_uniq** , or **ignore**. Defaults to
               **concatenate**.
    
               This setting can be overridden with the **GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE**
               environment variable.
    
           **notes.rewriteRef**
               When copying notes during a rewrite, specifies the (fully
               qualified) ref whose notes should be copied. May be a glob, in
               which case notes in all matching refs will be copied. You may
               also specify this configuration several times.
    
               Does not have a default value; you must configure this
               variable to enable note rewriting. Set it to
               **refs/notes/commits** to enable rewriting for the default commit
               notes.
    
               Can be overridden with the **GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF** environment
               variable. See **notes.rewrite.**_< command>_ above for a further
               description of its format.
    


## GIT



           Part of the git(1) suite
    


* * *