# git-for-each-ref

## NAME



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


## SYNOPSIS



           **git for-each-ref**[**--count=**_< count>_] [**--shell** |**--perl** |**--python** |**--tcl**]
                              [(**--sort=**_< key>_)...] [**--format=**_< format>_]
                              [**--include-root-refs**] [**--points-at=**_< object>_]
                              [**--merged**[**=**_< object>_]] [**--no-merged**[**=**_< object>_]]
                              [**--contains**[**=**_< object>_]] [**--no-contains**[**=**_< object>_]]
                              [(**--exclude=**_< pattern>_)...] [**--start-after=**_< marker>_]
                              [ **--stdin** | _< pattern>_**...**]
    


## DESCRIPTION



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


## OPTIONS



           <pattern>...
               If one or more patterns are given, only refs are shown that
               match against at least one pattern, either using fnmatch(3) or
               literally, in the latter case matching completely or from the
               beginning up to a slash.
    
           --stdin
               If **--stdin** is supplied, then the list of patterns is read from
               standard input instead of from the argument list.
    
           --count=<count>
               By default the command shows all refs that match _< pattern>_.
               This option makes it stop after showing that many refs.
    
           --sort=<key>
               A field name to sort on. Prefix **-** to sort in descending order
               of the value. When unspecified, **refname** is used. You may use
               the --sort=<key> option multiple times, in which case the last
               key becomes the primary key.
    
           --format=<format>
               A string that interpolates **%**(**fieldname**) from a ref being shown
               and the object it points at. In addition, the string literal
               **%%** renders as **%** and **%xx** - where **xx** are hex digits - renders as
               the character with hex code **xx**. For example, **%00** interpolates
               to **\0**(NUL), **%09** to **\t**(TAB), and **%0a** to **\n**(LF).
    
               When unspecified, _< format>_ defaults to **%**(**objectname**) **SPC**
               **%**(**objecttype**) **TAB %**(**refname**).
    
           --color[=<when>]
               Respect any colors specified in the **--format** option. The
               _< when>_ field must be one of **always** , **never** , or **auto**(if _< when>_
               is absent, behave as if **always** was given).
    
           --shell, --perl, --python, --tcl
               If given, strings that substitute **%**(**fieldname**) placeholders
               are quoted as string literals suitable for the specified host
               language. This is meant to produce a scriptlet that can
               directly be `eval`ed.
    
           --points-at=<object>
               Only list refs which points at the given object.
    
           --merged[=<object>]
               Only list refs whose tips are reachable from the specified
               commit (HEAD if not specified).
    
           --no-merged[=<object>]
               Only list refs whose tips are not reachable from the specified
               commit (HEAD if not specified).
    
           --contains[=<object>]
               Only list refs which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not
               specified).
    
           --no-contains[=<object>]
               Only list refs which don’t contain the specified commit (HEAD
               if not specified).
    
           --ignore-case
               Sorting and filtering refs are case insensitive.
    
           --omit-empty
               Do not print a newline after formatted refs where the format
               expands to the empty string.
    
           --exclude=<pattern>
               If one or more patterns are given, only refs which do not
               match any excluded pattern(s) are shown. Matching is done
               using the same rules as _< pattern>_ above.
    
           --include-root-refs
               List root refs (HEAD and pseudorefs) apart from regular refs.
    
           --start-after=<marker>
               Allows paginating the output by skipping references up to and
               including the specified marker. When paging, it should be
               noted that references may be deleted, modified or added
               between invocations. Output will only yield those references
               which follow the marker lexicographically. Output begins from
               the first reference that would come after the marker
               alphabetically. Cannot be used with **--sort=**_< key>_ or **--stdin**
               options, or the _< pattern>_ argument(s) to limit the refs.
    


## FIELD NAMES



           Various values from structured fields in referenced objects can be
           used to interpolate into the resulting output, or as sort keys.
    
           For all objects, the following names can be used:
    
           refname
               The name of the ref (the part after $GIT_DIR/). For a
               non-ambiguous short name of the ref append **:short**. The option
               core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict
               abbreviation mode. If **lstrip=**_< N>_ (**rstrip=**_< N>_) is appended,
               strips _< N>_ slash-separated path components from the front
               (back) of the refname (e.g.  **%**(**refname:lstrip=2**) turns
               **refs/tags/foo** into **foo** and **%**(**refname:rstrip=2**) turns
               **refs/tags/foo** into **refs**). If _< N>_ is a negative number, strip
               as many path components as necessary from the specified end to
               leave **-**_< N>_ path components (e.g.  **%**(**refname:lstrip=-2**) turns
               **refs/tags/foo** into **tags/foo** and **%**(**refname:rstrip=-1**) turns
               **refs/tags/foo** into **refs**). When the ref does not have enough
               components, the result becomes an empty string if stripping
               with positive <N>, or it becomes the full refname if stripping
               with negative <N>. Neither is an error.
    
               **strip** can be used as a synonym to **lstrip**.
    
           objecttype
               The type of the object (**blob** , **tree** , **commit** , **tag**).
    
           objectsize
               The size of the object (the same as _git cat-file -s_ reports).
               Append **:disk** to get the size, in bytes, that the object takes
               up on disk. See the note about on-disk sizes in the **CAVEATS**
               section below.
    
           objectname
               The object name (aka SHA-1). For a non-ambiguous abbreviation
               of the object name append **:short**. For an abbreviation of the
               object name with desired length append **:short=**_< length>_, where
               the minimum length is MINIMUM_ABBREV. The length may be
               exceeded to ensure unique object names.
    
           deltabase
               This expands to the object name of the delta base for the
               given object, if it is stored as a delta. Otherwise it expands
               to the null object name (all zeroes).
    
           upstream
               The name of a local ref which can be considered “upstream”
               from the displayed ref. Respects **:short** , **:lstrip** and **:rstrip**
               in the same way as **refname** above. Additionally respects **:track**
               to show "[ahead N, behind M]" and **:trackshort** to show the
               terse version: ">" (ahead), "<" (behind), "<>" (ahead and
               behind), or "=" (in sync).  **:track** also prints "[gone]"
               whenever unknown upstream ref is encountered. Append
               **:track** ,nobracket to show tracking information without brackets
               (i.e "ahead N, behind M").
    
               For any remote-tracking branch **%**(**upstream**),
               **%**(**upstream:remotename**) and **%**(**upstream:remoteref**) refer to the
               name of the remote and the name of the tracked remote ref,
               respectively. In other words, the remote-tracking branch can
               be updated explicitly and individually by using the refspec
               **%**(**upstream:remoteref**)**:%**(**upstream**) to fetch from
               **%**(**upstream:remotename**).
    
               Has no effect if the ref does not have tracking information
               associated with it. All the options apart from **nobracket** are
               mutually exclusive, but if used together the last option is
               selected.
    
           push
               The name of a local ref which represents the **@**{push} location
               for the displayed ref. Respects **:short** , **:lstrip** , **:rstrip** ,
               **:track** , **:trackshort** , **:remotename** , and **:remoteref** options as
               **upstream** does. Produces an empty string if no **@**{push} ref is
               configured.
    
           HEAD
               _*_ if HEAD matches current ref (the checked out branch), ' '
               otherwise.
    
           color
               Change output color. Followed by **:**_< colorname>_, where color
               names are described under Values in the "CONFIGURATION FILE"
               section of git-config(1). For example, **%**(**color:bold red**).
    
           align
               Left-, middle-, or right-align the content between
               %(align:...) and %(end). The "align:" is followed by
               **width=**_< width>_ and **position=**_< position>_ in any order separated
               by a comma, where the _< position>_ is either left, right or
               middle, default being left and _< width>_ is the total length of
               the content with alignment. For brevity, the "width=" and/or
               "position=" prefixes may be omitted, and bare <width> and
               <position> used instead. For instance,
               **%**(**align:**_< width>_**,**_< position>_). If the contents length is more
               than the width then no alignment is performed. If used with
               **--quote** everything in between %(align:...) and %(end) is
               quoted, but if nested then only the topmost level performs
               quoting.
    
           if
               Used as %(if)...%(then)...%(end) or
               %(if)...%(then)...%(else)...%(end). If there is an atom with
               value or string literal after the %(if) then everything after
               the %(then) is printed, else if the %(else) atom is used, then
               everything after %(else) is printed. We ignore space when
               evaluating the string before %(then), this is useful when we
               use the %(HEAD) atom which prints either "*" or " " and we
               want to apply the _if_ condition only on the _HEAD_ ref. Append
               ":equals=<string>" or ":notequals=<string>" to compare the
               value between the %(if:...) and %(then) atoms with the given
               string.
    
           symref
               The ref which the given symbolic ref refers to. If not a
               symbolic ref, nothing is printed. Respects the **:short** , **:lstrip**
               and **:rstrip** options in the same way as **refname** above.
    
           signature
               The GPG signature of a commit.
    
           signature:grade
               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.
    
           signature:signer
               The signer of the GPG signature of a commit.
    
           signature:key
               The key of the GPG signature of a commit.
    
           signature:fingerprint
               The fingerprint of the GPG signature of a commit.
    
           signature:primarykeyfingerprint
               The primary key fingerprint of the GPG signature of a commit.
    
           signature:trustlevel
               The trust level of the GPG signature of a commit. Possible
               outputs are **ultimate** , **fully** , **marginal** , **never** and **undefined**.
    
           worktreepath
               The absolute path to the worktree in which the ref is checked
               out, if it is checked out in any linked worktree. Empty string
               otherwise.
    
           ahead-behind:<committish>
               Two integers, separated by a space, demonstrating the number
               of commits ahead and behind, respectively, when comparing the
               output ref to the _< committish>_ specified in the format.
    
           is-base:<committish>
               In at most one row, (_< committish>_) will appear to indicate the
               ref that is most likely the ref used as a starting point for
               the branch that produced _< committish>_. This choice is made
               using a heuristic: choose the ref that minimizes the number of
               commits in the first-parent history of _< committish>_ and not in
               the first-parent history of the ref.
    
               For example, consider the following figure of first-parent
               histories of several refs:
    
                   *--*--*--*--*--* refs/heads/A
                   \
                    \
                     *--*--*--* refs/heads/B
                      \     \
                       \     \
                        *     * refs/heads/C
                         \
                          \
                           *--* refs/heads/D
    
               Here, if **A** , **B** , and **C** are the filtered references, and the
               format string is **%**(**refname**)**:%**(**is-base:D**), then the output
               would be
    
                   refs/heads/A:
                   refs/heads/B:(D)
                   refs/heads/C:
    
               This is because the first-parent history of **D** has its earliest
               intersection with the first-parent histories of the filtered
               refs at a common first-parent ancestor of **B** and **C** and ties are
               broken by the earliest ref in the sorted order.
    
               Note that this token will not appear if the first-parent
               history of _< committish>_ does not intersect the first-parent
               histories of the filtered refs.
    
           describe[:options]
               A human-readable name, like git-describe(1); empty string for
               undescribable commits. The **describe** string may be followed by
               a colon and one or more comma-separated options.
    
               tags=<bool-value>
                   Instead of only considering annotated tags, consider
                   lightweight tags as well; see the corresponding option in
                   git-describe(1) for details.
    
               abbrev=<number>
                   Use at least <number> hexadecimal digits; see the
                   corresponding option in git-describe(1) for details.
    
               match=<pattern>
                   Only consider tags matching the given **glob**(**7**) pattern,
                   excluding the "refs/tags/" prefix; see the corresponding
                   option in git-describe(1) for details.
    
               exclude=<pattern>
                   Do not consider tags matching the given **glob**(**7**) pattern,
                   excluding the "refs/tags/" prefix; see the corresponding
                   option in git-describe(1) for details.
    
           In addition to the above, for commit and tag objects, the header
           field names (**tree** , **parent** , **object** , **type** , and **tag**) can be used to
           specify the value in the header field. Fields **tree** and **parent** can
           also be used with modifier **:short** and **:short=**_< length>_ just like
           **objectname**.
    
           For commit and tag objects, the special **creatordate** and **creator**
           fields will correspond to the appropriate date or name-email-date
           tuple from the **committer** or **tagger** fields depending on the object
           type. These are intended for working on a mix of annotated and
           lightweight tags.
    
           For tag objects, a **fieldname** prefixed with an asterisk (*****) expands
           to the **fieldname** value of the peeled object, rather than that of
           the tag object itself.
    
           Fields that have name-email-date tuple as its value (**author** ,
           **committer** , and **tagger**) can be suffixed with **name** , **email** , and **date**
           to extract the named component. For email fields (**authoremail** ,
           **committeremail** and **taggeremail**), **:trim** can be appended to get the
           email without angle brackets, and **:localpart** to get the part
           before the **@** symbol out of the trimmed email. In addition to
           these, the **:mailmap** option and the corresponding **:mailmap** ,trim and
           **:mailmap** ,localpart can be used (order does not matter) to get
           values of the name and email according to the .mailmap file or
           according to the file set in the mailmap.file or mailmap.blob
           configuration variable (see gitmailmap(5)).
    
           The raw data in an object is **raw**.
    
           raw:size
               The raw data size of the object.
    
           Note that **--format=%**(**raw**) can not be used with **--python** , **--shell** ,
           **--tcl** , because such language may not support arbitrary binary data
           in their string variable type.
    
           The message in a commit or a tag object is **contents** , from which
           **contents:**_< part>_ can be used to extract various parts out of:
    
           contents:size
               The size in bytes of the commit or tag message.
    
           contents:subject
               The first paragraph of the message, which typically is a
               single line, is taken as the "subject" of the commit or the
               tag message. Instead of **contents:subject** , field **subject** can
               also be used to obtain same results.  **:sanitize** can be
               appended to **subject** for subject line suitable for filename.
    
           contents:body
               The remainder of the commit or the tag message that follows
               the "subject".
    
           contents:signature
               The optional GPG signature of the tag.
    
           contents:lines=N
               The first **N** lines of the message.
    
           Additionally, the trailers as interpreted by
           git-interpret-trailers(1) are obtained as **trailers**[**:options**] (or
           by using the historical alias **contents:trailers**[**:options**]). For
           valid [:option] values see **trailers** section of git-log(1).
    
           For sorting purposes, fields with numeric values sort in numeric
           order (**objectsize** , **authordate** , **committerdate** , **creatordate** ,
           **taggerdate**). All other fields are used to sort in their byte-value
           order.
    
           There is also an option to sort by versions, this can be done by
           using the fieldname **version:refname** or its alias **v:refname**.
    
           In any case, a field name that refers to a field inapplicable to
           the object referred by the ref does not cause an error. It returns
           an empty string instead.
    
           As a special case for the date-type fields, you may specify a
           format for the date by adding **:** followed by date format name (see
           the values the **--date** option to git-rev-list(1) takes). If this
           formatting is provided in a **--sort** key, references will be sorted
           according to the byte-value of the formatted string rather than
           the numeric value of the underlying timestamp.
    
           Some atoms like %(align) and %(if) always require a matching
           %(end). We call them "opening atoms" and sometimes denote them as
           %($open).
    
           When a scripting language specific quoting is in effect,
           everything between a top-level opening atom and its matching
           %(end) is evaluated according to the semantics of the opening atom
           and only its result from the top-level is quoted.
    


## EXAMPLES



           An example directly producing formatted text. Show the most recent
           3 tagged commits:
    
               #!/bin/sh
    
               git for-each-ref --count=3 --sort='-*authordate' \
               --format='From: %(*authorname) %(*authoremail)
               Subject: %(*subject)
               Date: %(*authordate)
               Ref: %(*refname)
    
               %(*body)
               ' 'refs/tags'
    
           A simple example showing the use of shell eval on the output,
           demonstrating the use of --shell. List the prefixes of all heads:
    
               #!/bin/sh
    
               git for-each-ref --shell --format="ref=%(refname)" refs/heads | \
               while read entry
               do
                       eval "$entry"
                       echo `dirname $ref`
               done
    
           A bit more elaborate report on tags, demonstrating that the format
           may be an entire script:
    
               #!/bin/sh
    
               fmt='
                       r=%(refname)
                       t=%(*objecttype)
                       T=${r#refs/tags/}
    
                       o=%(*objectname)
                       n=%(*authorname)
                       e=%(*authoremail)
                       s=%(*subject)
                       d=%(*authordate)
                       b=%(*body)
    
                       kind=Tag
                       if test "z$t" = z
                       then
                               # could be a lightweight tag
                               t=%(objecttype)
                               kind="Lightweight tag"
                               o=%(objectname)
                               n=%(authorname)
                               e=%(authoremail)
                               s=%(subject)
                               d=%(authordate)
                               b=%(body)
                       fi
                       echo "$kind $T points at a $t object $o"
                       if test "z$t" = zcommit
                       then
                               echo "The commit was authored by $n $e
               at $d, and titled
    
                   $s
    
               Its message reads as:
               "
                               echo "$b" | sed -e "s/^/    /"
                               echo
                       fi
               '
    
               eval=`git for-each-ref --shell --format="$fmt" \
                       --sort='*objecttype' \
                       --sort=-taggerdate \
                       refs/tags`
               eval "$eval"
    
           An example to show the usage of
           %(if)...%(then)...%(else)...%(end). This prefixes the current
           branch with a star.
    
               git for-each-ref --format="%(if)%(HEAD)%(then)* %(else)  %(end)%(refname:short)" refs/heads/
    
           An example to show the usage of %(if)...%(then)...%(end). This
           prints the authorname, if present.
    
               git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)%(if)%(authorname)%(then) Authored by: %(authorname)%(end)"
    


## CAVEATS



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


## NOTES



           When combining multiple **--contains** and **--no-contains** filters, only
           references that contain at least one of the **--contains** commits and
           contain none of the **--no-contains** commits are shown.
    
           When combining multiple **--merged** and **--no-merged** filters, only
           references that are reachable from at least one of the **--merged**
           commits and from none of the **--no-merged** commits are shown.
    


## GIT



           Part of the git(1) suite
    


* * *