| git-format-patch(1) |
| =================== |
| |
| NAME |
| ---- |
| git-format-patch - Prepare patches for e-mail submission |
| |
| |
| SYNOPSIS |
| -------- |
| [verse] |
| 'git format-patch' [-k] [(-o|--output-directory) <dir> | --stdout] |
| [--no-thread | --thread[=<style>]] |
| [(--attach|--inline)[=<boundary>] | --no-attach] |
| [-s | --signoff] |
| [--signature=<signature> | --no-signature] |
| [-n | --numbered | -N | --no-numbered] |
| [--start-number <n>] [--numbered-files] |
| [--in-reply-to=Message-Id] [--suffix=.<sfx>] |
| [--ignore-if-in-upstream] |
| [--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix] [(--reroll-count|-v) <n>] |
| [--to=<email>] [--cc=<email>] |
| [--[no-]cover-letter] [--quiet] [--notes[=<ref>]] |
| [<common diff options>] |
| [ <since> | <revision range> ] |
| |
| DESCRIPTION |
| ----------- |
| |
| Prepare each commit with its patch in |
| one file per commit, formatted to resemble UNIX mailbox format. |
| The output of this command is convenient for e-mail submission or |
| for use with 'git am'. |
| |
| There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on. |
| |
| 1. A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading |
| to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history |
| that leads to the <since> to be output. |
| |
| 2. Generic <revision range> expression (see "SPECIFYING |
| REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7]) means the |
| commits in the specified range. |
| |
| The first rule takes precedence in the case of a single <commit>. To |
| apply the second rule, i.e., format everything since the beginning of |
| history up until <commit>, use the '\--root' option: `git format-patch |
| --root <commit>`. If you want to format only <commit> itself, you |
| can do this with `git format-patch -1 <commit>`. |
| |
| By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the |
| first line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as |
| the filename. With the `--numbered-files` option, the output file names |
| will only be numbers, without the first line of the commit appended. |
| The names of the output files are printed to standard |
| output, unless the `--stdout` option is specified. |
| |
| If `-o` is specified, output files are created in <dir>. Otherwise |
| they are created in the current working directory. |
| |
| By default, the subject of a single patch is "[PATCH] " followed by |
| the concatenation of lines from the commit message up to the first blank |
| line (see the DISCUSSION section of linkgit:git-commit[1]). |
| |
| When multiple patches are output, the subject prefix will instead be |
| "[PATCH n/m] ". To force 1/1 to be added for a single patch, use `-n`. |
| To omit patch numbers from the subject, use `-N`. |
| |
| If given `--thread`, `git-format-patch` will generate `In-Reply-To` and |
| `References` headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear |
| as replies to the first mail; this also generates a `Message-Id` header to |
| reference. |
| |
| OPTIONS |
| ------- |
| :git-format-patch: 1 |
| include::diff-options.txt[] |
| |
| -<n>:: |
| Prepare patches from the topmost <n> commits. |
| |
| -o <dir>:: |
| --output-directory <dir>:: |
| Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the |
| current working directory. |
| |
| -n:: |
| --numbered:: |
| Name output in '[PATCH n/m]' format, even with a single patch. |
| |
| -N:: |
| --no-numbered:: |
| Name output in '[PATCH]' format. |
| |
| --start-number <n>:: |
| Start numbering the patches at <n> instead of 1. |
| |
| --numbered-files:: |
| Output file names will be a simple number sequence |
| without the default first line of the commit appended. |
| |
| -k:: |
| --keep-subject:: |
| Do not strip/add '[PATCH]' from the first line of the |
| commit log message. |
| |
| -s:: |
| --signoff:: |
| Add `Signed-off-by:` line to the commit message, using |
| the committer identity of yourself. |
| |
| --stdout:: |
| Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, |
| instead of creating a file for each one. |
| |
| --attach[=<boundary>]:: |
| Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of |
| which is the commit message and the patch itself in the |
| second part, with `Content-Disposition: attachment`. |
| |
| --no-attach:: |
| Disable the creation of an attachment, overriding the |
| configuration setting. |
| |
| --inline[=<boundary>]:: |
| Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of |
| which is the commit message and the patch itself in the |
| second part, with `Content-Disposition: inline`. |
| |
| --thread[=<style>]:: |
| --no-thread:: |
| Controls addition of `In-Reply-To` and `References` headers to |
| make the second and subsequent mails appear as replies to the |
| first. Also controls generation of the `Message-Id` header to |
| reference. |
| + |
| The optional <style> argument can be either `shallow` or `deep`. |
| 'shallow' threading makes every mail a reply to the head of the |
| series, where the head is chosen from the cover letter, the |
| `--in-reply-to`, and the first patch mail, in this order. 'deep' |
| threading makes every mail a reply to the previous one. |
| + |
| The default is `--no-thread`, unless the 'format.thread' configuration |
| is set. If `--thread` is specified without a style, it defaults to the |
| style specified by 'format.thread' if any, or else `shallow`. |
| + |
| Beware that the default for 'git send-email' is to thread emails |
| itself. If you want `git format-patch` to take care of threading, you |
| will want to ensure that threading is disabled for `git send-email`. |
| |
| --in-reply-to=Message-Id:: |
| Make the first mail (or all the mails with `--no-thread`) appear as a |
| reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to |
| provide a new patch series. |
| |
| --ignore-if-in-upstream:: |
| Do not include a patch that matches a commit in |
| <until>..<since>. This will examine all patches reachable |
| from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the |
| patches being generated, and any patch that matches is |
| ignored. |
| |
| --subject-prefix=<Subject-Prefix>:: |
| Instead of the standard '[PATCH]' prefix in the subject |
| line, instead use '[<Subject-Prefix>]'. This |
| allows for useful naming of a patch series, and can be |
| combined with the `--numbered` option. |
| |
| -v <n>:: |
| --reroll-count=<n>:: |
| Mark the series as the <n>-th iteration of the topic. The |
| output filenames have `v<n>` pretended to them, and the |
| subject prefix ("PATCH" by default, but configurable via the |
| `--subject-prefix` option) has ` v<n>` appended to it. E.g. |
| `--reroll-count=4` may produce `v4-0001-add-makefile.patch` |
| file that has "Subject: [PATCH v4 1/20] Add makefile" in it. |
| |
| --to=<email>:: |
| Add a `To:` header to the email headers. This is in addition |
| to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. |
| The negated form `--no-to` discards all `To:` headers added so |
| far (from config or command line). |
| |
| --cc=<email>:: |
| Add a `Cc:` header to the email headers. This is in addition |
| to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. |
| The negated form `--no-cc` discards all `Cc:` headers added so |
| far (from config or command line). |
| |
| --from:: |
| --from=<ident>:: |
| Use `ident` in the `From:` header of each commit email. If the |
| author ident of the commit is not textually identical to the |
| provided `ident`, place a `From:` header in the body of the |
| message with the original author. If no `ident` is given, use |
| the committer ident. |
| + |
| Note that this option is only useful if you are actually sending the |
| emails and want to identify yourself as the sender, but retain the |
| original author (and `git am` will correctly pick up the in-body |
| header). Note also that `git send-email` already handles this |
| transformation for you, and this option should not be used if you are |
| feeding the result to `git send-email`. |
| |
| --add-header=<header>:: |
| Add an arbitrary header to the email headers. This is in addition |
| to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. |
| For example, `--add-header="Organization: git-foo"`. |
| The negated form `--no-add-header` discards *all* (`To:`, |
| `Cc:`, and custom) headers added so far from config or command |
| line. |
| |
| --[no-]cover-letter:: |
| In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file |
| containing the shortlog and the overall diffstat. You can |
| fill in a description in the file before sending it out. |
| |
| --notes[=<ref>]:: |
| Append the notes (see linkgit:git-notes[1]) for the commit |
| after the three-dash line. |
| + |
| The expected use case of this is to write supporting explanation for |
| the commit that does not belong to the commit log message proper, |
| and include it with the patch submission. While one can simply write |
| these explanations after `format-patch` has run but before sending, |
| keeping them as Git notes allows them to be maintained between versions |
| of the patch series (but see the discussion of the `notes.rewrite` |
| configuration options in linkgit:git-notes[1] to use this workflow). |
| |
| --[no]-signature=<signature>:: |
| Add a signature to each message produced. Per RFC 3676 the signature |
| is separated from the body by a line with '-- ' on it. If the |
| signature option is omitted the signature defaults to the Git version |
| number. |
| |
| --suffix=.<sfx>:: |
| Instead of using `.patch` as the suffix for generated |
| filenames, use specified suffix. A common alternative is |
| `--suffix=.txt`. Leaving this empty will remove the `.patch` |
| suffix. |
| + |
| Note that the leading character does not have to be a dot; for example, |
| you can use `--suffix=-patch` to get `0001-description-of-my-change-patch`. |
| |
| -q:: |
| --quiet:: |
| Do not print the names of the generated files to standard output. |
| |
| --no-binary:: |
| Do not output contents of changes in binary files, instead |
| display a notice that those files changed. Patches generated |
| using this option cannot be applied properly, but they are |
| still useful for code review. |
| |
| --root:: |
| Treat the revision argument as a <revision range>, even if it |
| is just a single commit (that would normally be treated as a |
| <since>). Note that root commits included in the specified |
| range are always formatted as creation patches, independently |
| of this flag. |
| |
| CONFIGURATION |
| ------------- |
| You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message, |
| defaults for the subject prefix and file suffix, number patches when |
| outputting more than one patch, add "To" or "Cc:" headers, configure |
| attachments, and sign off patches with configuration variables. |
| |
| ------------ |
| [format] |
| headers = "Organization: git-foo\n" |
| subjectprefix = CHANGE |
| suffix = .txt |
| numbered = auto |
| to = <email> |
| cc = <email> |
| attach [ = mime-boundary-string ] |
| signoff = true |
| coverletter = auto |
| ------------ |
| |
| |
| DISCUSSION |
| ---------- |
| |
| The patch produced by 'git format-patch' is in UNIX mailbox format, |
| with a fixed "magic" time stamp to indicate that the file is output |
| from format-patch rather than a real mailbox, like so: |
| |
| ------------ |
| From 8f72bad1baf19a53459661343e21d6491c3908d3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 |
| From: Tony Luck <tony.luck@intel.com> |
| Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:42:54 -0700 |
| Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?[IA64]=20Put=20ia64=20config=20files=20on=20the=20?= |
| =?UTF-8?q?Uwe=20Kleine-K=C3=B6nig=20diet?= |
| MIME-Version: 1.0 |
| Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 |
| Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit |
| |
| arch/arm config files were slimmed down using a python script |
| (See commit c2330e286f68f1c408b4aa6515ba49d57f05beae comment) |
| |
| Do the same for ia64 so we can have sleek & trim looking |
| ... |
| ------------ |
| |
| Typically it will be placed in a MUA's drafts folder, edited to add |
| timely commentary that should not go in the changelog after the three |
| dashes, and then sent as a message whose body, in our example, starts |
| with "arch/arm config files were...". On the receiving end, readers |
| can save interesting patches in a UNIX mailbox and apply them with |
| linkgit:git-am[1]. |
| |
| When a patch is part of an ongoing discussion, the patch generated by |
| 'git format-patch' can be tweaked to take advantage of the 'git am |
| --scissors' feature. After your response to the discussion comes a |
| line that consists solely of "`-- >8 --`" (scissors and perforation), |
| followed by the patch with unnecessary header fields removed: |
| |
| ------------ |
| ... |
| > So we should do such-and-such. |
| |
| Makes sense to me. How about this patch? |
| |
| -- >8 -- |
| Subject: [IA64] Put ia64 config files on the Uwe Kleine-König diet |
| |
| arch/arm config files were slimmed down using a python script |
| ... |
| ------------ |
| |
| When sending a patch this way, most often you are sending your own |
| patch, so in addition to the "`From $SHA1 $magic_timestamp`" marker you |
| should omit `From:` and `Date:` lines from the patch file. The patch |
| title is likely to be different from the subject of the discussion the |
| patch is in response to, so it is likely that you would want to keep |
| the Subject: line, like the example above. |
| |
| Checking for patch corruption |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Many mailers if not set up properly will corrupt whitespace. Here are |
| two common types of corruption: |
| |
| * Empty context lines that do not have _any_ whitespace. |
| |
| * Non-empty context lines that have one extra whitespace at the |
| beginning. |
| |
| One way to test if your MUA is set up correctly is: |
| |
| * Send the patch to yourself, exactly the way you would, except |
| with To: and Cc: lines that do not contain the list and |
| maintainer address. |
| |
| * Save that patch to a file in UNIX mailbox format. Call it a.patch, |
| say. |
| |
| * Apply it: |
| |
| $ git fetch <project> master:test-apply |
| $ git checkout test-apply |
| $ git reset --hard |
| $ git am a.patch |
| |
| If it does not apply correctly, there can be various reasons. |
| |
| * The patch itself does not apply cleanly. That is _bad_ but |
| does not have much to do with your MUA. You might want to rebase |
| the patch with linkgit:git-rebase[1] before regenerating it in |
| this case. |
| |
| * The MUA corrupted your patch; "am" would complain that |
| the patch does not apply. Look in the .git/rebase-apply/ subdirectory and |
| see what 'patch' file contains and check for the common |
| corruption patterns mentioned above. |
| |
| * While at it, check the 'info' and 'final-commit' files as well. |
| If what is in 'final-commit' is not exactly what you would want to |
| see in the commit log message, it is very likely that the |
| receiver would end up hand editing the log message when applying |
| your patch. Things like "Hi, this is my first patch.\n" in the |
| patch e-mail should come after the three-dash line that signals |
| the end of the commit message. |
| |
| MUA-SPECIFIC HINTS |
| ------------------ |
| Here are some hints on how to successfully submit patches inline using |
| various mailers. |
| |
| GMail |
| ~~~~~ |
| GMail does not have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web |
| interface, so it will mangle any emails that you send. You can however |
| use "git send-email" and send your patches through the GMail SMTP server, or |
| use any IMAP email client to connect to the google IMAP server and forward |
| the emails through that. |
| |
| For hints on using 'git send-email' to send your patches through the |
| GMail SMTP server, see the EXAMPLE section of linkgit:git-send-email[1]. |
| |
| For hints on submission using the IMAP interface, see the EXAMPLE |
| section of linkgit:git-imap-send[1]. |
| |
| Thunderbird |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| By default, Thunderbird will both wrap emails as well as flag |
| them as being 'format=flowed', both of which will make the |
| resulting email unusable by Git. |
| |
| There are three different approaches: use an add-on to turn off line wraps, |
| configure Thunderbird to not mangle patches, or use |
| an external editor to keep Thunderbird from mangling the patches. |
| |
| Approach #1 (add-on) |
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |
| |
| Install the Toggle Word Wrap add-on that is available from |
| https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/toggle-word-wrap/ |
| It adds a menu entry "Enable Word Wrap" in the composer's "Options" menu |
| that you can tick off. Now you can compose the message as you otherwise do |
| (cut + paste, 'git format-patch' | 'git imap-send', etc), but you have to |
| insert line breaks manually in any text that you type. |
| |
| Approach #2 (configuration) |
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |
| Three steps: |
| |
| 1. Configure your mail server composition as plain text: |
| Edit...Account Settings...Composition & Addressing, |
| uncheck "Compose Messages in HTML". |
| |
| 2. Configure your general composition window to not wrap. |
| + |
| In Thunderbird 2: |
| Edit..Preferences..Composition, wrap plain text messages at 0 |
| + |
| In Thunderbird 3: |
| Edit..Preferences..Advanced..Config Editor. Search for |
| "mail.wrap_long_lines". |
| Toggle it to make sure it is set to `false`. Also, search for |
| "mailnews.wraplength" and set the value to 0. |
| |
| 3. Disable the use of format=flowed: |
| Edit..Preferences..Advanced..Config Editor. Search for |
| "mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed". |
| Toggle it to make sure it is set to `false`. |
| |
| After that is done, you should be able to compose email as you |
| otherwise would (cut + paste, 'git format-patch' | 'git imap-send', etc), |
| and the patches will not be mangled. |
| |
| Approach #3 (external editor) |
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |
| |
| The following Thunderbird extensions are needed: |
| AboutConfig from http://aboutconfig.mozdev.org/ and |
| External Editor from http://globs.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=8 |
| |
| 1. Prepare the patch as a text file using your method of choice. |
| |
| 2. Before opening a compose window, use Edit->Account Settings to |
| uncheck the "Compose messages in HTML format" setting in the |
| "Composition & Addressing" panel of the account to be used to |
| send the patch. |
| |
| 3. In the main Thunderbird window, 'before' you open the compose |
| window for the patch, use Tools->about:config to set the |
| following to the indicated values: |
| + |
| ---------- |
| mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed => false |
| mailnews.wraplength => 0 |
| ---------- |
| |
| 4. Open a compose window and click the external editor icon. |
| |
| 5. In the external editor window, read in the patch file and exit |
| the editor normally. |
| |
| Side note: it may be possible to do step 2 with |
| about:config and the following settings but no one's tried yet. |
| |
| ---------- |
| mail.html_compose => false |
| mail.identity.default.compose_html => false |
| mail.identity.id?.compose_html => false |
| ---------- |
| |
| There is a script in contrib/thunderbird-patch-inline which can help |
| you include patches with Thunderbird in an easy way. To use it, do the |
| steps above and then use the script as the external editor. |
| |
| KMail |
| ~~~~~ |
| This should help you to submit patches inline using KMail. |
| |
| 1. Prepare the patch as a text file. |
| |
| 2. Click on New Mail. |
| |
| 3. Go under "Options" in the Composer window and be sure that |
| "Word wrap" is not set. |
| |
| 4. Use Message -> Insert file... and insert the patch. |
| |
| 5. Back in the compose window: add whatever other text you wish to the |
| message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send. |
| |
| |
| EXAMPLES |
| -------- |
| |
| * Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of |
| the current branch using 'git am' to cherry-pick them: |
| + |
| ------------ |
| $ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git am -3 -k |
| ------------ |
| |
| * Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the |
| origin branch: |
| + |
| ------------ |
| $ git format-patch origin |
| ------------ |
| + |
| For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory. |
| |
| * Extract all commits that lead to 'origin' since the inception of the |
| project: |
| + |
| ------------ |
| $ git format-patch --root origin |
| ------------ |
| |
| * The same as the previous one: |
| + |
| ------------ |
| $ git format-patch -M -B origin |
| ------------ |
| + |
| Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites |
| intelligently to produce a renaming patch. A renaming patch reduces |
| the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review. |
| Note that non-Git "patch" programs won't understand renaming patches, so |
| use it only when you know the recipient uses Git to apply your patch. |
| |
| * Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them |
| as e-mailable patches: |
| + |
| ------------ |
| $ git format-patch -3 |
| ------------ |
| |
| SEE ALSO |
| -------- |
| linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1] |
| |
| GIT |
| --- |
| Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |