| git-cat-file(1) |
| =============== |
| |
| NAME |
| ---- |
| git-cat-file - Provide content or type and size information for repository objects |
| |
| |
| SYNOPSIS |
| -------- |
| [verse] |
| 'git cat-file' (-t [--allow-unknown-type]| -s [--allow-unknown-type]| -e | -p | <type> | --textconv ) <object> |
| 'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) [--follow-symlinks] |
| |
| DESCRIPTION |
| ----------- |
| In its first form, the command provides the content or the type of an object in |
| the repository. The type is required unless `-t` or `-p` is used to find the |
| object type, or `-s` is used to find the object size, or `--textconv` is used |
| (which implies type "blob"). |
| |
| In the second form, a list of objects (separated by linefeeds) is provided on |
| stdin, and the SHA-1, type, and size of each object is printed on stdout. |
| |
| OPTIONS |
| ------- |
| <object>:: |
| The name of the object to show. |
| For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see |
| the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7]. |
| |
| -t:: |
| Instead of the content, show the object type identified by |
| <object>. |
| |
| -s:: |
| Instead of the content, show the object size identified by |
| <object>. |
| |
| -e:: |
| Suppress all output; instead exit with zero status if <object> |
| exists and is a valid object. |
| |
| -p:: |
| Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type. |
| |
| <type>:: |
| Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking |
| for a type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given |
| <object> is also permitted. An example is to ask for a |
| "tree" with <object> being a commit object that contains it, |
| or to ask for a "blob" with <object> being a tag object that |
| points at it. |
| |
| --textconv:: |
| Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case, |
| <object> has be of the form <tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path> in order |
| to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at <path>. |
| |
| --batch:: |
| --batch=<format>:: |
| Print object information and contents for each object provided |
| on stdin. May not be combined with any other options or arguments. |
| See the section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. |
| |
| --batch-check:: |
| --batch-check=<format>:: |
| Print object information for each object provided on stdin. May |
| not be combined with any other options or arguments. See the |
| section `BATCH OUTPUT` below for details. |
| |
| --batch-all-objects:: |
| Instead of reading a list of objects on stdin, perform the |
| requested batch operation on all objects in the repository and |
| any alternate object stores (not just reachable objects). |
| Requires `--batch` or `--batch-check` be specified. Note that |
| the objects are visited in order sorted by their hashes. |
| |
| --buffer:: |
| Normally batch output is flushed after each object is output, so |
| that a process can interactively read and write from |
| `cat-file`. With this option, the output uses normal stdio |
| buffering; this is much more efficient when invoking |
| `--batch-check` on a large number of objects. |
| |
| --allow-unknown-type:: |
| Allow -s or -t to query broken/corrupt objects of unknown type. |
| |
| --follow-symlinks:: |
| With --batch or --batch-check, follow symlinks inside the |
| repository when requesting objects with extended SHA-1 |
| expressions of the form tree-ish:path-in-tree. Instead of |
| providing output about the link itself, provide output about |
| the linked-to object. If a symlink points outside the |
| tree-ish (e.g. a link to /foo or a root-level link to ../foo), |
| the portion of the link which is outside the tree will be |
| printed. |
| + |
| This option does not (currently) work correctly when an object in the |
| index is specified (e.g. `:link` instead of `HEAD:link`) rather than |
| one in the tree. |
| + |
| This option cannot (currently) be used unless `--batch` or |
| `--batch-check` is used. |
| + |
| For example, consider a git repository containing: |
| + |
| -- |
| f: a file containing "hello\n" |
| link: a symlink to f |
| dir/link: a symlink to ../f |
| plink: a symlink to ../f |
| alink: a symlink to /etc/passwd |
| -- |
| + |
| For a regular file `f`, `echo HEAD:f | git cat-file --batch` would print |
| + |
| -- |
| ce013625030ba8dba906f756967f9e9ca394464a blob 6 |
| -- |
| + |
| And `echo HEAD:link | git cat-file --batch --follow-symlinks` would |
| print the same thing, as would `HEAD:dir/link`, as they both point at |
| `HEAD:f`. |
| + |
| Without `--follow-symlinks`, these would print data about the symlink |
| itself. In the case of `HEAD:link`, you would see |
| + |
| -- |
| 4d1ae35ba2c8ec712fa2a379db44ad639ca277bd blob 1 |
| -- |
| + |
| Both `plink` and `alink` point outside the tree, so they would |
| respectively print: |
| + |
| -- |
| symlink 4 |
| ../f |
| |
| symlink 11 |
| /etc/passwd |
| -- |
| |
| |
| OUTPUT |
| ------ |
| If `-t` is specified, one of the <type>. |
| |
| If `-s` is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes. |
| |
| If `-e` is specified, no output. |
| |
| If `-p` is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed. |
| |
| If <type> is specified, the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object> |
| will be returned. |
| |
| BATCH OUTPUT |
| ------------ |
| |
| If `--batch` or `--batch-check` is given, `cat-file` will read objects |
| from stdin, one per line, and print information about them. By default, |
| the whole line is considered as an object, as if it were fed to |
| linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. |
| |
| You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom |
| `<format>`. The `<format>` is copied literally to stdout for each |
| object, with placeholders of the form `%(atom)` expanded, followed by a |
| newline. The available atoms are: |
| |
| `objectname`:: |
| The 40-hex object name of the object. |
| |
| `objecttype`:: |
| The type of of the object (the same as `cat-file -t` reports). |
| |
| `objectsize`:: |
| The size, in bytes, of the object (the same as `cat-file -s` |
| reports). |
| |
| `objectsize:disk`:: |
| The size, in bytes, that the object takes up on disk. See the |
| note about on-disk sizes in the `CAVEATS` section below. |
| |
| `deltabase`:: |
| If the object is stored as a delta on-disk, this expands to the |
| 40-hex sha1 of the delta base object. Otherwise, expands to the |
| null sha1 (40 zeroes). See `CAVEATS` below. |
| |
| `rest`:: |
| If this atom is used in the output string, input lines are split |
| at the first whitespace boundary. All characters before that |
| whitespace are considered to be the object name; characters |
| after that first run of whitespace (i.e., the "rest" of the |
| line) are output in place of the `%(rest)` atom. |
| |
| If no format is specified, the default format is `%(objectname) |
| %(objecttype) %(objectsize)`. |
| |
| If `--batch` is specified, the object information is followed by the |
| object contents (consisting of `%(objectsize)` bytes), followed by a |
| newline. |
| |
| For example, `--batch` without a custom format would produce: |
| |
| ------------ |
| <sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF |
| <contents> LF |
| ------------ |
| |
| Whereas `--batch-check='%(objectname) %(objecttype)'` would produce: |
| |
| ------------ |
| <sha1> SP <type> LF |
| ------------ |
| |
| If a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object in |
| the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format and print: |
| |
| ------------ |
| <object> SP missing LF |
| ------------ |
| |
| If --follow-symlinks is used, and a symlink in the repository points |
| outside the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom format |
| and print: |
| |
| ------------ |
| symlink SP <size> LF |
| <symlink> LF |
| ------------ |
| |
| The symlink will either be absolute (beginning with a /), or relative |
| to the tree root. For instance, if dir/link points to ../../foo, then |
| <symlink> will be ../foo. <size> is the size of the symlink in bytes. |
| |
| If --follow-symlinks is used, the following error messages will be |
| displayed: |
| |
| ------------ |
| <object> SP missing LF |
| ------------ |
| is printed when the initial symlink requested does not exist. |
| |
| ------------ |
| dangling SP <size> LF |
| <object> LF |
| ------------ |
| is printed when the initial symlink exists, but something that |
| it (transitive-of) points to does not. |
| |
| ------------ |
| loop SP <size> LF |
| <object> LF |
| ------------ |
| is printed for symlink loops (or any symlinks that |
| require more than 40 link resolutions to resolve). |
| |
| ------------ |
| notdir SP <size> LF |
| <object> LF |
| ------------ |
| is printed when, during symlink resolution, a file is used as a |
| directory name. |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| GIT |
| --- |
| Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |