path: root/Documentation/git-commit.txt

git-commit(1)
=============

NAME
----
git-commit - Record your changes

SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'git-commit' [-a] [-s] [-v] [(-c | -C) <commit> | -F <file> | -m <msg>]
	   [--no-verify] [--amend] [-e] [--author <author>]
	   [--] [[-i | -o ]<file>...]

DESCRIPTION
-----------
Use 'git commit' when you want to record your changes into the repository
along with a log message describing what the commit is about. All changes
to be committed must be explicitly identified using one of the following
methods:

1. by using gitlink:git-add[1] to incrementally "add" changes to the
   next commit before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
   files must be "added");

2. by using gitlink:git-rm[1] to identify content removal for the next
   commit, again before using the 'commit' command;

3. by directly listing files containing changes to be committed as arguments
   to the 'commit' command, in which cases only those files alone will be
   considered for the commit;

4. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically "add"
   changes from all known files i.e. files that have already been committed
   before, and to automatically "rm" files that have been
   removed from the working tree, and perform the actual commit.

The gitlink:git-status[1] command can be used to obtain a
summary of what is included by any of the above for the next
commit by giving the same set of parameters you would give to
this command.

If you make a commit and then found a mistake immediately after
that, you can recover from it with gitlink:git-reset[1].


OPTIONS
-------
-a|--all::
	Tell the command to automatically stage files that have
	been modified and deleted, but new files you have not
	told git about are not affected.

-c or -C <commit>::
	Take existing commit object, and reuse the log message
	and the authorship information (including the timestamp)
	when creating the commit.  With '-C', the editor is not
	invoked; with '-c' the user can further edit the commit
	message.

-F <file>::
	Take the commit message from the given file.  Use '-' to
	read the message from the standard input.

--author <author>::
	Override the author name used in the commit.  Use
	`A U Thor <author@example.com>` format.

-m <msg>::
	Use the given <msg> as the commit message.

-s|--signoff::
	Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message.

--no-verify::
	This option bypasses the pre-commit hook.
	See also link:hooks.html[hooks].

-e|--edit::
	The message taken from file with `-F`, command line with
	`-m`, and from file with `-C` are usually used as the
	commit log message unmodified.  This option lets you
	further edit the message taken from these sources.

--amend::

	Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree
	object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual
	(this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the
	commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the
	tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the
	current tip -- if it was a merge, it will have the parents of
	the current tip as parents -- so the current top commit is
	discarded.
+
--
It is a rough equivalent for:
------
	$ git reset --soft HEAD^
	$ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
	$ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD

------
but can be used to amend a merge commit.
--

-i|--include::
	Before making a commit out of staged contents so far,
	stage the contents of paths given on the command line
	as well.  This is usually not what you want unless you
	are concluding a conflicted merge.

-q|--quiet::
	Suppress commit summary message.

\--::
	Do not interpret any more arguments as options.

<file>...::
	When files are given on the command line, the command
	commits the contents of the named files, without
	recording the changes already staged.  The contents of
	these files are also staged for the next commit on top
	of what have been staged before.


EXAMPLES
--------
When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
called the "index" with gitlink:git-add[1].  Removal
of a file is staged with gitlink:git-rm[1].  After building the
state to be committed incrementally with these commands, `git
commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
has been staged so far.  This is the most basic form of the
command.  An example:

------------
$ edit hello.c
$ git rm goodbye.c
$ git add hello.c
$ git commit
------------

Instead of staging files after each individual change, you can
tell `git commit` to notice the changes to the files whose
contents are tracked in
your working tree and do corresponding `git add` and `git rm`
for you.  That is, this example does the same as the earlier
example if there is no other change in your working tree:

------------
$ edit hello.c
$ rm goodbye.c
$ git commit -a
------------

The command `git commit -a` first looks at your working tree,
notices that you have modified hello.c and removed goodbye.c,
and performs necessary `git add` and `git rm` for you.

After staging changes to many files, you can alter the order the
changes are recorded in, by giving pathnames to `git commit`.
When pathnames are given, the command makes a commit that
only records the changes made to the named paths:

------------
$ edit hello.c hello.h
$ git add hello.c hello.h
$ edit Makefile
$ git commit Makefile
------------

This makes a commit that records the modification to `Makefile`.
The changes staged for `hello.c` and `hello.h` are not included
in the resulting commit.  However, their changes are not lost --
they are still staged and merely held back.  After the above
sequence, if you do:

------------
$ git commit
------------

this second commit would record the changes to `hello.c` and
`hello.h` as expected.

After a merge (initiated by either gitlink:git-merge[1] or
gitlink:git-pull[1]) stops because of conflicts, cleanly merged
paths are already staged to be committed for you, and paths that
conflicted are left in unmerged state.  You would have to first
check which paths are conflicting with gitlink:git-status[1]
and after fixing them manually in your working tree, you would
stage the result as usual with gitlink:git-add[1]:

------------
$ git status | grep unmerged
unmerged: hello.c
$ edit hello.c
$ git add hello.c
------------

After resolving conflicts and staging the result, `git ls-files -u`
would stop mentioning the conflicted path.  When you are done,
run `git commit` to finally record the merge:

------------
$ git commit
------------

As with the case to record your own changes, you can use `-a`
option to save typing.  One difference is that during a merge
resolution, you cannot use `git commit` with pathnames to
alter the order the changes are committed, because the merge
should be recorded as a single commit.  In fact, the command
refuses to run when given pathnames (but see `-i` option).


DISCUSSION
----------

Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message
with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the
change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description.
Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line
on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.

include::i18n.txt[]

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
---------------------
The command specified by either the VISUAL or EDITOR environment
variables is used to edit the commit log message.

HOOKS
-----
This command can run `commit-msg`, `pre-commit`, and
`post-commit` hooks.  See link:hooks.html[hooks] for more
information.


SEE ALSO
--------
gitlink:git-add[1],
gitlink:git-rm[1],
gitlink:git-mv[1],
gitlink:git-merge[1],
gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]

Author
------
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>


GIT
---
Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite