NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | SUBCOMMANDS | OPTIONS | DISCUSSION | NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES | EXAMPLES | CONFIGURATION | ENVIRONMENT | GIT | NOTES | COLOPHON

GIT-NOTES(1)                     Git Manual                     GIT-NOTES(1)

NAME         top

       git-notes - Add or inspect object notes

SYNOPSIS         top

       git notes [list [<object>]]
       git notes add [-f] [--allow-empty] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
       git notes copy [-f] ( --stdin | <from-object> <to-object> )
       git notes append [--allow-empty] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
       git notes edit [--allow-empty] [<object>]
       git notes show [<object>]
       git notes merge [-v | -q] [-s <strategy> ] <notes-ref>
       git notes merge --commit [-v | -q]
       git notes merge --abort [-v | -q]
       git notes remove [--ignore-missing] [--stdin] [<object>...]
       git notes prune [-n | -v]
       git notes get-ref

DESCRIPTION         top

       Adds, removes, or reads notes attached to objects, without touching
       the objects themselves.
       By default, notes are saved to and read from refs/notes/commits, but
       this default can be overridden. See the OPTIONS, CONFIGURATION, and
       ENVIRONMENT sections below. If this ref does not exist, it will be
       quietly created when it is first needed to store a note.
       A typical use of notes is to supplement a commit message without
       changing the commit itself. Notes can be shown by git log along with
       the original commit message. To distinguish these notes from the
       message stored in the commit object, the notes are indented like the
       message, after an unindented line saying "Notes (<refname>):" (or
       "Notes:" for refs/notes/commits).
       Notes can also be added to patches prepared with git format-patch by
       using the --notes option. Such notes are added as a patch commentary
       after a three dash separator line.
       To change which notes are shown by git log, see the
       "notes.displayRef" configuration in git-log(1).
       See the "notes.rewrite.<command>" configuration for a way to carry
       notes across commands that rewrite commits.

SUBCOMMANDS         top

       list
           List the notes object for a given object. If no object is given,
           show a list of all note objects and the objects they annotate (in
           the format "<note object> <annotated object>"). This is the
           default subcommand if no subcommand is given.
       add
           Add notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). Abort if the
           object already has notes (use -f to overwrite existing notes).
           However, if you’re using add interactively (using an editor to
           supply the notes contents), then - instead of aborting - the
           existing notes will be opened in the editor (like the edit
           subcommand).
       copy
           Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object. Abort
           if the second object already has notes, or if the first object
           has none (use -f to overwrite existing notes to the second
           object). This subcommand is equivalent to: git notes add [-f] -C
           $(git notes list <from-object>) <to-object>
           In --stdin mode, take lines in the format
               <from-object> SP <to-object> [ SP <rest> ] LF
           on standard input, and copy the notes from each <from-object> to
           its corresponding <to-object>. (The optional <rest> is ignored so
           that the command can read the input given to the post-rewrite
           hook.)
       append
           Append to the notes of an existing object (defaults to HEAD).
           Creates a new notes object if needed.
       edit
           Edit the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD).
       show
           Show the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD).
       merge
           Merge the given notes ref into the current notes ref. This will
           try to merge the changes made by the given notes ref (called
           "remote") since the merge-base (if any) into the current notes
           ref (called "local").
           If conflicts arise and a strategy for automatically resolving
           conflicting notes (see the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section) is
           not given, the "manual" resolver is used. This resolver checks
           out the conflicting notes in a special worktree
           (.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE), and instructs the user to manually
           resolve the conflicts there. When done, the user can either
           finalize the merge with git notes merge --commit, or abort the
           merge with git notes merge --abort.
       remove
           Remove the notes for given objects (defaults to HEAD). When
           giving zero or one object from the command line, this is
           equivalent to specifying an empty note message to the edit
           subcommand.
       prune
           Remove all notes for non-existing/unreachable objects.
       get-ref
           Print the current notes ref. This provides an easy way to
           retrieve the current notes ref (e.g. from scripts).

OPTIONS         top

       -f, --force
           When adding notes to an object that already has notes, overwrite
           the existing notes (instead of aborting).
       -m <msg>, --message=<msg>
           Use the given note message (instead of prompting). If multiple -m
           options are given, their values are concatenated as separate
           paragraphs. Lines starting with # and empty lines other than a
           single line between paragraphs will be stripped out.
       -F <file>, --file=<file>
           Take the note message from the given file. Use - to read the note
           message from the standard input. Lines starting with # and empty
           lines other than a single line between paragraphs will be
           stripped out.
       -C <object>, --reuse-message=<object>
           Take the given blob object (for example, another note) as the
           note message. (Use git notes copy <object> instead to copy notes
           between objects.)
       -c <object>, --reedit-message=<object>
           Like -C, but with -c the editor is invoked, so that the user can
           further edit the note message.
       --allow-empty
           Allow an empty note object to be stored. The default behavior is
           to automatically remove empty notes.
       --ref <ref>
           Manipulate the notes tree in <ref>. This overrides GIT_NOTES_REF
           and the "core.notesRef" configuration. The ref specifies the full
           refname when it begins with refs/notes/; when it begins with
           notes/, refs/ and otherwise refs/notes/ is prefixed to form a
           full name of the ref.
       --ignore-missing
           Do not consider it an error to request removing notes from an
           object that does not have notes attached to it.
       --stdin
           Also read the object names to remove notes from from the standard
           input (there is no reason you cannot combine this with object
           names from the command line).
       -n, --dry-run
           Do not remove anything; just report the object names whose notes
           would be removed.
       -s <strategy>, --strategy=<strategy>
           When merging notes, resolve notes conflicts using the given
           strategy. The following strategies are recognized: "manual"
           (default), "ours", "theirs", "union" and "cat_sort_uniq". This
           option overrides the "notes.mergeStrategy" configuration setting.
           See the "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES" section below for more
           information on each notes merge strategy.
       --commit
           Finalize an in-progress git notes merge. Use this option when you
           have resolved the conflicts that git notes merge stored in
           .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. This amends the partial merge commit
           created by git notes merge (stored in .git/NOTES_MERGE_PARTIAL)
           by adding the notes in .git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE. The notes ref
           stored in the .git/NOTES_MERGE_REF symref is updated to the
           resulting commit.
       --abort
           Abort/reset a in-progress git notes merge, i.e. a notes merge
           with conflicts. This simply removes all files related to the
           notes merge.
       -q, --quiet
           When merging notes, operate quietly.
       -v, --verbose
           When merging notes, be more verbose. When pruning notes, report
           all object names whose notes are removed.

DISCUSSION         top

       Commit notes are blobs containing extra information about an object
       (usually information to supplement a commit’s message). These blobs
       are taken from notes refs. A notes ref is usually a branch which
       contains "files" whose paths are the object names for the objects
       they describe, with some directory separators included for
       performance reasons [1].
       Every notes change creates a new commit at the specified notes ref.
       You can therefore inspect the history of the notes by invoking, e.g.,
       git log -p notes/commits. Currently the commit message only records
       which operation triggered the update, and the commit authorship is
       determined according to the usual rules (see git-commit(1)). These
       details may change in the future.
       It is also permitted for a notes ref to point directly to a tree
       object, in which case the history of the notes can be read with git
       log -p -g <refname>.

NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES         top

       The default notes merge strategy is "manual", which checks out
       conflicting notes in a special work tree for resolving notes
       conflicts (.git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE), and instructs the user to
       resolve the conflicts in that work tree. When done, the user can
       either finalize the merge with git notes merge --commit, or abort the
       merge with git notes merge --abort.
       Users may select an automated merge strategy from among the following
       using either -s/--strategy option or configuring notes.mergeStrategy
       accordingly:
       "ours" automatically resolves conflicting notes in favor of the local
       version (i.e. the current notes ref).
       "theirs" automatically resolves notes conflicts in favor of the
       remote version (i.e. the given notes ref being merged into the
       current notes ref).
       "union" automatically resolves notes conflicts by concatenating the
       local and remote versions.
       "cat_sort_uniq" is similar to "union", but in addition to
       concatenating the local and remote versions, this strategy also sorts
       the resulting lines, and removes duplicate lines from the result.
       This is equivalent to applying the "cat | sort | uniq" shell pipeline
       to the local and remote versions. This strategy is useful if the
       notes follow a line-based format where one wants to avoid duplicated
       lines in the merge result. Note that if either the local or remote
       version contain duplicate lines prior to the merge, these will also
       be removed by this notes merge strategy.

EXAMPLES         top

       You can use notes to add annotations with information that was not
       available at the time a commit was written.
           $ git notes add -m 'Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>' 72a144e2
           $ git show -s 72a144e
           [...]
               Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
           Notes:
               Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
       In principle, a note is a regular Git blob, and any kind of
       (non-)format is accepted. You can binary-safely create notes from
       arbitrary files using git hash-object:
           $ cc *.c
           $ blob=$(git hash-object -w a.out)
           $ git notes --ref=built add --allow-empty -C "$blob" HEAD
       (You cannot simply use git notes --ref=built add -F a.out HEAD
       because that is not binary-safe.) Of course, it doesn’t make much
       sense to display non-text-format notes with git log, so if you use
       such notes, you’ll probably need to write some special-purpose tools
       to do something useful with them.

CONFIGURATION         top

       core.notesRef
           Notes ref to read and manipulate instead of refs/notes/commits.
           Must be an unabbreviated ref name. This setting can be overridden
           through the environment and command line.
       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 "NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES"
           section above for more information on each strategy.
           This setting can be overridden by passing the --strategy option.
       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
           above for more information on each available strategy.
       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 on the command
           line or by the GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF environment variable. See
           git-log(1).
       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 by the GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF
           environment variable.
       notes.rewriteMode
           When copying notes during a rewrite, 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.
           Can be overridden with the GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF environment
           variable.

ENVIRONMENT         top

       GIT_NOTES_REF
           Which ref to manipulate notes from, instead of
           refs/notes/commits. This overrides the core.notesRef setting.
       GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF
           Colon-delimited list of refs or globs indicating which refs, in
           addition to the default from core.notesRef or GIT_NOTES_REF, to
           read notes from when showing commit messages. This overrides the
           notes.displayRef setting.
           A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist, but a glob
           that does not match any refs is silently ignored.
       GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_MODE
           When copying notes during a rewrite, what to do if the target
           commit already has a note. Must be one of overwrite, concatenate,
           cat_sort_uniq, or ignore. This overrides the core.rewriteMode
           setting.
       GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF
           When rewriting commits, which notes to copy from the original to
           the rewritten commit. Must be a colon-delimited list of refs or
           globs.
           If not set in the environment, the list of notes to copy depends
           on the notes.rewrite.<command> and notes.rewriteRef settings.

GIT         top

       Part of the git(1) suite

NOTES         top

        1. Permitted pathnames have the form ab/cd/ef/.../abcdef...: a
           sequence of directory names of two hexadecimal digits each
           followed by a filename with the rest of the object ID.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the git (Git distributed version control system)
       project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://git-scm.com/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this manual page,
       see ⟨http://git-scm.com/community⟩.  This page was obtained from the
       project's upstream Git repository ⟨https://github.com/git/git.git⟩ on
       2017-07-05.  If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML ver‐
       sion of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date
       source for the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the
       information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original man‐
       ual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
Git 2.9.2.277.g2949358           07/16/2016                     GIT-NOTES(1)

Pages that refer to this page: git(1)git-config(1)git-diff-tree(1)git-format-patch(1)git-log(1)git-show(1)