GIT-CAT-FILE(1) Git Manual GIT-CAT-FILE(1)NAME
git-cat-file - Provide content or type/size information for repository
objects
SYNOPSIS
git-cat-file [-t | -s | -e | -p | <type>] <object>
DESCRIPTION
Provides content or type of objects 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.
OPTIONS
<object>
The name of the object to show. For a more complete list of ways
to spell object names, see "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in
git-rev-parse(1).
-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.
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.
Otherwise the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object> will
be returned.
AUTHOR
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list
<git@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT
Part of the git(7) suite
Git 1.5.5.2 10/21/2008 GIT-CAT-FILE(1)