GIT-NOTES(1)GIT-NOTES(1)NAMEgit-notes - Add or inspect object notes
SYNOPSIS
git notes [list [<object>]]
git notes add [-f] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
git notes copy [-f] ( --stdin | <from-object> <to-object> )
git notes append [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
git notes edit [<object>]
git notes show [<object>]
git notes remove [<object>]
git notes prune [-n | -v]
DESCRIPTION
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 qui-
etly created when it is first needed to store a note.
A typical use of notes is to supplement a commit message without chang-
ing 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).
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
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 an existing note).
copy Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object.
Abort if the second object already has notes, or if the first
1
GIT-NOTES(1)GIT-NOTES(1)
object has none (use -f to overwrite existing notes to the sec-
ond 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
.ft C
<from-object> SP <to-object> [ SP <rest> ] LF
.ft
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).
remove Remove the notes for a given object (defaults to HEAD). This is
equivalent to specifying an empty note message to the edit sub-
command.
prune Remove all notes for non-existing/unreachable objects.
OPTIONS-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
2
GIT-NOTES(1)GIT-NOTES(1)
empty lines other than a single line between paragraphs will be
stripped out.
-C <object>, --reuse-message=<object>
Take the note message from the given blob object (for example,
another note).
-c <object>, --reedit-message=<object>
Like -C, but with -c the editor is invoked, so that the user can
further edit the note message.
--ref <ref>
Manipulate the notes tree in <ref>. This overrides GIT_NOTES_REF
and the "core.notesRef" configuration. The ref is taken to be in
refs/notes/ if it is not qualified.
-n, --dry-run
Do not remove anything; just report the object names whose notes
would be removed.
-v, --verbose
Report all object names whose notes are removed.
DISCUSSION
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 rea-
sons [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>.
EXAMPLES
You can use notes to add annotations with information that was not
available at the time a commit was written.
3
GIT-NOTES(1)GIT-NOTES(1)
.ft C
$ 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>
.ft
In principle, a note is a regular Git blob, and any kind of (non-)for-
mat is accepted. You can binary-safely create notes from arbitrary
files using git hash-object:
.ft C
$ cc *.c
$ blob=$(git hash-object -w a.out)
$ git notes --ref=built add -C "$blob" HEAD
.ft
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
core.notesRef
Notes ref to read and manipulate instead of refs/notes/commits.
Must be an unabbreviated ref name. This setting can be overrid-
den through the environment and command line.
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 com-
mand 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
4
GIT-NOTES(1)GIT-NOTES(1)
"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, concate-
nate, and 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 quali-
fied) 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
GIT_NOTES_REF
Which ref to manipulate notes from, instead of refs/notes/com-
mits. 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, concate-
nate, and 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.
5
GIT-NOTES(1)GIT-NOTES(1)
If not set in the environment, the list of notes to copy depends
on the notes.rewrite.<command> and notes.rewriteRef settings.
AUTHOR
Written by Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de:
mailto:johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> and Johan Herland <johan@her-
land.net: mailto:johan@herland.net>
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation by Johannes Schindelin and Johan Herland
GIT
Part of the git(7) suite
6
