git-notes(1) — Linux manual page
GIT-NOTES(1) Git Manual GIT-NOTES(1)
NAME
git-notes - Add or inspect object notes
SYNOPSIS
git notes [list [<object>]]
git notes add [-f] [--allow-empty] [--[no-]separator | --separator=<paragraph-break>] [--[no-]stripspace] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
git notes copy [-f] ( --stdin | <from-object> [<to-object>] )
git notes append [--allow-empty] [--[no-]separator | --separator=<paragraph-break>] [--[no-]stripspace] [-F <file> | -m <msg> | (-c | -C) <object>] [<object>]
git notes edit [--allow-empty] [<object>] [--[no-]stripspace]
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
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" discussion in the section called
“CONFIGURATION”.
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 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). If you specify multiple -m and
-F, a blank line will be inserted between the messages. Use
the --separator option to insert other delimiters.
copy
Copy the notes for the first object onto the second object
(defaults to HEAD). 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 new message(s) given by -m or -F options to an
existing note, or add them as a new note if one does not
exist, for the object (defaults to HEAD). When appending to
an existing note, a blank line is added before each new
message as an inter-paragraph separator. The separator can be
customized with the --separator option.
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
-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. If you wish to keep them verbatim, use --no-stripspace.
-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. If you wish to keep them verbatim, use
--no-stripspace.
-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.). By default, message will be copied
verbatim, but if you wish to strip out the lines starting
with # and empty lines other than a single line between
paragraphs, use with`--stripspace` option.
-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.
--[no-]separator, --separator=<paragraph-break>
Specify a string used as a custom inter-paragraph separator
(a newline is added at the end as needed). If --no-separator,
no separators will be added between paragraphs. Defaults to a
blank line.
--[no-]stripspace
Strip leading and trailing whitespace from the note message.
Also strip out empty lines other than a single line between
paragraphs. Lines starting with # will be stripped out in
non-editor cases like -m, -F and -C, but not in editor case
like git notes edit, -c, etc.
--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 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 an 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
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
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
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
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.
Everything above this line in this section isn’t included from
the git-config(1) documentation. The content that follows is the
same as what’s found there:
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 the "NOTES MERGE
STRATEGIES" section of git-notes(1) for more information on
each strategy.
This setting can be overridden by passing the --strategy
option to git-notes(1).
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 in git-notes(1) for more information on the available
strategies.
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 with the GIT_NOTES_DISPLAY_REF
environment variable, which must be a colon separated list of
refs or globs.
A warning will be issued for refs that do not exist, but a
glob that does not match any refs is silently ignored.
This setting can be disabled by the --no-notes option to the
git log family of commands, or by the --notes=<ref> option
accepted by those commands.
The effective value of "core.notesRef" (possibly overridden
by GIT_NOTES_REF) is also implicitly added to the list of
refs to be displayed.
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 with the GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF
environment variable, which must be a colon separated list of
refs or globs.
notes.rewriteMode
When copying notes during a rewrite (see the
"notes.rewrite.<command>" option), determines 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. Set it to
refs/notes/commits to enable rewriting for the default commit
notes.
Can be overridden with the GIT_NOTES_REWRITE_REF environment
variable. See notes.rewrite.<command> above for a further
description of its format.
ENVIRONMENT
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
Part of the git(1) suite
NOTES
1. Permitted pathnames have the form bf/fe/30/.../680d5a...: a
sequence of directory names of two hexadecimal digits each
followed by a filename with the rest of the object ID.
COLOPHON
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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 2024-06-14. (At that time,
the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2024-06-12.) If you discover any rendering
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Git 2.45.2.492.gd63586 2024-06-12 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-notes(1), git-replay(1), git-show(1)