git-for-windows/git
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/git-for-windows/git.git synced 2026-04-11 11:58:26 -05:00
Code Issues Packages Projects Releases 335 Wiki Activity
Files
02b6f822950fe4e0627633b034397e0e6fe4e780
git/Documentation/git-interpret-trailers.adoc
Kristoffer Haugsbakk f2e5902b0a doc: interpret-trailers: explain key format 
A trailer key must consist of ASCII alphanumeric characters and
hyphens *only*. Let’s document it explicitly instead of relying on
readers being conservative and painting their trailers by numbers
(by the documentation examples).

The previous commit for “key–value pairs” allows us to segue right into
describing these lines as consisting of a key and a value, which is our
opening to describing the key format.

Just like *trailer* we emphasize these two first standalone word
mentions. They are then mostly used in placeholders throughout the rest
of the document (<key> and <value>).

Reported-by: Brendan Jackman <jackmanb@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2026-03-30 15:19:29 -07:00

412 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
Raw Blame History

git-interpret-trailers(1)
=========================
NAME
----
git-interpret-trailers - Add or parse structured information in commit messages
SYNOPSIS
--------
[synopsis]
git interpret-trailers [--in-place] [--trim-empty]
[(--trailer (<key>|<key-alias>)[(=|:)<value>])...]
[--parse] [<file>...]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
Add or parse _trailer_ key-value pairs at the end of the otherwise
free-form part of a commit message. For example, in the following commit
message
------------------------------------------------
subject
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Signed-off-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
Signed-off-by: Bob <bob@example.com>
------------------------------------------------
the last two lines starting with `Signed-off-by` are trailers. These two
trailers have the _key_ `Signed-off-by` and a _value_ (Alice and Bob).
The key must consist of only ASCII alphanumeric characters and hyphens
(`-`). The hyphens serve as interword separators.
This command reads commit messages from either the
_<file>_ arguments or the standard input if no _<file>_ is specified.
If `--parse` is specified, the output consists of the parsed trailers
coming from the input, without influencing them with any command line
options or configuration variables.
Otherwise, this command applies `trailer.<key-alias>` configuration
variables (which could potentially add new trailers, as well as
reposition them), as well as any command line arguments that can
override configuration variables (such as `--trailer=...` which could
also add new trailers), to each input file. The result is emitted on the
standard output.
This command can also operate on the output of linkgit:git-format-patch[1],
which is more elaborate than a plain commit message. Namely, such output
includes a commit message (as above), a `---` divider line, and a patch part.
For these inputs, the divider and patch parts are not modified by
this command and are emitted as is on the output, unless
`--no-divider` is specified.
Some configuration variables control the way the `--trailer` arguments
are applied to each input and the way any existing trailer in
the input is changed. They also make it possible to
automatically add some trailers.
By default, a `<key>=<value>` or `<key>:<value>` argument given
using `--trailer` will be appended after the existing trailers only if
the last trailer has a different (_<key>_, _<value>_) pair (or if there
is no existing trailer). The _<key>_ and _<value>_ parts will be trimmed
to remove starting and trailing whitespace, and the resulting trimmed
_<key>_ and _<value>_ will appear in the output like this:
------------------------------------------------
key: value
------------------------------------------------
This means that the trimmed _<key>_ and _<value>_ will be separated by
"`:`{nbsp}" (one colon followed by one space).
For convenience, a _<key-alias>_ can be configured to make using `--trailer`
shorter to type on the command line. This can be configured using the
`trailer.<key-alias>.key` configuration variable. The _<key-alias>_ must be a prefix
of the full _<key>_ string, although case sensitivity does not matter. For
example, if you have
------------------------------------------------
trailer.sign.key "Signed-off-by: "
------------------------------------------------
in your configuration, you only need to specify `--trailer="sign: foo"`
on the command line instead of `--trailer="Signed-off-by: foo"`.
By default the new trailer will appear at the end of all the existing
trailers. If there is no existing trailer, the new trailer will appear
at the end of the input. A blank line will be added before the new
trailer if there isn't one already.
Existing trailers are extracted from the input by looking for
a group of one or more lines that (i) is all trailers, or (ii) contains at
least one Git-generated or user-configured trailer and consists of at
least 25% trailers.
The group must be preceded by one or more empty (or whitespace-only) lines.
The group must either be at the end of the input or be the last
non-whitespace lines before a line that starts with `---` (followed by a
space or the end of the line).
When reading trailers, there can be no whitespace before or inside the
_<key>_, but any number of regular space and tab characters are allowed
between the _<key>_ and the separator. There can be whitespaces before,
inside or after the _<value>_. The _<value>_ may be split over multiple lines
with each subsequent line starting with at least one whitespace, like
the "folding" in RFC 822. Example:
------------------------------------------------
key: This is a very long value, with spaces and
newlines in it.
------------------------------------------------
OPTIONS
-------
`--in-place`::
`--no-in-place`::
Edit the files in place. The default is `--no-in-place`.
`--trim-empty`::
`--no-trim-empty`::
If the _<value>_ part of any trailer contains only whitespace,
the whole trailer will be removed from the output.
This applies to existing trailers as well as new trailers.
+
The default is `--no-trim-empty`.
`--trailer=<key>[(=|:)<value>]`::
`--no-trailer`::
Specify a (_<key>_, _<value>_) pair that should be applied as a
trailer to the inputs. See the description of this command. Can
be given multiple times.
+
Use `--no-trailer` to reset the list.
`--where=<placement>`::
`--no-where`::
Specify where all new trailers will be added. A setting
provided with `--where` overrides the `trailer.where` and any
applicable `trailer.<key-alias>.where` configuration variables
and applies to all `--trailer` options until the next occurrence of
`--where` or `--no-where`. Possible placements are `after`,
`before`, `end` or `start`.
+
Use `--no-where` to clear the effect of any previous use of `--where`,
such that the relevant configuration variables are no longer overridden.
`--if-exists=<action>`::
`--no-if-exists`::
Specify what action will be performed when there is already at
least one trailer with the same _<key>_ in the input. A setting
provided with `--if-exists` overrides the `trailer.ifExists` and any
applicable `trailer.<key-alias>.ifExists` configuration variables
and applies to all `--trailer` options until the next occurrence of
`--if-exists` or `--no-if-exists`. Possible actions are `addIfDifferent`,
`addIfDifferentNeighbor`, `add`, `replace` and `doNothing`.
+
Use `--no-if-exists` to clear the effect of any previous use of
`--if-exists`, such that the relevant configuration variables are no
longer overridden.
`--if-missing=<action>`::
`--no-if-missing`::
Specify what action will be performed when there is no other
trailer with the same _<key>_ in the input. A setting
provided with `--if-missing` overrides the `trailer.ifMissing` and any
applicable `trailer.<key-alias>.ifMissing` configuration variables
and applies to all `--trailer` options until the next occurrence of
`--if-missing` or `--no-if-missing`. Possible actions are
`doNothing` or `add`.
+
Use `--no-if-missing` to clear the effect of any previous use of
`--if-missing`, such that the relevant configuration variables are no
longer overridden.
`--only-trailers`::
`--no-only-trailers`::
Output only the trailers, not any other parts of the
input. The default is `--no-only-trailers`.
`--only-input`::
`--no-only-input`::
Output only trailers that exist in the input; do not add any
from the command-line or by applying `trailer.<key-alias>` configuration
variables. The default is `--no-only-input`.
`--unfold`::
`--no-unfold`::
If a trailer has a value that runs over multiple lines (aka "folded"),
reformat the value into a single line. The default is `--no-unfold`.
`--parse`::
A convenience alias for `--only-trailers --only-input
--unfold`. This makes it easier to only see the trailers coming from the
input without influencing them with any command line options or
configuration variables, while also making the output machine-friendly with
`--unfold`.
+
There is no convenience alias to negate this alias.
`--divider`::
`--no-divider`::
Treat `---` as the end of the commit message. This is the default.
Use `--no-divider` when you know your input contains just the
commit message itself (and not an email or the output of
linkgit:git-format-patch[1]).
CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
-----------------------
include::includes/cmd-config-section-all.adoc[]
include::config/trailer.adoc[]
EXAMPLES
--------
* Configure a `sign` trailer with a `Signed-off-by` key, and then
add two of these trailers to a commit message file:
+
------------
$ git config trailer.sign.key "Signed-off-by"
$ cat msg.txt
subject
body text
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer 'sign: Alice <alice@example.com>' --trailer 'sign: Bob <bob@example.com>' <msg.txt
subject
body text
Signed-off-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
Signed-off-by: Bob <bob@example.com>
------------
* Use the `--in-place` option to edit a commit message file in place:
+
------------
$ cat msg.txt
subject
body text
Signed-off-by: Bob <bob@example.com>
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer 'Acked-by: Alice <alice@example.com>' --in-place msg.txt
$ cat msg.txt
subject
body text
Signed-off-by: Bob <bob@example.com>
Acked-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
------------
* Extract the last commit as a patch, and add a `Cc` and a
`Reviewed-by` trailer to it:
+
------------
$ git format-patch -1
0001-foo.patch
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer 'Cc: Alice <alice@example.com>' --trailer 'Reviewed-by: Bob <bob@example.com>' 0001-foo.patch >0001-bar.patch
------------
* Configure a `sign` trailer with a command to automatically add a
"`Signed-off-by:`{nbsp}" with the author information only if there is no
"`Signed-off-by:`{nbsp}" already, and show how it works:
+
------------
$ cat msg1.txt
subject
body text
$ git config trailer.sign.key "Signed-off-by: "
$ git config trailer.sign.ifmissing add
$ git config trailer.sign.ifexists doNothing
$ git config trailer.sign.cmd 'echo "$(git config user.name) <$(git config user.email)>"'
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer sign <msg1.txt
subject
body text
Signed-off-by: Bob <bob@example.com>
$ cat msg2.txt
subject
body text
Signed-off-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer sign <msg2.txt
subject
body text
Signed-off-by: Alice <alice@example.com>
------------
* Configure a `fix` trailer with a key that contains a `#` and no
space after this character, and show how it works:
+
------------
$ git config trailer.separators ":#"
$ git config trailer.fix.key "Fix #"
$ echo "subject" | git interpret-trailers --trailer fix=42
subject
Fix #42
------------
* Configure a `help` trailer with a cmd use a script `glog-find-author`
which search specified author identity from git log in git repository
and show how it works:
+
------------
$ cat ~/bin/glog-find-author
#!/bin/sh
test -n "$1" && git log --author="$1" --pretty="%an <%ae>" -1 || true
$ cat msg.txt
subject
body text
$ git config trailer.help.key "Helped-by: "
$ git config trailer.help.ifExists "addIfDifferentNeighbor"
$ git config trailer.help.cmd "~/bin/glog-find-author"
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer="help:Junio" --trailer="help:Couder" <msg.txt
subject
body text
Helped-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Helped-by: Christian Couder <christian.couder@gmail.com>
------------
* Configure a `ref` trailer with a cmd use a script `glog-grep`
to grep last relevant commit from git log in the git repository
and show how it works:
+
------------
$ cat ~/bin/glog-grep
#!/bin/sh
test -n "$1" && git log --grep "$1" --pretty=reference -1 || true
$ cat msg.txt
subject
body text
$ git config trailer.ref.key "Reference-to: "
$ git config trailer.ref.ifExists "replace"
$ git config trailer.ref.cmd "~/bin/glog-grep"
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer="ref:Add copyright notices." <msg.txt
subject
body text
Reference-to: 8bc9a0c769 (Add copyright notices., 2005-04-07)
------------
* Configure a `see` trailer with a command to show the subject of a
commit that is related, and show how it works:
+
------------
$ cat msg.txt
subject
body text
see: HEAD~2
$ cat ~/bin/glog-ref
#!/bin/sh
git log -1 --oneline --format="%h (%s)" --abbrev-commit --abbrev=14
$ git config trailer.see.key "See-also: "
$ git config trailer.see.ifExists "replace"
$ git config trailer.see.ifMissing "doNothing"
$ git config trailer.see.cmd "glog-ref"
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer=see <msg.txt
subject
body text
See-also: fe3187489d69c4 (subject of related commit)
------------
* Configure a commit template with some trailers with empty values
(using sed to show and keep the trailing spaces at the end of the
trailers), then configure a commit-msg hook that uses
git-interpret-trailers(1) to remove trailers with empty values and to
add a `git-version` trailer:
+
------------
$ cat temp.txt
***subject***
***message***
Fixes: Z
Cc: Z
Reviewed-by: Z
Signed-off-by: Z
$ sed -e 's/ Z$/ /' temp.txt > commit_template.txt
$ git config commit.template commit_template.txt
$ cat .git/hooks/commit-msg
#!/bin/sh
git interpret-trailers --trim-empty --trailer "git-version: \$(git describe)" "\$1" > "\$1.new"
mv "\$1.new" "\$1"
$ chmod +x .git/hooks/commit-msg
------------
SEE ALSO
--------
linkgit:git-commit[1], linkgit:git-format-patch[1], linkgit:git-config[1]
GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite
Reference in New Issue View Git Blame Copy Permalink