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] [-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 merge [-v | -q] [-s <strategy> ] <notes_ref>
       git notes merge --commit [-v | -q]
       git notes merge --abort [-v | -q]
       git notes remove [<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).

       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 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 -s/--strategy option) 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 a given object (defaults to HEAD). 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.

       -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 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.

       -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". 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
       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.

       "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 <j6tATkdbg.org>' 72a144e2
           $ git show -s 72a144e
           [...]
               Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitsterATpobox.com>

           Notes:
               Tested-by: Johannes Sixt <j6tATkdbg.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 -C "$blob" HEAD


       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.

       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, 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 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
       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, 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.

           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.schindelinATgmx.de[2]> and Johan Herland <johanATherland.net[3]>

DOCUMENTATION
       Documentation by Johannes Schindelin and Johan Herland

GIT
       Part of the git(7) suite

NOTES
        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.

        2. johannes.schindelinATgmx.de
           mailto:johannes.schindelinATgmx.de

        3. johanATherland.net
           mailto:johanATherland.net



Git 1.7.4.4                                                04/11/2011                                               GIT-NOTES(1)