git/Documentation/git-cat-file.txt
Jeff King 48bb914ed6 doc: drop author/documentation sections from most pages
The point of these sections is generally to:

  1. Give credit where it is due.

  2. Give the reader an idea of where to ask questions or
     file bug reports.

But they don't do a good job of either case. For (1), they
are out of date and incomplete. A much more accurate answer
can be gotten through shortlog or blame.  For (2), the
correct contact point is generally git@vger, and even if you
wanted to cc the contact point, the out-of-date and
incomplete fields mean you're likely sending to somebody
useless.

So let's drop the fields entirely from all manpages except
git(1) itself. We already point people to the mailing list
for bug reports there, and we can update the Authors section
to give credit to the major contributors and point to
shortlog and blame for more information.

Each page has a "This is part of git" footer, so people can
follow that to the main git manpage.
2011-03-11 10:59:16 -05:00

106 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext

git-cat-file(1)
===============
NAME
----
git-cat-file - Provide content or type and size information for repository objects
SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'git cat-file' (-t | -s | -e | -p | <type> | --textconv ) <object>
'git cat-file' (--batch | --batch-check) < <list-of-objects>
DESCRIPTION
-----------
In its first form, the command provides the content or the type of an object 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, or '--textconv' is used
(which implies type "blob").
In the second form, a list of objects (separated by linefeeds) is provided on
stdin, and the SHA1, type, and size of each object is printed on stdout.
OPTIONS
-------
<object>::
The name of the object to show.
For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see
the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7].
-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.
--textconv::
Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case,
<object> has be of the form <treeish>:<path>, or :<path> in order
to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at <path>.
--batch::
Print the SHA1, type, size, and contents of each object provided on
stdin. May not be combined with any other options or arguments.
--batch-check::
Print the SHA1, type, and size of each object provided on stdin. May not
be combined with any other options or arguments.
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.
If <type> is specified, the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object>
will be returned.
If '--batch' is specified, output of the following form is printed for each
object specified on stdin:
------------
<sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF
<contents> LF
------------
If '--batch-check' is specified, output of the following form is printed for
each object specified on stdin:
------------
<sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF
------------
For both '--batch' and '--batch-check', output of the following form is printed
for each object specified on stdin that does not exist in the repository:
------------
<object> SP missing LF
------------
GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite