git-notes(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | SUBCOMMANDS | OPTIONS | DISCUSSION | NOTES MERGE STRATEGIES | EXAMPLES | CONFIGURATION | ENVIRONMENT | GIT | NOTES | COLOPHON

GIT-NOTES(1)                   Git Manual                   GIT-NOTES(1)

NAME         top

       git-notes - Add or inspect object notes

SYNOPSIS         top

       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         top

       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         top

       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         top

       -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         top

       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         top

       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         top

       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         top

       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         top

       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         top

       Part of the git(1) suite

NOTES         top

        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         top

       This page is part of the git (Git distributed version control
       system) project.  Information about the project can be found at
       ⟨http://git-scm.com/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this manual
       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 2023-12-22.  (At that time,
       the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2023-12-20.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

Git 2.43.0.174.g055bb6         2023-12-20                   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)