NAME
git-cat-file - Provide content or type and size information for repository objectsSYNOPSIS
git cat-file <type> <object> git cat-file (-e | -p) <object> git cat-file (-t | -s) [--allow-unknown-type] <object> git cat-file (--batch | --batch-check | --batch-command) [--batch-all-objects] [--buffer] [--follow-symlinks] [--unordered] [--textconv | --filters] [-z] git cat-file (--textconv | --filters) [<rev>:<path|tree-ish> | --path=<path|tree-ish> <rev>]
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 or --filters is used (which imply type "blob").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 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
Exit with zero status if <object>
exists and is a valid object. If <object> is of an invalid format
exit with non-zero and emits an error on stderr.
-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.
--[no-]mailmap, --[no-]use-mailmap
Use mailmap file to map author, committer and
tagger names and email addresses to canonical real names and email addresses.
See git-shortlog(1).
--textconv
Show the content as transformed by a textconv
filter. In this case, <object> has to be of the form
<tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path> in order to
apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at
<path>.
--filters
Show the content as converted by the filters
configured in the current working tree for the given <path> (i.e.
smudge filters, end-of-line conversion, etc). In this case,
<object> has to be of the form
<tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path>.
--path=<path>
For use with --textconv or
--filters, to allow specifying an object name and a path separately,
e.g. when it is difficult to figure out the revision from which the blob
came.
--batch, --batch=<format>
Print object information and contents for each
object provided on stdin. May not be combined with any other options or
arguments except --textconv or --filters, in which case the
input lines also need to specify the path, separated by whitespace. See the
section BATCH OUTPUT below for details.
--batch-check, --batch-check=<format>
Print object information for each object
provided on stdin. May not be combined with any other options or arguments
except --textconv or --filters, in which case the input lines
also need to specify the path, separated by whitespace. See the section
BATCH OUTPUT below for details.
--batch-command, --batch-command=<format>
Enter a command mode that reads commands and
arguments from stdin. May only be combined with --buffer,
--textconv or --filters. In the case of --textconv or
--filters, the input lines also need to specify the path, separated by
whitespace. See the section BATCH OUTPUT below for details.
--batch-command recognizes the following commands:
contents <object>
--batch-all-objects
Print object contents for object reference
<object>. This corresponds to the output of --batch.
info <object>
Print object info for object reference
<object>. This corresponds to the output of
--batch-check.
flush
Used with --buffer to execute all
preceding commands that were issued since the beginning or since the last
flush was issued. When --buffer is used, no output will come until a
flush is issued. When --buffer is not used, commands are flushed
each time without issuing flush.
Instead of reading a list of objects on stdin,
perform the requested batch operation on all objects in the repository and any
alternate object stores (not just reachable objects). Requires --batch
or --batch-check be specified. By default, the objects are visited in
order sorted by their hashes; see also --unordered below. Objects are
presented as-is, without respecting the "replace" mechanism of
git-replace(1).
--buffer
Normally batch output is flushed after each
object is output, so that a process can interactively read and write from
cat-file. With this option, the output uses normal stdio buffering;
this is much more efficient when invoking --batch-check or
--batch-command on a large number of objects.
--unordered
When --batch-all-objects is in use,
visit objects in an order which may be more efficient for accessing the object
contents than hash order. The exact details of the order are unspecified, but
if you do not require a specific order, this should generally result in faster
output, especially with --batch. Note that cat-file will still
show each object only once, even if it is stored multiple times in the
repository.
--allow-unknown-type
Allow -s or -t to query
broken/corrupt objects of unknown type.
--follow-symlinks
With --batch or --batch-check,
follow symlinks inside the repository when requesting objects with extended
SHA-1 expressions of the form tree-ish:path-in-tree. Instead of providing
output about the link itself, provide output about the linked-to object. If a
symlink points outside the tree-ish (e.g. a link to /foo or a
root-level link to ../foo), the portion of the link which is outside
the tree will be printed.
This option does not (currently) work correctly when an object in the index is
specified (e.g. :link instead of HEAD:link) rather than one in
the tree.
This option cannot (currently) be used unless --batch or
--batch-check is used.
For example, consider a git repository containing:
For a regular file f, echo HEAD:f | git cat-file --batch would
print
And echo HEAD:link | git cat-file --batch --follow-symlinks would print
the same thing, as would HEAD:dir/link, as they both point at
HEAD:f.
Without --follow-symlinks, these would print data about the symlink
itself. In the case of HEAD:link, you would see
Both plink and alink point outside the tree, so they would
respectively print:
-z
f: a file containing "hello\n" link: a symlink to f dir/link: a symlink to ../f plink: a symlink to ../f alink: a symlink to /etc/passwd
ce013625030ba8dba906f756967f9e9ca394464a blob 6
4d1ae35ba2c8ec712fa2a379db44ad639ca277bd blob 1
symlink 4 ../f
symlink 11 /etc/passwd
Only meaningful with --batch,
--batch-check, or --batch-command; input is NUL-delimited
instead of newline-delimited.
OUTPUT
If -t is specified, one of the <type>.BATCH OUTPUT
If --batch or --batch-check is given, cat-file will read objects from stdin, one per line, and print information about them. By default, the whole line is considered as an object, as if it were fed to git-rev-parse(1).The full hex representation of the object
name.
objecttype
The type of the object (the same as
cat-file -t reports).
objectsize
The size, in bytes, of the object (the same as
cat-file -s reports).
objectsize:disk
The size, in bytes, that the object takes up
on disk. See the note about on-disk sizes in the CAVEATS section
below.
deltabase
If the object is stored as a delta on-disk,
this expands to the full hex representation of the delta base object name.
Otherwise, expands to the null OID (all zeroes). See CAVEATS
below.
rest
If this atom is used in the output string,
input lines are split at the first whitespace boundary. All characters before
that whitespace are considered to be the object name; characters after that
first run of whitespace (i.e., the "rest" of the line) are output in
place of the %(rest) atom.
<oid> SP <type> SP <size> LF <contents> LF
<oid> SP <type> LF
<object> SP missing LF
<object> SP ambiguous LF
symlink SP <size> LF <symlink> LF
<object> SP missing LF
dangling SP <size> LF <object> LF
loop SP <size> LF <object> LF
notdir SP <size> LF <object> LF
CAVEATS
Note that the sizes of objects on disk are reported accurately, but care should be taken in drawing conclusions about which refs or objects are responsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object may be much larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but the choice of which object is the base and which is the delta is arbitrary and is subject to change during a repack.GIT
Part of the git(1) suite02/28/2023 | Git 2.39.2 |