GIT-NOTES(1)                                                      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 [--ignore-missing] [--stdin] [<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 existing notes).
              However, if you&#8217;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).


       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 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
       -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.


       --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 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". 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&#8217;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 <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 -C "$blob" HEAD





       Of course, it doesn&#8217;t make much sense to display non-text-format
       notes with git log, so if you use such notes, you&#8217;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.schindelin@gmx.de:
       mailto:johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> and Johan Herland
       <johan@herland.net: mailto:johan@herland.net>


DOCUMENTATION
       Documentation by Johannes Schindelin and Johan Herland


GIT
       Part of the git(7) suite




                                                                  GIT-NOTES(1)
