GIT-FOR-EACH-REF(1)                                        GIT-FOR-EACH-REF(1)



NAME
       git-for-each-ref - Output information on each ref

SYNOPSIS
       git for-each-ref [--count=<count>] [--shell|--perl|--python|--tcl]
                          [(--sort=<key>)...] [--format=<format>] [<pattern>...]





DESCRIPTION
       Iterate over all refs that match <pattern> and show them according to
       the given <format>, after sorting them according to the given set of
       <key>. If <count> is given, stop after showing that many refs. The
       interpolated values in <format> can optionally be quoted as string
       literals in the specified host language allowing their direct
       evaluation in that language.


OPTIONS
       <count>
              By default the command shows all refs that match <pattern>. This
              option makes it stop after showing that many refs.


       <key>  A field name to sort on. Prefix - to sort in descending order of
              the value. When unspecified, refname is used. You may use the
              --sort=<key> option multiple times, in which case the last key
              becomes the primary key.


       <format>
              A string that interpolates %(fieldname) from the object pointed
              at by a ref being shown. If fieldname is prefixed with an
              asterisk (*) and the ref points at a tag object, the value for
              the field in the object tag refers is used. When unspecified,
              defaults to %(objectname) SPC %(objecttype) TAB %(refname). It
              also interpolates %% to %, and %xx where xx are hex digits
              interpolates to character with hex code xx; for example %00
              interpolates to \0 (NUL), %09 to \t (TAB) and %0a to \n (LF).


       <pattern>...
              If one or more patterns are given, only refs are shown that
              match against at least one pattern, either using fnmatch(3) or
              literally, in the latter case matching completely or from the
              beginning up to a slash.


       --shell, --perl, --python, --tcl
              If given, strings that substitute %(fieldname) placeholders are
              quoted as string literals suitable for the specified host
              language. This is meant to produce a scriptlet that can directly
              be `eval`ed.


FIELD NAMES
       Various values from structured fields in referenced objects can be used
       to interpolate into the resulting output, or as sort keys.


       For all objects, the following names can be used:


       refname
              The name of the ref (the part after $GIT_DIR/). For a
              non-ambiguous short name of the ref append :short. The option
              core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict abbreviation
              mode.


       objecttype
              The type of the object (blob, tree, commit, tag).


       objectsize
              The size of the object (the same as git cat-file -s reports).


       objectname
              The object name (aka SHA-1). For a non-ambiguous abbreviation of
              the object name append :short.


       upstream
              The name of a local ref which can be considered
              &#8220;upstream&#8221; from the displayed ref. Respects :short
              in the same way as refname above.


              In addition to the above, for commit and tag objects, the header
              field names (tree, parent, object, type, and tag) can be used to
              specify the value in the header field.


              Fields that have name-email-date tuple as its value (author,
              committer, and tagger) can be suffixed with name, email, and
              date to extract the named component.


              The first line of the message in a commit and tag object is
              subject, the remaining lines are body. The whole message is
              contents.


              For sorting purposes, fields with numeric values sort in numeric
              order (objectsize, authordate, committerdate, taggerdate). All
              other fields are used to sort in their byte-value order.


              In any case, a field name that refers to a field inapplicable to
              the object referred by the ref does not cause an error. It
              returns an empty string instead.


              As a special case for the date-type fields, you may specify a
              format for the date by adding one of :default, :relative,
              :short, :local, :iso8601 or :rfc2822 to the end of the
              fieldname; e.g. %(taggerdate:relative).


EXAMPLES
       An example directly producing formatted text. Show the most recent 3
       tagged commits:

       #!/bin/sh

       git for-each-ref --count=3 --sort='-*authordate' \
       --format='From: %(*authorname) %(*authoremail)
       Subject: %(*subject)
       Date: %(*authordate)
       Ref: %(*refname)

       %(*body)





       A simple example showing the use of shell eval on the output,
       demonstrating the use of --shell. List the prefixes of all heads:

       #!/bin/sh

       git for-each-ref --shell --format="ref=%(refname)" refs/heads | \
       while read entry
       do
               eval "$entry"
               echo `dirname $ref`
       done





       A bit more elaborate report on tags, demonstrating that the format may
       be an entire script:

       #!/bin/sh

       fmt='
               r=%(refname)
               t=%(*objecttype)
               T=${r#refs/tags/}

               o=%(*objectname)
               n=%(*authorname)
               e=%(*authoremail)
               s=%(*subject)
               d=%(*authordate)
               b=%(*body)

               kind=Tag
               if test "z$t" = z
               then
                       # could be a lightweight tag
                       t=%(objecttype)
                       kind="Lightweight tag"
                       o=%(objectname)
                       n=%(authorname)
                       e=%(authoremail)
                       s=%(subject)
                       d=%(authordate)
                       b=%(body)
               fi
               echo "$kind $T points at a $t object $o"
               if test "z$t" = zcommit
               then
                       echo "The commit was authored by $n $e
       at $d, and titled

           $s

       Its message reads as:
       "
                       echo "$b" | sed -e "s/^/    /"
                       echo
               fi

       eval=`git for-each-ref --shell --format="$fmt" \
               --sort='*objecttype' \
               --sort=-taggerdate \
               refs/tags`
       eval "$eval"





AUTHOR
       Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com:
       mailto:gitster@pobox.com>.


DOCUMENTATION
       Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org:
       mailto:git@vger.kernel.org>.


GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite




                                                           GIT-FOR-EACH-REF(1)
