NAME

git-cat-file - Provide content or type and size information for repository objects

SYNOPSIS

  1. git cat-file (-t [--allow-unknown-type]| -s [--allow-unknown-type]| -e | -p | <type> | --textconv | --filters ) [--path=<path>] <object>
  2. git cat-file (--batch | --batch-check) [ --textconv | --filters ] [--follow-symlinks]

DESCRIPTION

In its first form, the command provides the content or the type of an object inthe repository. The type is required unless -t or -p is used to find theobject type, or -s is used to find the object size, or —textconv or—filters is used (which imply type "blob").

In the second form, a list of objects (separated by linefeeds) is provided onstdin, and the SHA-1, type, and size of each object is printed on stdout. Theoutput format can be overridden using the optional <format> argument. Ifeither —textconv or —filters was specified, the input is expected tolist the object names followed by the path name, separated by a singlewhitespace, so that the appropriate drivers can be determined.

OPTIONS

  • The name of the object to show.For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, seethe "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in gitrevisions[7].

  • -t

  • Instead of the content, show the object type identified by.

  • -s

  • Instead of the content, show the object size identified by.

  • -e

  • Exit with zero status if exists and is a validobject. If is of an invalid format exit with non-zero andemits an error on stderr.

  • -p

  • Pretty-print the contents of based on its type.

  • Typically this matches the real type of but askingfor a type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given is also permitted. An example is to ask for a"tree" with being a commit object that contains it,or to ask for a "blob" with being a tag object thatpoints at it.

  • —textconv

  • Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case, has to be of the form :, or : inorder to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at.

  • —filters

  • Show the content as converted by the filters configured inthe current working tree for the given (i.e. smudge filters,end-of-line conversion, etc). In this case, has to be ofthe form :, or :.

  • —path=

  • For use with —textconv or —filters, to allow specifying an objectname and a path separately, e.g. when it is difficult to figure outthe revision from which the blob came.

  • —batch

  • —batch=

  • Print object information and contents for each object providedon stdin. May not be combined with any other options or argumentsexcept —textconv or —filters, in which case the input linesalso need to specify the path, separated by whitespace. See thesection BATCH OUTPUT below for details.

  • —batch-check

  • —batch-check=

  • Print object information for each object provided on stdin. Maynot be combined with any other options or arguments except—textconv or —filters, in which case the input lines alsoneed to specify the path, separated by whitespace. See thesection BATCH OUTPUT below for details.

  • —batch-all-objects

  • Instead of reading a list of objects on stdin, perform therequested batch operation on all objects in the repository andany alternate object stores (not just reachable objects).Requires —batch or —batch-check be specified. Note thatthe objects are visited in order sorted by their hashes.

  • —buffer

  • Normally batch output is flushed after each object is output, sothat a process can interactively read and write fromcat-file. With this option, the output uses normal stdiobuffering; this is much more efficient when invoking—batch-check on a large number of objects.

  • —unordered

  • When —batch-all-objects is in use, visit objects in anorder which may be more efficient for accessing the objectcontents than hash order. The exact details of the order areunspecified, but if you do not require a specific order, thisshould generally result in faster output, especially with—batch. Note that cat-file will still show each objectonly once, even if it is stored multiple times in therepository.

  • —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 therepository when requesting objects with extended SHA-1expressions of the form tree-ish:path-in-tree. Instead ofproviding output about the link itself, provide output aboutthe linked-to object. If a symlink points outside thetree-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 beprinted.

    • This option does not (currently) work correctly when an object in theindex is specified (e.g. :link instead of HEAD:link) rather thanone in the tree.

    This option cannot (currently) be used unless —batch or—batch-check is used.

    For example, consider a git repository containing:

    1. f: a file containing "hello\n"
    2. link: a symlink to f
    3. dir/link: a symlink to ../f
    4. plink: a symlink to ../f
    5. alink: a symlink to /etc/passwd

    For a regular file f, echo HEAD:f | git cat-file —batch would print

    1. ce013625030ba8dba906f756967f9e9ca394464a blob 6

    And echo HEAD:link | git cat-file —batch —follow-symlinks wouldprint the same thing, as would HEAD:dir/link, as they both point atHEAD:f.

    Without —follow-symlinks, these would print data about the symlinkitself. In the case of HEAD:link, you would see

    1. 4d1ae35ba2c8ec712fa2a379db44ad639ca277bd blob 1

    Both plink and alink point outside the tree, so they wouldrespectively print:

    1. symlink 4
    2. ../f
    1. symlink 11
    2. /etc/passwd

    • 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, unless the <object> is malformed.

    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.

    BATCH OUTPUT

    If —batch or —batch-check is given, cat-file will read objectsfrom stdin, one per line, and print information about them. By default,the whole line is considered as an object, as if it were fed togit-rev-parse[1].

    You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom<format>. The <format> is copied literally to stdout for eachobject, with placeholders of the form %(atom) expanded, followed by anewline. The available atoms are:

    • objectname

    • The 40-hex object name of the object.

    • 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 -sreports).

    • objectsize:disk

    • The size, in bytes, that the object takes up on disk. See thenote about on-disk sizes in the CAVEATS section below.

    • deltabase

    • If the object is stored as a delta on-disk, this expands to the40-hex sha1 of the delta base object. Otherwise, expands to thenull sha1 (40 zeroes). See CAVEATS below.

    • rest

    • If this atom is used in the output string, input lines are splitat the first whitespace boundary. All characters before thatwhitespace are considered to be the object name; charactersafter that first run of whitespace (i.e., the "rest" of theline) are output in place of the %(rest) atom.

    If no format is specified, the default format is %(objectname)%(objecttype) %(objectsize).

    If —batch is specified, the object information is followed by theobject contents (consisting of %(objectsize) bytes), followed by anewline.

    For example, —batch without a custom format would produce:

    1. <sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF
    2. <contents> LF

    Whereas —batch-check='%(objectname) %(objecttype)' would produce:

    <sha1> SP <type> LF

    If a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object inthe repository, then cat-file will ignore any custom format and print:

    <object> SP missing LF

    If a name is specified that might refer to more than one object (an ambiguous short sha), then cat-file will ignore any custom format and print:

    <object> SP ambiguous LF

    If —follow-symlinks is used, and a symlink in the repository pointsoutside the repository, then cat-file will ignore any custom formatand print:

    symlink SP <size> LF
<symlink> LF

    The symlink will either be absolute (beginning with a /), or relativeto the tree root. For instance, if dir/link points to ../../foo, then<symlink> will be ../foo. <size> is the size of the symlink in bytes.

    If —follow-symlinks is used, the following error messages will bedisplayed:

    <object> SP missing LF

    is printed when the initial symlink requested does not exist.

    dangling SP <size> LF
<object> LF

    is printed when the initial symlink exists, but something thatit (transitive-of) points to does not.

    loop SP <size> LF
<object> LF

    is printed for symlink loops (or any symlinks thatrequire more than 40 link resolutions to resolve).

    notdir SP <size> LF
<object> LF

    is printed when, during symlink resolution, a file is used as adirectory name.

    CAVEATS

    Note that the sizes of objects on disk are reported accurately, but careshould be taken in drawing conclusions about which refs or objects areresponsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object may bemuch larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but thechoice of which object is the base and which is the delta is arbitraryand is subject to change during a repack.

    Note also that multiple copies of an object may be present in the objectdatabase; in this case, it is undefined which copy’s size or delta basewill be reported.

    GIT

    Part of the git[1] suite