SYNOPSIS
git cat-file <type> <object>
git cat-file (-e | -p) <object>
git cat-file (-t | -s) [--allow-unknown-type] <object>
git cat-file (--textconv | --filters)
[<rev>:<path|tree-ish> | --path=<path|tree-ish> <rev>]
git cat-file (--batch | --batch-check | --batch-command) [--batch-all-objects]
[--buffer] [--follow-symlinks] [--unordered]
[--textconv | --filters] [-Z]
DESCRIPTION
Output the contents or other properties such as size, type or delta information of one or more objects.
This command can operate in two modes, depending on whether an option
from the --batch family is specified.
In non-batch mode, the command provides information on an object named on the command line.
In batch mode, arguments are read from standard input.
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>. If used with--use-mailmapoption, will show the size of updated object after replacing idents using the mailmap mechanism. - -e
-
Exit with zero status if
<object>exists and is a valid object. If<object>is of an invalid format, exit with non-zero status and emit 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
--textconvor--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,--filters, or--use-mailmap.-
When used with
--textconvor--filters, the input lines must specify the path, separated by whitespace. See the sectionBATCH OUTPUTbelow for details. -
When used with
--use-mailmap, for commit and tag objects, the contents part of the output shows the identities replaced using the mailmap mechanism, while the information part of the output shows the size of the object as if it actually recorded the replacement identities.
-
- --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,--filtersor--use-mailmap.-
When used with
--textconvor--filters, the input lines must specify the path, separated by whitespace. See the sectionBATCH OUTPUTbelow for details. -
When used with
--use-mailmap, for commit and tag objects, the printed object information shows the size of the object as if the identities recorded in it were replaced by the mailmap mechanism.
-
- --batch-command
- --batch-command=<format>
-
Enter a command mode that reads commands and arguments from stdin. May only be combined with
--buffer,--textconv,--use-mailmapor--filters.-
When used with
--textconvor--filters, the input lines must specify the path, separated by whitespace. See the sectionBATCH OUTPUTbelow for details. -
When used with
--use-mailmap, for commit and tag objects, thecontentscommand shows the identities replaced using the mailmap mechanism, while theinfocommand shows the size of the object as if it actually recorded the replacement identities.
--batch-commandrecognizes the following commands:- contents <object>
-
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
--bufferto execute all preceding commands that were issued since the beginning or since the last flush was issued. When--bufferis used, no output will come until aflushis issued. When--bufferis not used, commands are flushed each time without issuingflush.
-
- --batch-all-objects
-
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
--batchor--batch-checkbe specified. By default, the objects are visited in order sorted by their hashes; see also--unorderedbelow. 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-checkor--batch-commandon a large number of objects. - --unordered
-
When
--batch-all-objectsis 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 thatcat-filewill still show each object only once, even if it is stored multiple times in the repository. - --allow-unknown-type
-
Allow
-sor-tto query broken/corrupt objects of unknown type. - --follow-symlinks
-
With
--batchor--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/fooor 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.
:linkinstead ofHEAD:link) rather than one in the tree.This option cannot (currently) be used unless
--batchor--batch-checkis used.For example, consider a git repository containing:
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/passwdFor a regular file
f,echo HEAD:f | git cat-file --batchwould printce013625030ba8dba906f756967f9e9ca394464a blob 6And
echo HEAD:link | git cat-file --batch --follow-symlinkswould print the same thing, as wouldHEAD:dir/link, as they both point atHEAD:f.Without
--follow-symlinks, these would print data about the symlink itself. In the case ofHEAD:link, you would see4d1ae35ba2c8ec712fa2a379db44ad639ca277bd blob 1Both
plinkandalinkpoint outside the tree, so they would respectively print:symlink 4 ../fsymlink 11 /etc/passwd - -Z
-
Only meaningful with
--batch,--batch-check, or--batch-command; input and output is NUL-delimited instead of newline-delimited. - -z
-
Only meaningful with
--batch,--batch-check, or--batch-command; input is NUL-delimited instead of newline-delimited. This option is deprecated in favor of-Zas the output can otherwise be ambiguous.
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 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).
When --batch-command is given, cat-file will read commands from stdin,
one per line, and print information based on the command given. With
--batch-command, the info command followed by an object will print
information about the object the same way --batch-check would, and the
contents command followed by an object prints contents in the same way
--batch would.
You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom
<format>. The <format> is copied literally to stdout for each
object, with placeholders of the form %(atom) expanded, followed by a
newline. The available atoms are:
-
objectname -
The full hex representation of the object name.
-
objecttype -
The type of the object (the same as
cat-file -treports). -
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 the note about on-disk sizes in the
CAVEATSsection 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
CAVEATSbelow. -
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.
If no format is specified, the default format is %(objectname)
%(objecttype) %(objectsize).
If --batch is specified, or if --batch-command is used with the contents
command, the object information is followed by the object contents (consisting
of %(objectsize) bytes), followed by a newline.
For example, --batch without a custom format would produce:
<oid> SP <type> SP <size> LF
<contents> LFWhereas --batch-check='%(objectname) %(objecttype)' would produce:
<oid> SP <type> LFIf a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object in
the repository, then cat-file will ignore any custom format and print:
<object> SP missing LFIf 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 LFIf --follow-symlinks is used, and a symlink in the repository points
outside the repository, then cat-file will ignore any custom format
and print:
symlink SP <size> LF
<symlink> LFThe symlink will either be absolute (beginning with a /), or relative
to 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 be
displayed:
<object> SP missing LFis printed when the initial symlink requested does not exist.
dangling SP <size> LF
<object> LFis printed when the initial symlink exists, but something that it (transitive-of) points to does not.
loop SP <size> LF
<object> LFis printed for symlink loops (or any symlinks that require more than 40 link resolutions to resolve).
notdir SP <size> LF
<object> LFis printed when, during symlink resolution, a file is used as a directory name.
Alternatively, when -Z is passed, the line feeds in any of the above examples
are replaced with NUL terminators. This ensures that output will be parsable if
the output itself would contain a linefeed and is thus recommended for
scripting purposes.
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.
Note also that multiple copies of an object may be present in the object database; in this case, it is undefined which copy’s size or delta base will be reported.
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite