git-cat-file(1)

NAME#

git-cat-file - Provide contents or details of repository objects

SYNOPSIS#

git cat-file\n <type> <object>
\ngit cat-file\n (-e | -p) <object>
\ngit cat-file\n (-t | -s) [--allow-unknown-type] <object>
\ngit cat-file\n (--textconv | --filters)
\n
             [<rev>:<path|tree-ish> | --path=<path|tree-ish> <rev>]
\ngit cat-file\n (--batch | --batch-check | --batch-command) [--batch-all-objects]
\n
             [--buffer] [--follow-symlinks] [--unordered]
\n
             [--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>

-t

-s

-e

-p

<type>

--[no-]mailmap, --[no-]use-mailmap

--textconv

--filters

--path=<path>

--batch, --batch=<format>

--batch-check, --batch-check=<format>

--batch-command, --batch-command=<format>

--batch-command recognizes the following commands:

contents <object>

info <object>

flush

--batch-all-objects

--buffer

--unordered

--allow-unknown-type

--follow-symlinks

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:

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

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

ce013625030ba8dba906f756967f9e9ca394464a blob 6

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

4d1ae35ba2c8ec712fa2a379db44ad639ca277bd blob 1

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

symlink 4
../f

symlink 11
/etc/passwd

-Z

-z

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 in the same order as they have been read. 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

objecttype

objectsize

objectsize:disk

deltabase

rest

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> LF

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

<oid> SP <type> LF

If 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 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 points outside the repository, then cat-file will ignore any custom format and print:

symlink SP <size> LF
<symlink> LF

The 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 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 that it (transitive-of) points to does not.

loop SP <size> LF
<object> LF

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

notdir SP <size> LF
<object> LF

is 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