GIT-COMMIT(1)

NAME
git-commit - Record your changes

SYNOPSIS

git-commit [-a] [-s] [-v] [(-c | -C) <commit> | -F <file> | -m <msg>]
           [--no-verify] [--amend] [-e] [--author <author>]
           [--] [[-i | -o ]<file>...]

DESCRIPTION
Updates the index file for given paths, or all modified files if -a is specified, and makes a commit object. The command specified by either the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variables are used to edit the commit log message.

Several environment variable are used during commits. They are documented in git-commit-tree(1).

This command can run commit-msg, pre-commit, and post-commit hooks. See [1]hooks for more information.

OPTIONS

-a|--all
    Update all paths in the index file. This flag notices files that have been modified and deleted, but new files you have not told git about are not affected.

-c or -C <commit>
    Take existing commit object, and reuse the log message and the authorship information (including the timestamp) when creating the commit. With -C, the editor is not invoked; with -c the user can further edit the commit message.

-F <file>
    Take the commit message from the given file. Use - to read the message from the standard input.

--author <author>
    Override the author name used in the commit. Use A U Thor <author@example.com> format.

-m <msg>
    Use the given <msg> as the commit message.

-s|--signoff
    Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message.

-v|--verify
    Look for suspicious lines the commit introduces, and abort committing if there is one. The definition of suspicious lines is currently the lines that has trailing whitespaces, and the lines whose indentation has a SP character immediately followed by a TAB character. This is the default.

-n|--no-verify
    The opposite of --verify.

-e|--edit
    The message taken from file with -F, command line with -m, and from file with -C are usually used as the commit log message unmodified. This option lets you further edit the message taken from these sources.

--amend
    Used to amend the tip of the current branch. Prepare the tree object you would want to replace the latest commit as usual (this includes the usual -i/-o and explicit paths), and the commit log editor is seeded with the commit message from the tip of the current branch. The commit you create replaces the current tip — if it was a merge, it will have the parents of the current tip as parents — so the current top commit is discarded.

    It is a rough equivalent for:

            $ git reset --soft HEAD^
            $ ... do something else to come up with the right tree ...
            $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD
    but can be used to amend a merge commit.

-i|--include
    Instead of committing only the files specified on the command line, update them in the index file and then commit the whole index. This is the traditional behavior.

-o|--only
    Commit only the files specified on the command line. This format cannot be used during a merge, nor when the index and the latest commit does not match on the specified paths to avoid confusion.

--  Do not interpret any more arguments as options.

<file>...
    Files to be committed. The meaning of these is different between --include and --only. Without either, it defaults --only semantics. If you make a commit and then found a mistake immediately after that, you can recover from it with git-reset(1).

DISCUSSION
git commit without _any_ parameter commits the tree structure recorded by the current index file. This is a whole-tree commit even the command is invoked from a subdirectory.

git commit --include paths... is equivalent to

git update-index --remove paths...
git commit
That is, update the specified paths to the index and then commit the whole tree.

git commit paths... largely bypasses the index file and commits only the changes made to the specified paths. It has however several safety valves to prevent confusion.

1.  It refuses to run during a merge (i.e. when $GIT_DIR/MERGE_HEAD exists), and reminds trained git users that the traditional semantics now needs -i flag.

2.  It refuses to run if named paths... are different in HEAD and the index (ditto about reminding). Added paths are OK. This is because an earlier git diff (not git diff HEAD) would have shown the differences since the last git update-index paths... to the user, and an inexperienced user may mistakenly think that the changes between the index and the HEAD (i.e. earlier changes made before the last git update-index paths... was done) are not being committed.

3.  It reads HEAD commit into a temporary index file, updates the specified paths... and makes a commit. At the same time, the real index file is also updated with the same paths.... git commit --all updates the index file with _all_ changes to the working tree, and makes a whole-tree commit, regardless of which subdirectory the command is invoked in.

AUTHOR
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>

GIT
Part of the git(7) suite

REFERENCES

1. hooks
    hooks.html