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1 '\" t
2 .\" Title: git-format-patch
3 .\" Author: [FIXME: author] [see http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/author]
4 .\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.79.2 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
5 .\" Date: 2024-10-04
6 .\" Manual: Git Manual
7 .\" Source: Git 2.47.0.rc1.33.g90fe3800b9
8 .\" Language: English
9 .\"
10 .TH "GIT\-FORMAT\-PATCH" "1" "2024-10-04" "Git 2\&.47\&.0\&.rc1\&.33\&.g9" "Git Manual"
11 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
12 .\" * Define some portability stuff
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14 .\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15 .\" http://bugs.debian.org/507673
16 .\" http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2009-02/msg00013.html
17 .\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
18 .ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
19 .el .ds Aq '
20 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
21 .\" * set default formatting
22 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
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24 .nh
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28 .\" * MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE *
29 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
30 .SH "NAME"
31 git-format-patch \- Prepare patches for e\-mail submission
32 .SH "SYNOPSIS"
33 .sp
34 .nf
35 \fIgit format\-patch\fR [\-k] [(\-o|\-\-output\-directory) <dir> | \-\-stdout]
36 [\-\-no\-thread | \-\-thread[=<style>]]
37 [(\-\-attach|\-\-inline)[=<boundary>] | \-\-no\-attach]
38 [\-s | \-\-signoff]
39 [\-\-signature=<signature> | \-\-no\-signature]
40 [\-\-signature\-file=<file>]
41 [\-n | \-\-numbered | \-N | \-\-no\-numbered]
42 [\-\-start\-number <n>] [\-\-numbered\-files]
43 [\-\-in\-reply\-to=<message\-id>] [\-\-suffix=\&.<sfx>]
44 [\-\-ignore\-if\-in\-upstream] [\-\-always]
45 [\-\-cover\-from\-description=<mode>]
46 [\-\-rfc[=<rfc>]] [\-\-subject\-prefix=<subject\-prefix>]
47 [(\-\-reroll\-count|\-v) <n>]
48 [\-\-to=<email>] [\-\-cc=<email>]
49 [\-\-[no\-]cover\-letter] [\-\-quiet]
50 [\-\-[no\-]encode\-email\-headers]
51 [\-\-no\-notes | \-\-notes[=<ref>]]
52 [\-\-interdiff=<previous>]
53 [\-\-range\-diff=<previous> [\-\-creation\-factor=<percent>]]
54 [\-\-filename\-max\-length=<n>]
55 [\-\-progress]
56 [<common\-diff\-options>]
57 [ <since> | <revision\-range> ]
58 .fi
59 .SH "DESCRIPTION"
60 .sp
61 Prepare each non\-merge commit with its "patch" in one "message" per commit, formatted to resemble a UNIX mailbox\&. The output of this command is convenient for e\-mail submission or for use with \fIgit am\fR\&.
62 .sp
63 A "message" generated by the command consists of three parts:
64 .sp
65 .RS 4
66 .ie n \{\
67 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
68 .\}
69 .el \{\
70 .sp -1
71 .IP \(bu 2.3
72 .\}
73 A brief metadata header that begins with
74 \fBFrom <commit>\fR
75 with a fixed
76 \fBMon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001\fR
77 datestamp to help programs like "file(1)" to recognize that the file is an output from this command, fields that record the author identity, the author date, and the title of the change (taken from the first paragraph of the commit log message)\&.
78 .RE
79 .sp
80 .RS 4
81 .ie n \{\
82 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
83 .\}
84 .el \{\
85 .sp -1
86 .IP \(bu 2.3
87 .\}
88 The second and subsequent paragraphs of the commit log message\&.
89 .RE
90 .sp
91 .RS 4
92 .ie n \{\
93 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
94 .\}
95 .el \{\
96 .sp -1
97 .IP \(bu 2.3
98 .\}
99 The "patch", which is the "diff \-p \-\-stat" output (see
100 \fBgit-diff\fR(1)) between the commit and its parent\&.
101 .RE
102 .sp
103 The log message and the patch are separated by a line with a three\-dash line\&.
104 .sp
105 There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on\&.
106 .sp
107 .RS 4
108 .ie n \{\
109 \h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
110 .\}
111 .el \{\
112 .sp -1
113 .IP " 1." 4.2
114 .\}
115 A single commit, <since>, specifies that the commits leading to the tip of the current branch that are not in the history that leads to the <since> to be output\&.
116 .RE
117 .sp
118 .RS 4
119 .ie n \{\
120 \h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
121 .\}
122 .el \{\
123 .sp -1
124 .IP " 2." 4.2
125 .\}
126 Generic <revision\-range> expression (see "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in
127 \fBgitrevisions\fR(7)) means the commits in the specified range\&.
128 .RE
129 .sp
130 The first rule takes precedence in the case of a single <commit>\&. To apply the second rule, i\&.e\&., format everything since the beginning of history up until <commit>, use the \fB\-\-root\fR option: \fBgit format\-patch \-\-root <commit>\fR\&. If you want to format only <commit> itself, you can do this with \fBgit format\-patch \-1 <commit>\fR\&.
131 .sp
132 By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the first line of the commit message (massaged for pathname safety) as the filename\&. With the \fB\-\-numbered\-files\fR option, the output file names will only be numbers, without the first line of the commit appended\&. The names of the output files are printed to standard output, unless the \fB\-\-stdout\fR option is specified\&.
133 .sp
134 If \fB\-o\fR is specified, output files are created in <dir>\&. Otherwise they are created in the current working directory\&. The default path can be set with the \fBformat\&.outputDirectory\fR configuration option\&. The \fB\-o\fR option takes precedence over \fBformat\&.outputDirectory\fR\&. To store patches in the current working directory even when \fBformat\&.outputDirectory\fR points elsewhere, use \fB\-o \&.\fR\&. All directory components will be created\&.
135 .sp
136 By default, the subject of a single patch is "[PATCH] " followed by the concatenation of lines from the commit message up to the first blank line (see the DISCUSSION section of \fBgit-commit\fR(1))\&.
137 .sp
138 When multiple patches are output, the subject prefix will instead be "[PATCH n/m] "\&. To force 1/1 to be added for a single patch, use \fB\-n\fR\&. To omit patch numbers from the subject, use \fB\-N\fR\&.
139 .sp
140 If given \fB\-\-thread\fR, \fBgit\-format\-patch\fR will generate \fBIn\-Reply\-To\fR and \fBReferences\fR headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear as replies to the first mail; this also generates a \fBMessage\-ID\fR header to reference\&.
141 .SH "OPTIONS"
142 .PP
143 \-p, \-\-no\-stat
144 .RS 4
145 Generate plain patches without any diffstats\&.
146 .RE
147 .PP
148 \-U<n>, \-\-unified=<n>
149 .RS 4
150 Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of the usual three\&.
151 .RE
152 .PP
153 \-\-output=<file>
154 .RS 4
155 Output to a specific file instead of stdout\&.
156 .RE
157 .PP
158 \-\-output\-indicator\-new=<char>, \-\-output\-indicator\-old=<char>, \-\-output\-indicator\-context=<char>
159 .RS 4
160 Specify the character used to indicate new, old or context lines in the generated patch\&. Normally they are
161 \fI+\fR,
162 \fI\-\fR
163 and \*(Aq \*(Aq respectively\&.
164 .RE
165 .PP
166 \-\-indent\-heuristic
167 .RS 4
168 Enable the heuristic that shifts diff hunk boundaries to make patches easier to read\&. This is the default\&.
169 .RE
170 .PP
171 \-\-no\-indent\-heuristic
172 .RS 4
173 Disable the indent heuristic\&.
174 .RE
175 .PP
176 \-\-minimal
177 .RS 4
178 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is produced\&.
179 .RE
180 .PP
181 \-\-patience
182 .RS 4
183 Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm\&.
184 .RE
185 .PP
186 \-\-histogram
187 .RS 4
188 Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm\&.
189 .RE
190 .PP
191 \-\-anchored=<text>
192 .RS 4
193 Generate a diff using the "anchored diff" algorithm\&.
194 .sp
195 This option may be specified more than once\&.
196 .sp
197 If a line exists in both the source and destination, exists only once, and starts with this text, this algorithm attempts to prevent it from appearing as a deletion or addition in the output\&. It uses the "patience diff" algorithm internally\&.
198 .RE
199 .PP
200 \-\-diff\-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}
201 .RS 4
202 Choose a diff algorithm\&. The variants are as follows:
203 .PP
204 \fBdefault\fR, \fBmyers\fR
205 .RS 4
206 The basic greedy diff algorithm\&. Currently, this is the default\&.
207 .RE
208 .PP
209 \fBminimal\fR
210 .RS 4
211 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is produced\&.
212 .RE
213 .PP
214 \fBpatience\fR
215 .RS 4
216 Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches\&.
217 .RE
218 .PP
219 \fBhistogram\fR
220 .RS 4
221 This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support low\-occurrence common elements"\&.
222 .RE
223 .sp
224 For instance, if you configured the
225 \fBdiff\&.algorithm\fR
226 variable to a non\-default value and want to use the default one, then you have to use
227 \fB\-\-diff\-algorithm=default\fR
228 option\&.
229 .RE
230 .PP
231 \-\-stat[=<width>[,<name\-width>[,<count>]]]
232 .RS 4
233 Generate a diffstat\&. By default, as much space as necessary will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph part\&. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
234 \fB<width>\fR\&. The width of the filename part can be limited by giving another width
235 \fB<name\-width>\fR
236 after a comma or by setting
237 \fBdiff\&.statNameWidth=<width>\fR\&. The width of the graph part can be limited by using
238 \fB\-\-stat\-graph\-width=<width>\fR
239 or by setting
240 \fBdiff\&.statGraphWidth=<width>\fR\&. Using
241 \fB\-\-stat\fR
242 or
243 \fB\-\-stat\-graph\-width\fR
244 affects all commands generating a stat graph, while setting
245 \fBdiff\&.statNameWidth\fR
246 or
247 \fBdiff\&.statGraphWidth\fR
248 does not affect
249 \fBgit format\-patch\fR\&. By giving a third parameter
250 \fB<count>\fR, you can limit the output to the first
251 \fB<count>\fR
252 lines, followed by
253 \fB\&.\&.\&.\fR
254 if there are more\&.
255 .sp
256 These parameters can also be set individually with
257 \fB\-\-stat\-width=<width>\fR,
258 \fB\-\-stat\-name\-width=<name\-width>\fR
259 and
260 \fB\-\-stat\-count=<count>\fR\&.
261 .RE
262 .PP
263 \-\-compact\-summary
264 .RS 4
265 Output a condensed summary of extended header information such as file creations or deletions ("new" or "gone", optionally "+l" if it\(cqs a symlink) and mode changes ("+x" or "\-x" for adding or removing executable bit respectively) in diffstat\&. The information is put between the filename part and the graph part\&. Implies
266 \fB\-\-stat\fR\&.
267 .RE
268 .PP
269 \-\-numstat
270 .RS 4
271 Similar to
272 \fB\-\-stat\fR, but shows number of added and deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly\&. For binary files, outputs two
273 \fB\-\fR
274 instead of saying
275 \fB0 0\fR\&.
276 .RE
277 .PP
278 \-\-shortstat
279 .RS 4
280 Output only the last line of the
281 \fB\-\-stat\fR
282 format containing total number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted lines\&.
283 .RE
284 .PP
285 \-X[<param1,param2,\&...\:>], \-\-dirstat[=<param1,param2,\&...\:>]
286 .RS 4
287 Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each sub\-directory\&. The behavior of
288 \fB\-\-dirstat\fR
289 can be customized by passing it a comma separated list of parameters\&. The defaults are controlled by the
290 \fBdiff\&.dirstat\fR
291 configuration variable (see
292 \fBgit-config\fR(1))\&. The following parameters are available:
293 .PP
294 \fBchanges\fR
295 .RS 4
296 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been removed from the source, or added to the destination\&. This ignores the amount of pure code movements within a file\&. In other words, rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes\&. This is the default behavior when no parameter is given\&.
297 .RE
298 .PP
299 \fBlines\fR
300 .RS 4
301 Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line\-based diff analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts\&. (For binary files, count 64\-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no natural concept of lines)\&. This is a more expensive
302 \fB\-\-dirstat\fR
303 behavior than the
304 \fBchanges\fR
305 behavior, but it does count rearranged lines within a file as much as other changes\&. The resulting output is consistent with what you get from the other
306 \fB\-\-*stat\fR
307 options\&.
308 .RE
309 .PP
310 \fBfiles\fR
311 .RS 4
312 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed\&. Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis\&. This is the computationally cheapest
313 \fB\-\-dirstat\fR
314 behavior, since it does not have to look at the file contents at all\&.
315 .RE
316 .PP
317 \fBcumulative\fR
318 .RS 4
319 Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well\&. Note that when using
320 \fBcumulative\fR, the sum of the percentages reported may exceed 100%\&. The default (non\-cumulative) behavior can be specified with the
321 \fBnoncumulative\fR
322 parameter\&.
323 .RE
324 .PP
325 <limit>
326 .RS 4
327 An integer parameter specifies a cut\-off percent (3% by default)\&. Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes are not shown in the output\&.
328 .RE
329 .sp
330 Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files, and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
331 \fB\-\-dirstat=files,10,cumulative\fR\&.
332 .RE
333 .PP
334 \-\-cumulative
335 .RS 4
336 Synonym for \-\-dirstat=cumulative
337 .RE
338 .PP
339 \-\-dirstat\-by\-file[=<param1,param2>\&...\:]
340 .RS 4
341 Synonym for \-\-dirstat=files,<param1>,<param2>\&...\:
342 .RE
343 .PP
344 \-\-summary
345 .RS 4
346 Output a condensed summary of extended header information such as creations, renames and mode changes\&.
347 .RE
348 .PP
349 \-\-no\-renames
350 .RS 4
351 Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration file gives the default to do so\&.
352 .RE
353 .PP
354 \-\-[no\-]rename\-empty
355 .RS 4
356 Whether to use empty blobs as rename source\&.
357 .RE
358 .PP
359 \-\-full\-index
360 .RS 4
361 Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full pre\- and post\-image blob object names on the "index" line when generating patch format output\&.
362 .RE
363 .PP
364 \-\-binary
365 .RS 4
366 In addition to
367 \fB\-\-full\-index\fR, output a binary diff that can be applied with
368 \fBgit\-apply\fR\&.
369 .RE
370 .PP
371 \-\-abbrev[=<n>]
372 .RS 4
373 Instead of showing the full 40\-byte hexadecimal object name in diff\-raw format output and diff\-tree header lines, show the shortest prefix that is at least
374 \fI<n>\fR
375 hexdigits long that uniquely refers the object\&. In diff\-patch output format,
376 \fB\-\-full\-index\fR
377 takes higher precedence, i\&.e\&. if
378 \fB\-\-full\-index\fR
379 is specified, full blob names will be shown regardless of
380 \fB\-\-abbrev\fR\&. Non default number of digits can be specified with
381 \fB\-\-abbrev=<n>\fR\&.
382 .RE
383 .PP
384 \-B[<n>][/<m>], \-\-break\-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]
385 .RS 4
386 Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create\&. This serves two purposes:
387 .sp
388 It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of everything new, and the number
389 \fBm\fR
390 controls this aspect of the \-B option (defaults to 60%)\&.
391 \fB\-B/70%\fR
392 specifies that less than 30% of the original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total rewrite (i\&.e\&. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines)\&.
393 .sp
394 When used with \-M, a totally\-rewritten file is also considered as the source of a rename (usually \-M only considers a file that disappeared as the source of a rename), and the number
395 \fBn\fR
396 controls this aspect of the \-B option (defaults to 50%)\&.
397 \fB\-B20%\fR
398 specifies that a change with addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file\(cqs size are eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to another file\&.
399 .RE
400 .PP
401 \-M[<n>], \-\-find\-renames[=<n>]
402 .RS 4
403 Detect renames\&. If
404 \fBn\fR
405 is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity index (i\&.e\&. amount of addition/deletions compared to the file\(cqs size)\&. For example,
406 \fB\-M90%\fR
407 means Git should consider a delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file hasn\(cqt changed\&. Without a
408 \fB%\fR
409 sign, the number is to be read as a fraction, with a decimal point before it\&. I\&.e\&.,
410 \fB\-M5\fR
411 becomes 0\&.5, and is thus the same as
412 \fB\-M50%\fR\&. Similarly,
413 \fB\-M05\fR
414 is the same as
415 \fB\-M5%\fR\&. To limit detection to exact renames, use
416 \fB\-M100%\fR\&. The default similarity index is 50%\&.
417 .RE
418 .PP
419 \-C[<n>], \-\-find\-copies[=<n>]
420 .RS 4
421 Detect copies as well as renames\&. See also
422 \fB\-\-find\-copies\-harder\fR\&. If
423 \fBn\fR
424 is specified, it has the same meaning as for
425 \fB\-M<n>\fR\&.
426 .RE
427 .PP
428 \-\-find\-copies\-harder
429 .RS 4
430 For performance reasons, by default,
431 \fB\-C\fR
432 option finds copies only if the original file of the copy was modified in the same changeset\&. This flag makes the command inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of copy\&. This is a very expensive operation for large projects, so use it with caution\&. Giving more than one
433 \fB\-C\fR
434 option has the same effect\&.
435 .RE
436 .PP
437 \-D, \-\-irreversible\-delete
438 .RS 4
439 Omit the preimage for deletes, i\&.e\&. print only the header but not the diff between the preimage and
440 \fB/dev/null\fR\&. The resulting patch is not meant to be applied with
441 \fBpatch\fR
442 or
443 \fBgit apply\fR; this is solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the text after the change\&. In addition, the output obviously lacks enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually, hence the name of the option\&.
444 .sp
445 When used together with
446 \fB\-B\fR, omit also the preimage in the deletion part of a delete/create pair\&.
447 .RE
448 .PP
449 \-l<num>
450 .RS 4
451 The
452 \fB\-M\fR
453 and
454 \fB\-C\fR
455 options involve some preliminary steps that can detect subsets of renames/copies cheaply, followed by an exhaustive fallback portion that compares all remaining unpaired destinations to all relevant sources\&. (For renames, only remaining unpaired sources are relevant; for copies, all original sources are relevant\&.) For N sources and destinations, this exhaustive check is O(N^2)\&. This option prevents the exhaustive portion of rename/copy detection from running if the number of source/destination files involved exceeds the specified number\&. Defaults to diff\&.renameLimit\&. Note that a value of 0 is treated as unlimited\&.
456 .RE
457 .PP
458 \-O<orderfile>
459 .RS 4
460 Control the order in which files appear in the output\&. This overrides the
461 \fBdiff\&.orderFile\fR
462 configuration variable (see
463 \fBgit-config\fR(1))\&. To cancel
464 \fBdiff\&.orderFile\fR, use
465 \fB\-O/dev/null\fR\&.
466 .sp
467 The output order is determined by the order of glob patterns in <orderfile>\&. All files with pathnames that match the first pattern are output first, all files with pathnames that match the second pattern (but not the first) are output next, and so on\&. All files with pathnames that do not match any pattern are output last, as if there was an implicit match\-all pattern at the end of the file\&. If multiple pathnames have the same rank (they match the same pattern but no earlier patterns), their output order relative to each other is the normal order\&.
468 .sp
469 <orderfile> is parsed as follows:
470 .sp
471 .RS 4
472 .ie n \{\
473 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
474 .\}
475 .el \{\
476 .sp -1
477 .IP \(bu 2.3
478 .\}
479 Blank lines are ignored, so they can be used as separators for readability\&.
480 .RE
481 .sp
482 .RS 4
483 .ie n \{\
484 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
485 .\}
486 .el \{\
487 .sp -1
488 .IP \(bu 2.3
489 .\}
490 Lines starting with a hash ("\fB#\fR") are ignored, so they can be used for comments\&. Add a backslash ("\fB\e\fR") to the beginning of the pattern if it starts with a hash\&.
491 .RE
492 .sp
493 .RS 4
494 .ie n \{\
495 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
496 .\}
497 .el \{\
498 .sp -1
499 .IP \(bu 2.3
500 .\}
501 Each other line contains a single pattern\&.
502 .RE
503 .sp
504 Patterns have the same syntax and semantics as patterns used for fnmatch(3) without the FNM_PATHNAME flag, except a pathname also matches a pattern if removing any number of the final pathname components matches the pattern\&. For example, the pattern "\fBfoo*bar\fR" matches "\fBfooasdfbar\fR" and "\fBfoo/bar/baz/asdf\fR" but not "\fBfoobarx\fR"\&.
505 .RE
506 .PP
507 \-\-skip\-to=<file>, \-\-rotate\-to=<file>
508 .RS 4
509 Discard the files before the named <file> from the output (i\&.e\&.
510 \fIskip to\fR), or move them to the end of the output (i\&.e\&.
511 \fIrotate to\fR)\&. These options were invented primarily for the use of the
512 \fBgit difftool\fR
513 command, and may not be very useful otherwise\&.
514 .RE
515 .PP
516 \-\-relative[=<path>], \-\-no\-relative
517 .RS 4
518 When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be told to exclude changes outside the directory and show pathnames relative to it with this option\&. When you are not in a subdirectory (e\&.g\&. in a bare repository), you can name which subdirectory to make the output relative to by giving a <path> as an argument\&.
519 \fB\-\-no\-relative\fR
520 can be used to countermand both
521 \fBdiff\&.relative\fR
522 config option and previous
523 \fB\-\-relative\fR\&.
524 .RE
525 .PP
526 \-a, \-\-text
527 .RS 4
528 Treat all files as text\&.
529 .RE
530 .PP
531 \-\-ignore\-cr\-at\-eol
532 .RS 4
533 Ignore carriage\-return at the end of line when doing a comparison\&.
534 .RE
535 .PP
536 \-\-ignore\-space\-at\-eol
537 .RS 4
538 Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL\&.
539 .RE
540 .PP
541 \-b, \-\-ignore\-space\-change
542 .RS 4
543 Ignore changes in amount of whitespace\&. This ignores whitespace at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or more whitespace characters to be equivalent\&.
544 .RE
545 .PP
546 \-w, \-\-ignore\-all\-space
547 .RS 4
548 Ignore whitespace when comparing lines\&. This ignores differences even if one line has whitespace where the other line has none\&.
549 .RE
550 .PP
551 \-\-ignore\-blank\-lines
552 .RS 4
553 Ignore changes whose lines are all blank\&.
554 .RE
555 .PP
556 \-I<regex>, \-\-ignore\-matching\-lines=<regex>
557 .RS 4
558 Ignore changes whose all lines match <regex>\&. This option may be specified more than once\&.
559 .RE
560 .PP
561 \-\-inter\-hunk\-context=<lines>
562 .RS 4
563 Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other\&. Defaults to
564 \fBdiff\&.interHunkContext\fR
565 or 0 if the config option is unset\&.
566 .RE
567 .PP
568 \-W, \-\-function\-context
569 .RS 4
570 Show whole function as context lines for each change\&. The function names are determined in the same way as
571 \fBgit diff\fR
572 works out patch hunk headers (see
573 \fIDefining a custom hunk\-header\fR
574 in
575 \fBgitattributes\fR(5))\&.
576 .RE
577 .PP
578 \-\-ext\-diff
579 .RS 4
580 Allow an external diff helper to be executed\&. If you set an external diff driver with
581 \fBgitattributes\fR(5), you need to use this option with
582 \fBgit-log\fR(1)
583 and friends\&.
584 .RE
585 .PP
586 \-\-no\-ext\-diff
587 .RS 4
588 Disallow external diff drivers\&.
589 .RE
590 .PP
591 \-\-textconv, \-\-no\-textconv
592 .RS 4
593 Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run when comparing binary files\&. See
594 \fBgitattributes\fR(5)
595 for details\&. Because textconv filters are typically a one\-way conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human consumption, but cannot be applied\&. For this reason, textconv filters are enabled by default only for
596 \fBgit-diff\fR(1)
597 and
598 \fBgit-log\fR(1), but not for
599 \fBgit-format-patch\fR(1)
600 or diff plumbing commands\&.
601 .RE
602 .PP
603 \-\-ignore\-submodules[=<when>]
604 .RS 4
605 Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation\&. <when> can be either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default\&. Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
606 \fIignore\fR
607 option in
608 \fBgit-config\fR(1)
609 or
610 \fBgitmodules\fR(5)\&. When "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified content)\&. Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules, only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was the behavior until 1\&.7\&.0)\&. Using "all" hides all changes to submodules\&.
611 .RE
612 .PP
613 \-\-src\-prefix=<prefix>
614 .RS 4
615 Show the given source prefix instead of "a/"\&.
616 .RE
617 .PP
618 \-\-dst\-prefix=<prefix>
619 .RS 4
620 Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/"\&.
621 .RE
622 .PP
623 \-\-no\-prefix
624 .RS 4
625 Do not show any source or destination prefix\&.
626 .RE
627 .PP
628 \-\-default\-prefix
629 .RS 4
630 Use the default source and destination prefixes ("a/" and "b/")\&. This overrides configuration variables such as
631 \fBdiff\&.noprefix\fR,
632 \fBdiff\&.srcPrefix\fR,
633 \fBdiff\&.dstPrefix\fR, and
634 \fBdiff\&.mnemonicPrefix\fR
635 (see
636 \fBgit\-config\fR(1))\&.
637 .RE
638 .PP
639 \-\-line\-prefix=<prefix>
640 .RS 4
641 Prepend an additional prefix to every line of output\&.
642 .RE
643 .PP
644 \-\-ita\-invisible\-in\-index
645 .RS 4
646 By default entries added by "git add \-N" appear as an existing empty file in "git diff" and a new file in "git diff \-\-cached"\&. This option makes the entry appear as a new file in "git diff" and non\-existent in "git diff \-\-cached"\&. This option could be reverted with
647 \fB\-\-ita\-visible\-in\-index\fR\&. Both options are experimental and could be removed in future\&.
648 .RE
649 .sp
650 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also \fBgitdiffcore\fR(7)\&.
651 .PP
652 \-<n>
653 .RS 4
654 Prepare patches from the topmost <n> commits\&.
655 .RE
656 .PP
657 \-o <dir>, \-\-output\-directory <dir>
658 .RS 4
659 Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the current working directory\&.
660 .RE
661 .PP
662 \-n, \-\-numbered
663 .RS 4
664 Name output in
665 \fI[PATCH n/m]\fR
666 format, even with a single patch\&.
667 .RE
668 .PP
669 \-N, \-\-no\-numbered
670 .RS 4
671 Name output in
672 \fI[PATCH]\fR
673 format\&.
674 .RE
675 .PP
676 \-\-start\-number <n>
677 .RS 4
678 Start numbering the patches at <n> instead of 1\&.
679 .RE
680 .PP
681 \-\-numbered\-files
682 .RS 4
683 Output file names will be a simple number sequence without the default first line of the commit appended\&.
684 .RE
685 .PP
686 \-k, \-\-keep\-subject
687 .RS 4
688 Do not strip/add
689 \fI[PATCH]\fR
690 from the first line of the commit log message\&.
691 .RE
692 .PP
693 \-s, \-\-signoff
694 .RS 4
695 Add a
696 \fBSigned\-off\-by\fR
697 trailer to the commit message, using the committer identity of yourself\&. See the signoff option in
698 \fBgit-commit\fR(1)
699 for more information\&.
700 .RE
701 .PP
702 \-\-stdout
703 .RS 4
704 Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, instead of creating a file for each one\&.
705 .RE
706 .PP
707 \-\-attach[=<boundary>]
708 .RS 4
709 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of which is the commit message and the patch itself in the second part, with
710 \fBContent\-Disposition: attachment\fR\&.
711 .RE
712 .PP
713 \-\-no\-attach
714 .RS 4
715 Disable the creation of an attachment, overriding the configuration setting\&.
716 .RE
717 .PP
718 \-\-inline[=<boundary>]
719 .RS 4
720 Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of which is the commit message and the patch itself in the second part, with
721 \fBContent\-Disposition: inline\fR\&.
722 .RE
723 .PP
724 \-\-thread[=<style>], \-\-no\-thread
725 .RS 4
726 Controls addition of
727 \fBIn\-Reply\-To\fR
728 and
729 \fBReferences\fR
730 headers to make the second and subsequent mails appear as replies to the first\&. Also controls generation of the
731 \fBMessage\-ID\fR
732 header to reference\&.
733 .sp
734 The optional <style> argument can be either
735 \fBshallow\fR
736 or
737 \fBdeep\fR\&.
738 \fIshallow\fR
739 threading makes every mail a reply to the head of the series, where the head is chosen from the cover letter, the
740 \fB\-\-in\-reply\-to\fR, and the first patch mail, in this order\&.
741 \fIdeep\fR
742 threading makes every mail a reply to the previous one\&.
743 .sp
744 The default is
745 \fB\-\-no\-thread\fR, unless the
746 \fBformat\&.thread\fR
747 configuration is set\&.
748 \fB\-\-thread\fR
749 without an argument is equivalent to
750 \fB\-\-thread=shallow\fR\&.
751 .sp
752 Beware that the default for
753 \fIgit send\-email\fR
754 is to thread emails itself\&. If you want
755 \fBgit format\-patch\fR
756 to take care of threading, you will want to ensure that threading is disabled for
757 \fBgit send\-email\fR\&.
758 .RE
759 .PP
760 \-\-in\-reply\-to=<message\-id>
761 .RS 4
762 Make the first mail (or all the mails with
763 \fB\-\-no\-thread\fR) appear as a reply to the given <message\-id>, which avoids breaking threads to provide a new patch series\&.
764 .RE
765 .PP
766 \-\-ignore\-if\-in\-upstream
767 .RS 4
768 Do not include a patch that matches a commit in <until>\&.\&.<since>\&. This will examine all patches reachable from <since> but not from <until> and compare them with the patches being generated, and any patch that matches is ignored\&.
769 .RE
770 .PP
771 \-\-always
772 .RS 4
773 Include patches for commits that do not introduce any change, which are omitted by default\&.
774 .RE
775 .PP
776 \-\-cover\-from\-description=<mode>
777 .RS 4
778 Controls which parts of the cover letter will be automatically populated using the branch\(cqs description\&.
779 .sp
780 If
781 \fB<mode>\fR
782 is
783 \fBmessage\fR
784 or
785 \fBdefault\fR, the cover letter subject will be populated with placeholder text\&. The body of the cover letter will be populated with the branch\(cqs description\&. This is the default mode when no configuration nor command line option is specified\&.
786 .sp
787 If
788 \fB<mode>\fR
789 is
790 \fBsubject\fR, the first paragraph of the branch description will populate the cover letter subject\&. The remainder of the description will populate the body of the cover letter\&.
791 .sp
792 If
793 \fB<mode>\fR
794 is
795 \fBauto\fR, if the first paragraph of the branch description is greater than 100 bytes, then the mode will be
796 \fBmessage\fR, otherwise
797 \fBsubject\fR
798 will be used\&.
799 .sp
800 If
801 \fB<mode>\fR
802 is
803 \fBnone\fR, both the cover letter subject and body will be populated with placeholder text\&.
804 .RE
805 .PP
806 \-\-description\-file=<file>
807 .RS 4
808 Use the contents of <file> instead of the branch\(cqs description for generating the cover letter\&.
809 .RE
810 .PP
811 \-\-subject\-prefix=<subject\-prefix>
812 .RS 4
813 Instead of the standard
814 \fI[PATCH]\fR
815 prefix in the subject line, instead use
816 \fI[<subject\-prefix>]\fR\&. This can be used to name a patch series, and can be combined with the
817 \fB\-\-numbered\fR
818 option\&.
819 .sp
820 The configuration variable
821 \fBformat\&.subjectPrefix\fR
822 may also be used to configure a subject prefix to apply to a given repository for all patches\&. This is often useful on mailing lists which receive patches for several repositories and can be used to disambiguate the patches (with a value of e\&.g\&. "PATCH my\-project")\&.
823 .RE
824 .PP
825 \-\-filename\-max\-length=<n>
826 .RS 4
827 Instead of the standard 64 bytes, chomp the generated output filenames at around
828 \fI<n>\fR
829 bytes (too short a value will be silently raised to a reasonable length)\&. Defaults to the value of the
830 \fBformat\&.filenameMaxLength\fR
831 configuration variable, or 64 if unconfigured\&.
832 .RE
833 .PP
834 \-\-rfc[=<rfc>]
835 .RS 4
836 Prepends the string
837 \fI<rfc>\fR
838 (defaults to "RFC") to the subject prefix\&. As the subject prefix defaults to "PATCH", you\(cqll get "RFC PATCH" by default\&.
839 .sp
840 RFC means "Request For Comments"; use this when sending an experimental patch for discussion rather than application\&. "\-\-rfc=WIP" may also be a useful way to indicate that a patch is not complete yet ("WIP" stands for "Work In Progress")\&.
841 .sp
842 If the convention of the receiving community for a particular extra string is to have it
843 \fIafter\fR
844 the subject prefix, the string
845 \fI<rfc>\fR
846 can be prefixed with a dash ("\fB\-\fR") to signal that the the rest of the
847 \fI<rfc>\fR
848 string should be appended to the subject prefix instead, e\&.g\&.,
849 \fB\-\-rfc=\*(Aq\-(WIP)\*(Aq\fR
850 results in "PATCH (WIP)"\&.
851 .RE
852 .PP
853 \-v <n>, \-\-reroll\-count=<n>
854 .RS 4
855 Mark the series as the <n>\-th iteration of the topic\&. The output filenames have
856 \fBv<n>\fR
857 prepended to them, and the subject prefix ("PATCH" by default, but configurable via the
858 \fB\-\-subject\-prefix\fR
859 option) has ` v<n>` appended to it\&. E\&.g\&.
860 \fB\-\-reroll\-count=4\fR
861 may produce
862 \fBv4\-0001\-add\-makefile\&.patch\fR
863 file that has "Subject: [PATCH v4 1/20] Add makefile" in it\&.
864 \fB<n>\fR
865 does not have to be an integer (e\&.g\&. "\-\-reroll\-count=4\&.4", or "\-\-reroll\-count=4rev2" are allowed), but the downside of using such a reroll\-count is that the range\-diff/interdiff with the previous version does not state exactly which version the new iteration is compared against\&.
866 .RE
867 .PP
868 \-\-to=<email>
869 .RS 4
870 Add a
871 \fBTo:\fR
872 header to the email headers\&. This is in addition to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times\&. The negated form
873 \fB\-\-no\-to\fR
874 discards all
875 \fBTo:\fR
876 headers added so far (from config or command line)\&.
877 .RE
878 .PP
879 \-\-cc=<email>
880 .RS 4
881 Add a
882 \fBCc:\fR
883 header to the email headers\&. This is in addition to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times\&. The negated form
884 \fB\-\-no\-cc\fR
885 discards all
886 \fBCc:\fR
887 headers added so far (from config or command line)\&.
888 .RE
889 .PP
890 \-\-from, \-\-from=<ident>
891 .RS 4
892 Use
893 \fBident\fR
894 in the
895 \fBFrom:\fR
896 header of each commit email\&. If the author ident of the commit is not textually identical to the provided
897 \fBident\fR, place a
898 \fBFrom:\fR
899 header in the body of the message with the original author\&. If no
900 \fBident\fR
901 is given, use the committer ident\&.
902 .sp
903 Note that this option is only useful if you are actually sending the emails and want to identify yourself as the sender, but retain the original author (and
904 \fBgit am\fR
905 will correctly pick up the in\-body header)\&. Note also that
906 \fBgit send\-email\fR
907 already handles this transformation for you, and this option should not be used if you are feeding the result to
908 \fBgit send\-email\fR\&.
909 .RE
910 .PP
911 \-\-[no\-]force\-in\-body\-from
912 .RS 4
913 With the e\-mail sender specified via the
914 \fB\-\-from\fR
915 option, by default, an in\-body "From:" to identify the real author of the commit is added at the top of the commit log message if the sender is different from the author\&. With this option, the in\-body "From:" is added even when the sender and the author have the same name and address, which may help if the mailing list software mangles the sender\(cqs identity\&. Defaults to the value of the
916 \fBformat\&.forceInBodyFrom\fR
917 configuration variable\&.
918 .RE
919 .PP
920 \-\-add\-header=<header>
921 .RS 4
922 Add an arbitrary header to the email headers\&. This is in addition to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times\&. For example,
923 \fB\-\-add\-header="Organization: git\-foo"\fR\&. The negated form
924 \fB\-\-no\-add\-header\fR
925 discards
926 \fBall\fR
927 (\fBTo:\fR,
928 \fBCc:\fR, and custom) headers added so far from config or command line\&.
929 .RE
930 .PP
931 \-\-[no\-]cover\-letter
932 .RS 4
933 In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file containing the branch description, shortlog and the overall diffstat\&. You can fill in a description in the file before sending it out\&.
934 .RE
935 .PP
936 \-\-encode\-email\-headers, \-\-no\-encode\-email\-headers
937 .RS 4
938 Encode email headers that have non\-ASCII characters with "Q\-encoding" (described in RFC 2047), instead of outputting the headers verbatim\&. Defaults to the value of the
939 \fBformat\&.encodeEmailHeaders\fR
940 configuration variable\&.
941 .RE
942 .PP
943 \-\-interdiff=<previous>
944 .RS 4
945 As a reviewer aid, insert an interdiff into the cover letter, or as commentary of the lone patch of a 1\-patch series, showing the differences between the previous version of the patch series and the series currently being formatted\&.
946 \fBprevious\fR
947 is a single revision naming the tip of the previous series which shares a common base with the series being formatted (for example
948 \fBgit format\-patch \-\-cover\-letter \-\-interdiff=feature/v1 \-3 feature/v2\fR)\&.
949 .RE
950 .PP
951 \-\-range\-diff=<previous>
952 .RS 4
953 As a reviewer aid, insert a range\-diff (see
954 \fBgit-range-diff\fR(1)) into the cover letter, or as commentary of the lone patch of a 1\-patch series, showing the differences between the previous version of the patch series and the series currently being formatted\&.
955 \fBprevious\fR
956 can be a single revision naming the tip of the previous series if it shares a common base with the series being formatted (for example
957 \fBgit format\-patch \-\-cover\-letter \-\-range\-diff=feature/v1 \-3 feature/v2\fR), or a revision range if the two versions of the series are disjoint (for example
958 \fBgit format\-patch \-\-cover\-letter \-\-range\-diff=feature/v1~3\&.\&.feature/v1 \-3 feature/v2\fR)\&.
959 .sp
960 Note that diff options passed to the command affect how the primary product of
961 \fBformat\-patch\fR
962 is generated, and they are not passed to the underlying
963 \fBrange\-diff\fR
964 machinery used to generate the cover\-letter material (this may change in the future)\&.
965 .RE
966 .PP
967 \-\-creation\-factor=<percent>
968 .RS 4
969 Used with
970 \fB\-\-range\-diff\fR, tweak the heuristic which matches up commits between the previous and current series of patches by adjusting the creation/deletion cost fudge factor\&. See
971 \fBgit-range-diff\fR(1)) for details\&.
972 .sp
973 Defaults to 999 (the
974 \fBgit-range-diff\fR(1)
975 uses 60), as the use case is to show comparison with an older iteration of the same topic and the tool should find more correspondence between the two sets of patches\&.
976 .RE
977 .PP
978 \-\-notes[=<ref>], \-\-no\-notes
979 .RS 4
980 Append the notes (see
981 \fBgit-notes\fR(1)) for the commit after the three\-dash line\&.
982 .sp
983 The expected use case of this is to write supporting explanation for the commit that does not belong to the commit log message proper, and include it with the patch submission\&. While one can simply write these explanations after
984 \fBformat\-patch\fR
985 has run but before sending, keeping them as Git notes allows them to be maintained between versions of the patch series (but see the discussion of the
986 \fBnotes\&.rewrite\fR
987 configuration options in
988 \fBgit-notes\fR(1)
989 to use this workflow)\&.
990 .sp
991 The default is
992 \fB\-\-no\-notes\fR, unless the
993 \fBformat\&.notes\fR
994 configuration is set\&.
995 .RE
996 .PP
997 \-\-[no\-]signature=<signature>
998 .RS 4
999 Add a signature to each message produced\&. Per RFC 3676 the signature is separated from the body by a line with \*(Aq\-\- \*(Aq on it\&. If the signature option is omitted the signature defaults to the Git version number\&.
1000 .RE
1001 .PP
1002 \-\-signature\-file=<file>
1003 .RS 4
1004 Works just like \-\-signature except the signature is read from a file\&.
1005 .RE
1006 .PP
1007 \-\-suffix=\&.<sfx>
1008 .RS 4
1009 Instead of using
1010 \fB\&.patch\fR
1011 as the suffix for generated filenames, use specified suffix\&. A common alternative is
1012 \fB\-\-suffix=\&.txt\fR\&. Leaving this empty will remove the
1013 \fB\&.patch\fR
1014 suffix\&.
1015 .sp
1016 Note that the leading character does not have to be a dot; for example, you can use
1017 \fB\-\-suffix=\-patch\fR
1018 to get
1019 \fB0001\-description\-of\-my\-change\-patch\fR\&.
1020 .RE
1021 .PP
1022 \-q, \-\-quiet
1023 .RS 4
1024 Do not print the names of the generated files to standard output\&.
1025 .RE
1026 .PP
1027 \-\-no\-binary
1028 .RS 4
1029 Do not output contents of changes in binary files, instead display a notice that those files changed\&. Patches generated using this option cannot be applied properly, but they are still useful for code review\&.
1030 .RE
1031 .PP
1032 \-\-zero\-commit
1033 .RS 4
1034 Output an all\-zero hash in each patch\(cqs From header instead of the hash of the commit\&.
1035 .RE
1036 .PP
1037 \-\-[no\-]base[=<commit>]
1038 .RS 4
1039 Record the base tree information to identify the state the patch series applies to\&. See the BASE TREE INFORMATION section below for details\&. If <commit> is "auto", a base commit is automatically chosen\&. The
1040 \fB\-\-no\-base\fR
1041 option overrides a
1042 \fBformat\&.useAutoBase\fR
1043 configuration\&.
1044 .RE
1045 .PP
1046 \-\-root
1047 .RS 4
1048 Treat the revision argument as a <revision\-range>, even if it is just a single commit (that would normally be treated as a <since>)\&. Note that root commits included in the specified range are always formatted as creation patches, independently of this flag\&.
1049 .RE
1050 .PP
1051 \-\-progress
1052 .RS 4
1053 Show progress reports on stderr as patches are generated\&.
1054 .RE
1055 .SH "CONFIGURATION"
1056 .sp
1057 You can specify extra mail header lines to be added to each message, defaults for the subject prefix and file suffix, number patches when outputting more than one patch, add "To:" or "Cc:" headers, configure attachments, change the patch output directory, and sign off patches with configuration variables\&.
1058 .sp
1059 .if n \{\
1060 .RS 4
1061 .\}
1062 .nf
1063 [format]
1064 headers = "Organization: git\-foo\en"
1065 subjectPrefix = CHANGE
1066 suffix = \&.txt
1067 numbered = auto
1068 to = <email>
1069 cc = <email>
1070 attach [ = mime\-boundary\-string ]
1071 signOff = true
1072 outputDirectory = <directory>
1073 coverLetter = auto
1074 coverFromDescription = auto
1075 .fi
1076 .if n \{\
1077 .RE
1078 .\}
1079 .SH "DISCUSSION"
1080 .sp
1081 The patch produced by \fIgit format\-patch\fR is in UNIX mailbox format, with a fixed "magic" time stamp to indicate that the file is output from format\-patch rather than a real mailbox, like so:
1082 .sp
1083 .if n \{\
1084 .RS 4
1085 .\}
1086 .nf
1087 From 8f72bad1baf19a53459661343e21d6491c3908d3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
1088 From: Tony Luck <tony\&.luck@intel\&.com>
1089 Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:42:54 \-0700
1090 Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF\-8?q?[IA64]=20Put=20ia64=20config=20files=20on=20the=20?=
1091 =?UTF\-8?q?Uwe=20Kleine\-K=C3=B6nig=20diet?=
1092 MIME\-Version: 1\&.0
1093 Content\-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF\-8
1094 Content\-Transfer\-Encoding: 8bit
1096 arch/arm config files were slimmed down using a python script
1097 (See commit c2330e286f68f1c408b4aa6515ba49d57f05beae comment)
1099 Do the same for ia64 so we can have sleek & trim looking
1100 \&.\&.\&.
1101 .fi
1102 .if n \{\
1103 .RE
1104 .\}
1105 .sp
1106 Typically it will be placed in a MUA\(cqs drafts folder, edited to add timely commentary that should not go in the changelog after the three dashes, and then sent as a message whose body, in our example, starts with "arch/arm config files were\&...\:"\&. On the receiving end, readers can save interesting patches in a UNIX mailbox and apply them with \fBgit-am\fR(1)\&.
1107 .sp
1108 When a patch is part of an ongoing discussion, the patch generated by \fIgit format\-patch\fR can be tweaked to take advantage of the \fIgit am \-\-scissors\fR feature\&. After your response to the discussion comes a line that consists solely of "\fB\-\- >8 \-\-\fR" (scissors and perforation), followed by the patch with unnecessary header fields removed:
1109 .sp
1110 .if n \{\
1111 .RS 4
1112 .\}
1113 .nf
1114 \&.\&.\&.
1115 > So we should do such\-and\-such\&.
1117 Makes sense to me\&. How about this patch?
1119 \-\- >8 \-\-
1120 Subject: [IA64] Put ia64 config files on the Uwe Kleine\-K\(:onig diet
1122 arch/arm config files were slimmed down using a python script
1123 \&.\&.\&.
1124 .fi
1125 .if n \{\
1126 .RE
1127 .\}
1128 .sp
1129 When sending a patch this way, most often you are sending your own patch, so in addition to the "\fBFrom $SHA1 $magic_timestamp\fR" marker you should omit \fBFrom:\fR and \fBDate:\fR lines from the patch file\&. The patch title is likely to be different from the subject of the discussion the patch is in response to, so it is likely that you would want to keep the Subject: line, like the example above\&.
1130 .SS "Checking for patch corruption"
1131 .sp
1132 Many mailers if not set up properly will corrupt whitespace\&. Here are two common types of corruption:
1133 .sp
1134 .RS 4
1135 .ie n \{\
1136 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1137 .\}
1138 .el \{\
1139 .sp -1
1140 .IP \(bu 2.3
1141 .\}
1142 Empty context lines that do not have
1143 \fIany\fR
1144 whitespace\&.
1145 .RE
1146 .sp
1147 .RS 4
1148 .ie n \{\
1149 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1150 .\}
1151 .el \{\
1152 .sp -1
1153 .IP \(bu 2.3
1154 .\}
1155 Non\-empty context lines that have one extra whitespace at the beginning\&.
1156 .RE
1157 .sp
1158 One way to test if your MUA is set up correctly is:
1159 .sp
1160 .RS 4
1161 .ie n \{\
1162 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1163 .\}
1164 .el \{\
1165 .sp -1
1166 .IP \(bu 2.3
1167 .\}
1168 Send the patch to yourself, exactly the way you would, except with To: and Cc: lines that do not contain the list and maintainer address\&.
1169 .RE
1170 .sp
1171 .RS 4
1172 .ie n \{\
1173 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1174 .\}
1175 .el \{\
1176 .sp -1
1177 .IP \(bu 2.3
1178 .\}
1179 Save that patch to a file in UNIX mailbox format\&. Call it a\&.patch, say\&.
1180 .RE
1181 .sp
1182 .RS 4
1183 .ie n \{\
1184 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1185 .\}
1186 .el \{\
1187 .sp -1
1188 .IP \(bu 2.3
1189 .\}
1190 Apply it:
1191 .sp
1192 .if n \{\
1193 .RS 4
1194 .\}
1195 .nf
1196 $ git fetch <project> master:test\-apply
1197 $ git switch test\-apply
1198 $ git restore \-\-source=HEAD \-\-staged \-\-worktree :/
1199 $ git am a\&.patch
1200 .fi
1201 .if n \{\
1202 .RE
1203 .\}
1204 .RE
1205 .sp
1206 If it does not apply correctly, there can be various reasons\&.
1207 .sp
1208 .RS 4
1209 .ie n \{\
1210 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1211 .\}
1212 .el \{\
1213 .sp -1
1214 .IP \(bu 2.3
1215 .\}
1216 The patch itself does not apply cleanly\&. That is
1217 \fIbad\fR
1218 but does not have much to do with your MUA\&. You might want to rebase the patch with
1219 \fBgit-rebase\fR(1)
1220 before regenerating it in this case\&.
1221 .RE
1222 .sp
1223 .RS 4
1224 .ie n \{\
1225 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1226 .\}
1227 .el \{\
1228 .sp -1
1229 .IP \(bu 2.3
1230 .\}
1231 The MUA corrupted your patch; "am" would complain that the patch does not apply\&. Look in the \&.git/rebase\-apply/ subdirectory and see what
1232 \fIpatch\fR
1233 file contains and check for the common corruption patterns mentioned above\&.
1234 .RE
1235 .sp
1236 .RS 4
1237 .ie n \{\
1238 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1239 .\}
1240 .el \{\
1241 .sp -1
1242 .IP \(bu 2.3
1243 .\}
1244 While at it, check the
1245 \fIinfo\fR
1246 and
1247 \fIfinal\-commit\fR
1248 files as well\&. If what is in
1249 \fIfinal\-commit\fR
1250 is not exactly what you would want to see in the commit log message, it is very likely that the receiver would end up hand editing the log message when applying your patch\&. Things like "Hi, this is my first patch\&.\en" in the patch e\-mail should come after the three\-dash line that signals the end of the commit message\&.
1251 .RE
1252 .SH "MUA\-SPECIFIC HINTS"
1253 .sp
1254 Here are some hints on how to successfully submit patches inline using various mailers\&.
1255 .SS "GMail"
1256 .sp
1257 GMail does not have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web interface, so it will mangle any emails that you send\&. You can however use "git send\-email" and send your patches through the GMail SMTP server, or use any IMAP email client to connect to the google IMAP server and forward the emails through that\&.
1258 .sp
1259 For hints on using \fIgit send\-email\fR to send your patches through the GMail SMTP server, see the EXAMPLE section of \fBgit-send-email\fR(1)\&.
1260 .sp
1261 For hints on submission using the IMAP interface, see the EXAMPLE section of \fBgit-imap-send\fR(1)\&.
1262 .SS "Thunderbird"
1263 .sp
1264 By default, Thunderbird will both wrap emails as well as flag them as being \fIformat=flowed\fR, both of which will make the resulting email unusable by Git\&.
1265 .sp
1266 There are three different approaches: use an add\-on to turn off line wraps, configure Thunderbird to not mangle patches, or use an external editor to keep Thunderbird from mangling the patches\&.
1267 .sp
1268 .it 1 an-trap
1269 .nr an-no-space-flag 1
1270 .nr an-break-flag 1
1271 .br
1272 .ps +1
1273 \fBApproach #1 (add-on)\fR
1274 .RS 4
1275 .sp
1276 Install the Toggle Word Wrap add\-on that is available from \m[blue]\fBhttps://addons\&.mozilla\&.org/thunderbird/addon/toggle\-word\-wrap/\fR\m[] It adds a menu entry "Enable Word Wrap" in the composer\(cqs "Options" menu that you can tick off\&. Now you can compose the message as you otherwise do (cut + paste, \fIgit format\-patch\fR | \fIgit imap\-send\fR, etc), but you have to insert line breaks manually in any text that you type\&.
1277 .RE
1278 .sp
1279 .it 1 an-trap
1280 .nr an-no-space-flag 1
1281 .nr an-break-flag 1
1282 .br
1283 .ps +1
1284 \fBApproach #2 (configuration)\fR
1285 .RS 4
1286 .sp
1287 Three steps:
1288 .sp
1289 .RS 4
1290 .ie n \{\
1291 \h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
1292 .\}
1293 .el \{\
1294 .sp -1
1295 .IP " 1." 4.2
1296 .\}
1297 Configure your mail server composition as plain text: Edit\&...\:Account Settings\&...\:Composition & Addressing, uncheck "Compose Messages in HTML"\&.
1298 .RE
1299 .sp
1300 .RS 4
1301 .ie n \{\
1302 \h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
1303 .\}
1304 .el \{\
1305 .sp -1
1306 .IP " 2." 4.2
1307 .\}
1308 Configure your general composition window to not wrap\&.
1309 .sp
1310 In Thunderbird 2: Edit\&.\&.Preferences\&.\&.Composition, wrap plain text messages at 0
1311 .sp
1312 In Thunderbird 3: Edit\&.\&.Preferences\&.\&.Advanced\&.\&.Config Editor\&. Search for "mail\&.wrap_long_lines"\&. Toggle it to make sure it is set to
1313 \fBfalse\fR\&. Also, search for "mailnews\&.wraplength" and set the value to 0\&.
1314 .RE
1315 .sp
1316 .RS 4
1317 .ie n \{\
1318 \h'-04' 3.\h'+01'\c
1319 .\}
1320 .el \{\
1321 .sp -1
1322 .IP " 3." 4.2
1323 .\}
1324 Disable the use of format=flowed: Edit\&.\&.Preferences\&.\&.Advanced\&.\&.Config Editor\&. Search for "mailnews\&.send_plaintext_flowed"\&. Toggle it to make sure it is set to
1325 \fBfalse\fR\&.
1326 .RE
1327 .sp
1328 After that is done, you should be able to compose email as you otherwise would (cut + paste, \fIgit format\-patch\fR | \fIgit imap\-send\fR, etc), and the patches will not be mangled\&.
1329 .RE
1330 .sp
1331 .it 1 an-trap
1332 .nr an-no-space-flag 1
1333 .nr an-break-flag 1
1334 .br
1335 .ps +1
1336 \fBApproach #3 (external editor)\fR
1337 .RS 4
1338 .sp
1339 The following Thunderbird extensions are needed: AboutConfig from \m[blue]\fBhttps://mjg\&.github\&.io/AboutConfig/\fR\m[] and External Editor from \m[blue]\fBhttps://globs\&.org/articles\&.php?lng=en&pg=8\fR\m[]
1340 .sp
1341 .RS 4
1342 .ie n \{\
1343 \h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
1344 .\}
1345 .el \{\
1346 .sp -1
1347 .IP " 1." 4.2
1348 .\}
1349 Prepare the patch as a text file using your method of choice\&.
1350 .RE
1351 .sp
1352 .RS 4
1353 .ie n \{\
1354 \h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
1355 .\}
1356 .el \{\
1357 .sp -1
1358 .IP " 2." 4.2
1359 .\}
1360 Before opening a compose window, use Edit\(->Account Settings to uncheck the "Compose messages in HTML format" setting in the "Composition & Addressing" panel of the account to be used to send the patch\&.
1361 .RE
1362 .sp
1363 .RS 4
1364 .ie n \{\
1365 \h'-04' 3.\h'+01'\c
1366 .\}
1367 .el \{\
1368 .sp -1
1369 .IP " 3." 4.2
1370 .\}
1371 In the main Thunderbird window,
1372 \fIbefore\fR
1373 you open the compose window for the patch, use Tools\(->about:config to set the following to the indicated values:
1374 .sp
1375 .if n \{\
1376 .RS 4
1377 .\}
1378 .nf
1379 mailnews\&.send_plaintext_flowed => false
1380 mailnews\&.wraplength => 0
1381 .fi
1382 .if n \{\
1383 .RE
1384 .\}
1385 .RE
1386 .sp
1387 .RS 4
1388 .ie n \{\
1389 \h'-04' 4.\h'+01'\c
1390 .\}
1391 .el \{\
1392 .sp -1
1393 .IP " 4." 4.2
1394 .\}
1395 Open a compose window and click the external editor icon\&.
1396 .RE
1397 .sp
1398 .RS 4
1399 .ie n \{\
1400 \h'-04' 5.\h'+01'\c
1401 .\}
1402 .el \{\
1403 .sp -1
1404 .IP " 5." 4.2
1405 .\}
1406 In the external editor window, read in the patch file and exit the editor normally\&.
1407 .RE
1408 .sp
1409 Side note: it may be possible to do step 2 with about:config and the following settings but no one\(cqs tried yet\&.
1410 .sp
1411 .if n \{\
1412 .RS 4
1413 .\}
1414 .nf
1415 mail\&.html_compose => false
1416 mail\&.identity\&.default\&.compose_html => false
1417 mail\&.identity\&.id?\&.compose_html => false
1418 .fi
1419 .if n \{\
1420 .RE
1421 .\}
1422 .sp
1423 There is a script in contrib/thunderbird\-patch\-inline which can help you include patches with Thunderbird in an easy way\&. To use it, do the steps above and then use the script as the external editor\&.
1424 .RE
1425 .SS "KMail"
1426 .sp
1427 This should help you to submit patches inline using KMail\&.
1428 .sp
1429 .RS 4
1430 .ie n \{\
1431 \h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
1432 .\}
1433 .el \{\
1434 .sp -1
1435 .IP " 1." 4.2
1436 .\}
1437 Prepare the patch as a text file\&.
1438 .RE
1439 .sp
1440 .RS 4
1441 .ie n \{\
1442 \h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
1443 .\}
1444 .el \{\
1445 .sp -1
1446 .IP " 2." 4.2
1447 .\}
1448 Click on New Mail\&.
1449 .RE
1450 .sp
1451 .RS 4
1452 .ie n \{\
1453 \h'-04' 3.\h'+01'\c
1454 .\}
1455 .el \{\
1456 .sp -1
1457 .IP " 3." 4.2
1458 .\}
1459 Go under "Options" in the Composer window and be sure that "Word wrap" is not set\&.
1460 .RE
1461 .sp
1462 .RS 4
1463 .ie n \{\
1464 \h'-04' 4.\h'+01'\c
1465 .\}
1466 .el \{\
1467 .sp -1
1468 .IP " 4." 4.2
1469 .\}
1470 Use Message \(-> Insert file\&...\: and insert the patch\&.
1471 .RE
1472 .sp
1473 .RS 4
1474 .ie n \{\
1475 \h'-04' 5.\h'+01'\c
1476 .\}
1477 .el \{\
1478 .sp -1
1479 .IP " 5." 4.2
1480 .\}
1481 Back in the compose window: add whatever other text you wish to the message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send\&.
1482 .RE
1483 .SH "BASE TREE INFORMATION"
1484 .sp
1485 The base tree information block is used for maintainers or third party testers to know the exact state the patch series applies to\&. It consists of the \fIbase commit\fR, which is a well\-known commit that is part of the stable part of the project history everybody else works off of, and zero or more \fIprerequisite patches\fR, which are well\-known patches in flight that is not yet part of the \fIbase commit\fR that need to be applied on top of \fIbase commit\fR in topological order before the patches can be applied\&.
1486 .sp
1487 The \fIbase commit\fR is shown as "base\-commit: " followed by the 40\-hex of the commit object name\&. A \fIprerequisite patch\fR is shown as "prerequisite\-patch\-id: " followed by the 40\-hex \fIpatch id\fR, which can be obtained by passing the patch through the \fBgit patch\-id \-\-stable\fR command\&.
1488 .sp
1489 Imagine that on top of the public commit P, you applied well\-known patches X, Y and Z from somebody else, and then built your three\-patch series A, B, C, the history would be like:
1490 .sp
1491 .if n \{\
1492 .RS 4
1493 .\}
1494 .nf
1495 \-\-\-P\-\-\-X\-\-\-Y\-\-\-Z\-\-\-A\-\-\-B\-\-\-C
1496 .fi
1497 .if n \{\
1498 .RE
1499 .\}
1500 .sp
1501 With \fBgit format\-patch \-\-base=P \-3 C\fR (or variants thereof, e\&.g\&. with \fB\-\-cover\-letter\fR or using \fBZ\&.\&.C\fR instead of \fB\-3 C\fR to specify the range), the base tree information block is shown at the end of the first message the command outputs (either the first patch, or the cover letter), like this:
1502 .sp
1503 .if n \{\
1504 .RS 4
1505 .\}
1506 .nf
1507 base\-commit: P
1508 prerequisite\-patch\-id: X
1509 prerequisite\-patch\-id: Y
1510 prerequisite\-patch\-id: Z
1511 .fi
1512 .if n \{\
1513 .RE
1514 .\}
1515 .sp
1516 For non\-linear topology, such as
1517 .sp
1518 .if n \{\
1519 .RS 4
1520 .\}
1521 .nf
1522 \-\-\-P\-\-\-X\-\-\-A\-\-\-M\-\-\-C
1523 \e /
1524 Y\-\-\-Z\-\-\-B
1525 .fi
1526 .if n \{\
1527 .RE
1528 .\}
1529 .sp
1530 You can also use \fBgit format\-patch \-\-base=P \-3 C\fR to generate patches for A, B and C, and the identifiers for P, X, Y, Z are appended at the end of the first message\&.
1531 .sp
1532 If set \fB\-\-base=auto\fR in cmdline, it will automatically compute the base commit as the merge base of tip commit of the remote\-tracking branch and revision\-range specified in cmdline\&. For a local branch, you need to make it to track a remote branch by \fBgit branch \-\-set\-upstream\-to\fR before using this option\&.
1533 .SH "EXAMPLES"
1534 .sp
1535 .RS 4
1536 .ie n \{\
1537 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1538 .\}
1539 .el \{\
1540 .sp -1
1541 .IP \(bu 2.3
1542 .\}
1543 Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top of the current branch using
1544 \fIgit am\fR
1545 to cherry\-pick them:
1546 .sp
1547 .if n \{\
1548 .RS 4
1549 .\}
1550 .nf
1551 $ git format\-patch \-k \-\-stdout R1\&.\&.R2 | git am \-3 \-k
1552 .fi
1553 .if n \{\
1554 .RE
1555 .\}
1556 .RE
1557 .sp
1558 .RS 4
1559 .ie n \{\
1560 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1561 .\}
1562 .el \{\
1563 .sp -1
1564 .IP \(bu 2.3
1565 .\}
1566 Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the origin branch:
1567 .sp
1568 .if n \{\
1569 .RS 4
1570 .\}
1571 .nf
1572 $ git format\-patch origin
1573 .fi
1574 .if n \{\
1575 .RE
1576 .\}
1577 .sp
1578 For each commit a separate file is created in the current directory\&.
1579 .RE
1580 .sp
1581 .RS 4
1582 .ie n \{\
1583 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1584 .\}
1585 .el \{\
1586 .sp -1
1587 .IP \(bu 2.3
1588 .\}
1589 Extract all commits that lead to
1590 \fIorigin\fR
1591 since the inception of the project:
1592 .sp
1593 .if n \{\
1594 .RS 4
1595 .\}
1596 .nf
1597 $ git format\-patch \-\-root origin
1598 .fi
1599 .if n \{\
1600 .RE
1601 .\}
1602 .RE
1603 .sp
1604 .RS 4
1605 .ie n \{\
1606 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1607 .\}
1608 .el \{\
1609 .sp -1
1610 .IP \(bu 2.3
1611 .\}
1612 The same as the previous one:
1613 .sp
1614 .if n \{\
1615 .RS 4
1616 .\}
1617 .nf
1618 $ git format\-patch \-M \-B origin
1619 .fi
1620 .if n \{\
1621 .RE
1622 .\}
1623 .sp
1624 Additionally, it detects and handles renames and complete rewrites intelligently to produce a renaming patch\&. A renaming patch reduces the amount of text output, and generally makes it easier to review\&. Note that non\-Git "patch" programs won\(cqt understand renaming patches, so use it only when you know the recipient uses Git to apply your patch\&.
1625 .RE
1626 .sp
1627 .RS 4
1628 .ie n \{\
1629 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
1630 .\}
1631 .el \{\
1632 .sp -1
1633 .IP \(bu 2.3
1634 .\}
1635 Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format them as e\-mailable patches:
1636 .sp
1637 .if n \{\
1638 .RS 4
1639 .\}
1640 .nf
1641 $ git format\-patch \-3
1642 .fi
1643 .if n \{\
1644 .RE
1645 .\}
1646 .RE
1647 .SH "CAVEATS"
1648 .sp
1649 Note that \fBformat\-patch\fR will omit merge commits from the output, even if they are part of the requested range\&. A simple "patch" does not include enough information for the receiving end to reproduce the same merge commit\&.
1650 .SH "SEE ALSO"
1651 .sp
1652 \fBgit-am\fR(1), \fBgit-send-email\fR(1)
1653 .SH "GIT"
1654 .sp
1655 Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite