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GIT-FORMAT-PATCH(1)		  Git Manual		   GIT-FORMAT-PATCH(1)



NAME
       git-format-patch - Prepare patches for e-mail submission

SYNOPSIS
       git format-patch [-k] [(-o|--output-directory) <dir> | --stdout]
			  [--no-thread | --thread[=<style>]]
			  [(--attach|--inline)[=<boundary>] | --no-attach]
			  [-s | --signoff]
			  [--signature=<signature> | --no-signature]
			  [--signature-file=<file>]
			  [-n | --numbered | -N | --no-numbered]
			  [--start-number <n>] [--numbered-files]
			  [--in-reply-to=<message id>] [--suffix=.<sfx>]
			  [--ignore-if-in-upstream] [--always]
			  [--cover-from-description=<mode>]
			  [--rfc] [--subject-prefix=<subject prefix>]
			  [(--reroll-count|-v) <n>]
			  [--to=<email>] [--cc=<email>]
			  [--[no-]cover-letter] [--quiet]
			  [--[no-]encode-email-headers]
			  [--no-notes | --notes[=<ref>]]
			  [--interdiff=<previous>]
			  [--range-diff=<previous> [--creation-factor=<percent>]]
			  [--filename-max-length=<n>]
			  [--progress]
			  [<common diff options>]
			  [ <since> | <revision range> ]


DESCRIPTION
       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 git am.

       A "message" generated by the command consists of three parts:

       o   A brief metadata header that begins with From <commit> with a fixed
	   Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 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).

       o   The second and subsequent paragraphs of the commit log message.

       o   The "patch", which is the "diff -p --stat" output (see git-diff(1))
	   between the commit and its parent.

       The log message and the patch is separated by a line with a three-dash
       line.

       There are two ways to specify which commits to operate on.

	1. 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.

	2. Generic <revision range> expression (see "SPECIFYING REVISIONS"
	   section in gitrevisions(7)) means the commits in the specified
	   range.

       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 --root option: git format-patch
       --root <commit>. If you want to format only <commit> itself, you can do
       this with git format-patch -1 <commit>.

       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 --numbered-files 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 --stdout option is specified.

       If -o 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 format.outputDirectory configuration option. The -o option
       takes precedence over format.outputDirectory. To store patches in the
       current working directory even when format.outputDirectory points
       elsewhere, use -o .. All directory components will be created.

       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 git-commit(1)).

       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 -n. To
       omit patch numbers from the subject, use -N.

       If given --thread, git-format-patch will generate In-Reply-To and
       References headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear
       as replies to the first mail; this also generates a Message-Id header
       to reference.

OPTIONS
       -p, --no-stat
	   Generate plain patches without any diffstats.

       -U<n>, --unified=<n>
	   Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of the usual
	   three.

       --output=<file>
	   Output to a specific file instead of stdout.

       --output-indicator-new=<char>, --output-indicator-old=<char>,
       --output-indicator-context=<char>
	   Specify the character used to indicate new, old or context lines in
	   the generated patch. Normally they are +, - and ' ' respectively.

       --indent-heuristic
	   Enable the heuristic that shifts diff hunk boundaries to make
	   patches easier to read. This is the default.

       --no-indent-heuristic
	   Disable the indent heuristic.

       --minimal
	   Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
	   produced.

       --patience
	   Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.

       --histogram
	   Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.

       --anchored=<text>
	   Generate a diff using the "anchored diff" algorithm.

	   This option may be specified more than once.

	   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.

       --diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}
	   Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:

	   default, myers
	       The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the
	       default.

	   minimal
	       Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
	       produced.

	   patience
	       Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.

	   histogram
	       This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
	       low-occurrence common elements".

	   For instance, if you configured the diff.algorithm variable to a
	   non-default value and want to use the default one, then you have to
	   use --diff-algorithm=default option.

       --stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]
	   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 <width>. The
	   width of the filename part can be limited by giving another width
	   <name-width> after a comma. The width of the graph part can be
	   limited by using --stat-graph-width=<width> (affects all commands
	   generating a stat graph) or by setting diff.statGraphWidth=<width>
	   (does not affect git format-patch). By giving a third parameter
	   <count>, you can limit the output to the first <count> lines,
	   followed by ...  if there are more.

	   These parameters can also be set individually with
	   --stat-width=<width>, --stat-name-width=<name-width> and
	   --stat-count=<count>.

       --compact-summary
	   Output a condensed summary of extended header information such as
	   file creations or deletions ("new" or "gone", optionally "+l" if
	   it's 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
	   --stat.

       --numstat
	   Similar to --stat, 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 - instead of saying
	   0 0.

       --shortstat
	   Output only the last line of the --stat format containing total
	   number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
	   lines.

       -X[<param1,param2,...>], --dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]
	   Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
	   sub-directory. The behavior of --dirstat can be customized by
	   passing it a comma separated list of parameters. The defaults are
	   controlled by the diff.dirstat configuration variable (see git-
	   config(1)). The following parameters are available:

	   changes
	       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.

	   lines
	       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
	       --dirstat behavior than the changes 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
	       --*stat options.

	   files
	       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 --dirstat
	       behavior, since it does not have to look at the file contents
	       at all.

	   cumulative
	       Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as
	       well. Note that when using cumulative, the sum of the
	       percentages reported may exceed 100%. The default
	       (non-cumulative) behavior can be specified with the
	       noncumulative parameter.

	   <limit>
	       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.

	   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: --dirstat=files,10,cumulative.

       --cumulative
	   Synonym for --dirstat=cumulative

       --dirstat-by-file[=<param1,param2>...]
	   Synonym for --dirstat=files,param1,param2...

       --summary
	   Output a condensed summary of extended header information such as
	   creations, renames and mode changes.

       --no-renames
	   Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration file gives
	   the default to do so.

       --[no-]rename-empty
	   Whether to use empty blobs as rename source.

       --full-index
	   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.

       --binary
	   In addition to --full-index, output a binary diff that can be
	   applied with git-apply.

       --abbrev[=<n>]
	   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 <n> hexdigits long that uniquely
	   refers the object. In diff-patch output format, --full-index takes
	   higher precedence, i.e. if --full-index is specified, full blob
	   names will be shown regardless of --abbrev. Non default number of
	   digits can be specified with --abbrev=<n>.

       -B[<n>][/<m>], --break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]
	   Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create.
	   This serves two purposes:

	   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 m controls this aspect
	   of the -B option (defaults to 60%).	-B/70% 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).

	   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 n controls
	   this aspect of the -B option (defaults to 50%).  -B20% specifies
	   that a change with addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of
	   the file's size are eligible for being picked up as a possible
	   source of a rename to another file.

       -M[<n>], --find-renames[=<n>]
	   Detect renames. If n is specified, it is a threshold on the
	   similarity index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
	   file's size). For example, -M90% means Git should consider a
	   delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file hasn't
	   changed. Without a % sign, the number is to be read as a fraction,
	   with a decimal point before it. I.e., -M5 becomes 0.5, and is thus
	   the same as -M50%. Similarly, -M05 is the same as -M5%. To limit
	   detection to exact renames, use -M100%. The default similarity
	   index is 50%.

       -C[<n>], --find-copies[=<n>]
	   Detect copies as well as renames. See also --find-copies-harder. If
	   n is specified, it has the same meaning as for -M<n>.

       --find-copies-harder
	   For performance reasons, by default, -C 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 -C
	   option has the same effect.

       -D, --irreversible-delete
	   Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
	   the diff between the preimage and /dev/null. The resulting patch is
	   not meant to be applied with patch or git apply; 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.

	   When used together with -B, omit also the preimage in the deletion
	   part of a delete/create pair.

       -l<num>
	   The -M and -C 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.

       -O<orderfile>
	   Control the order in which files appear in the output. This
	   overrides the diff.orderFile configuration variable (see git-
	   config(1)). To cancel diff.orderFile, use -O/dev/null.

	   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.

	   <orderfile> is parsed as follows:

	   o   Blank lines are ignored, so they can be used as separators for
	       readability.

	   o   Lines starting with a hash ("#") are ignored, so they can be
	       used for comments. Add a backslash ("\") to the beginning of
	       the pattern if it starts with a hash.

	   o   Each other line contains a single pattern.

	   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 "foo*bar"
	   matches "fooasdfbar" and "foo/bar/baz/asdf" but not "foobarx".

       --skip-to=<file>, --rotate-to=<file>
	   Discard the files before the named <file> from the output (i.e.
	   skip to), or move them to the end of the output (i.e.  rotate to).
	   These were invented primarily for use of the git difftool command,
	   and may not be very useful otherwise.

       --relative[=<path>], --no-relative
	   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.
	   --no-relative can be used to countermand both diff.relative config
	   option and previous --relative.

       -a, --text
	   Treat all files as text.

       --ignore-cr-at-eol
	   Ignore carriage-return at the end of line when doing a comparison.

       --ignore-space-at-eol
	   Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.

       -b, --ignore-space-change
	   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.

       -w, --ignore-all-space
	   Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores differences
	   even if one line has whitespace where the other line has none.

       --ignore-blank-lines
	   Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.

       -I<regex>, --ignore-matching-lines=<regex>
	   Ignore changes whose all lines match <regex>. This option may be
	   specified more than once.

       --inter-hunk-context=<lines>
	   Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number of
	   lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other. Defaults
	   to diff.interHunkContext or 0 if the config option is unset.

       -W, --function-context
	   Show whole function as context lines for each change. The function
	   names are determined in the same way as git diff works out patch
	   hunk headers (see Defining a custom hunk-header in
	   gitattributes(5)).

       --ext-diff
	   Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
	   external diff driver with gitattributes(5), you need to use this
	   option with git-log(1) and friends.

       --no-ext-diff
	   Disallow external diff drivers.

       --textconv, --no-textconv
	   Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run when
	   comparing binary files. See gitattributes(5) 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 git-
	   diff(1) and git-log(1), but not for git-format-patch(1) or diff
	   plumbing commands.

       --ignore-submodules[=<when>]
	   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 ignore option in git-config(1) or gitmodules(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.

       --src-prefix=<prefix>
	   Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".

       --dst-prefix=<prefix>
	   Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".

       --no-prefix
	   Do not show any source or destination prefix.

       --line-prefix=<prefix>
	   Prepend an additional prefix to every line of output.

       --ita-invisible-in-index
	   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 --ita-visible-in-index. Both options are experimental and
	   could be removed in future.

       For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
       gitdiffcore(7).

       -<n>
	   Prepare patches from the topmost <n> commits.

       -o <dir>, --output-directory <dir>
	   Use <dir> to store the resulting files, instead of the current
	   working directory.

       -n, --numbered
	   Name output in [PATCH n/m] format, even with a single patch.

       -N, --no-numbered
	   Name output in [PATCH] format.

       --start-number <n>
	   Start numbering the patches at <n> instead of 1.

       --numbered-files
	   Output file names will be a simple number sequence without the
	   default first line of the commit appended.

       -k, --keep-subject
	   Do not strip/add [PATCH] from the first line of the commit log
	   message.

       -s, --signoff
	   Add a Signed-off-by trailer to the commit message, using the
	   committer identity of yourself. See the signoff option in git-
	   commit(1) for more information.

       --stdout
	   Print all commits to the standard output in mbox format, instead of
	   creating a file for each one.

       --attach[=<boundary>]
	   Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of which is the
	   commit message and the patch itself in the second part, with
	   Content-Disposition: attachment.

       --no-attach
	   Disable the creation of an attachment, overriding the configuration
	   setting.

       --inline[=<boundary>]
	   Create multipart/mixed attachment, the first part of which is the
	   commit message and the patch itself in the second part, with
	   Content-Disposition: inline.

       --thread[=<style>], --no-thread
	   Controls addition of In-Reply-To and References headers to make the
	   second and subsequent mails appear as replies to the first. Also
	   controls generation of the Message-Id header to reference.

	   The optional <style> argument can be either shallow or deep.
	   shallow threading makes every mail a reply to the head of the
	   series, where the head is chosen from the cover letter, the
	   --in-reply-to, and the first patch mail, in this order.  deep
	   threading makes every mail a reply to the previous one.

	   The default is --no-thread, unless the format.thread configuration
	   is set. If --thread is specified without a style, it defaults to
	   the style specified by format.thread if any, or else shallow.

	   Beware that the default for git send-email is to thread emails
	   itself. If you want git format-patch to take care of threading, you
	   will want to ensure that threading is disabled for git send-email.

       --in-reply-to=<message id>
	   Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a
	   reply to the given <message id>, which avoids breaking threads to
	   provide a new patch series.

       --ignore-if-in-upstream
	   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.

       --always
	   Include patches for commits that do not introduce any change, which
	   are omitted by default.

       --cover-from-description=<mode>
	   Controls which parts of the cover letter will be automatically
	   populated using the branch's description.

	   If <mode> is message or default, the cover letter subject will be
	   populated with placeholder text. The body of the cover letter will
	   be populated with the branch's description. This is the default
	   mode when no configuration nor command line option is specified.

	   If <mode> is subject, 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.

	   If <mode> is auto, if the first paragraph of the branch description
	   is greater than 100 bytes, then the mode will be message, otherwise
	   subject will be used.

	   If <mode> is none, both the cover letter subject and body will be
	   populated with placeholder text.

       --subject-prefix=<subject prefix>
	   Instead of the standard [PATCH] prefix in the subject line, instead
	   use [<subject prefix>]. This allows for useful naming of a patch
	   series, and can be combined with the --numbered option.

       --filename-max-length=<n>
	   Instead of the standard 64 bytes, chomp the generated output
	   filenames at around <n> bytes (too short a value will be silently
	   raised to a reasonable length). Defaults to the value of the
	   format.filenameMaxLength configuration variable, or 64 if
	   unconfigured.

       --rfc
	   Alias for --subject-prefix="RFC PATCH". RFC means "Request For
	   Comments"; use this when sending an experimental patch for
	   discussion rather than application.

       -v <n>, --reroll-count=<n>
	   Mark the series as the <n>-th iteration of the topic. The output
	   filenames have v<n> prepended to them, and the subject prefix
	   ("PATCH" by default, but configurable via the --subject-prefix
	   option) has ` v<n>` appended to it. E.g.  --reroll-count=4 may
	   produce v4-0001-add-makefile.patch file that has "Subject: [PATCH
	   v4 1/20] Add makefile" in it.  <n> 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 interation is compared against.

       --to=<email>
	   Add a To: header to the email headers. This is in addition to any
	   configured headers, and may be used multiple times. The negated
	   form --no-to discards all To: headers added so far (from config or
	   command line).

       --cc=<email>
	   Add a Cc: header to the email headers. This is in addition to any
	   configured headers, and may be used multiple times. The negated
	   form --no-cc discards all Cc: headers added so far (from config or
	   command line).

       --from, --from=<ident>
	   Use ident in the From: header of each commit email. If the author
	   ident of the commit is not textually identical to the provided
	   ident, place a From: header in the body of the message with the
	   original author. If no ident is given, use the committer ident.

	   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 git am will correctly pick up the in-body
	   header). Note also that git send-email already handles this
	   transformation for you, and this option should not be used if you
	   are feeding the result to git send-email.

       --[no-]force-in-body-from
	   With the e-mail sender specified via the --from 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's identity. Defaults to the value of the
	   format.forceInBodyFrom configuration variable.

       --add-header=<header>
	   Add an arbitrary header to the email headers. This is in addition
	   to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times. For
	   example, --add-header="Organization: git-foo". The negated form
	   --no-add-header discards all (To:, Cc:, and custom) headers added
	   so far from config or command line.

       --[no-]cover-letter
	   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.

       --encode-email-headers, --no-encode-email-headers
	   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
	   format.encodeEmailHeaders configuration variable.

       --interdiff=<previous>
	   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.  previous is a single
	   revision naming the tip of the previous series which shares a
	   common base with the series being formatted (for example git
	   format-patch --cover-letter --interdiff=feature/v1 -3 feature/v2).

       --range-diff=<previous>
	   As a reviewer aid, insert a range-diff (see git-range-diff(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.  previous
	   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 git format-patch --cover-letter --range-diff=feature/v1 -3
	   feature/v2), or a revision range if the two versions of the series
	   are disjoint (for example git format-patch --cover-letter
	   --range-diff=feature/v1~3..feature/v1 -3 feature/v2).

	   Note that diff options passed to the command affect how the primary
	   product of format-patch is generated, and they are not passed to
	   the underlying range-diff machinery used to generate the
	   cover-letter material (this may change in the future).

       --creation-factor=<percent>
	   Used with --range-diff, tweak the heuristic which matches up
	   commits between the previous and current series of patches by
	   adjusting the creation/deletion cost fudge factor. See git-range-
	   diff(1)) for details.

       --notes[=<ref>], --no-notes
	   Append the notes (see git-notes(1)) for the commit after the
	   three-dash line.

	   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 format-patch 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 notes.rewrite configuration options in git-
	   notes(1) to use this workflow).

	   The default is --no-notes, unless the format.notes configuration is
	   set.

       --[no-]signature=<signature>
	   Add a signature to each message produced. Per RFC 3676 the
	   signature is separated from the body by a line with '-- ' on it. If
	   the signature option is omitted the signature defaults to the Git
	   version number.

       --signature-file=<file>
	   Works just like --signature except the signature is read from a
	   file.

       --suffix=.<sfx>
	   Instead of using .patch as the suffix for generated filenames, use
	   specified suffix. A common alternative is --suffix=.txt. Leaving
	   this empty will remove the .patch suffix.

	   Note that the leading character does not have to be a dot; for
	   example, you can use --suffix=-patch to get
	   0001-description-of-my-change-patch.

       -q, --quiet
	   Do not print the names of the generated files to standard output.

       --no-binary
	   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.

       --zero-commit
	   Output an all-zero hash in each patch's From header instead of the
	   hash of the commit.

       --[no-]base[=<commit>]
	   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 --no-base option overrides a format.useAutoBase
	   configuration.

       --root
	   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.

       --progress
	   Show progress reports on stderr as patches are generated.

CONFIGURATION
       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.

	   [format]
		   headers = "Organization: git-foo\n"
		   subjectPrefix = CHANGE
		   suffix = .txt
		   numbered = auto
		   to = <email>
		   cc = <email>
		   attach [ = mime-boundary-string ]
		   signOff = true
		   outputDirectory = <directory>
		   coverLetter = auto
		   coverFromDescription = auto


DISCUSSION
       The patch produced by git format-patch 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:

	   From 8f72bad1baf19a53459661343e21d6491c3908d3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
	   From: Tony Luck <tony.luck@intel.com>
	   Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:42:54 -0700
	   Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?[IA64]=20Put=20ia64=20config=20files=20on=20the=20?=
	    =?UTF-8?q?Uwe=20Kleine-K=C3=B6nig=20diet?=
	   MIME-Version: 1.0
	   Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
	   Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

	   arch/arm config files were slimmed down using a python script
	   (See commit c2330e286f68f1c408b4aa6515ba49d57f05beae comment)

	   Do the same for ia64 so we can have sleek & trim looking
	   ...


       Typically it will be placed in a MUA's 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 git-
       am(1).

       When a patch is part of an ongoing discussion, the patch generated by
       git format-patch can be tweaked to take advantage of the git am
       --scissors feature. After your response to the discussion comes a line
       that consists solely of "-- >8 --" (scissors and perforation), followed
       by the patch with unnecessary header fields removed:

	   ...
	   > So we should do such-and-such.

	   Makes sense to me.  How about this patch?

	   -- >8 --
	   Subject: [IA64] Put ia64 config files on the Uwe Kleine-Konig diet

	   arch/arm config files were slimmed down using a python script
	   ...


       When sending a patch this way, most often you are sending your own
       patch, so in addition to the "From $SHA1 $magic_timestamp" marker you
       should omit From: and Date: 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.

   Checking for patch corruption
       Many mailers if not set up properly will corrupt whitespace. Here are
       two common types of corruption:

       o   Empty context lines that do not have any whitespace.

       o   Non-empty context lines that have one extra whitespace at the
	   beginning.

       One way to test if your MUA is set up correctly is:

       o   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.

       o   Save that patch to a file in UNIX mailbox format. Call it a.patch,
	   say.

       o   Apply it:

	       $ git fetch <project> master:test-apply
	       $ git switch test-apply
	       $ git restore --source=HEAD --staged --worktree :/
	       $ git am a.patch

       If it does not apply correctly, there can be various reasons.

       o   The patch itself does not apply cleanly. That is bad but does not
	   have much to do with your MUA. You might want to rebase the patch
	   with git-rebase(1) before regenerating it in this case.

       o   The MUA corrupted your patch; "am" would complain that the patch
	   does not apply. Look in the .git/rebase-apply/ subdirectory and see
	   what patch file contains and check for the common corruption
	   patterns mentioned above.

       o   While at it, check the info and final-commit files as well. If what
	   is in final-commit 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.\n" in the patch e-mail should
	   come after the three-dash line that signals the end of the commit
	   message.

MUA-SPECIFIC HINTS
       Here are some hints on how to successfully submit patches inline using
       various mailers.

   GMail
       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.

       For hints on using git send-email to send your patches through the
       GMail SMTP server, see the EXAMPLE section of git-send-email(1).

       For hints on submission using the IMAP interface, see the EXAMPLE
       section of git-imap-send(1).

   Thunderbird
       By default, Thunderbird will both wrap emails as well as flag them as
       being format=flowed, both of which will make the resulting email
       unusable by Git.

       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.

       Approach #1 (add-on)
	   Install the Toggle Word Wrap add-on that is available from
	   https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/toggle-word-wrap/ It
	   adds a menu entry "Enable Word Wrap" in the composer's "Options"
	   menu that you can tick off. Now you can compose the message as you
	   otherwise do (cut + paste, git format-patch | git imap-send, etc),
	   but you have to insert line breaks manually in any text that you
	   type.

       Approach #2 (configuration)
	   Three steps:

	    1. Configure your mail server composition as plain text:
	       Edit...Account Settings...Composition & Addressing, uncheck
	       "Compose Messages in HTML".

	    2. Configure your general composition window to not wrap.

	       In Thunderbird 2: Edit..Preferences..Composition, wrap plain
	       text messages at 0

	       In Thunderbird 3: Edit..Preferences..Advanced..Config Editor.
	       Search for "mail.wrap_long_lines". Toggle it to make sure it is
	       set to false. Also, search for "mailnews.wraplength" and set
	       the value to 0.

	    3. 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 false.

	   After that is done, you should be able to compose email as you
	   otherwise would (cut + paste, git format-patch | git imap-send,
	   etc), and the patches will not be mangled.

       Approach #3 (external editor)
	   The following Thunderbird extensions are needed: AboutConfig from
	   http://aboutconfig.mozdev.org/ and External Editor from
	   http://globs.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=8

	    1. Prepare the patch as a text file using your method of choice.

	    2. 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.

	    3. In the main Thunderbird window, before you open the compose
	       window for the patch, use Tools->about:config to set the
	       following to the indicated values:

			   mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed  => false
			   mailnews.wraplength		   => 0


	    4. Open a compose window and click the external editor icon.

	    5. In the external editor window, read in the patch file and exit
	       the editor normally.

	   Side note: it may be possible to do step 2 with about:config and
	   the following settings but no one's tried yet.

		       mail.html_compose		       => false
		       mail.identity.default.compose_html      => false
		       mail.identity.id?.compose_html	       => false


	   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.

   KMail
       This should help you to submit patches inline using KMail.

	1. Prepare the patch as a text file.

	2. Click on New Mail.

	3. Go under "Options" in the Composer window and be sure that "Word
	   wrap" is not set.

	4. Use Message -> Insert file... and insert the patch.

	5. Back in the compose window: add whatever other text you wish to the
	   message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press
	   send.

BASE TREE INFORMATION
       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 base commit, 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 prerequisite patches, which are well-known patches in
       flight that is not yet part of the base commit that need to be applied
       on top of base commit in topological order before the patches can be
       applied.

       The base commit is shown as "base-commit: " followed by the 40-hex of
       the commit object name. A prerequisite patch is shown as
       "prerequisite-patch-id: " followed by the 40-hex patch id, which can be
       obtained by passing the patch through the git patch-id --stable
       command.

       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:

	   ---P---X---Y---Z---A---B---C

       With git format-patch --base=P -3 C (or variants thereof, e.g. with
       --cover-letter or using Z..C instead of -3 C 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:

	   base-commit: P
	   prerequisite-patch-id: X
	   prerequisite-patch-id: Y
	   prerequisite-patch-id: Z


       For non-linear topology, such as

	   ---P---X---A---M---C
	       \	 /
		Y---Z---B

       You can also use git format-patch --base=P -3 C 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.

       If set --base=auto 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 git branch --set-upstream-to
       before using this option.

EXAMPLES
       o   Extract commits between revisions R1 and R2, and apply them on top
	   of the current branch using git am to cherry-pick them:

	       $ git format-patch -k --stdout R1..R2 | git am -3 -k


       o   Extract all commits which are in the current branch but not in the
	   origin branch:

	       $ git format-patch origin

	   For each commit a separate file is created in the current
	   directory.

       o   Extract all commits that lead to origin since the inception of the
	   project:

	       $ git format-patch --root origin


       o   The same as the previous one:

	       $ git format-patch -M -B origin

	   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't understand renaming
	   patches, so use it only when you know the recipient uses Git to
	   apply your patch.

       o   Extract three topmost commits from the current branch and format
	   them as e-mailable patches:

	       $ git format-patch -3


CAVEATS
       Note that format-patch 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.

SEE ALSO
       git-am(1), git-send-email(1)

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite



Git 2.38.4			  05/16/2024		   GIT-FORMAT-PATCH(1)