GIT-CAT-FILE(1)                   Git Manual                   GIT-CAT-FILE(1)



NAME
       git-cat-file - Provide content or type and size information for
       repository objects

SYNOPSIS
       git cat-file (-t | -s | -e | -p | <type> | --textconv ) <object>
       git cat-file (--batch | --batch-check) < <list-of-objects>


DESCRIPTION
       In its first form, the command provides the content or the type of an
       object in the repository. The type is required unless -t or -p is used
       to find the object type, or -s is used to find the object size, or
       --textconv is used (which implies type "blob").

       In the second form, a list of objects (separated by linefeeds) is
       provided on stdin, and the SHA-1, type, and size of each object is
       printed on stdout.

OPTIONS
       <object>
           The name of the object to show. For a more complete list of ways to
           spell object names, see the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in
           gitrevisions(7).

       -t
           Instead of the content, show the object type identified by
           <object>.

       -s
           Instead of the content, show the object size identified by
           <object>.

       -e
           Suppress all output; instead exit with zero status if <object>
           exists and is a valid object.

       -p
           Pretty-print the contents of <object> based on its type.

       <type>
           Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking for a
           type that can trivially be dereferenced from the given <object> is
           also permitted. An example is to ask for a "tree" with <object>
           being a commit object that contains it, or to ask for a "blob" with
           <object> being a tag object that points at it.

       --textconv
           Show the content as transformed by a textconv filter. In this case,
           <object> has be of the form <tree-ish>:<path>, or :<path> in order
           to apply the filter to the content recorded in the index at <path>.

       --batch, --batch=<format>
           Print object information and contents for each object provided on
           stdin. May not be combined with any other options or arguments. See
           the section BATCH OUTPUT below for details.

       --batch-check, --batch-check=<format>
           Print object information for each object provided on stdin. May not
           be combined with any other options or arguments. See the section
           BATCH OUTPUT below for details.

OUTPUT
       If -t is specified, one of the <type>.

       If -s is specified, the size of the <object> in bytes.

       If -e is specified, no output.

       If -p is specified, the contents of <object> are pretty-printed.

       If <type> is specified, the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the
       <object> will be returned.

BATCH OUTPUT
       If --batch or --batch-check is given, cat-file will read objects from
       stdin, one per line, and print information about them. By default, the
       whole line is considered as an object, as if it were fed to git-rev-
       parse(1).

       You can specify the information shown for each object by using a custom
       <format>. The <format> is copied literally to stdout for each object,
       with placeholders of the form %(atom) expanded, followed by a newline.
       The available atoms are:

       objectname
           The 40-hex object name of the object.

       objecttype
           The type of of the object (the same as cat-file -t reports).

       objectsize
           The size, in bytes, of the object (the same as cat-file -s
           reports).

       objectsize:disk
           The size, in bytes, that the object takes up on disk. See the note
           about on-disk sizes in the CAVEATS section below.

       deltabase
           If the object is stored as a delta on-disk, this expands to the
           40-hex sha1 of the delta base object. Otherwise, expands to the
           null sha1 (40 zeroes). See CAVEATS below.

       rest
           If this atom is used in the output string, input lines are split at
           the first whitespace boundary. All characters before that
           whitespace are considered to be the object name; characters after
           that first run of whitespace (i.e., the "rest" of the line) are
           output in place of the %(rest) atom.

       If no format is specified, the default format is %(objectname)
       %(objecttype) %(objectsize).

       If --batch is specified, the object information is followed by the
       object contents (consisting of %(objectsize) bytes), followed by a
       newline.

       For example, --batch without a custom format would produce:

           <sha1> SP <type> SP <size> LF
           <contents> LF


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

           <sha1> SP <type> LF


       If a name is specified on stdin that cannot be resolved to an object in
       the repository, then cat-file will ignore any custom format and print:

           <object> SP missing LF


CAVEATS
       Note that the sizes of objects on disk are reported accurately, but
       care should be taken in drawing conclusions about which refs or objects
       are responsible for disk usage. The size of a packed non-delta object
       may be much larger than the size of objects which delta against it, but
       the choice of which object is the base and which is the delta is
       arbitrary and is subject to change during a repack.

       Note also that multiple copies of an object may be present in the
       object database; in this case, it is undefined which copy's size or
       delta base will be reported.

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite



Git 2.1.4                         03/19/2016                   GIT-CAT-FILE(1)
