Provided by:
git-core_1.1.3-1ubuntu1_i386 
NAME
git-rev-list - Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order
SYNOPSIS
git-rev-list [ --max-count=number ]
[ --max-age=timestamp ]
[ --min-age=timestamp ]
[ --sparse ]
[ --no-merges ]
[ --all ]
[ [ --merge-order [ --show-breaks ] ] | [ --topo-order ] ]
[ --parents ]
[ --objects [ --unpacked ] ]
[ --pretty | --header ]
[ --bisect ]
<commit>... [ -- <paths>... ]
DESCRIPTION
Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order starting at the
given commit(s), taking ancestry relationship into account. This is
useful to produce human-readable log output.
Commits which are stated with a preceding ^ cause listing to stop at
that point. Their parents are implied. "git-rev-list foo bar ^baz" thus
means "list all the commits which are included in foo and bar, but not
in baz".
A special notation <commit1>..<commit2> can be used as a short-hand for
^<commit1> <commit2>.
OPTIONS
--pretty
Print the contents of the commit changesets in human-readable
form.
--header
Print the contents of the commit in raw-format; each record is
separated with a NUL character.
--objects
Print the object IDs of any object referenced by the listed
commits. git-rev-list --objects foo ^bar thus means "send me all
object IDs which I need to download if I have the commit object
bar, but not foo".
--unpacked
Only useful with --objects; print the object IDs that are not in
packs.
--bisect
Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway
between the included and excluded commits. Thus, if git-rev-list
--bisect foo bar baz outputs midpoint, the output of
git-rev-list foo ^midpoint and git-rev-list midpoint bar baz
would be of roughly the same length. Finding the change which
introduces a regression is thus reduced to a binary search:
repeatedly generate and test new ’midpoint’s until the commit
chain is of length one.
--max-count
Limit the number of commits output.
--max-age=timestamp, --min-age=timestamp
Limit the commits output to specified time range.
--sparse
When optional paths are given, the command outputs only the
commits that changes at least one of them, and also ignores
merges that do not touch the given paths. This flag makes the
command output all eligible commits (still subject to count and
age limitation), but apply merge simplification nevertheless.
--all Pretend as if all the refs in $GIT_DIR/refs/ are listed on the
command line as <commit>.
--topo-order
By default, the commits are shown in reverse chronological
order. This option makes them appear in topological order (i.e.
descendant commits are shown before their parents).
--merge-order
When specified the commit history is decomposed into a unique
sequence of minimal, non-linear epochs and maximal, linear
epochs. Non-linear epochs are then linearised by sorting them
into merge order, which is described below.
Maximal, linear epochs correspond to periods of sequential
development. Minimal, non-linear epochs correspond to periods of
divergent development followed by a converging merge. The theory
of epochs is described in more detail at
http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/:
http://blackcubes.dyndns.org/epoch/.
The merge order for a non-linear epoch is defined as a
linearisation for which the following invariants are true:
1. if a commit P is reachable from commit N, commit P sorts
after commit N in the linearised list.
2. if Pi and Pj are any two parents of a merge M (with i < j),
then any commit N, such that N is reachable from Pj but not
reachable from Pi, sorts before all commits reachable from
Pi.
Invariant 1 states that later commits appear before earlier
commits they are derived from.
Invariant 2 states that commits unique to "later" parents in
a merge, appear before all commits from "earlier" parents of
a merge.
--show-breaks
Each item of the list is output with a 2-character prefix
consisting of one of: (|), (^), (=) followed by a space.
Commits marked with (=) represent the boundaries of minimal,
non-linear epochs and correspond either to the start of a period
of divergent development or to the end of such a period.
Commits marked with (|) are direct parents of commits
immediately preceding the marked commit in the list.
Commits marked with (^) are not parents of the immediately
preceding commit. These "breaks" represent necessary
discontinuities implied by trying to represent an arbitrary DAG
in a linear form.
--show-breaks is only valid if --merge-order is also specified.
AUTHOR
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Original --merge-order logic by Jon Seymour <jon.seymour@gmail.com>
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list
<git@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT
Part of the git(7) suite
GIT-REV-LIST(1)