NAME

       git-for-each-ref - Output information on each ref

SYNOPSIS

       git for-each-ref [--count=<count>] [--shell|--perl|--python|--tcl]
                          [(--sort=<key>)...] [--format=<format>] [<pattern>...]

DESCRIPTION

       Iterate over all refs that match <pattern> and show them according to the given <format>,
       after sorting them according to the given set of <key>. If <count> is given, stop after
       showing that many refs. The interpolated values in <format> can optionally be quoted as
       string literals in the specified host language allowing their direct evaluation in that
       language.

OPTIONS

       <count>
           By default the command shows all refs that match <pattern>. This option makes it stop
           after showing that many refs.

       <key>
           A field name to sort on. Prefix - to sort in descending order of the value. When
           unspecified, refname is used. You may use the --sort=<key> option multiple times, in
           which case the last key becomes the primary key.

       <format>
           A string that interpolates %(fieldname) from the object pointed at by a ref being
           shown. If fieldname is prefixed with an asterisk (*) and the ref points at a tag
           object, the value for the field in the object tag refers is used. When unspecified,
           defaults to %(objectname) SPC %(objecttype) TAB %(refname). It also interpolates %% to
           %, and %xx where xx are hex digits interpolates to character with hex code xx; for
           example %00 interpolates to \0 (NUL), %09 to \t (TAB) and %0a to \n (LF).

       <pattern>...
           If one or more patterns are given, only refs are shown that match against at least one
           pattern, either using fnmatch(3) or literally, in the latter case matching completely
           or from the beginning up to a slash.

       --shell, --perl, --python, --tcl
           If given, strings that substitute %(fieldname) placeholders are quoted as string
           literals suitable for the specified host language. This is meant to produce a
           scriptlet that can directly be `eval`ed.

FIELD NAMES

       Various values from structured fields in referenced objects can be used to interpolate
       into the resulting output, or as sort keys.

       For all objects, the following names can be used:

       refname
           The name of the ref (the part after $GIT_DIR/). For a non-ambiguous short name of the
           ref append :short. The option core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict
           abbreviation mode.

       objecttype
           The type of the object (blob, tree, commit, tag).

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

       objectname
           The object name (aka SHA-1). For a non-ambiguous abbreviation of the object name
           append :short.

       upstream
           The name of a local ref which can be considered “upstream” from the displayed ref.
           Respects :short in the same way as refname above. Additionally respects :track to show
           "[ahead N, behind M]" and :trackshort to show the terse version: ">" (ahead), "<"
           (behind), "<>" (ahead and behind), or "=" (in sync). Has no effect if the ref does not
           have tracking information associated with it.

       HEAD
           * if HEAD matches current ref (the checked out branch), ' ' otherwise.

       color
           Change output color. Followed by :<colorname>, where names are described in
           color.branch.*.

       In addition to the above, for commit and tag objects, the header field names (tree,
       parent, object, type, and tag) can be used to specify the value in the header field.

       Fields that have name-email-date tuple as its value (author, committer, and tagger) can be
       suffixed with name, email, and date to extract the named component.

       The complete message in a commit and tag object is contents. Its first line is
       contents:subject, where subject is the concatenation of all lines of the commit message up
       to the first blank line. The next line is contents:body, where body is all of the lines
       after the first blank line. Finally, the optional GPG signature is contents:signature.

       For sorting purposes, fields with numeric values sort in numeric order (objectsize,
       authordate, committerdate, taggerdate). All other fields are used to sort in their
       byte-value order.

       In any case, a field name that refers to a field inapplicable to the object referred by
       the ref does not cause an error. It returns an empty string instead.

       As a special case for the date-type fields, you may specify a format for the date by
       adding one of :default, :relative, :short, :local, :iso8601, :rfc2822 or :raw to the end
       of the fieldname; e.g. %(taggerdate:relative).

EXAMPLES

       An example directly producing formatted text. Show the most recent 3 tagged commits:

           #!/bin/sh

           git for-each-ref --count=3 --sort='-*authordate' \
           --format='From: %(*authorname) %(*authoremail)
           Subject: %(*subject)
           Date: %(*authordate)
           Ref: %(*refname)

           %(*body)
           ' 'refs/tags'

       A simple example showing the use of shell eval on the output, demonstrating the use of
       --shell. List the prefixes of all heads:

           #!/bin/sh

           git for-each-ref --shell --format="ref=%(refname)" refs/heads | \
           while read entry
           do
                   eval "$entry"
                   echo `dirname $ref`
           done

       A bit more elaborate report on tags, demonstrating that the format may be an entire
       script:

           #!/bin/sh

           fmt='
                   r=%(refname)
                   t=%(*objecttype)
                   T=${r#refs/tags/}

                   o=%(*objectname)
                   n=%(*authorname)
                   e=%(*authoremail)
                   s=%(*subject)
                   d=%(*authordate)
                   b=%(*body)

                   kind=Tag
                   if test "z$t" = z
                   then
                           # could be a lightweight tag
                           t=%(objecttype)
                           kind="Lightweight tag"
                           o=%(objectname)
                           n=%(authorname)
                           e=%(authoremail)
                           s=%(subject)
                           d=%(authordate)
                           b=%(body)
                   fi
                   echo "$kind $T points at a $t object $o"
                   if test "z$t" = zcommit
                   then
                           echo "The commit was authored by $n $e
           at $d, and titled

               $s

           Its message reads as:
           "
                           echo "$b" | sed -e "s/^/    /"
                           echo
                   fi
           '

           eval=`git for-each-ref --shell --format="$fmt" \
                   --sort='*objecttype' \
                   --sort=-taggerdate \
                   refs/tags`
           eval "$eval"

SEE ALSO

       git-show-ref(1)

GIT

       Part of the git(1) suite