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Administration
Plumbing Commands
-
2.43.0
11/20/23
- 2.40.1 → 2.42.1 no changes
-
2.40.0
03/12/23
- 2.39.1 → 2.39.3 no changes
-
2.39.0
12/12/22
- 2.35.1 → 2.38.5 no changes
-
2.35.0
01/24/22
- 2.34.1 → 2.34.8 no changes
-
2.34.0
11/15/21
- 2.31.1 → 2.33.8 no changes
-
2.31.0
03/15/21
- 2.30.2 → 2.30.9 no changes
-
2.30.1
02/08/21
DESCRIPTION
Displays paths that have differences between the index file and the
current HEAD commit, paths that have differences between the working
tree and the index file, and paths in the working tree that are not
tracked by Git (and are not ignored by gitignore[5]). The first
are what you would commit by running git commit
; the second and
third are what you could commit by running git add before running
git commit
.
OPTIONS
- -s
- --short
-
Give the output in the short-format.
- -b
- --branch
-
Show the branch and tracking info even in short-format.
- --show-stash
-
Show the number of entries currently stashed away.
- --porcelain[=<version>]
-
Give the output in an easy-to-parse format for scripts. This is similar to the short output, but will remain stable across Git versions and regardless of user configuration. See below for details.
The version parameter is used to specify the format version. This is optional and defaults to the original version v1 format.
- --long
-
Give the output in the long-format. This is the default.
- -v
- --verbose
-
In addition to the names of files that have been changed, also show the textual changes that are staged to be committed (i.e., like the output of
git diff --cached
). If-v
is specified twice, then also show the changes in the working tree that have not yet been staged (i.e., like the output ofgit diff
). - -u[<mode>]
- --untracked-files[=<mode>]
-
Show untracked files.
The mode parameter is used to specify the handling of untracked files. It is optional: it defaults to all, and if specified, it must be stuck to the option (e.g.
-uno
, but not-u no
).The possible options are:
-
no - Show no untracked files.
-
normal - Shows untracked files and directories.
-
all - Also shows individual files in untracked directories.
When
-u
option is not used, untracked files and directories are shown (i.e. the same as specifyingnormal
), to help you avoid forgetting to add newly created files. Because it takes extra work to find untracked files in the filesystem, this mode may take some time in a large working tree. Consider enabling untracked cache and split index if supported (seegit update-index --untracked-cache
andgit update-index --split-index
), Otherwise you can useno
to havegit status
return more quickly without showing untracked files.The default can be changed using the status.showUntrackedFiles configuration variable documented in git-config[1].
-
- --ignore-submodules[=<when>]
-
Ignore changes to submodules when looking for changes. <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 before 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules (and suppresses the output of submodule summaries when the config option
status.submoduleSummary
is set). - --ignored[=<mode>]
-
Show ignored files as well.
The mode parameter is used to specify the handling of ignored files. It is optional: it defaults to traditional.
The possible options are:
-
traditional - Shows ignored files and directories, unless --untracked-files=all is specified, in which case individual files in ignored directories are displayed.
-
no - Show no ignored files.
-
matching - Shows ignored files and directories matching an ignore pattern.
When matching mode is specified, paths that explicitly match an ignored pattern are shown. If a directory matches an ignore pattern, then it is shown, but not paths contained in the ignored directory. If a directory does not match an ignore pattern, but all contents are ignored, then the directory is not shown, but all contents are shown.
-
- -z
-
Terminate entries with NUL, instead of LF. This implies the
--porcelain=v1
output format if no other format is given. - --column[=<options>]
- --no-column
-
Display untracked files in columns. See configuration variable
column.status
for option syntax.--column
and--no-column
without options are equivalent to always and never respectively. - --ahead-behind
- --no-ahead-behind
-
Display or do not display detailed ahead/behind counts for the branch relative to its upstream branch. Defaults to true.
- --renames
- --no-renames
-
Turn on/off rename detection regardless of user configuration. See also git-diff[1]
--no-renames
. - --find-renames[=<n>]
-
Turn on rename detection, optionally setting the similarity threshold. See also git-diff[1]
--find-renames
. - <pathspec>…
-
See the pathspec entry in gitglossary[7].
OUTPUT
The output from this command is designed to be used as a commit template comment. The default, long format, is designed to be human readable, verbose and descriptive. Its contents and format are subject to change at any time.
The paths mentioned in the output, unlike many other Git commands, are made relative to the current directory if you are working in a subdirectory (this is on purpose, to help cutting and pasting). See the status.relativePaths config option below.
Short Format
In the short-format, the status of each path is shown as one of these forms
XY PATH XY ORIG_PATH -> PATH
where ORIG_PATH
is where the renamed/copied contents came
from. ORIG_PATH
is only shown when the entry is renamed or
copied. The XY
is a two-letter status code.
The fields (including the ->
) are separated from each other by a
single space. If a filename contains whitespace or other nonprintable
characters, that field will be quoted in the manner of a C string
literal: surrounded by ASCII double quote (34) characters, and with
interior special characters backslash-escaped.
There are three different types of states that are shown using this format, and
each one uses the XY
syntax differently:
-
When a merge is occurring and the merge was successful, or outside of a merge situation,
X
shows the status of the index andY
shows the status of the working tree. -
When a merge conflict has occurred and has not yet been resolved,
X
andY
show the state introduced by each head of the merge, relative to the common ancestor. These paths are said to be unmerged. -
When a path is untracked,
X
andY
are always the same, since they are unknown to the index.??
is used for untracked paths. Ignored files are not listed unless--ignored
is used; if it is, ignored files are indicated by!!
.
Note that the term merge here also includes rebases using the default
--merge
strategy, cherry-picks, and anything else using the merge machinery.
In the following table, these three classes are shown in separate sections, and
these characters are used for X
and Y
fields for the first two sections that
show tracked paths:
-
' ' = unmodified
-
M = modified
-
T = file type changed (regular file, symbolic link or submodule)
-
A = added
-
D = deleted
-
R = renamed
-
C = copied (if config option status.renames is set to "copies")
-
U = updated but unmerged
X Y Meaning ------------------------------------------------- [AMD] not updated M [ MTD] updated in index T [ MTD] type changed in index A [ MTD] added to index D deleted from index R [ MTD] renamed in index C [ MTD] copied in index [MTARC] index and work tree matches [ MTARC] M work tree changed since index [ MTARC] T type changed in work tree since index [ MTARC] D deleted in work tree R renamed in work tree C copied in work tree ------------------------------------------------- D D unmerged, both deleted A U unmerged, added by us U D unmerged, deleted by them U A unmerged, added by them D U unmerged, deleted by us A A unmerged, both added U U unmerged, both modified ------------------------------------------------- ? ? untracked ! ! ignored -------------------------------------------------
Submodules have more state and instead report
-
M = the submodule has a different HEAD than recorded in the index
-
m = the submodule has modified content
-
? = the submodule has untracked files
This is since modified content or untracked files in a submodule cannot be added
via git add
in the superproject to prepare a commit.
m and ? are applied recursively. For example if a nested submodule in a submodule contains an untracked file, this is reported as ? as well.
If -b is used the short-format status is preceded by a line
## branchname tracking info
Porcelain Format Version 1
Version 1 porcelain format is similar to the short format, but is guaranteed not to change in a backwards-incompatible way between Git versions or based on user configuration. This makes it ideal for parsing by scripts. The description of the short format above also describes the porcelain format, with a few exceptions:
-
The user’s color.status configuration is not respected; color will always be off.
-
The user’s status.relativePaths configuration is not respected; paths shown will always be relative to the repository root.
There is also an alternate -z format recommended for machine parsing. In that format, the status field is the same, but some other things change. First, the -> is omitted from rename entries and the field order is reversed (e.g from -> to becomes to from). Second, a NUL (ASCII 0) follows each filename, replacing space as a field separator and the terminating newline (but a space still separates the status field from the first filename). Third, filenames containing special characters are not specially formatted; no quoting or backslash-escaping is performed.
Any submodule changes are reported as modified M
instead of m
or single ?
.
Porcelain Format Version 2
Version 2 format adds more detailed information about the state of the worktree and changed items. Version 2 also defines an extensible set of easy to parse optional headers.
Header lines start with "#" and are added in response to specific command line arguments. Parsers should ignore headers they don’t recognize.
Branch Headers
If --branch
is given, a series of header lines are printed with
information about the current branch.
Line Notes ------------------------------------------------------------ # branch.oid <commit> | (initial) Current commit. # branch.head <branch> | (detached) Current branch. # branch.upstream <upstream_branch> If upstream is set. # branch.ab +<ahead> -<behind> If upstream is set and the commit is present. ------------------------------------------------------------
Stash Information
If --show-stash
is given, one line is printed showing the number of stash
entries if non-zero:
# stash <N>
Changed Tracked Entries
Following the headers, a series of lines are printed for tracked entries. One of three different line formats may be used to describe an entry depending on the type of change. Tracked entries are printed in an undefined order; parsers should allow for a mixture of the 3 line types in any order.
Ordinary changed entries have the following format:
1 <XY> <sub> <mH> <mI> <mW> <hH> <hI> <path>
Renamed or copied entries have the following format:
2 <XY> <sub> <mH> <mI> <mW> <hH> <hI> <X><score> <path><sep><origPath>
Field Meaning -------------------------------------------------------- <XY> A 2 character field containing the staged and unstaged XY values described in the short format, with unchanged indicated by a "." rather than a space. <sub> A 4 character field describing the submodule state. "N..." when the entry is not a submodule. "S<c><m><u>" when the entry is a submodule. <c> is "C" if the commit changed; otherwise ".". <m> is "M" if it has tracked changes; otherwise ".". <u> is "U" if there are untracked changes; otherwise ".". <mH> The octal file mode in HEAD. <mI> The octal file mode in the index. <mW> The octal file mode in the worktree. <hH> The object name in HEAD. <hI> The object name in the index. <X><score> The rename or copy score (denoting the percentage of similarity between the source and target of the move or copy). For example "R100" or "C75". <path> The pathname. In a renamed/copied entry, this is the target path. <sep> When the `-z` option is used, the 2 pathnames are separated with a NUL (ASCII 0x00) byte; otherwise, a tab (ASCII 0x09) byte separates them. <origPath> The pathname in the commit at HEAD or in the index. This is only present in a renamed/copied entry, and tells where the renamed/copied contents came from. --------------------------------------------------------
Unmerged entries have the following format; the first character is a "u" to distinguish from ordinary changed entries.
u <XY> <sub> <m1> <m2> <m3> <mW> <h1> <h2> <h3> <path>
Field Meaning -------------------------------------------------------- <XY> A 2 character field describing the conflict type as described in the short format. <sub> A 4 character field describing the submodule state as described above. <m1> The octal file mode in stage 1. <m2> The octal file mode in stage 2. <m3> The octal file mode in stage 3. <mW> The octal file mode in the worktree. <h1> The object name in stage 1. <h2> The object name in stage 2. <h3> The object name in stage 3. <path> The pathname. --------------------------------------------------------
Other Items
Following the tracked entries (and if requested), a series of lines will be printed for untracked and then ignored items found in the worktree.
Untracked items have the following format:
? <path>
Ignored items have the following format:
! <path>
Pathname Format Notes and -z
When the -z
option is given, pathnames are printed as is and
without any quoting and lines are terminated with a NUL (ASCII 0x00)
byte.
Without the -z
option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are
quoted as explained for the configuration variable core.quotePath
(see git-config[1]).
CONFIGURATION
The command honors color.status
(or status.color
— they
mean the same thing and the latter is kept for backward
compatibility) and color.status.<slot>
configuration variables
to colorize its output.
If the config variable status.relativePaths
is set to false, then all
paths shown are relative to the repository root, not to the current
directory.
If status.submoduleSummary
is set to a non zero number or true (identical
to -1 or an unlimited number), the submodule summary will be enabled for
the long format and a summary of commits for modified submodules will be
shown (see --summary-limit option of git-submodule[1]). Please note
that the summary output from the status command will be suppressed for all
submodules when diff.ignoreSubmodules
is set to all or only for those
submodules where submodule.<name>.ignore=all
. To also view the summary for
ignored submodules you can either use the --ignore-submodules=dirty command
line option or the git submodule summary command, which shows a similar
output but does not honor these settings.
BACKGROUND REFRESH
By default, git status
will automatically refresh the index, updating
the cached stat information from the working tree and writing out the
result. Writing out the updated index is an optimization that isn’t
strictly necessary (status
computes the values for itself, but writing
them out is just to save subsequent programs from repeating our
computation). When status
is run in the background, the lock held
during the write may conflict with other simultaneous processes, causing
them to fail. Scripts running status
in the background should consider
using git --no-optional-locks status
(see git[1] for details).
UNTRACKED FILES AND PERFORMANCE
git status
can be very slow in large worktrees if/when it
needs to search for untracked files and directories. There are
many configuration options available to speed this up by either
avoiding the work or making use of cached results from previous
Git commands. There is no single optimum set of settings right
for everyone. We’ll list a summary of the relevant options to help
you, but before going into the list, you may want to run git status
again, because your configuration may already be caching git status
results, so it could be faster on subsequent runs.
-
The
--untracked-files=no
flag or thestatus.showUntrackedfiles=false
config (see above for both): indicate thatgit status
should not report untracked files. This is the fastest option.git status
will not list the untracked files, so you need to be careful to remember if you create any new files and manuallygit add
them. -
advice.statusUoption=false
(see git-config[1]): setting this variable tofalse
disables the warning message given when enumerating untracked files takes more than 2 seconds. In a large project, it may take longer and the user may have already accepted the trade off (e.g. using "-uno" may not be an acceptable option for the user), in which case, there is no point issuing the warning message, and in such a case, disabling the warning may be the best. -
core.untrackedCache=true
(see git-update-index[1]): enable the untracked cache feature and only search directories that have been modified since the previousgit status
command. Git remembers the set of untracked files within each directory and assumes that if a directory has not been modified, then the set of untracked files within has not changed. This is much faster than enumerating the contents of every directory, but still not without cost, because Git still has to search for the set of modified directories. The untracked cache is stored in the.git/index
file. The reduced cost of searching for untracked files is offset slightly by the increased size of the index and the cost of keeping it up-to-date. That reduced search time is usually worth the additional size. -
core.untrackedCache=true
andcore.fsmonitor=true
orcore.fsmonitor=<hook_command_pathname>
(see git-update-index[1]): enable both the untracked cache and FSMonitor features and only search directories that have been modified since the previousgit status
command. This is faster than using just the untracked cache alone because Git can also avoid searching for modified directories. Git only has to enumerate the exact set of directories that have changed recently. While the FSMonitor feature can be enabled without the untracked cache, the benefits are greatly reduced in that case.
Note that after you turn on the untracked cache and/or FSMonitor
features it may take a few git status
commands for the various
caches to warm up before you see improved command times. This is
normal.
GIT
Part of the git[1] suite