git-cat-file(1) =============== NAME ---- git-cat-file - Provide content or type/size information for repository objects SYNOPSIS -------- 'git-cat-file' [-t | -s | -e | -p | <type>] <object> DESCRIPTION ----------- Provides content or type of objects 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. OPTIONS ------- <object>:: The name of the object to show. For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. -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. 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. Otherwise the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object> will be returned. Author ------ Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> Documentation -------------- Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. GIT --- Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite