git-ls-tree.adoc

git-ls-tree(1)
==============

NAME
----
git-ls-tree - List the contents of a tree object


SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'git ls-tree' [-d] [-r] [-t] [-l] [-z]
	    [--name-only] [--name-status] [--object-only] [--full-name] [--full-tree] [--abbrev[=<n>]] [--format=<format>]
	    <tree-ish> [<path>...]

DESCRIPTION
-----------
Lists the contents of a given tree object, like what "/bin/ls -a" does
in the current working directory.  Note that:

 - the behaviour is slightly different from that of "/bin/ls" in that the
   '<path>' denotes just a list of patterns to match, e.g. so specifying
   directory name (without `-r`) will behave differently, and order of the
   arguments does not matter.

 - the behaviour is similar to that of "/bin/ls" in that the '<path>' is
   taken as relative to the current working directory.  E.g. when you are
   in a directory 'sub' that has a directory 'dir', you can run 'git
   ls-tree -r HEAD dir' to list the contents of the tree (that is
   `sub/dir` in `HEAD`).  You don't want to give a tree that is not at the
   root level (e.g. `git ls-tree -r HEAD:sub dir`) in this case, as that
   would result in asking for `sub/sub/dir` in the `HEAD` commit.
   However, the current working directory can be ignored by passing
   --full-tree option.

OPTIONS
-------
<tree-ish>::
	Id of a tree-ish.

-d::
	Show only the named tree entry itself, not its children.

-r::
	Recurse into sub-trees.

-t::
	Show tree entries even when going to recurse them. Has no effect
	if `-r` was not passed. `-d` implies `-t`.

-l::
--long::
	Show object size of blob (file) entries.

-z::
	\0 line termination on output and do not quote filenames.
	See OUTPUT FORMAT below for more information.

--name-only::
--name-status::
	List only filenames (instead of the "long" output), one per line.
	Cannot be combined with `--object-only`.

--object-only::
	List only names of the objects, one per line. Cannot be combined
	with `--name-only` or `--name-status`.
	This is equivalent to specifying `--format='%(objectname)'`, but
	for both this option and that exact format the command takes a
	hand-optimized codepath instead of going through the generic
	formatting mechanism.

--abbrev[=<n>]::
	Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
	lines, show the shortest prefix that is at least '<n>'
	hexdigits long that uniquely refers the object.
	Non default number of digits can be specified with --abbrev=<n>.

--full-name::
	Instead of showing the path names relative to the current working
	directory, show the full path names.

--full-tree::
	Do not limit the listing to the current working directory.
	Implies --full-name.

--format=<format>::
	A string that interpolates `%(fieldname)` from the result
	being shown. It also interpolates `%%` to `%`, and
	`%xNN` where `NN` are hex digits interpolates to character
	with hex code `NN`; for example `%x00` interpolates to
	`\0` (NUL), `%x09` to `\t` (TAB) and `%x0a` to `\n` (LF).
	When specified, `--format` cannot be combined with other
	format-altering options, including `--long`, `--name-only`
	and `--object-only`.

[<path>...]::
	When paths are given, show them (note that this isn't really raw
	pathnames, but rather a list of patterns to match).  Otherwise
	implicitly uses the root level of the tree as the sole path argument.


Output Format
-------------

The output format of `ls-tree` is determined by either the `--format`
option, or other format-altering options such as `--name-only` etc.
(see `--format` above).

The use of certain `--format` directives is equivalent to using those
options, but invoking the full formatting machinery can be slower than
using an appropriate formatting option.

In cases where the `--format` would exactly map to an existing option
`ls-tree` will use the appropriate faster path. Thus the default format
is equivalent to:

	%(objectmode) %(objecttype) %(objectname)%x09%(path)

This output format is compatible with what `--index-info --stdin` of
'git update-index' expects.

When the `-l` option is used, format changes to

	%(objectmode) %(objecttype) %(objectname) %(objectsize:padded)%x09%(path)

Object size identified by <objectname> is given in bytes, and right-justified
with minimum width of 7 characters.  Object size is given only for blobs
(file) entries; for other entries `-` character is used in place of size.

Without the `-z` option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are
quoted as explained for the configuration variable `core.quotePath`
(see linkgit:git-config[1]).  Using `-z` the filename is output
verbatim and the line is terminated by a NUL byte.

Customized format:

It is possible to print in a custom format by using the `--format` option,
which is able to interpolate different fields using a `%(fieldname)` notation.
For example, if you only care about the "objectname" and "path" fields, you
can execute with a specific "--format" like

	git ls-tree --format='%(objectname) %(path)' <tree-ish>

FIELD NAMES
-----------

Various values from structured fields can be used to interpolate
into the resulting output. For each outputting line, the following
names can be used:

objectmode::
	The mode of the object.
objecttype::
	The type of the object (`commit`, `blob` or `tree`).
objectname::
	The name of the object.
objectsize[:padded]::
	The size of a `blob` object ("-" if it's a `commit` or `tree`).
	It also supports a padded format of size with "%(objectsize:padded)".
path::
	The pathname of the object.

GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite