GIT-ANNOTATE(1) Git Manual GIT-ANNOTATE(1)

NAME

git-annotate - Annotate file lines with commit information

SYNOPSIS

git annotate [<options>] [<rev-opts>] [<rev>] [--] <file>

DESCRIPTION

Annotates each line in the given file with information from the
commit which introduced the line. Optionally annotates from a given
revision.

The only difference between this command and git-blame(1) is that
they use slightly different output formats, and this command exists
only for backward compatibility to support existing scripts, and
provide a more familiar command name for people coming from other SCM
systems.

OPTIONS

-b
Show blank SHA-1 for boundary commits. This can also be
controlled via the blame.blankBoundary config option.

--root
Do not treat root commits as boundaries. This can also be
controlled via the blame.showRoot config option.

--show-stats
Include additional statistics at the end of blame output.

-L <start>,<end>, -L :<funcname>
Annotate only the line range given by <start>,<end>, or by the
function name regex <funcname>. May be specified multiple times.
Overlapping ranges are allowed.

<start> and <end> are optional. -L <start> or -L <start>, spans
from <start> to end of file. -L ,<end> spans from start of file
to <end>.

<start> and <end> can take one of these forms:

+o number

If <start> or <end> is a number, it specifies an absolute
line number (lines count from 1).

+o /regex/

This form will use the first line matching the given POSIX
regex. If <start> is a regex, it will search from the end of
the previous -L range, if any, otherwise from the start of
file. If <start> is ^/regex/, it will search from the start
of file. If <end> is a regex, it will search starting at the
line given by <start>.

+o +offset or -offset

This is only valid for <end> and will specify a number of
lines before or after the line given by <start>.

If :<funcname> is given in place of <start> and <end>, it is a
regular expression that denotes the range from the first funcname
line that matches <funcname>, up to the next funcname line.
:<funcname> searches from the end of the previous -L range, if
any, otherwise from the start of file. ^:<funcname> searches
from the start of file. The function names are determined in the
same way as git diff works out patch hunk headers (see Defining a
custom hunk-header in gitattributes(5)).

-l
Show long rev (Default: off).

-t
Show raw timestamp (Default: off).

-S <revs-file>
Use revisions from revs-file instead of calling git-rev-list(1).

--reverse <rev>..<rev>
Walk history forward instead of backward. Instead of showing the
revision in which a line appeared, this shows the last revision
in which a line has existed. This requires a range of revision
like START..END where the path to blame exists in START. git
blame --reverse START is taken as git blame --reverse START..HEAD
for convenience.

--first-parent
Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge commit.
This option can be used to determine when a line was introduced
to a particular integration branch, rather than when it was
introduced to the history overall.

-p, --porcelain
Show in a format designed for machine consumption.

--line-porcelain
Show the porcelain format, but output commit information for each
line, not just the first time a commit is referenced. Implies
--porcelain.

--incremental
Show the result incrementally in a format designed for machine
consumption.

--encoding=<encoding>
Specifies the encoding used to output author names and commit
summaries. Setting it to none makes blame output unconverted
data. For more information see the discussion about encoding in
the git-log(1) manual page.

--contents <file>
Annotate using the contents from the named file, starting from
<rev> if it is specified, and HEAD otherwise. You may specify -
to make the command read from the standard input for the file
contents.

--date <format>
Specifies the format used to output dates. If --date is not
provided, the value of the blame.date config variable is used. If
the blame.date config variable is also not set, the iso format is
used. For supported values, see the discussion of the --date
option at git-log(1).

--[no-]progress
Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by
default when it is attached to a terminal. This flag enables
progress reporting even if not attached to a terminal. Can't use
--progress together with --porcelain or --incremental.

-M[<num>]
Detect moved or copied lines within a file. When a commit moves
or copies a block of lines (e.g. the original file has A and then
B, and the commit changes it to B and then A), the traditional
blame algorithm notices only half of the movement and typically
blames the lines that were moved up (i.e. B) to the parent and
assigns blame to the lines that were moved down (i.e. A) to the
child commit. With this option, both groups of lines are blamed
on the parent by running extra passes of inspection.

<num> is optional but it is the lower bound on the number of
alphanumeric characters that Git must detect as moving/copying
within a file for it to associate those lines with the parent
commit. The default value is 20.

-C[<num>]
In addition to -M, detect lines moved or copied from other files
that were modified in the same commit. This is useful when you
reorganize your program and move code around across files. When
this option is given twice, the command additionally looks for
copies from other files in the commit that creates the file. When
this option is given three times, the command additionally looks
for copies from other files in any commit.

<num> is optional but it is the lower bound on the number of
alphanumeric characters that Git must detect as moving/copying
between files for it to associate those lines with the parent
commit. And the default value is 40. If there are more than one
-C options given, the <num> argument of the last -C will take
effect.

--ignore-rev <rev>
Ignore changes made by the revision when assigning blame, as if
the change never happened. Lines that were changed or added by an
ignored commit will be blamed on the previous commit that changed
that line or nearby lines. This option may be specified multiple
times to ignore more than one revision. If the
blame.markIgnoredLines config option is set, then lines that were
changed by an ignored commit and attributed to another commit
will be marked with a ? in the blame output. If the
blame.markUnblamableLines config option is set, then those lines
touched by an ignored commit that we could not attribute to
another revision are marked with a *.

--ignore-revs-file <file>
Ignore revisions listed in file, which must be in the same format
as an fsck.skipList. This option may be repeated, and these files
will be processed after any files specified with the
blame.ignoreRevsFile config option. An empty file name, "", will
clear the list of revs from previously processed files.

--color-lines
Color line annotations in the default format differently if they
come from the same commit as the preceding line. This makes it
easier to distinguish code blocks introduced by different
commits. The color defaults to cyan and can be adjusted using the
color.blame.repeatedLines config option.

--color-by-age
Color line annotations depending on the age of the line in the
default format. The color.blame.highlightRecent config option
controls what color is used for each range of age.

-h
Show help message.

SEE ALSO

git-blame(1)

GIT

Part of the git(1) suite

Git 2.48.1 2025-01-13 GIT-ANNOTATE(1)