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
and Y shows the status of the working tree.
• When a merge conflict has occurred and has not yet been
resolved, X and Y 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 and Y 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
• A = added
• D = deleted
• R = renamed
• C = copied
• U = updated but unmerged
X Y Meaning
-------------------------------------------------
[AMD] not updated
M [ MD] updated in index
A [ MD] added to index
D deleted from index
R [ MD] renamed in index
C [ MD] copied in index
[MARC] index and work tree matches
[ MARC] M work tree changed since index
[ MARC] D deleted in work tree
[ D] R renamed in work tree
[ D] 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 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:
1. The user's color.status configuration is not respected; color
will always be off.
2. 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.
------------------------------------------------------------
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)).
