phpman > man > git-annotate(1)

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



NAME
       git-annotate - Annotate file lines with commit information

SYNOPSIS
       git annotate [<options>] <file> [<revision>]


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:

           •   number

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

           •   /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>.

           •   +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>
           When <rev> is not specified, the command annotates the changes starting backwards from
           the working tree copy. This flag makes the command pretend as if the working tree copy
           has the contents of the named file (specify - to make the command read from the standard
           input).

       --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 2.34.1                                   02/26/2026                              GIT-ANNOTATE(1)