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GIT-INTERPRET-TRAI(1) Git Manual GIT-INTERPRET-TRAI(1)
NAME
git-interpret-trailers - Add or parse structured information in commit messages
SYNOPSIS
git interpret-trailers [<options>] [(--trailer <token>[(=|:)<value>])...] [<file>...]
git interpret-trailers [<options>] [--parse] [<file>...]
DESCRIPTION
Help parsing or adding trailers lines, that look similar to RFC 822 e-mail headers, at the
end of the otherwise free-form part of a commit message.
This command reads some patches or commit messages from either the <file> arguments or the
standard input if no <file> is specified. If --parse is specified, the output consists of
the parsed trailers.
Otherwise, this command applies the arguments passed using the --trailer option, if any,
to the commit message part of each input file. The result is emitted on the standard
output.
Some configuration variables control the way the --trailer arguments are applied to each
commit message and the way any existing trailer in the commit message is changed. They
also make it possible to automatically add some trailers.
By default, a <token>=<value> or <token>:<value> argument given using --trailer will be
appended after the existing trailers only if the last trailer has a different (<token>,
<value>) pair (or if there is no existing trailer). The <token> and <value> parts will be
trimmed to remove starting and trailing whitespace, and the resulting trimmed <token> and
<value> will appear in the message like this:
token: value
This means that the trimmed <token> and <value> will be separated by ': ' (one colon
followed by one space).
By default the new trailer will appear at the end of all the existing trailers. If there
is no existing trailer, the new trailer will appear after the commit message part of the
output, and, if there is no line with only spaces at the end of the commit message part,
one blank line will be added before the new trailer.
Existing trailers are extracted from the input message by looking for a group of one or
more lines that (i) is all trailers, or (ii) contains at least one Git-generated or
user-configured trailer and consists of at least 25% trailers. The group must be preceded
by one or more empty (or whitespace-only) lines. The group must either be at the end of
the message or be the last non-whitespace lines before a line that starts with ---
(followed by a space or the end of the line). Such three minus signs start the patch part
of the message. See also --no-divider below.
When reading trailers, there can be whitespaces after the token, the separator and the
value. There can also be whitespaces inside the token and the value. The value may be
split over multiple lines with each subsequent line starting with whitespace, like the
"folding" in RFC 822.
Note that trailers do not follow and are not intended to follow many rules for RFC 822
headers. For example they do not follow the encoding rules and probably many other rules.
OPTIONS
--in-place
Edit the files in place.
--trim-empty
If the <value> part of any trailer contains only whitespace, the whole trailer will be
removed from the resulting message. This applies to existing trailers as well as new
trailers.
--trailer <token>[(=|:)<value>]
Specify a (<token>, <value>) pair that should be applied as a trailer to the input
messages. See the description of this command.
--where <placement>, --no-where
Specify where all new trailers will be added. A setting provided with --where
overrides all configuration variables and applies to all --trailer options until the
next occurrence of --where or --no-where. Possible values are after, before, end or
start.
--if-exists <action>, --no-if-exists
Specify what action will be performed when there is already at least one trailer with
the same <token> in the message. A setting provided with --if-exists overrides all
configuration variables and applies to all --trailer options until the next occurrence
of --if-exists or --no-if-exists. Possible actions are addIfDifferent,
addIfDifferentNeighbor, add, replace and doNothing.
--if-missing <action>, --no-if-missing
Specify what action will be performed when there is no other trailer with the same
<token> in the message. A setting provided with --if-missing overrides all
configuration variables and applies to all --trailer options until the next occurrence
of --if-missing or --no-if-missing. Possible actions are doNothing or add.
--only-trailers
Output only the trailers, not any other parts of the input.
--only-input
Output only trailers that exist in the input; do not add any from the command-line or
by following configured trailer.* rules.
--unfold
Remove any whitespace-continuation in trailers, so that each trailer appears on a line
by itself with its full content.
--parse
A convenience alias for --only-trailers --only-input --unfold.
--no-divider
Do not treat --- as the end of the commit message. Use this when you know your input
contains just the commit message itself (and not an email or the output of git
format-patch).
CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
trailer.separators
This option tells which characters are recognized as trailer separators. By default
only : is recognized as a trailer separator, except that = is always accepted on the
command line for compatibility with other git commands.
The first character given by this option will be the default character used when
another separator is not specified in the config for this trailer.
For example, if the value for this option is "%=$", then only lines using the format
<token><sep><value> with <sep> containing %, = or $ and then spaces will be considered
trailers. And % will be the default separator used, so by default trailers will appear
like: <token>% <value> (one percent sign and one space will appear between the token
and the value).
trailer.where
This option tells where a new trailer will be added.
This can be end, which is the default, start, after or before.
If it is end, then each new trailer will appear at the end of the existing trailers.
If it is start, then each new trailer will appear at the start, instead of the end, of
the existing trailers.
If it is after, then each new trailer will appear just after the last trailer with the
same <token>.
If it is before, then each new trailer will appear just before the first trailer with
the same <token>.
trailer.ifexists
This option makes it possible to choose what action will be performed when there is
already at least one trailer with the same <token> in the message.
The valid values for this option are: addIfDifferentNeighbor (this is the default),
addIfDifferent, add, replace or doNothing.
With addIfDifferentNeighbor, a new trailer will be added only if no trailer with the
same (<token>, <value>) pair is above or below the line where the new trailer will be
added.
With addIfDifferent, a new trailer will be added only if no trailer with the same
(<token>, <value>) pair is already in the message.
With add, a new trailer will be added, even if some trailers with the same (<token>,
<value>) pair are already in the message.
With replace, an existing trailer with the same <token> will be deleted and the new
trailer will be added. The deleted trailer will be the closest one (with the same
<token>) to the place where the new one will be added.
With doNothing, nothing will be done; that is no new trailer will be added if there is
already one with the same <token> in the message.
trailer.ifmissing
This option makes it possible to choose what action will be performed when there is
not yet any trailer with the same <token> in the message.
The valid values for this option are: add (this is the default) and doNothing.
With add, a new trailer will be added.
With doNothing, nothing will be done.
trailer.<token>.key
This key will be used instead of <token> in the trailer. At the end of this key, a
separator can appear and then some space characters. By default the only valid
separator is :, but this can be changed using the trailer.separators config variable.
If there is a separator, then the key will be used instead of both the <token> and the
default separator when adding the trailer.
trailer.<token>.where
This option takes the same values as the trailer.where configuration variable and it
overrides what is specified by that option for trailers with the specified <token>.
trailer.<token>.ifexists
This option takes the same values as the trailer.ifexists configuration variable and
it overrides what is specified by that option for trailers with the specified <token>.
trailer.<token>.ifmissing
This option takes the same values as the trailer.ifmissing configuration variable and
it overrides what is specified by that option for trailers with the specified <token>.
trailer.<token>.command
This option behaves in the same way as trailer.<token>.cmd, except that it doesn't
pass anything as argument to the specified command. Instead the first occurrence of
substring $ARG is replaced by the value that would be passed as argument.
The trailer.<token>.command option has been deprecated in favor of trailer.<token>.cmd
due to the fact that $ARG in the user's command is only replaced once and that the
original way of replacing $ARG is not safe.
When both trailer.<token>.cmd and trailer.<token>.command are given for the same
<token>, trailer.<token>.cmd is used and trailer.<token>.command is ignored.
trailer.<token>.cmd
This option can be used to specify a shell command that will be called: once to
automatically add a trailer with the specified <token>, and then each time a --trailer
<token>=<value> argument to modify the <value> of the trailer that this option would
produce.
When the specified command is first called to add a trailer with the specified
<token>, the behavior is as if a special --trailer <token>=<value> argument was added
at the beginning of the "git interpret-trailers" command, where <value> is taken to be
the standard output of the command with any leading and trailing whitespace trimmed
off.
If some --trailer <token>=<value> arguments are also passed on the command line, the
command is called again once for each of these arguments with the same <token>. And
the <value> part of these arguments, if any, will be passed to the command as its
first argument. This way the command can produce a <value> computed from the <value>
passed in the --trailer <token>=<value> argument.
EXAMPLES
o Configure a sign trailer with a Signed-off-by key, and then add two of these trailers
to a message:
$ git config trailer.sign.key "Signed-off-by"
$ cat msg.txt
subject
message
$ cat msg.txt | git interpret-trailers --trailer 'sign: Alice <alice AT example.com>' --trailer 'sign: Bob <bob AT example.com>'
subject
message
Signed-off-by: Alice <alice AT example.com>
Signed-off-by: Bob <bob AT example.com>
o Use the --in-place option to edit a message file in place:
$ cat msg.txt
subject
message
Signed-off-by: Bob <bob AT example.com>
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer 'Acked-by: Alice <alice AT example.com>' --in-place msg.txt
$ cat msg.txt
subject
message
Signed-off-by: Bob <bob AT example.com>
Acked-by: Alice <alice AT example.com>
o Extract the last commit as a patch, and add a Cc and a Reviewed-by trailer to it:
$ git format-patch -1
0001-foo.patch
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer 'Cc: Alice <alice AT example.com>' --trailer 'Reviewed-by: Bob <bob AT example.com>' 0001-foo.patch >0001-bar.patch
o Configure a sign trailer with a command to automatically add a 'Signed-off-by: ' with
the author information only if there is no 'Signed-off-by: ' already, and show how it
works:
$ git config trailer.sign.key "Signed-off-by: "
$ git config trailer.sign.ifmissing add
$ git config trailer.sign.ifexists doNothing
$ git config trailer.sign.command 'echo "$(git config user.name) <$(git config user.email)>"'
$ git interpret-trailers <<EOF
> EOF
Signed-off-by: Bob <bob AT example.com>
$ git interpret-trailers <<EOF
> Signed-off-by: Alice <alice AT example.com>
> EOF
Signed-off-by: Alice <alice AT example.com>
o Configure a fix trailer with a key that contains a # and no space after this
character, and show how it works:
$ git config trailer.separators ":#"
$ git config trailer.fix.key "Fix #"
$ echo "subject" | git interpret-trailers --trailer fix=42
subject
Fix #42
o Configure a help trailer with a cmd use a script glog-find-author which search
specified author identity from git log in git repository and show how it works:
$ cat ~/bin/glog-find-author
#!/bin/sh
test -n "$1" && git log --author="$1" --pretty="%an <%ae>" -1 || true
$ git config trailer.help.key "Helped-by: "
$ git config trailer.help.ifExists "addIfDifferentNeighbor"
$ git config trailer.help.cmd "~/bin/glog-find-author"
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer="help:Junio" --trailer="help:Couder" <<EOF
> subject
>
> message
>
> EOF
subject
message
Helped-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster AT pobox.com>
Helped-by: Christian Couder <christian.couder AT gmail.com>
o Configure a ref trailer with a cmd use a script glog-grep to grep last relevant commit
from git log in the git repository and show how it works:
$ cat ~/bin/glog-grep
#!/bin/sh
test -n "$1" && git log --grep "$1" --pretty=reference -1 || true
$ git config trailer.ref.key "Reference-to: "
$ git config trailer.ref.ifExists "replace"
$ git config trailer.ref.cmd "~/bin/glog-grep"
$ git interpret-trailers --trailer="ref:Add copyright notices." <<EOF
> subject
>
> message
>
> EOF
subject
message
Reference-to: 8bc9a0c769 (Add copyright notices., 2005-04-07)
o Configure a see trailer with a command to show the subject of a commit that is
related, and show how it works:
$ git config trailer.see.key "See-also: "
$ git config trailer.see.ifExists "replace"
$ git config trailer.see.ifMissing "doNothing"
$ git config trailer.see.command "git log -1 --oneline --format=\"%h (%s)\" --abbrev-commit --abbrev=14 \$ARG"
$ git interpret-trailers <<EOF
> subject
>
> message
>
> see: HEAD~2
> EOF
subject
message
See-also: fe3187489d69c4 (subject of related commit)
o Configure a commit template with some trailers with empty values (using sed to show
and keep the trailing spaces at the end of the trailers), then configure a commit-msg
hook that uses git interpret-trailers to remove trailers with empty values and to add
a git-version trailer:
$ sed -e 's/ Z$/ /' >commit_template.txt <<EOF
> ***subject***
>
> ***message***
>
> Fixes: Z
> Cc: Z
> Reviewed-by: Z
> Signed-off-by: Z
> EOF
$ git config commit.template commit_template.txt
$ cat >.git/hooks/commit-msg <<EOF
> #!/bin/sh
> git interpret-trailers --trim-empty --trailer "git-version: \$(git describe)" "\$1" > "\$1.new"
> mv "\$1.new" "\$1"
> EOF
$ chmod +x .git/hooks/commit-msg
SEE ALSO
git-commit(1), git-format-patch(1), git-config(1)
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 2.34.1 07/09/2025 GIT-INTERPRET-TRAI(1)
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On Apache
Under GNU General Public License
2025-11-21 16:13 @216.73.216.57 CrawledBy Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)