# man > git-stripspace(1)

> **TLDR:** Read text (e.g. commit messages, notes, tags, and branch descriptions) from `stdin` and clean it into the manner used by Git.
>
- Trim whitespace from a file:
  `cat {{path/to/file}} | git stripspace`
- Trim whitespace and Git comments from a file:
  `cat {{path/to/file}} | git stripspace {{-s|--strip-comments}}`
- Convert all lines in a file into Git comments:
  `git < {{path/to/file}} stripspace {{-c|--comment-lines}}`

*Source: tldr-pages*

---

[GIT-STRIPSPACE(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/GIT-STRIPSPACE/1/markdown)                            Git Manual                            [GIT-STRIPSPACE(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/GIT-STRIPSPACE/1/markdown)



## NAME
       git-stripspace - Remove unnecessary whitespace

## SYNOPSIS
       _git_ _stripspace_ [-s | --strip-comments]
       _git_ _stripspace_ [-c | --comment-lines]


## DESCRIPTION
       Read text, such as commit messages, notes, tags and branch descriptions, from the standard
       input and clean it in the manner used by Git.

       With no arguments, this will:

       •   remove trailing whitespace from all lines

       •   collapse multiple consecutive empty lines into one empty line

       •   remove empty lines from the beginning and end of the input

       •   add a missing _\n_ to the last line if necessary.

       In the case where the input consists entirely of whitespace characters, no output will be
       produced.

       **NOTE**: This is intended for cleaning metadata, prefer the **--whitespace=fix** mode of **git-**
       [**apply**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/apply/1/markdown) for correcting whitespace of patches or files in the repository.

## OPTIONS
### -s, --strip-comments
           Skip and remove all lines starting with comment character (default _#_).

### -c, --comment-lines
           Prepend comment character and blank to each line. Lines will automatically be terminated
           with a newline. On empty lines, only the comment character will be prepended.

## EXAMPLES
       Given the following noisy input with _$_ indicating the end of a line:

           |A brief introduction   $
           |   $
           |$
           |A new paragraph$
           |# with a commented-out line    $
           |explaining lots of stuff.$
           |$
           |# An old paragraph, also commented-out. $
           |      $
           |The end.$
           |  $


       Use _git_ _stripspace_ with no arguments to obtain:

           |A brief introduction$
           |$
           |A new paragraph$
           |# with a commented-out line$
           |explaining lots of stuff.$
           |$
           |# An old paragraph, also commented-out.$
           |$
           |The end.$


       Use _git_ _stripspace_ _--strip-comments_ to obtain:

           |A brief introduction$
           |$
           |A new paragraph$
           |explaining lots of stuff.$
           |$
           |The end.$


## GIT
       Part of the [**git**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/git/1/markdown) suite



Git 2.34.1                                   02/26/2026                            [GIT-STRIPSPACE(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/GIT-STRIPSPACE/1/markdown)