git-cat-file(1) Manual Page

NAME

git - cat-file - Provide content or type information for repository objects

SYNOPSIS

git-cat-file (-t | <type>) <object>

DESCRIPTION

Provides content or type of objects in the repository. The type is required if -t is not being used to find the object type.

OPTIONS

<object>
The sha1 identifier of the object.
-t
Instead of the content, show the object type identified by <object>.
<type>
Typically this matches the real type of <object> but asking for a type that can trivially dereferenced from the given <object> is also permitted. An example is to ask for a "tree" with <object> being a commit object that contains it, or to ask for a "blob" with <object> being a tag object that points at it.

OUTPUT

If -t is specified, one of the <type>.

Otherwise the raw (though uncompressed) contents of the <object> will be returned.

Author

Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

Documentation

Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.

GIT

Part of the git(7) suite