# How do I get the file contents from an arbitrary revision to stdout? 6 messages from 2021-10-08 to 2021-10-08. Participants: Alan Mackenzie, Konstantin Ryabitsev, Jeff King, Junio C Hamano. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/56668 ## Alan Mackenzie, 2021-10-08 17:51 Subject: How do I get the file contents from an arbitrary revision to stdout? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/YWCFFcNeNVTYcELN%40ACM ``` Hello, git. I want to get a file's content from a particular revision onto stdout for backup purposes. I can't see how to do this. Help me, please! Let's say the file is foo.c, and I want to get the version from the head revision of bar-branch. I would like there to be a command something like: $ git cat bar-branch -- foo.c .. Is there such a command, and if so, what's it called and how do I use it? I assumed it might be git cat-file, but I couldn't get it to work, and couldn't understand it's man page. Where might I have found this information for myself? Thanks in advance for the help! -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany). ``` ## Konstantin Ryabitsev, 2021-10-08 18:01 Subject: Re: How do I get the file contents from an arbitrary revision to stdout? Message-ID: <20211008180123.ls62virahqthgpmb@meerkat.local> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20211008180123.ls62virahqthgpmb%40meerkat.local In-Reply-To: ``` On Fri, Oct 08, 2021 at 05:51:17PM +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote: > Hello, git. > > I want to get a file's content from a particular revision onto stdout for > backup purposes. I can't see how to do this. Help me, please! > > Let's say the file is foo.c, and I want to get the version from the head > revision of bar-branch. git show bar-branch:foo.c -K ``` ## Alan Mackenzie, 2021-10-08 18:15 Subject: Re: How do I get the file contents from an arbitrary revision to stdout? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/YWCKpH5ER1Z9Xm3E%40ACM In-Reply-To: <20211008180123.ls62virahqthgpmb@meerkat.local> ``` Hello, Konstantin. On Fri, Oct 08, 2021 at 14:01:23 -0400, Konstantin Ryabitsev wrote: > On Fri, Oct 08, 2021 at 05:51:17PM +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote: > > Hello, git. > > > > I want to get a file's content from a particular revision onto stdout for > > backup purposes. I can't see how to do this. Help me, please! > > > > Let's say the file is foo.c, and I want to get the version from the head > > revision of bar-branch. > git show bar-branch:foo.c Thank you indeed. That works just right! > -K -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany). ``` ## Jeff King, 2021-10-08 20:02 Subject: Re: How do I get the file contents from an arbitrary revision to stdout? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/YWCj6NqMrxksN1V8%40coredump.intra.peff.net In-Reply-To: ``` On Fri, Oct 08, 2021 at 05:51:17PM +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote: > I would like there to be a command something like: > > $ git cat bar-branch -- foo.c > > .. Is there such a command, and if so, what's it called and how do I use > it? I assumed it might be git cat-file, but I couldn't get it to work, > and couldn't understand it's man page. Konstantin pointed you at git-show, which is what I would have used. But I just wanted to mention that you were on the right track. The invocation you wanted was: git cat-file blob bar-branch:foo.c or: git cat-file -p bar-branch:foo.c (the "-p" is "pretty-print based on the object's type", so the two are equivalent). > Where might I have found this information for myself? You found the cat-file manpage, which I agree is a bit thick. An Examples section would probably help a lot. The other thing that might have helped is the gitrevisions(7) page, especially the : entry. Your example above to use " -- " was a good thought, but the path there is for limiting diffs and traversals. What you want here is to specify the name of a single object, and gitrevisions gives all the ways to do that. -Peff ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2021-10-08 21:54 Subject: Re: How do I get the file contents from an arbitrary revision to stdout? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqqtuhri3mc.fsf%40gitster.g In-Reply-To: ``` Jeff King writes: > git cat-file -p bar-branch:foo.c > > (the "-p" is "pretty-print based on the object's type", so the two are > equivalent). IIRC, "cat-file -p" doesn't do textconv, but "show" would, and depending on the use case the difference may matter. ``` ## Jeff King, 2021-10-08 23:01 Subject: Re: How do I get the file contents from an arbitrary revision to stdout? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/YWDM0HASo7VMwnz1%40coredump.intra.peff.net In-Reply-To: ``` On Fri, Oct 08, 2021 at 02:54:51PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote: > Jeff King writes: > > > git cat-file -p bar-branch:foo.c > > > > (the "-p" is "pretty-print based on the object's type", so the two are > > equivalent). > > IIRC, "cat-file -p" doesn't do textconv, but "show" would, and > depending on the use case the difference may matter. Sorry, I should have been more clear. I meant that the two cat-file invocations are equivalent (using "blob" versus "-p"). I agree that for human consumption, "show" is preferable. -Peff ```