git-hash-object:tldr:ced42

git-hash-object: Compute the object ID from `stdin`.

$ cat ${filename} | git hash-object --stdin

try on your machine

This command is used to calculate and display the hash value (SHA-1) for the content of a file in Git.

Here's how it works step-by-step:

cat ${filename}: This part uses the cat command to read and display the contents of the file whose name is stored in the ${filename} variable. The cat command is used to concatenate and display file contents in Unix-like systems.
|: This pipe character acts as a redirection operator, sending the output of the previous command (cat ${filename}) as input to the next command.
git hash-object --stdin: The git hash-object command calculates the SHA-1 hash value for the provided input. In this case, --stdin tells Git to read the input from the standard input stream, which is coming from the previous command through the pipe.

When the command is executed, the file contents are read by cat, piped to git hash-object, and then Git calculates and displays the unique SHA-1 hash value for that file's content.

This explanation was created by an AI. In most cases those are correct. But please always be careful and never run a command you are not sure if it is safe.

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