mirror of
https://github.com/git/git.git
synced 2024-11-16 14:04:52 +01:00
9adf272a38
* gp/avoid-explicit-mention-of-dot-git-refs: Fix ".git/refs" stragglers
210 lines
7.7 KiB
Text
210 lines
7.7 KiB
Text
gitcli(7)
|
|
=========
|
|
|
|
NAME
|
|
----
|
|
gitcli - Git command line interface and conventions
|
|
|
|
SYNOPSIS
|
|
--------
|
|
gitcli
|
|
|
|
|
|
DESCRIPTION
|
|
-----------
|
|
|
|
This manual describes the convention used throughout Git CLI.
|
|
|
|
Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes
|
|
"tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their
|
|
arguments. Here are the rules:
|
|
|
|
* Revisions come first and then paths.
|
|
E.g. in `git diff v1.0 v2.0 arch/x86 include/asm-x86`,
|
|
`v1.0` and `v2.0` are revisions and `arch/x86` and `include/asm-x86`
|
|
are paths.
|
|
|
|
* When an argument can be misunderstood as either a revision or a path,
|
|
they can be disambiguated by placing `--` between them.
|
|
E.g. `git diff -- HEAD` is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work
|
|
tree. Please show changes between the version I staged in the index
|
|
and what I have in the work tree for that file". not "show difference
|
|
between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say
|
|
`git diff HEAD --` to ask for the latter.
|
|
|
|
* Without disambiguating `--`, Git makes a reasonable guess, but errors
|
|
out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a
|
|
file called HEAD in your work tree, `git diff HEAD` is ambiguous, and
|
|
you have to say either `git diff HEAD --` or `git diff -- HEAD` to
|
|
disambiguate.
|
|
+
|
|
When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is
|
|
a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing
|
|
disambiguating `--` at appropriate places.
|
|
|
|
* Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect
|
|
them from getting globbed by the shell. These two mean different
|
|
things:
|
|
+
|
|
--------------------------------
|
|
$ git checkout -- *.c
|
|
$ git checkout -- \*.c
|
|
--------------------------------
|
|
+
|
|
The former lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking
|
|
the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version
|
|
in the index. The latter passes the `*.c` to Git, and you are asking
|
|
the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to your
|
|
working tree. After running `git add hello.c; rm hello.c`, you will _not_
|
|
see `hello.c` in your working tree with the former, but with the latter
|
|
you will.
|
|
|
|
Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are
|
|
scripting Git:
|
|
|
|
* it's preferred to use the non dashed form of Git commands, which means that
|
|
you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`.
|
|
|
|
* splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b`
|
|
to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work).
|
|
|
|
* when a command line option takes an argument, use the 'sticked' form. In
|
|
other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short
|
|
options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg`
|
|
for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be
|
|
written in the 'sticked' form.
|
|
|
|
* when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is
|
|
not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write
|
|
`git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work
|
|
if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree.
|
|
|
|
* many commands allow a long option "--option" to be abbreviated
|
|
only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option
|
|
whose name begins with "opt", you may be able to spell "--opt" to
|
|
invoke the "--option" flag), but you should fully spell them out
|
|
when writing your scripts; later versions of Git may introduce a
|
|
new option whose name shares the same prefix, e.g. "--optimize",
|
|
to make a short prefix that used to be unique no longer unique.
|
|
|
|
|
|
ENHANCED OPTION PARSER
|
|
----------------------
|
|
From the Git 1.5.4 series and further, many Git commands (not all of them at the
|
|
time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser.
|
|
|
|
Here is a list of the facilities provided by this option parser.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Magic Options
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a
|
|
couple of magic command line options:
|
|
|
|
-h::
|
|
gives a pretty printed usage of the command.
|
|
+
|
|
---------------------------------------------
|
|
$ git describe -h
|
|
usage: git describe [options] <committish>*
|
|
or: git describe [options] --dirty
|
|
|
|
--contains find the tag that comes after the commit
|
|
--debug debug search strategy on stderr
|
|
--all use any ref
|
|
--tags use any tag, even unannotated
|
|
--long always use long format
|
|
--abbrev[=<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s
|
|
---------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--help-all::
|
|
Some Git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that
|
|
are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This
|
|
option gives the full list of options.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Negating options
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `--no-`. For
|
|
example, `git branch` has the option `--track` which is 'on' by default. You
|
|
can use `--no-track` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `--color`
|
|
and `--no-color`.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aggregating short options
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short
|
|
options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or
|
|
`git clean -fdx`.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Abbreviating long options
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
Commands that support the enhanced option parser accepts unique
|
|
prefix of a long option as if it is fully spelled out, but use this
|
|
with a caution. For example, `git commit --amen` behaves as if you
|
|
typed `git commit --amend`, but that is true only until a later version
|
|
of Git introduces another option that shares the same prefix,
|
|
e.g `git commit --amenity" option.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Separating argument from the option
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate
|
|
word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work:
|
|
|
|
----------------------------
|
|
$ git foo --long-opt=Arg
|
|
$ git foo --long-opt Arg
|
|
$ git foo -oArg
|
|
$ git foo -o Arg
|
|
----------------------------
|
|
|
|
However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the
|
|
'sticked' form must be used:
|
|
----------------------------
|
|
$ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct
|
|
$ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct
|
|
$ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT
|
|
----------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS
|
|
------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Many commands that can work on files in the working tree
|
|
and/or in the index can take `--cached` and/or `--index`
|
|
options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because
|
|
the index was originally called cache, these two are
|
|
synonyms. They are *not* -- these two options mean very
|
|
different things.
|
|
|
|
* The `--cached` option is used to ask a command that
|
|
usually works on files in the working tree to *only* work
|
|
with the index. For example, `git grep`, when used
|
|
without a commit to specify from which commit to look for
|
|
strings in, usually works on files in the working tree,
|
|
but with the `--cached` option, it looks for strings in
|
|
the index.
|
|
|
|
* The `--index` option is used to ask a command that
|
|
usually works on files in the working tree to *also*
|
|
affect the index. For example, `git stash apply` usually
|
|
merges changes recorded in a stash to the working tree,
|
|
but with the `--index` option, it also merges changes to
|
|
the index as well.
|
|
|
|
`git apply` command can be used with `--cached` and
|
|
`--index` (but not at the same time). Usually the command
|
|
only affects the files in the working tree, but with
|
|
`--index`, it patches both the files and their index
|
|
entries, and with `--cached`, it modifies only the index
|
|
entries.
|
|
|
|
See also http://marc.info/?l=git&m=116563135620359 and
|
|
http://marc.info/?l=git&m=119150393620273 for further
|
|
information.
|
|
|
|
GIT
|
|
---
|
|
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite
|