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The point of these sections is generally to:
1. Give credit where it is due.
2. Give the reader an idea of where to ask questions or
file bug reports.
But they don't do a good job of either case. For (1), they
are out of date and incomplete. A much more accurate answer
can be gotten through shortlog or blame. For (2), the
correct contact point is generally git@vger, and even if you
wanted to cc the contact point, the out-of-date and
incomplete fields mean you're likely sending to somebody
useless.
So let's drop the fields entirely from all manpages except
git(1) itself. We already point people to the mailing list
for bug reports there, and we can update the Authors section
to give credit to the major contributors and point to
shortlog and blame for more information.
Each page has a "This is part of git" footer, so people can
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174 lines
6.2 KiB
Text
174 lines
6.2 KiB
Text
gitcli(7)
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=========
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NAME
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----
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gitcli - git command line interface and conventions
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SYNOPSIS
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--------
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gitcli
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DESCRIPTION
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-----------
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This manual describes the convention used throughout git CLI.
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Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes
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"tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their
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arguments. Here are the rules:
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* Revisions come first and then paths.
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E.g. in `git diff v1.0 v2.0 arch/x86 include/asm-x86`,
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`v1.0` and `v2.0` are revisions and `arch/x86` and `include/asm-x86`
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are paths.
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* When an argument can be misunderstood as either a revision or a path,
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they can be disambiguated by placing `\--` between them.
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E.g. `git diff \-- HEAD` is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work
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tree. Please show changes between the version I staged in the index
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and what I have in the work tree for that file". not "show difference
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between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say
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`git diff HEAD \--` to ask for the latter.
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* Without disambiguating `\--`, git makes a reasonable guess, but errors
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out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a
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file called HEAD in your work tree, `git diff HEAD` is ambiguous, and
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you have to say either `git diff HEAD \--` or `git diff \-- HEAD` to
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disambiguate.
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When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is
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a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing
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disambiguating `\--` at appropriate places.
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Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are
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scripting git:
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* it's preferred to use the non dashed form of git commands, which means that
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you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`.
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* splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b`
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to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work).
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* when a command line option takes an argument, use the 'sticked' form. In
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other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short
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options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg`
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for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be
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written in the 'sticked' form.
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* when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is
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not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write
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`git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work
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if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree.
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ENHANCED OPTION PARSER
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----------------------
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From the git 1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not all of them at the
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time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser.
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Here is an exhaustive list of the facilities provided by this option parser.
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Magic Options
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a
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couple of magic command line options:
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-h::
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gives a pretty printed usage of the command.
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+
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---------------------------------------------
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$ git describe -h
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usage: git describe [options] <committish>*
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--contains find the tag that comes after the commit
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--debug debug search strategy on stderr
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--all use any ref in .git/refs
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--tags use any tag in .git/refs/tags
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--abbrev [<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s
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--candidates <n> consider <n> most recent tags (default: 10)
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---------------------------------------------
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--help-all::
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Some git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that
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are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This
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option gives the full list of options.
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Negating options
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `--no-`. For
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example, `git branch` has the option `--track` which is 'on' by default. You
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can use `--no-track` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `--color`
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and `--no-color`.
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Aggregating short options
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short
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options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or
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`git clean -fdx`.
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Separating argument from the option
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate
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word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work:
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----------------------------
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$ git foo --long-opt=Arg
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$ git foo --long-opt Arg
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$ git foo -oArg
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$ git foo -o Arg
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----------------------------
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However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the
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'sticked' form must be used:
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----------------------------
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$ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct
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$ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct
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$ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT
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----------------------------
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NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS
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------------------------------------
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Many commands that can work on files in the working tree
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and/or in the index can take `--cached` and/or `--index`
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options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because
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the index was originally called cache, these two are
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synonyms. They are *not* -- these two options mean very
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different things.
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* The `--cached` option is used to ask a command that
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usually works on files in the working tree to *only* work
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with the index. For example, `git grep`, when used
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without a commit to specify from which commit to look for
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strings in, usually works on files in the working tree,
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but with the `--cached` option, it looks for strings in
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the index.
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* The `--index` option is used to ask a command that
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usually works on files in the working tree to *also*
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affect the index. For example, `git stash apply` usually
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merges changes recorded in a stash to the working tree,
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but with the `--index` option, it also merges changes to
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the index as well.
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`git apply` command can be used with `--cached` and
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`--index` (but not at the same time). Usually the command
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only affects the files in the working tree, but with
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`--index`, it patches both the files and their index
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entries, and with `--cached`, it modifies only the index
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entries.
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See also http://marc.info/?l=git&m=116563135620359 and
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http://marc.info/?l=git&m=119150393620273 for further
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information.
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GIT
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---
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Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite
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