| git-help(1) |
| =========== |
| |
| NAME |
| ---- |
| git-help - Display help information about Git |
| |
| SYNOPSIS |
| -------- |
| [verse] |
| 'git help' [-a|--all [--[no-]verbose]] |
| [[-i|--info] [-m|--man] [-w|--web]] [<command>|<guide>] |
| 'git help' [-g|--guides] |
| 'git help' [-c|--config] |
| |
| DESCRIPTION |
| ----------- |
| |
| With no options and no '<command>' or '<guide>' given, the synopsis of the 'git' |
| command and a list of the most commonly used Git commands are printed |
| on the standard output. |
| |
| If the option `--all` or `-a` is given, all available commands are |
| printed on the standard output. |
| |
| If the option `--guides` or `-g` is given, a list of the |
| Git concept guides is also printed on the standard output. |
| |
| If a command, or a guide, is given, a manual page for that command or |
| guide is brought up. The 'man' program is used by default for this |
| purpose, but this can be overridden by other options or configuration |
| variables. |
| |
| If an alias is given, git shows the definition of the alias on |
| standard output. To get the manual page for the aliased command, use |
| `git <command> --help`. |
| |
| Note that `git --help ...` is identical to `git help ...` because the |
| former is internally converted into the latter. |
| |
| To display the linkgit:git[1] man page, use `git help git`. |
| |
| This page can be displayed with 'git help help' or `git help --help` |
| |
| OPTIONS |
| ------- |
| -a:: |
| --all:: |
| Prints all the available commands on the standard output. This |
| option overrides any given command or guide name. |
| |
| --verbose:: |
| When used with `--all` print description for all recognized |
| commands. This is the default. |
| |
| -c:: |
| --config:: |
| List all available configuration variables. This is a short |
| summary of the list in linkgit:git-config[1]. |
| |
| -g:: |
| --guides:: |
| Prints a list of the Git concept guides on the standard output. |
| |
| -i:: |
| --info:: |
| Display manual page for the command in the 'info' format. The |
| 'info' program will be used for that purpose. |
| |
| -m:: |
| --man:: |
| Display manual page for the command in the 'man' format. This |
| option may be used to override a value set in the |
| `help.format` configuration variable. |
| + |
| By default the 'man' program will be used to display the manual page, |
| but the `man.viewer` configuration variable may be used to choose |
| other display programs (see below). |
| |
| -w:: |
| --web:: |
| Display manual page for the command in the 'web' (HTML) |
| format. A web browser will be used for that purpose. |
| + |
| The web browser can be specified using the configuration variable |
| `help.browser`, or `web.browser` if the former is not set. If none of |
| these config variables is set, the 'git web{litdd}browse' helper script |
| (called by 'git help') will pick a suitable default. See |
| linkgit:git-web{litdd}browse[1] for more information about this. |
| |
| CONFIGURATION VARIABLES |
| ----------------------- |
| |
| help.format |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| If no command-line option is passed, the `help.format` configuration |
| variable will be checked. The following values are supported for this |
| variable; they make 'git help' behave as their corresponding command- |
| line option: |
| |
| * "man" corresponds to '-m|--man', |
| * "info" corresponds to '-i|--info', |
| * "web" or "html" correspond to '-w|--web'. |
| |
| help.browser, web.browser and browser.<tool>.path |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| The `help.browser`, `web.browser` and `browser.<tool>.path` will also |
| be checked if the 'web' format is chosen (either by command-line |
| option or configuration variable). See '-w|--web' in the OPTIONS |
| section above and linkgit:git-web{litdd}browse[1]. |
| |
| man.viewer |
| ~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| The `man.viewer` configuration variable will be checked if the 'man' |
| format is chosen. The following values are currently supported: |
| |
| * "man": use the 'man' program as usual, |
| * "woman": use 'emacsclient' to launch the "woman" mode in emacs |
| (this only works starting with emacsclient versions 22), |
| * "konqueror": use 'kfmclient' to open the man page in a new konqueror |
| tab (see 'Note about konqueror' below). |
| |
| Values for other tools can be used if there is a corresponding |
| `man.<tool>.cmd` configuration entry (see below). |
| |
| Multiple values may be given to the `man.viewer` configuration |
| variable. Their corresponding programs will be tried in the order |
| listed in the configuration file. |
| |
| For example, this configuration: |
| |
| ------------------------------------------------ |
| [man] |
| viewer = konqueror |
| viewer = woman |
| ------------------------------------------------ |
| |
| will try to use konqueror first. But this may fail (for example, if |
| DISPLAY is not set) and in that case emacs' woman mode will be tried. |
| |
| If everything fails, or if no viewer is configured, the viewer specified |
| in the `GIT_MAN_VIEWER` environment variable will be tried. If that |
| fails too, the 'man' program will be tried anyway. |
| |
| man.<tool>.path |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| You can explicitly provide a full path to your preferred man viewer by |
| setting the configuration variable `man.<tool>.path`. For example, you |
| can configure the absolute path to konqueror by setting |
| 'man.konqueror.path'. Otherwise, 'git help' assumes the tool is |
| available in PATH. |
| |
| man.<tool>.cmd |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| When the man viewer, specified by the `man.viewer` configuration |
| variables, is not among the supported ones, then the corresponding |
| `man.<tool>.cmd` configuration variable will be looked up. If this |
| variable exists then the specified tool will be treated as a custom |
| command and a shell eval will be used to run the command with the man |
| page passed as arguments. |
| |
| Note about konqueror |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| When 'konqueror' is specified in the `man.viewer` configuration |
| variable, we launch 'kfmclient' to try to open the man page on an |
| already opened konqueror in a new tab if possible. |
| |
| For consistency, we also try such a trick if 'man.konqueror.path' is |
| set to something like `A_PATH_TO/konqueror`. That means we will try to |
| launch `A_PATH_TO/kfmclient` instead. |
| |
| If you really want to use 'konqueror', then you can use something like |
| the following: |
| |
| ------------------------------------------------ |
| [man] |
| viewer = konq |
| |
| [man "konq"] |
| cmd = A_PATH_TO/konqueror |
| ------------------------------------------------ |
| |
| Note about git config --global |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Note that all these configuration variables should probably be set |
| using the `--global` flag, for example like this: |
| |
| ------------------------------------------------ |
| $ git config --global help.format web |
| $ git config --global web.browser firefox |
| ------------------------------------------------ |
| |
| as they are probably more user specific than repository specific. |
| See linkgit:git-config[1] for more information about this. |
| |
| GIT |
| --- |
| Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |