| 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. |
| |
| * Just as the filesystem '.' (period) refers to the current directory, |
| using a '.' as a repository name in Git (a dot-repository) is a relative |
| path and means your current repository. |
| |
| 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 'stuck' 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 'stuck' 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] <commit-ish>* |
| 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 |
| 'stuck' 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 |