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0eb4f7cd | 1 | Git User's Manual (for version 1.5.3 or newer) |
71f4b183 | 2 | ______________________________________________ |
d19fbc3c | 3 | |
99eaefdd BF |
4 | |
5 | Git is a fast distributed revision control system. | |
6 | ||
02783075 | 7 | This manual is designed to be readable by someone with basic UNIX |
79c96c57 | 8 | command-line skills, but no previous knowledge of git. |
d19fbc3c | 9 | |
2624d9a5 BF |
10 | <<repositories-and-branches>> and <<exploring-git-history>> explain how |
11 | to fetch and study a project using git--read these chapters to learn how | |
12 | to build and test a particular version of a software project, search for | |
13 | regressions, and so on. | |
ef89f701 | 14 | |
2624d9a5 | 15 | People needing to do actual development will also want to read |
aa971cb9 | 16 | <<Developing-With-git>> and <<sharing-development>>. |
6bd9b682 BF |
17 | |
18 | Further chapters cover more specialized topics. | |
19 | ||
d19fbc3c | 20 | Comprehensive reference documentation is available through the man |
b3d98887 CC |
21 | pages, or linkgit:git-help[1] command. For example, for the command |
22 | "git clone <repo>", you can either use: | |
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23 | |
24 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
25 | $ man git-clone | |
26 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
27 | ||
b3d98887 CC |
28 | or: |
29 | ||
30 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
31 | $ git help clone | |
32 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
33 | ||
34 | With the latter, you can use the manual viewer of your choice; see | |
35 | linkgit:git-help[1] for more information. | |
36 | ||
2624d9a5 BF |
37 | See also <<git-quick-start>> for a brief overview of git commands, |
38 | without any explanation. | |
b181d57f | 39 | |
99f171bb | 40 | Finally, see <<todo>> for ways that you can help make this manual more |
2624d9a5 | 41 | complete. |
b181d57f | 42 | |
b181d57f | 43 | |
e34caace | 44 | [[repositories-and-branches]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
45 | Repositories and Branches |
46 | ========================= | |
47 | ||
e34caace | 48 | [[how-to-get-a-git-repository]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
49 | How to get a git repository |
50 | --------------------------- | |
51 | ||
52 | It will be useful to have a git repository to experiment with as you | |
53 | read this manual. | |
54 | ||
5162e697 | 55 | The best way to get one is by using the linkgit:git-clone[1] command to |
a5f90f31 BF |
56 | download a copy of an existing repository. If you don't already have a |
57 | project in mind, here are some interesting examples: | |
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58 | |
59 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
60 | # git itself (approx. 10MB download): | |
61 | $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git | |
c7719fbe | 62 | # the Linux kernel (approx. 150MB download): |
d19fbc3c BF |
63 | $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git |
64 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
65 | ||
66 | The initial clone may be time-consuming for a large project, but you | |
67 | will only need to clone once. | |
68 | ||
0c4a33b5 BF |
69 | The clone command creates a new directory named after the project ("git" |
70 | or "linux-2.6" in the examples above). After you cd into this | |
d19fbc3c | 71 | directory, you will see that it contains a copy of the project files, |
0c4a33b5 BF |
72 | called the <<def_working_tree,working tree>>, together with a special |
73 | top-level directory named ".git", which contains all the information | |
74 | about the history of the project. | |
d19fbc3c | 75 | |
e34caace | 76 | [[how-to-check-out]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
77 | How to check out a different version of a project |
78 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
79 | ||
a2ef9d63 BF |
80 | Git is best thought of as a tool for storing the history of a collection |
81 | of files. It stores the history as a compressed collection of | |
82 | interrelated snapshots of the project's contents. In git each such | |
83 | version is called a <<def_commit,commit>>. | |
d19fbc3c | 84 | |
0c4a33b5 BF |
85 | Those snapshots aren't necessarily all arranged in a single line from |
86 | oldest to newest; instead, work may simultaneously proceed along | |
57283291 | 87 | parallel lines of development, called <<def_branch,branches>>, which may |
0c4a33b5 BF |
88 | merge and diverge. |
89 | ||
90 | A single git repository can track development on multiple branches. It | |
91 | does this by keeping a list of <<def_head,heads>> which reference the | |
5162e697 | 92 | latest commit on each branch; the linkgit:git-branch[1] command shows |
81b6c950 | 93 | you the list of branch heads: |
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94 | |
95 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
96 | $ git branch | |
97 | * master | |
98 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
99 | ||
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100 | A freshly cloned repository contains a single branch head, by default |
101 | named "master", with the working directory initialized to the state of | |
102 | the project referred to by that branch head. | |
d19fbc3c | 103 | |
81b6c950 BF |
104 | Most projects also use <<def_tag,tags>>. Tags, like heads, are |
105 | references into the project's history, and can be listed using the | |
5162e697 | 106 | linkgit:git-tag[1] command: |
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107 | |
108 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
109 | $ git tag -l | |
110 | v2.6.11 | |
111 | v2.6.11-tree | |
112 | v2.6.12 | |
113 | v2.6.12-rc2 | |
114 | v2.6.12-rc3 | |
115 | v2.6.12-rc4 | |
116 | v2.6.12-rc5 | |
117 | v2.6.12-rc6 | |
118 | v2.6.13 | |
119 | ... | |
120 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
121 | ||
fe4b3e59 | 122 | Tags are expected to always point at the same version of a project, |
81b6c950 | 123 | while heads are expected to advance as development progresses. |
fe4b3e59 | 124 | |
81b6c950 | 125 | Create a new branch head pointing to one of these versions and check it |
5162e697 | 126 | out using linkgit:git-checkout[1]: |
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127 | |
128 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
129 | $ git checkout -b new v2.6.13 | |
130 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
131 | ||
132 | The working directory then reflects the contents that the project had | |
5162e697 | 133 | when it was tagged v2.6.13, and linkgit:git-branch[1] shows two |
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134 | branches, with an asterisk marking the currently checked-out branch: |
135 | ||
136 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
137 | $ git branch | |
138 | master | |
139 | * new | |
140 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
141 | ||
142 | If you decide that you'd rather see version 2.6.17, you can modify | |
143 | the current branch to point at v2.6.17 instead, with | |
144 | ||
145 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
146 | $ git reset --hard v2.6.17 | |
147 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
148 | ||
81b6c950 | 149 | Note that if the current branch head was your only reference to a |
d19fbc3c | 150 | particular point in history, then resetting that branch may leave you |
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151 | with no way to find the history it used to point to; so use this command |
152 | carefully. | |
d19fbc3c | 153 | |
e34caace | 154 | [[understanding-commits]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
155 | Understanding History: Commits |
156 | ------------------------------ | |
157 | ||
158 | Every change in the history of a project is represented by a commit. | |
5162e697 | 159 | The linkgit:git-show[1] command shows the most recent commit on the |
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160 | current branch: |
161 | ||
162 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
163 | $ git show | |
e2618ff4 BF |
164 | commit 17cf781661e6d38f737f15f53ab552f1e95960d7 |
165 | Author: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org.(none)> | |
166 | Date: Tue Apr 19 14:11:06 2005 -0700 | |
167 | ||
168 | Remove duplicate getenv(DB_ENVIRONMENT) call | |
169 | ||
170 | Noted by Tony Luck. | |
171 | ||
172 | diff --git a/init-db.c b/init-db.c | |
173 | index 65898fa..b002dc6 100644 | |
174 | --- a/init-db.c | |
175 | +++ b/init-db.c | |
176 | @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ | |
d19fbc3c | 177 | |
e2618ff4 BF |
178 | int main(int argc, char **argv) |
179 | { | |
180 | - char *sha1_dir = getenv(DB_ENVIRONMENT), *path; | |
181 | + char *sha1_dir, *path; | |
182 | int len, i; | |
183 | ||
184 | if (mkdir(".git", 0755) < 0) { | |
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185 | ------------------------------------------------ |
186 | ||
187 | As you can see, a commit shows who made the latest change, what they | |
188 | did, and why. | |
189 | ||
35121930 | 190 | Every commit has a 40-hexdigit id, sometimes called the "object name" or the |
a6e5ef7d | 191 | "SHA-1 id", shown on the first line of the "git show" output. You can usually |
35121930 BF |
192 | refer to a commit by a shorter name, such as a tag or a branch name, but this |
193 | longer name can also be useful. Most importantly, it is a globally unique | |
194 | name for this commit: so if you tell somebody else the object name (for | |
195 | example in email), then you are guaranteed that name will refer to the same | |
196 | commit in their repository that it does in yours (assuming their repository | |
197 | has that commit at all). Since the object name is computed as a hash over the | |
198 | contents of the commit, you are guaranteed that the commit can never change | |
199 | without its name also changing. | |
200 | ||
036f8199 | 201 | In fact, in <<git-concepts>> we shall see that everything stored in git |
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202 | history, including file data and directory contents, is stored in an object |
203 | with a name that is a hash of its contents. | |
d19fbc3c | 204 | |
e34caace | 205 | [[understanding-reachability]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
206 | Understanding history: commits, parents, and reachability |
207 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
208 | ||
209 | Every commit (except the very first commit in a project) also has a | |
210 | parent commit which shows what happened before this commit. | |
211 | Following the chain of parents will eventually take you back to the | |
212 | beginning of the project. | |
213 | ||
214 | However, the commits do not form a simple list; git allows lines of | |
215 | development to diverge and then reconverge, and the point where two | |
216 | lines of development reconverge is called a "merge". The commit | |
217 | representing a merge can therefore have more than one parent, with | |
218 | each parent representing the most recent commit on one of the lines | |
219 | of development leading to that point. | |
220 | ||
5162e697 | 221 | The best way to see how this works is using the linkgit:gitk[1] |
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222 | command; running gitk now on a git repository and looking for merge |
223 | commits will help understand how the git organizes history. | |
224 | ||
225 | In the following, we say that commit X is "reachable" from commit Y | |
226 | if commit X is an ancestor of commit Y. Equivalently, you could say | |
02783075 | 227 | that Y is a descendant of X, or that there is a chain of parents |
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228 | leading from commit Y to commit X. |
229 | ||
e34caace | 230 | [[history-diagrams]] |
3dff5379 PR |
231 | Understanding history: History diagrams |
232 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
d19fbc3c BF |
233 | |
234 | We will sometimes represent git history using diagrams like the one | |
235 | below. Commits are shown as "o", and the links between them with | |
236 | lines drawn with - / and \. Time goes left to right: | |
237 | ||
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238 | |
239 | ................................................ | |
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240 | o--o--o <-- Branch A |
241 | / | |
242 | o--o--o <-- master | |
243 | \ | |
244 | o--o--o <-- Branch B | |
1dc71a91 | 245 | ................................................ |
d19fbc3c BF |
246 | |
247 | If we need to talk about a particular commit, the character "o" may | |
248 | be replaced with another letter or number. | |
249 | ||
e34caace | 250 | [[what-is-a-branch]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
251 | Understanding history: What is a branch? |
252 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
253 | ||
81b6c950 BF |
254 | When we need to be precise, we will use the word "branch" to mean a line |
255 | of development, and "branch head" (or just "head") to mean a reference | |
256 | to the most recent commit on a branch. In the example above, the branch | |
257 | head named "A" is a pointer to one particular commit, but we refer to | |
258 | the line of three commits leading up to that point as all being part of | |
d19fbc3c BF |
259 | "branch A". |
260 | ||
81b6c950 BF |
261 | However, when no confusion will result, we often just use the term |
262 | "branch" both for branches and for branch heads. | |
d19fbc3c | 263 | |
e34caace | 264 | [[manipulating-branches]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
265 | Manipulating branches |
266 | --------------------- | |
267 | ||
268 | Creating, deleting, and modifying branches is quick and easy; here's | |
269 | a summary of the commands: | |
270 | ||
271 | git branch:: | |
272 | list all branches | |
273 | git branch <branch>:: | |
274 | create a new branch named <branch>, referencing the same | |
275 | point in history as the current branch | |
276 | git branch <branch> <start-point>:: | |
277 | create a new branch named <branch>, referencing | |
278 | <start-point>, which may be specified any way you like, | |
279 | including using a branch name or a tag name | |
280 | git branch -d <branch>:: | |
281 | delete the branch <branch>; if the branch you are deleting | |
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282 | points to a commit which is not reachable from the current |
283 | branch, this command will fail with a warning. | |
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284 | git branch -D <branch>:: |
285 | even if the branch points to a commit not reachable | |
286 | from the current branch, you may know that that commit | |
287 | is still reachable from some other branch or tag. In that | |
288 | case it is safe to use this command to force git to delete | |
289 | the branch. | |
290 | git checkout <branch>:: | |
291 | make the current branch <branch>, updating the working | |
292 | directory to reflect the version referenced by <branch> | |
293 | git checkout -b <new> <start-point>:: | |
294 | create a new branch <new> referencing <start-point>, and | |
295 | check it out. | |
296 | ||
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297 | The special symbol "HEAD" can always be used to refer to the current |
298 | branch. In fact, git uses a file named "HEAD" in the .git directory to | |
299 | remember which branch is current: | |
300 | ||
301 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
302 | $ cat .git/HEAD | |
303 | ref: refs/heads/master | |
304 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
305 | ||
25d9f3fa | 306 | [[detached-head]] |
72a76c95 BF |
307 | Examining an old version without creating a new branch |
308 | ------------------------------------------------------ | |
309 | ||
6127c086 | 310 | The `git checkout` command normally expects a branch head, but will also |
72a76c95 BF |
311 | accept an arbitrary commit; for example, you can check out the commit |
312 | referenced by a tag: | |
313 | ||
314 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
315 | $ git checkout v2.6.17 | |
316 | Note: moving to "v2.6.17" which isn't a local branch | |
317 | If you want to create a new branch from this checkout, you may do so | |
318 | (now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example: | |
319 | git checkout -b <new_branch_name> | |
320 | HEAD is now at 427abfa... Linux v2.6.17 | |
321 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
322 | ||
a6e5ef7d | 323 | The HEAD then refers to the SHA-1 of the commit instead of to a branch, |
72a76c95 BF |
324 | and git branch shows that you are no longer on a branch: |
325 | ||
326 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
327 | $ cat .git/HEAD | |
328 | 427abfa28afedffadfca9dd8b067eb6d36bac53f | |
953f3d6f | 329 | $ git branch |
72a76c95 BF |
330 | * (no branch) |
331 | master | |
332 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
333 | ||
334 | In this case we say that the HEAD is "detached". | |
335 | ||
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336 | This is an easy way to check out a particular version without having to |
337 | make up a name for the new branch. You can still create a new branch | |
338 | (or tag) for this version later if you decide to. | |
d19fbc3c | 339 | |
e34caace | 340 | [[examining-remote-branches]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
341 | Examining branches from a remote repository |
342 | ------------------------------------------- | |
343 | ||
344 | The "master" branch that was created at the time you cloned is a copy | |
345 | of the HEAD in the repository that you cloned from. That repository | |
346 | may also have had other branches, though, and your local repository | |
66a062a1 MM |
347 | keeps branches which track each of those remote branches, called |
348 | remote-tracking branches, which you | |
5162e697 | 349 | can view using the "-r" option to linkgit:git-branch[1]: |
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350 | |
351 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
352 | $ git branch -r | |
353 | origin/HEAD | |
354 | origin/html | |
355 | origin/maint | |
356 | origin/man | |
357 | origin/master | |
358 | origin/next | |
359 | origin/pu | |
360 | origin/todo | |
361 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
362 | ||
66a062a1 MM |
363 | In this example, "origin" is called a remote repository, or "remote" |
364 | for short. The branches of this repository are called "remote | |
365 | branches" from our point of view. The remote-tracking branches listed | |
366 | above were created based on the remote branches at clone time and will | |
367 | be updated by "git fetch" (hence "git pull") and "git push". See | |
368 | <<Updating-a-repository-With-git-fetch>> for details. | |
369 | ||
45dfd403 JN |
370 | You might want to build on one of these remote-tracking branches |
371 | on a branch of your own, just as you would for a tag: | |
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372 | |
373 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
374 | $ git checkout -b my-todo-copy origin/todo | |
375 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
376 | ||
45dfd403 JN |
377 | You can also check out "origin/todo" directly to examine it or |
378 | write a one-off patch. See <<detached-head,detached head>>. | |
379 | ||
d19fbc3c BF |
380 | Note that the name "origin" is just the name that git uses by default |
381 | to refer to the repository that you cloned from. | |
382 | ||
383 | [[how-git-stores-references]] | |
f60b9642 BF |
384 | Naming branches, tags, and other references |
385 | ------------------------------------------- | |
d19fbc3c BF |
386 | |
387 | Branches, remote-tracking branches, and tags are all references to | |
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388 | commits. All references are named with a slash-separated path name |
389 | starting with "refs"; the names we've been using so far are actually | |
390 | shorthand: | |
d19fbc3c | 391 | |
f60b9642 BF |
392 | - The branch "test" is short for "refs/heads/test". |
393 | - The tag "v2.6.18" is short for "refs/tags/v2.6.18". | |
394 | - "origin/master" is short for "refs/remotes/origin/master". | |
d19fbc3c | 395 | |
f60b9642 BF |
396 | The full name is occasionally useful if, for example, there ever |
397 | exists a tag and a branch with the same name. | |
d19fbc3c | 398 | |
fc74ecc1 BF |
399 | (Newly created refs are actually stored in the .git/refs directory, |
400 | under the path given by their name. However, for efficiency reasons | |
401 | they may also be packed together in a single file; see | |
5162e697 | 402 | linkgit:git-pack-refs[1]). |
fc74ecc1 | 403 | |
c64415e2 BF |
404 | As another useful shortcut, the "HEAD" of a repository can be referred |
405 | to just using the name of that repository. So, for example, "origin" | |
406 | is usually a shortcut for the HEAD branch in the repository "origin". | |
d19fbc3c BF |
407 | |
408 | For the complete list of paths which git checks for references, and | |
f60b9642 BF |
409 | the order it uses to decide which to choose when there are multiple |
410 | references with the same shorthand name, see the "SPECIFYING | |
9d83e382 | 411 | REVISIONS" section of linkgit:gitrevisions[7]. |
d19fbc3c | 412 | |
aa971cb9 | 413 | [[Updating-a-repository-With-git-fetch]] |
6127c086 | 414 | Updating a repository with git fetch |
d19fbc3c BF |
415 | ------------------------------------ |
416 | ||
417 | Eventually the developer cloned from will do additional work in her | |
418 | repository, creating new commits and advancing the branches to point | |
419 | at the new commits. | |
420 | ||
421 | The command "git fetch", with no arguments, will update all of the | |
422 | remote-tracking branches to the latest version found in her | |
423 | repository. It will not touch any of your own branches--not even the | |
424 | "master" branch that was created for you on clone. | |
425 | ||
e34caace | 426 | [[fetching-branches]] |
d5cd5de4 BF |
427 | Fetching branches from other repositories |
428 | ----------------------------------------- | |
429 | ||
430 | You can also track branches from repositories other than the one you | |
5162e697 | 431 | cloned from, using linkgit:git-remote[1]: |
d5cd5de4 BF |
432 | |
433 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
434 | $ git remote add linux-nfs git://linux-nfs.org/pub/nfs-2.6.git | |
04483524 | 435 | $ git fetch linux-nfs |
d5cd5de4 BF |
436 | * refs/remotes/linux-nfs/master: storing branch 'master' ... |
437 | commit: bf81b46 | |
438 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
439 | ||
440 | New remote-tracking branches will be stored under the shorthand name | |
6127c086 | 441 | that you gave "git remote add", in this case linux-nfs: |
d5cd5de4 BF |
442 | |
443 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
444 | $ git branch -r | |
445 | linux-nfs/master | |
446 | origin/master | |
447 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
448 | ||
8b3f3f84 | 449 | If you run "git fetch <remote>" later, the remote-tracking branches for the |
d5cd5de4 BF |
450 | named <remote> will be updated. |
451 | ||
452 | If you examine the file .git/config, you will see that git has added | |
453 | a new stanza: | |
454 | ||
455 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
456 | $ cat .git/config | |
457 | ... | |
458 | [remote "linux-nfs"] | |
923642fe BF |
459 | url = git://linux-nfs.org/pub/nfs-2.6.git |
460 | fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/linux-nfs/* | |
d5cd5de4 BF |
461 | ... |
462 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
463 | ||
fc90c536 BF |
464 | This is what causes git to track the remote's branches; you may modify |
465 | or delete these configuration options by editing .git/config with a | |
466 | text editor. (See the "CONFIGURATION FILE" section of | |
5162e697 | 467 | linkgit:git-config[1] for details.) |
d5cd5de4 | 468 | |
e34caace | 469 | [[exploring-git-history]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
470 | Exploring git history |
471 | ===================== | |
472 | ||
473 | Git is best thought of as a tool for storing the history of a | |
474 | collection of files. It does this by storing compressed snapshots of | |
1130845b | 475 | the contents of a file hierarchy, together with "commits" which show |
d19fbc3c BF |
476 | the relationships between these snapshots. |
477 | ||
478 | Git provides extremely flexible and fast tools for exploring the | |
479 | history of a project. | |
480 | ||
aacd404e | 481 | We start with one specialized tool that is useful for finding the |
d19fbc3c BF |
482 | commit that introduced a bug into a project. |
483 | ||
e34caace | 484 | [[using-bisect]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
485 | How to use bisect to find a regression |
486 | -------------------------------------- | |
487 | ||
488 | Suppose version 2.6.18 of your project worked, but the version at | |
489 | "master" crashes. Sometimes the best way to find the cause of such a | |
490 | regression is to perform a brute-force search through the project's | |
491 | history to find the particular commit that caused the problem. The | |
5162e697 | 492 | linkgit:git-bisect[1] command can help you do this: |
d19fbc3c BF |
493 | |
494 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
495 | $ git bisect start | |
496 | $ git bisect good v2.6.18 | |
497 | $ git bisect bad master | |
498 | Bisecting: 3537 revisions left to test after this | |
499 | [65934a9a028b88e83e2b0f8b36618fe503349f8e] BLOCK: Make USB storage depend on SCSI rather than selecting it [try #6] | |
500 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
501 | ||
502 | If you run "git branch" at this point, you'll see that git has | |
0e25790f CC |
503 | temporarily moved you in "(no branch)". HEAD is now detached from any |
504 | branch and points directly to a commit (with commit id 65934...) that | |
505 | is reachable from "master" but not from v2.6.18. Compile and test it, | |
506 | and see whether it crashes. Assume it does crash. Then: | |
d19fbc3c BF |
507 | |
508 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
509 | $ git bisect bad | |
510 | Bisecting: 1769 revisions left to test after this | |
511 | [7eff82c8b1511017ae605f0c99ac275a7e21b867] i2c-core: Drop useless bitmaskings | |
512 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
513 | ||
514 | checks out an older version. Continue like this, telling git at each | |
515 | stage whether the version it gives you is good or bad, and notice | |
516 | that the number of revisions left to test is cut approximately in | |
517 | half each time. | |
518 | ||
519 | After about 13 tests (in this case), it will output the commit id of | |
520 | the guilty commit. You can then examine the commit with | |
5162e697 | 521 | linkgit:git-show[1], find out who wrote it, and mail them your bug |
d19fbc3c BF |
522 | report with the commit id. Finally, run |
523 | ||
524 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
525 | $ git bisect reset | |
526 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
527 | ||
0e25790f | 528 | to return you to the branch you were on before. |
d19fbc3c | 529 | |
6127c086 | 530 | Note that the version which `git bisect` checks out for you at each |
d19fbc3c BF |
531 | point is just a suggestion, and you're free to try a different |
532 | version if you think it would be a good idea. For example, | |
533 | occasionally you may land on a commit that broke something unrelated; | |
534 | run | |
535 | ||
536 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
04483524 | 537 | $ git bisect visualize |
d19fbc3c BF |
538 | ------------------------------------------------- |
539 | ||
540 | which will run gitk and label the commit it chose with a marker that | |
843c81dc | 541 | says "bisect". Choose a safe-looking commit nearby, note its commit |
d19fbc3c BF |
542 | id, and check it out with: |
543 | ||
544 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
545 | $ git reset --hard fb47ddb2db... | |
546 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
547 | ||
548 | then test, run "bisect good" or "bisect bad" as appropriate, and | |
549 | continue. | |
550 | ||
0e25790f CC |
551 | Instead of "git bisect visualize" and then "git reset --hard |
552 | fb47ddb2db...", you might just want to tell git that you want to skip | |
553 | the current commit: | |
554 | ||
555 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
556 | $ git bisect skip | |
557 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
558 | ||
559 | In this case, though, git may not eventually be able to tell the first | |
a0178ae2 | 560 | bad one between some first skipped commits and a later bad commit. |
0e25790f CC |
561 | |
562 | There are also ways to automate the bisecting process if you have a | |
563 | test script that can tell a good from a bad commit. See | |
564 | linkgit:git-bisect[1] for more information about this and other "git | |
565 | bisect" features. | |
566 | ||
e34caace | 567 | [[naming-commits]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
568 | Naming commits |
569 | -------------- | |
570 | ||
571 | We have seen several ways of naming commits already: | |
572 | ||
d55ae921 | 573 | - 40-hexdigit object name |
d19fbc3c BF |
574 | - branch name: refers to the commit at the head of the given |
575 | branch | |
576 | - tag name: refers to the commit pointed to by the given tag | |
577 | (we've seen branches and tags are special cases of | |
578 | <<how-git-stores-references,references>>). | |
579 | - HEAD: refers to the head of the current branch | |
580 | ||
eb6ae7f4 | 581 | There are many more; see the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section of the |
9d83e382 | 582 | linkgit:gitrevisions[7] man page for the complete list of ways to |
d19fbc3c BF |
583 | name revisions. Some examples: |
584 | ||
585 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
d55ae921 | 586 | $ git show fb47ddb2 # the first few characters of the object name |
d19fbc3c BF |
587 | # are usually enough to specify it uniquely |
588 | $ git show HEAD^ # the parent of the HEAD commit | |
589 | $ git show HEAD^^ # the grandparent | |
590 | $ git show HEAD~4 # the great-great-grandparent | |
591 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
592 | ||
593 | Recall that merge commits may have more than one parent; by default, | |
594 | ^ and ~ follow the first parent listed in the commit, but you can | |
595 | also choose: | |
596 | ||
597 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
598 | $ git show HEAD^1 # show the first parent of HEAD | |
599 | $ git show HEAD^2 # show the second parent of HEAD | |
600 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
601 | ||
602 | In addition to HEAD, there are several other special names for | |
603 | commits: | |
604 | ||
605 | Merges (to be discussed later), as well as operations such as | |
6127c086 | 606 | `git reset`, which change the currently checked-out commit, generally |
d19fbc3c BF |
607 | set ORIG_HEAD to the value HEAD had before the current operation. |
608 | ||
6127c086 FC |
609 | The `git fetch` operation always stores the head of the last fetched |
610 | branch in FETCH_HEAD. For example, if you run `git fetch` without | |
d19fbc3c BF |
611 | specifying a local branch as the target of the operation |
612 | ||
613 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
614 | $ git fetch git://example.com/proj.git theirbranch | |
615 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
616 | ||
617 | the fetched commits will still be available from FETCH_HEAD. | |
618 | ||
619 | When we discuss merges we'll also see the special name MERGE_HEAD, | |
620 | which refers to the other branch that we're merging in to the current | |
621 | branch. | |
622 | ||
5162e697 | 623 | The linkgit:git-rev-parse[1] command is a low-level command that is |
d55ae921 BF |
624 | occasionally useful for translating some name for a commit to the object |
625 | name for that commit: | |
aec053bb BF |
626 | |
627 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
628 | $ git rev-parse origin | |
629 | e05db0fd4f31dde7005f075a84f96b360d05984b | |
630 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
631 | ||
e34caace | 632 | [[creating-tags]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
633 | Creating tags |
634 | ------------- | |
635 | ||
636 | We can also create a tag to refer to a particular commit; after | |
637 | running | |
638 | ||
639 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
04483524 | 640 | $ git tag stable-1 1b2e1d63ff |
d19fbc3c BF |
641 | ------------------------------------------------- |
642 | ||
643 | You can use stable-1 to refer to the commit 1b2e1d63ff. | |
644 | ||
c64415e2 BF |
645 | This creates a "lightweight" tag. If you would also like to include a |
646 | comment with the tag, and possibly sign it cryptographically, then you | |
5162e697 | 647 | should create a tag object instead; see the linkgit:git-tag[1] man page |
c64415e2 | 648 | for details. |
d19fbc3c | 649 | |
e34caace | 650 | [[browsing-revisions]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
651 | Browsing revisions |
652 | ------------------ | |
653 | ||
5162e697 | 654 | The linkgit:git-log[1] command can show lists of commits. On its |
d19fbc3c BF |
655 | own, it shows all commits reachable from the parent commit; but you |
656 | can also make more specific requests: | |
657 | ||
658 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
659 | $ git log v2.5.. # commits since (not reachable from) v2.5 | |
660 | $ git log test..master # commits reachable from master but not test | |
661 | $ git log master..test # ...reachable from test but not master | |
662 | $ git log master...test # ...reachable from either test or master, | |
663 | # but not both | |
664 | $ git log --since="2 weeks ago" # commits from the last 2 weeks | |
665 | $ git log Makefile # commits which modify Makefile | |
666 | $ git log fs/ # ... which modify any file under fs/ | |
667 | $ git log -S'foo()' # commits which add or remove any file data | |
668 | # matching the string 'foo()' | |
669 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
670 | ||
671 | And of course you can combine all of these; the following finds | |
672 | commits since v2.5 which touch the Makefile or any file under fs: | |
673 | ||
674 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
675 | $ git log v2.5.. Makefile fs/ | |
676 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
677 | ||
678 | You can also ask git log to show patches: | |
679 | ||
680 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
681 | $ git log -p | |
682 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
683 | ||
5162e697 | 684 | See the "--pretty" option in the linkgit:git-log[1] man page for more |
d19fbc3c BF |
685 | display options. |
686 | ||
687 | Note that git log starts with the most recent commit and works | |
688 | backwards through the parents; however, since git history can contain | |
3dff5379 | 689 | multiple independent lines of development, the particular order that |
d19fbc3c BF |
690 | commits are listed in may be somewhat arbitrary. |
691 | ||
e34caace | 692 | [[generating-diffs]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
693 | Generating diffs |
694 | ---------------- | |
695 | ||
696 | You can generate diffs between any two versions using | |
5162e697 | 697 | linkgit:git-diff[1]: |
d19fbc3c BF |
698 | |
699 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
700 | $ git diff master..test | |
701 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
702 | ||
5b98d9bc BF |
703 | That will produce the diff between the tips of the two branches. If |
704 | you'd prefer to find the diff from their common ancestor to test, you | |
705 | can use three dots instead of two: | |
706 | ||
707 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
708 | $ git diff master...test | |
709 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
710 | ||
711 | Sometimes what you want instead is a set of patches; for this you can | |
5162e697 | 712 | use linkgit:git-format-patch[1]: |
d19fbc3c BF |
713 | |
714 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
715 | $ git format-patch master..test | |
716 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
717 | ||
718 | will generate a file with a patch for each commit reachable from test | |
5b98d9bc | 719 | but not from master. |
d19fbc3c | 720 | |
e34caace | 721 | [[viewing-old-file-versions]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
722 | Viewing old file versions |
723 | ------------------------- | |
724 | ||
725 | You can always view an old version of a file by just checking out the | |
726 | correct revision first. But sometimes it is more convenient to be | |
727 | able to view an old version of a single file without checking | |
728 | anything out; this command does that: | |
729 | ||
730 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
731 | $ git show v2.5:fs/locks.c | |
732 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
733 | ||
734 | Before the colon may be anything that names a commit, and after it | |
735 | may be any path to a file tracked by git. | |
736 | ||
e34caace | 737 | [[history-examples]] |
aec053bb BF |
738 | Examples |
739 | -------- | |
740 | ||
46acd3fa BF |
741 | [[counting-commits-on-a-branch]] |
742 | Counting the number of commits on a branch | |
743 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
744 | ||
745 | Suppose you want to know how many commits you've made on "mybranch" | |
746 | since it diverged from "origin": | |
747 | ||
748 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
749 | $ git log --pretty=oneline origin..mybranch | wc -l | |
750 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
751 | ||
752 | Alternatively, you may often see this sort of thing done with the | |
a6e5ef7d | 753 | lower-level command linkgit:git-rev-list[1], which just lists the SHA-1's |
46acd3fa BF |
754 | of all the given commits: |
755 | ||
756 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
757 | $ git rev-list origin..mybranch | wc -l | |
758 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
759 | ||
e34caace | 760 | [[checking-for-equal-branches]] |
aec053bb | 761 | Check whether two branches point at the same history |
2f99710c | 762 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
aec053bb BF |
763 | |
764 | Suppose you want to check whether two branches point at the same point | |
765 | in history. | |
766 | ||
767 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
768 | $ git diff origin..master | |
769 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
770 | ||
69f7ad73 BF |
771 | will tell you whether the contents of the project are the same at the |
772 | two branches; in theory, however, it's possible that the same project | |
773 | contents could have been arrived at by two different historical | |
d55ae921 | 774 | routes. You could compare the object names: |
aec053bb BF |
775 | |
776 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
777 | $ git rev-list origin | |
778 | e05db0fd4f31dde7005f075a84f96b360d05984b | |
779 | $ git rev-list master | |
780 | e05db0fd4f31dde7005f075a84f96b360d05984b | |
781 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
782 | ||
69f7ad73 BF |
783 | Or you could recall that the ... operator selects all commits |
784 | contained reachable from either one reference or the other but not | |
ddd2369c | 785 | both; so |
aec053bb BF |
786 | |
787 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
788 | $ git log origin...master | |
789 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
790 | ||
791 | will return no commits when the two branches are equal. | |
792 | ||
e34caace | 793 | [[finding-tagged-descendants]] |
b181d57f BF |
794 | Find first tagged version including a given fix |
795 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
aec053bb | 796 | |
69f7ad73 BF |
797 | Suppose you know that the commit e05db0fd fixed a certain problem. |
798 | You'd like to find the earliest tagged release that contains that | |
799 | fix. | |
800 | ||
801 | Of course, there may be more than one answer--if the history branched | |
802 | after commit e05db0fd, then there could be multiple "earliest" tagged | |
803 | releases. | |
804 | ||
805 | You could just visually inspect the commits since e05db0fd: | |
806 | ||
807 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
808 | $ gitk e05db0fd.. | |
809 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
810 | ||
5162e697 | 811 | Or you can use linkgit:git-name-rev[1], which will give the commit a |
b181d57f BF |
812 | name based on any tag it finds pointing to one of the commit's |
813 | descendants: | |
814 | ||
815 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
04483524 | 816 | $ git name-rev --tags e05db0fd |
b181d57f BF |
817 | e05db0fd tags/v1.5.0-rc1^0~23 |
818 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
819 | ||
5162e697 | 820 | The linkgit:git-describe[1] command does the opposite, naming the |
b181d57f BF |
821 | revision using a tag on which the given commit is based: |
822 | ||
823 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
824 | $ git describe e05db0fd | |
04483524 | 825 | v1.5.0-rc0-260-ge05db0f |
b181d57f BF |
826 | ------------------------------------------------- |
827 | ||
828 | but that may sometimes help you guess which tags might come after the | |
829 | given commit. | |
830 | ||
831 | If you just want to verify whether a given tagged version contains a | |
5162e697 | 832 | given commit, you could use linkgit:git-merge-base[1]: |
b181d57f BF |
833 | |
834 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
835 | $ git merge-base e05db0fd v1.5.0-rc1 | |
836 | e05db0fd4f31dde7005f075a84f96b360d05984b | |
837 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
838 | ||
839 | The merge-base command finds a common ancestor of the given commits, | |
840 | and always returns one or the other in the case where one is a | |
841 | descendant of the other; so the above output shows that e05db0fd | |
842 | actually is an ancestor of v1.5.0-rc1. | |
843 | ||
844 | Alternatively, note that | |
845 | ||
846 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
4a7979ca | 847 | $ git log v1.5.0-rc1..e05db0fd |
b181d57f BF |
848 | ------------------------------------------------- |
849 | ||
4a7979ca | 850 | will produce empty output if and only if v1.5.0-rc1 includes e05db0fd, |
b181d57f | 851 | because it outputs only commits that are not reachable from v1.5.0-rc1. |
aec053bb | 852 | |
5162e697 | 853 | As yet another alternative, the linkgit:git-show-branch[1] command lists |
4a7979ca BF |
854 | the commits reachable from its arguments with a display on the left-hand |
855 | side that indicates which arguments that commit is reachable from. So, | |
856 | you can run something like | |
857 | ||
858 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
859 | $ git show-branch e05db0fd v1.5.0-rc0 v1.5.0-rc1 v1.5.0-rc2 | |
860 | ! [e05db0fd] Fix warnings in sha1_file.c - use C99 printf format if | |
861 | available | |
862 | ! [v1.5.0-rc0] GIT v1.5.0 preview | |
863 | ! [v1.5.0-rc1] GIT v1.5.0-rc1 | |
864 | ! [v1.5.0-rc2] GIT v1.5.0-rc2 | |
865 | ... | |
866 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
867 | ||
868 | then search for a line that looks like | |
869 | ||
870 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
871 | + ++ [e05db0fd] Fix warnings in sha1_file.c - use C99 printf format if | |
872 | available | |
873 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
874 | ||
875 | Which shows that e05db0fd is reachable from itself, from v1.5.0-rc1, and | |
876 | from v1.5.0-rc2, but not from v1.5.0-rc0. | |
877 | ||
629d9f78 BF |
878 | [[showing-commits-unique-to-a-branch]] |
879 | Showing commits unique to a given branch | |
880 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
4a7979ca | 881 | |
629d9f78 BF |
882 | Suppose you would like to see all the commits reachable from the branch |
883 | head named "master" but not from any other head in your repository. | |
d19fbc3c | 884 | |
629d9f78 | 885 | We can list all the heads in this repository with |
5162e697 | 886 | linkgit:git-show-ref[1]: |
d19fbc3c | 887 | |
629d9f78 BF |
888 | ------------------------------------------------- |
889 | $ git show-ref --heads | |
890 | bf62196b5e363d73353a9dcf094c59595f3153b7 refs/heads/core-tutorial | |
891 | db768d5504c1bb46f63ee9d6e1772bd047e05bf9 refs/heads/maint | |
892 | a07157ac624b2524a059a3414e99f6f44bebc1e7 refs/heads/master | |
893 | 24dbc180ea14dc1aebe09f14c8ecf32010690627 refs/heads/tutorial-2 | |
894 | 1e87486ae06626c2f31eaa63d26fc0fd646c8af2 refs/heads/tutorial-fixes | |
895 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
d19fbc3c | 896 | |
629d9f78 BF |
897 | We can get just the branch-head names, and remove "master", with |
898 | the help of the standard utilities cut and grep: | |
899 | ||
900 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
901 | $ git show-ref --heads | cut -d' ' -f2 | grep -v '^refs/heads/master' | |
902 | refs/heads/core-tutorial | |
903 | refs/heads/maint | |
904 | refs/heads/tutorial-2 | |
905 | refs/heads/tutorial-fixes | |
906 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
907 | ||
908 | And then we can ask to see all the commits reachable from master | |
909 | but not from these other heads: | |
910 | ||
911 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
912 | $ gitk master --not $( git show-ref --heads | cut -d' ' -f2 | | |
913 | grep -v '^refs/heads/master' ) | |
914 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
915 | ||
916 | Obviously, endless variations are possible; for example, to see all | |
917 | commits reachable from some head but not from any tag in the repository: | |
918 | ||
919 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
c78974f7 | 920 | $ gitk $( git show-ref --heads ) --not $( git show-ref --tags ) |
629d9f78 BF |
921 | ------------------------------------------------- |
922 | ||
9d83e382 | 923 | (See linkgit:gitrevisions[7] for explanations of commit-selecting |
629d9f78 BF |
924 | syntax such as `--not`.) |
925 | ||
82c8bf28 BF |
926 | [[making-a-release]] |
927 | Creating a changelog and tarball for a software release | |
928 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
929 | ||
5162e697 | 930 | The linkgit:git-archive[1] command can create a tar or zip archive from |
82c8bf28 BF |
931 | any version of a project; for example: |
932 | ||
933 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
934 | $ git archive --format=tar --prefix=project/ HEAD | gzip >latest.tar.gz | |
935 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
936 | ||
937 | will use HEAD to produce a tar archive in which each filename is | |
ccd71866 | 938 | preceded by "project/". |
82c8bf28 BF |
939 | |
940 | If you're releasing a new version of a software project, you may want | |
941 | to simultaneously make a changelog to include in the release | |
942 | announcement. | |
943 | ||
944 | Linus Torvalds, for example, makes new kernel releases by tagging them, | |
945 | then running: | |
946 | ||
947 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
948 | $ release-script 2.6.12 2.6.13-rc6 2.6.13-rc7 | |
949 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
950 | ||
951 | where release-script is a shell script that looks like: | |
952 | ||
953 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
954 | #!/bin/sh | |
955 | stable="$1" | |
956 | last="$2" | |
957 | new="$3" | |
958 | echo "# git tag v$new" | |
959 | echo "git archive --prefix=linux-$new/ v$new | gzip -9 > ../linux-$new.tar.gz" | |
960 | echo "git diff v$stable v$new | gzip -9 > ../patch-$new.gz" | |
961 | echo "git log --no-merges v$new ^v$last > ../ChangeLog-$new" | |
962 | echo "git shortlog --no-merges v$new ^v$last > ../ShortLog" | |
963 | echo "git diff --stat --summary -M v$last v$new > ../diffstat-$new" | |
964 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
965 | ||
966 | and then he just cut-and-pastes the output commands after verifying that | |
967 | they look OK. | |
4a7979ca | 968 | |
e1ba4c32 | 969 | [[Finding-commits-With-given-Content]] |
187b0d80 | 970 | Finding commits referencing a file with given content |
d5821de2 | 971 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
187b0d80 BF |
972 | |
973 | Somebody hands you a copy of a file, and asks which commits modified a | |
974 | file such that it contained the given content either before or after the | |
975 | commit. You can find out with this: | |
976 | ||
977 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
477ff5b7 | 978 | $ git log --raw --abbrev=40 --pretty=oneline | |
187b0d80 BF |
979 | grep -B 1 `git hash-object filename` |
980 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
981 | ||
982 | Figuring out why this works is left as an exercise to the (advanced) | |
5162e697 DM |
983 | student. The linkgit:git-log[1], linkgit:git-diff-tree[1], and |
984 | linkgit:git-hash-object[1] man pages may prove helpful. | |
187b0d80 | 985 | |
aa971cb9 | 986 | [[Developing-With-git]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
987 | Developing with git |
988 | =================== | |
989 | ||
e34caace | 990 | [[telling-git-your-name]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
991 | Telling git your name |
992 | --------------------- | |
993 | ||
994 | Before creating any commits, you should introduce yourself to git. The | |
58c19d1f BF |
995 | easiest way to do so is to make sure the following lines appear in a |
996 | file named .gitconfig in your home directory: | |
d19fbc3c BF |
997 | |
998 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
d19fbc3c BF |
999 | [user] |
1000 | name = Your Name Comes Here | |
1001 | email = you@yourdomain.example.com | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1002 | ------------------------------------------------ |
1003 | ||
5162e697 | 1004 | (See the "CONFIGURATION FILE" section of linkgit:git-config[1] for |
fc90c536 BF |
1005 | details on the configuration file.) |
1006 | ||
d19fbc3c | 1007 | |
e34caace | 1008 | [[creating-a-new-repository]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
1009 | Creating a new repository |
1010 | ------------------------- | |
1011 | ||
1012 | Creating a new repository from scratch is very easy: | |
1013 | ||
1014 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1015 | $ mkdir project | |
1016 | $ cd project | |
f1d2b477 | 1017 | $ git init |
d19fbc3c BF |
1018 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1019 | ||
1020 | If you have some initial content (say, a tarball): | |
1021 | ||
1022 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
0ddd93b2 | 1023 | $ tar xzvf project.tar.gz |
d19fbc3c | 1024 | $ cd project |
f1d2b477 | 1025 | $ git init |
d19fbc3c BF |
1026 | $ git add . # include everything below ./ in the first commit: |
1027 | $ git commit | |
1028 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1029 | ||
1030 | [[how-to-make-a-commit]] | |
ae25c67a | 1031 | How to make a commit |
d19fbc3c BF |
1032 | -------------------- |
1033 | ||
1034 | Creating a new commit takes three steps: | |
1035 | ||
1036 | 1. Making some changes to the working directory using your | |
1037 | favorite editor. | |
1038 | 2. Telling git about your changes. | |
1039 | 3. Creating the commit using the content you told git about | |
1040 | in step 2. | |
1041 | ||
1042 | In practice, you can interleave and repeat steps 1 and 2 as many | |
1043 | times as you want: in order to keep track of what you want committed | |
1044 | at step 3, git maintains a snapshot of the tree's contents in a | |
1045 | special staging area called "the index." | |
1046 | ||
01997b4a BF |
1047 | At the beginning, the content of the index will be identical to |
1048 | that of the HEAD. The command "git diff --cached", which shows | |
1049 | the difference between the HEAD and the index, should therefore | |
1050 | produce no output at that point. | |
eb6ae7f4 | 1051 | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1052 | Modifying the index is easy: |
1053 | ||
1054 | To update the index with the new contents of a modified file, use | |
1055 | ||
1056 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1057 | $ git add path/to/file | |
1058 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1059 | ||
1060 | To add the contents of a new file to the index, use | |
1061 | ||
1062 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1063 | $ git add path/to/file | |
1064 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1065 | ||
eb6ae7f4 | 1066 | To remove a file from the index and from the working tree, |
d19fbc3c BF |
1067 | |
1068 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1069 | $ git rm path/to/file | |
1070 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1071 | ||
1072 | After each step you can verify that | |
1073 | ||
1074 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1075 | $ git diff --cached | |
1076 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1077 | ||
1078 | always shows the difference between the HEAD and the index file--this | |
1079 | is what you'd commit if you created the commit now--and that | |
1080 | ||
1081 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1082 | $ git diff | |
1083 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1084 | ||
1085 | shows the difference between the working tree and the index file. | |
1086 | ||
6127c086 | 1087 | Note that "git add" always adds just the current contents of a file |
d19fbc3c | 1088 | to the index; further changes to the same file will be ignored unless |
6127c086 | 1089 | you run `git add` on the file again. |
d19fbc3c BF |
1090 | |
1091 | When you're ready, just run | |
1092 | ||
1093 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1094 | $ git commit | |
1095 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1096 | ||
1097 | and git will prompt you for a commit message and then create the new | |
3dff5379 | 1098 | commit. Check to make sure it looks like what you expected with |
d19fbc3c BF |
1099 | |
1100 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1101 | $ git show | |
1102 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1103 | ||
1104 | As a special shortcut, | |
a6080a0a | 1105 | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1106 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1107 | $ git commit -a | |
1108 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1109 | ||
1110 | will update the index with any files that you've modified or removed | |
1111 | and create a commit, all in one step. | |
1112 | ||
1113 | A number of commands are useful for keeping track of what you're | |
1114 | about to commit: | |
1115 | ||
1116 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1117 | $ git diff --cached # difference between HEAD and the index; what | |
1130845b | 1118 | # would be committed if you ran "commit" now. |
d19fbc3c BF |
1119 | $ git diff # difference between the index file and your |
1120 | # working directory; changes that would not | |
1121 | # be included if you ran "commit" now. | |
c64415e2 BF |
1122 | $ git diff HEAD # difference between HEAD and working tree; what |
1123 | # would be committed if you ran "commit -a" now. | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1124 | $ git status # a brief per-file summary of the above. |
1125 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1126 | ||
5162e697 | 1127 | You can also use linkgit:git-gui[1] to create commits, view changes in |
407c0c87 BF |
1128 | the index and the working tree files, and individually select diff hunks |
1129 | for inclusion in the index (by right-clicking on the diff hunk and | |
1130 | choosing "Stage Hunk For Commit"). | |
1131 | ||
e34caace | 1132 | [[creating-good-commit-messages]] |
ae25c67a | 1133 | Creating good commit messages |
d19fbc3c BF |
1134 | ----------------------------- |
1135 | ||
1136 | Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message | |
1137 | with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the | |
1138 | change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough | |
52ffe995 JW |
1139 | description. The text up to the first blank line in a commit |
1140 | message is treated as the commit title, and that title is used | |
1141 | throughout git. For example, linkgit:git-format-patch[1] turns a | |
1142 | commit into email, and it uses the title on the Subject line and the | |
1143 | rest of the commit in the body. | |
1144 | ||
d19fbc3c | 1145 | |
2dc53617 JH |
1146 | [[ignoring-files]] |
1147 | Ignoring files | |
1148 | -------------- | |
1149 | ||
1150 | A project will often generate files that you do 'not' want to track with git. | |
1151 | This typically includes files generated by a build process or temporary | |
1152 | backup files made by your editor. Of course, 'not' tracking files with git | |
6127c086 | 1153 | is just a matter of 'not' calling `git add` on them. But it quickly becomes |
2dc53617 | 1154 | annoying to have these untracked files lying around; e.g. they make |
dcb11263 CJ |
1155 | `git add .` practically useless, and they keep showing up in the output of |
1156 | `git status`. | |
2dc53617 | 1157 | |
464a8a7a BF |
1158 | You can tell git to ignore certain files by creating a file called .gitignore |
1159 | in the top level of your working directory, with contents such as: | |
2dc53617 JH |
1160 | |
1161 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1162 | # Lines starting with '#' are considered comments. | |
464a8a7a | 1163 | # Ignore any file named foo.txt. |
2dc53617 JH |
1164 | foo.txt |
1165 | # Ignore (generated) html files, | |
1166 | *.html | |
1167 | # except foo.html which is maintained by hand. | |
1168 | !foo.html | |
1169 | # Ignore objects and archives. | |
1170 | *.[oa] | |
1171 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1172 | ||
5162e697 | 1173 | See linkgit:gitignore[5] for a detailed explanation of the syntax. You can |
464a8a7a BF |
1174 | also place .gitignore files in other directories in your working tree, and they |
1175 | will apply to those directories and their subdirectories. The `.gitignore` | |
1176 | files can be added to your repository like any other files (just run `git add | |
1177 | .gitignore` and `git commit`, as usual), which is convenient when the exclude | |
1178 | patterns (such as patterns matching build output files) would also make sense | |
1179 | for other users who clone your repository. | |
1180 | ||
1181 | If you wish the exclude patterns to affect only certain repositories | |
1182 | (instead of every repository for a given project), you may instead put | |
1183 | them in a file in your repository named .git/info/exclude, or in any file | |
1184 | specified by the `core.excludesfile` configuration variable. Some git | |
1185 | commands can also take exclude patterns directly on the command line. | |
5162e697 | 1186 | See linkgit:gitignore[5] for the details. |
2dc53617 | 1187 | |
e34caace | 1188 | [[how-to-merge]] |
ae25c67a | 1189 | How to merge |
d19fbc3c BF |
1190 | ------------ |
1191 | ||
1192 | You can rejoin two diverging branches of development using | |
5162e697 | 1193 | linkgit:git-merge[1]: |
d19fbc3c BF |
1194 | |
1195 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1196 | $ git merge branchname | |
1197 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1198 | ||
1199 | merges the development in the branch "branchname" into the current | |
e63ec003 MM |
1200 | branch. |
1201 | ||
1202 | A merge is made by combining the changes made in "branchname" and the | |
1203 | changes made up to the latest commit in your current branch since | |
1204 | their histories forked. The work tree is overwritten by the result of | |
1205 | the merge when this combining is done cleanly, or overwritten by a | |
1206 | half-merged results when this combining results in conflicts. | |
1207 | Therefore, if you have uncommitted changes touching the same files as | |
1208 | the ones impacted by the merge, Git will refuse to proceed. Most of | |
1209 | the time, you will want to commit your changes before you can merge, | |
1210 | and if you don't, then linkgit:git-stash[1] can take these changes | |
1211 | away while you're doing the merge, and reapply them afterwards. | |
1212 | ||
6a5d0b0a | 1213 | If the changes are independent enough, Git will automatically complete |
e63ec003 MM |
1214 | the merge and commit the result (or reuse an existing commit in case |
1215 | of <<fast-forwards,fast-forward>>, see below). On the other hand, | |
1216 | if there are conflicts--for example, if the same file is | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1217 | modified in two different ways in the remote branch and the local |
1218 | branch--then you are warned; the output may look something like this: | |
1219 | ||
1220 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
fabbd8f6 BF |
1221 | $ git merge next |
1222 | 100% (4/4) done | |
1223 | Auto-merged file.txt | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1224 | CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in file.txt |
1225 | Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result. | |
1226 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1227 | ||
1228 | Conflict markers are left in the problematic files, and after | |
1229 | you resolve the conflicts manually, you can update the index | |
1230 | with the contents and run git commit, as you normally would when | |
1231 | creating a new file. | |
1232 | ||
1233 | If you examine the resulting commit using gitk, you will see that it | |
1234 | has two parents, one pointing to the top of the current branch, and | |
1235 | one to the top of the other branch. | |
1236 | ||
d19fbc3c BF |
1237 | [[resolving-a-merge]] |
1238 | Resolving a merge | |
1239 | ----------------- | |
1240 | ||
1241 | When a merge isn't resolved automatically, git leaves the index and | |
1242 | the working tree in a special state that gives you all the | |
1243 | information you need to help resolve the merge. | |
1244 | ||
1245 | Files with conflicts are marked specially in the index, so until you | |
5162e697 | 1246 | resolve the problem and update the index, linkgit:git-commit[1] will |
ef561ac7 | 1247 | fail: |
d19fbc3c BF |
1248 | |
1249 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1250 | $ git commit | |
1251 | file.txt: needs merge | |
1252 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1253 | ||
5162e697 | 1254 | Also, linkgit:git-status[1] will list those files as "unmerged", and the |
ef561ac7 BF |
1255 | files with conflicts will have conflict markers added, like this: |
1256 | ||
1257 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1258 | <<<<<<< HEAD:file.txt | |
1259 | Hello world | |
1260 | ======= | |
1261 | Goodbye | |
1262 | >>>>>>> 77976da35a11db4580b80ae27e8d65caf5208086:file.txt | |
1263 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1264 | ||
1265 | All you need to do is edit the files to resolve the conflicts, and then | |
1266 | ||
1267 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1268 | $ git add file.txt | |
1269 | $ git commit | |
1270 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1271 | ||
1272 | Note that the commit message will already be filled in for you with | |
1273 | some information about the merge. Normally you can just use this | |
1274 | default message unchanged, but you may add additional commentary of | |
1275 | your own if desired. | |
1276 | ||
1277 | The above is all you need to know to resolve a simple merge. But git | |
1278 | also provides more information to help resolve conflicts: | |
1279 | ||
e34caace | 1280 | [[conflict-resolution]] |
ef561ac7 BF |
1281 | Getting conflict-resolution help during a merge |
1282 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1283 | |
1284 | All of the changes that git was able to merge automatically are | |
5162e697 | 1285 | already added to the index file, so linkgit:git-diff[1] shows only |
ef561ac7 | 1286 | the conflicts. It uses an unusual syntax: |
d19fbc3c BF |
1287 | |
1288 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1289 | $ git diff | |
1290 | diff --cc file.txt | |
1291 | index 802992c,2b60207..0000000 | |
1292 | --- a/file.txt | |
1293 | +++ b/file.txt | |
1294 | @@@ -1,1 -1,1 +1,5 @@@ | |
1295 | ++<<<<<<< HEAD:file.txt | |
1296 | +Hello world | |
1297 | ++======= | |
1298 | + Goodbye | |
1299 | ++>>>>>>> 77976da35a11db4580b80ae27e8d65caf5208086:file.txt | |
1300 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1301 | ||
1130845b | 1302 | Recall that the commit which will be committed after we resolve this |
d19fbc3c BF |
1303 | conflict will have two parents instead of the usual one: one parent |
1304 | will be HEAD, the tip of the current branch; the other will be the | |
1305 | tip of the other branch, which is stored temporarily in MERGE_HEAD. | |
1306 | ||
ef561ac7 BF |
1307 | During the merge, the index holds three versions of each file. Each of |
1308 | these three "file stages" represents a different version of the file: | |
1309 | ||
1310 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1311 | $ git show :1:file.txt # the file in a common ancestor of both branches | |
4209752d JH |
1312 | $ git show :2:file.txt # the version from HEAD. |
1313 | $ git show :3:file.txt # the version from MERGE_HEAD. | |
ef561ac7 BF |
1314 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1315 | ||
4209752d JH |
1316 | When you ask linkgit:git-diff[1] to show the conflicts, it runs a |
1317 | three-way diff between the conflicted merge results in the work tree with | |
1318 | stages 2 and 3 to show only hunks whose contents come from both sides, | |
1319 | mixed (in other words, when a hunk's merge results come only from stage 2, | |
1320 | that part is not conflicting and is not shown. Same for stage 3). | |
ef561ac7 BF |
1321 | |
1322 | The diff above shows the differences between the working-tree version of | |
1323 | file.txt and the stage 2 and stage 3 versions. So instead of preceding | |
1324 | each line by a single "+" or "-", it now uses two columns: the first | |
1325 | column is used for differences between the first parent and the working | |
1326 | directory copy, and the second for differences between the second parent | |
1327 | and the working directory copy. (See the "COMBINED DIFF FORMAT" section | |
5162e697 | 1328 | of linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for a details of the format.) |
ef561ac7 BF |
1329 | |
1330 | After resolving the conflict in the obvious way (but before updating the | |
1331 | index), the diff will look like: | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1332 | |
1333 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1334 | $ git diff | |
1335 | diff --cc file.txt | |
1336 | index 802992c,2b60207..0000000 | |
1337 | --- a/file.txt | |
1338 | +++ b/file.txt | |
1339 | @@@ -1,1 -1,1 +1,1 @@@ | |
1340 | - Hello world | |
1341 | -Goodbye | |
1342 | ++Goodbye world | |
1343 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1344 | ||
1345 | This shows that our resolved version deleted "Hello world" from the | |
1346 | first parent, deleted "Goodbye" from the second parent, and added | |
1347 | "Goodbye world", which was previously absent from both. | |
1348 | ||
ef561ac7 BF |
1349 | Some special diff options allow diffing the working directory against |
1350 | any of these stages: | |
1351 | ||
1352 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1353 | $ git diff -1 file.txt # diff against stage 1 | |
1354 | $ git diff --base file.txt # same as the above | |
1355 | $ git diff -2 file.txt # diff against stage 2 | |
1356 | $ git diff --ours file.txt # same as the above | |
1357 | $ git diff -3 file.txt # diff against stage 3 | |
1358 | $ git diff --theirs file.txt # same as the above. | |
1359 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1360 | ||
0cafe944 | 1361 | The linkgit:git-log[1] and linkgit:gitk[1] commands also provide special help |
ef561ac7 | 1362 | for merges: |
d19fbc3c BF |
1363 | |
1364 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1365 | $ git log --merge | |
ef561ac7 | 1366 | $ gitk --merge |
d19fbc3c BF |
1367 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1368 | ||
ef561ac7 BF |
1369 | These will display all commits which exist only on HEAD or on |
1370 | MERGE_HEAD, and which touch an unmerged file. | |
d19fbc3c | 1371 | |
5162e697 | 1372 | You may also use linkgit:git-mergetool[1], which lets you merge the |
c7719fbe | 1373 | unmerged files using external tools such as Emacs or kdiff3. |
c64415e2 | 1374 | |
ef561ac7 | 1375 | Each time you resolve the conflicts in a file and update the index: |
d19fbc3c BF |
1376 | |
1377 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1378 | $ git add file.txt | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1379 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1380 | ||
ef561ac7 | 1381 | the different stages of that file will be "collapsed", after which |
6127c086 | 1382 | `git diff` will (by default) no longer show diffs for that file. |
d19fbc3c BF |
1383 | |
1384 | [[undoing-a-merge]] | |
ae25c67a | 1385 | Undoing a merge |
d19fbc3c BF |
1386 | --------------- |
1387 | ||
1388 | If you get stuck and decide to just give up and throw the whole mess | |
1389 | away, you can always return to the pre-merge state with | |
1390 | ||
1391 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1392 | $ git reset --hard HEAD | |
1393 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1394 | ||
1130845b | 1395 | Or, if you've already committed the merge that you want to throw away, |
d19fbc3c BF |
1396 | |
1397 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1c73bb0e | 1398 | $ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD |
d19fbc3c BF |
1399 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1400 | ||
1401 | However, this last command can be dangerous in some cases--never | |
1402 | throw away a commit you have already committed if that commit may | |
1403 | itself have been merged into another branch, as doing so may confuse | |
1404 | further merges. | |
1405 | ||
e34caace | 1406 | [[fast-forwards]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
1407 | Fast-forward merges |
1408 | ------------------- | |
1409 | ||
1410 | There is one special case not mentioned above, which is treated | |
1411 | differently. Normally, a merge results in a merge commit, with two | |
1412 | parents, one pointing at each of the two lines of development that | |
1413 | were merged. | |
1414 | ||
59723040 BF |
1415 | However, if the current branch is a descendant of the other--so every |
1416 | commit present in the one is already contained in the other--then git | |
a75d7b54 | 1417 | just performs a "fast-forward"; the head of the current branch is moved |
59723040 BF |
1418 | forward to point at the head of the merged-in branch, without any new |
1419 | commits being created. | |
d19fbc3c | 1420 | |
e34caace | 1421 | [[fixing-mistakes]] |
b684f830 BF |
1422 | Fixing mistakes |
1423 | --------------- | |
1424 | ||
1425 | If you've messed up the working tree, but haven't yet committed your | |
1426 | mistake, you can return the entire working tree to the last committed | |
1427 | state with | |
1428 | ||
1429 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1430 | $ git reset --hard HEAD | |
1431 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1432 | ||
1433 | If you make a commit that you later wish you hadn't, there are two | |
1434 | fundamentally different ways to fix the problem: | |
1435 | ||
1436 | 1. You can create a new commit that undoes whatever was done | |
93cbbd71 | 1437 | by the old commit. This is the correct thing if your |
b684f830 BF |
1438 | mistake has already been made public. |
1439 | ||
1440 | 2. You can go back and modify the old commit. You should | |
1441 | never do this if you have already made the history public; | |
1442 | git does not normally expect the "history" of a project to | |
1443 | change, and cannot correctly perform repeated merges from | |
1444 | a branch that has had its history changed. | |
1445 | ||
e34caace | 1446 | [[reverting-a-commit]] |
b684f830 BF |
1447 | Fixing a mistake with a new commit |
1448 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
1449 | ||
1450 | Creating a new commit that reverts an earlier change is very easy; | |
5162e697 | 1451 | just pass the linkgit:git-revert[1] command a reference to the bad |
b684f830 BF |
1452 | commit; for example, to revert the most recent commit: |
1453 | ||
1454 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1455 | $ git revert HEAD | |
1456 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1457 | ||
1458 | This will create a new commit which undoes the change in HEAD. You | |
1459 | will be given a chance to edit the commit message for the new commit. | |
1460 | ||
1461 | You can also revert an earlier change, for example, the next-to-last: | |
1462 | ||
1463 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1464 | $ git revert HEAD^ | |
1465 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1466 | ||
1467 | In this case git will attempt to undo the old change while leaving | |
1468 | intact any changes made since then. If more recent changes overlap | |
1469 | with the changes to be reverted, then you will be asked to fix | |
1470 | conflicts manually, just as in the case of <<resolving-a-merge, | |
1471 | resolving a merge>>. | |
1472 | ||
7cb192ea BF |
1473 | [[fixing-a-mistake-by-rewriting-history]] |
1474 | Fixing a mistake by rewriting history | |
b684f830 BF |
1475 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
1476 | ||
1477 | If the problematic commit is the most recent commit, and you have not | |
1478 | yet made that commit public, then you may just | |
6127c086 | 1479 | <<undoing-a-merge,destroy it using `git reset`>>. |
b684f830 BF |
1480 | |
1481 | Alternatively, you | |
1482 | can edit the working directory and update the index to fix your | |
1483 | mistake, just as if you were going to <<how-to-make-a-commit,create a | |
1484 | new commit>>, then run | |
1485 | ||
1486 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1487 | $ git commit --amend | |
1488 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1489 | ||
1490 | which will replace the old commit by a new commit incorporating your | |
1491 | changes, giving you a chance to edit the old commit message first. | |
1492 | ||
1493 | Again, you should never do this to a commit that may already have | |
5162e697 | 1494 | been merged into another branch; use linkgit:git-revert[1] instead in |
b684f830 BF |
1495 | that case. |
1496 | ||
7cb192ea | 1497 | It is also possible to replace commits further back in the history, but |
b684f830 BF |
1498 | this is an advanced topic to be left for |
1499 | <<cleaning-up-history,another chapter>>. | |
1500 | ||
e34caace | 1501 | [[checkout-of-path]] |
b684f830 BF |
1502 | Checking out an old version of a file |
1503 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
1504 | ||
1505 | In the process of undoing a previous bad change, you may find it | |
1506 | useful to check out an older version of a particular file using | |
6127c086 | 1507 | linkgit:git-checkout[1]. We've used `git checkout` before to switch |
b684f830 BF |
1508 | branches, but it has quite different behavior if it is given a path |
1509 | name: the command | |
1510 | ||
1511 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1512 | $ git checkout HEAD^ path/to/file | |
1513 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1514 | ||
1515 | replaces path/to/file by the contents it had in the commit HEAD^, and | |
1516 | also updates the index to match. It does not change branches. | |
1517 | ||
1518 | If you just want to look at an old version of the file, without | |
1519 | modifying the working directory, you can do that with | |
5162e697 | 1520 | linkgit:git-show[1]: |
b684f830 BF |
1521 | |
1522 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
ed4eb0d8 | 1523 | $ git show HEAD^:path/to/file |
b684f830 BF |
1524 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1525 | ||
1526 | which will display the given version of the file. | |
1527 | ||
7a7cc594 JH |
1528 | [[interrupted-work]] |
1529 | Temporarily setting aside work in progress | |
1530 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
1531 | ||
1532 | While you are in the middle of working on something complicated, you | |
1533 | find an unrelated but obvious and trivial bug. You would like to fix it | |
5162e697 | 1534 | before continuing. You can use linkgit:git-stash[1] to save the current |
7a7cc594 JH |
1535 | state of your work, and after fixing the bug (or, optionally after doing |
1536 | so on a different branch and then coming back), unstash the | |
1537 | work-in-progress changes. | |
1538 | ||
1539 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
7a85f6ae | 1540 | $ git stash save "work in progress for foo feature" |
7a7cc594 JH |
1541 | ------------------------------------------------ |
1542 | ||
1543 | This command will save your changes away to the `stash`, and | |
1544 | reset your working tree and the index to match the tip of your | |
1545 | current branch. Then you can make your fix as usual. | |
1546 | ||
1547 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
1548 | ... edit and test ... | |
1549 | $ git commit -a -m "blorpl: typofix" | |
1550 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
1551 | ||
1552 | After that, you can go back to what you were working on with | |
7b8988e1 | 1553 | `git stash pop`: |
7a7cc594 JH |
1554 | |
1555 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
7b8988e1 | 1556 | $ git stash pop |
7a7cc594 JH |
1557 | ------------------------------------------------ |
1558 | ||
1559 | ||
e34caace | 1560 | [[ensuring-good-performance]] |
d19fbc3c BF |
1561 | Ensuring good performance |
1562 | ------------------------- | |
1563 | ||
901fd180 TK |
1564 | On large repositories, Git depends on compression to keep the history |
1565 | information from taking up too much space on disk or in memory. Some | |
1566 | git commands may automatically run linkgit:git-gc[1], so you don't | |
1567 | have to worry about running it manually. However, compressing a large | |
1568 | repository may take a while, so you may want to call `gc` explicitly | |
1569 | to avoid automatic compression kicking in when it is not convenient. | |
d19fbc3c | 1570 | |
e34caace BF |
1571 | |
1572 | [[ensuring-reliability]] | |
11e016a3 BF |
1573 | Ensuring reliability |
1574 | -------------------- | |
1575 | ||
e34caace | 1576 | [[checking-for-corruption]] |
11e016a3 BF |
1577 | Checking the repository for corruption |
1578 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
1579 | ||
5162e697 | 1580 | The linkgit:git-fsck[1] command runs a number of self-consistency checks |
1191ee18 | 1581 | on the repository, and reports on any problems. This may take some |
c6a13b2c | 1582 | time. |
21dcb3b7 BF |
1583 | |
1584 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
04e50e94 | 1585 | $ git fsck |
21dcb3b7 BF |
1586 | dangling commit 7281251ddd2a61e38657c827739c57015671a6b3 |
1587 | dangling commit 2706a059f258c6b245f298dc4ff2ccd30ec21a63 | |
1588 | dangling commit 13472b7c4b80851a1bc551779171dcb03655e9b5 | |
1589 | dangling blob 218761f9d90712d37a9c5e36f406f92202db07eb | |
1590 | dangling commit bf093535a34a4d35731aa2bd90fe6b176302f14f | |
1591 | dangling commit 8e4bec7f2ddaa268bef999853c25755452100f8e | |
1592 | dangling tree d50bb86186bf27b681d25af89d3b5b68382e4085 | |
1593 | dangling tree b24c2473f1fd3d91352a624795be026d64c8841f | |
1594 | ... | |
1595 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1596 | ||
c6a13b2c JH |
1597 | You will see informational messages on dangling objects. They are objects |
1598 | that still exist in the repository but are no longer referenced by any of | |
1599 | your branches, and can (and will) be removed after a while with "gc". | |
b4ab1980 | 1600 | You can run `git fsck --no-dangling` to suppress these messages, and still |
c6a13b2c | 1601 | view real errors. |
1cdade2c | 1602 | |
e34caace | 1603 | [[recovering-lost-changes]] |
11e016a3 BF |
1604 | Recovering lost changes |
1605 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
1606 | ||
e34caace | 1607 | [[reflogs]] |
559e4d7a BF |
1608 | Reflogs |
1609 | ^^^^^^^ | |
1610 | ||
6cf378f0 | 1611 | Say you modify a branch with +linkgit:git-reset[1] \--hard+, and then |
559e4d7a BF |
1612 | realize that the branch was the only reference you had to that point in |
1613 | history. | |
1614 | ||
1615 | Fortunately, git also keeps a log, called a "reflog", of all the | |
1616 | previous values of each branch. So in this case you can still find the | |
a6080a0a | 1617 | old history using, for example, |
559e4d7a BF |
1618 | |
1619 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1620 | $ git log master@{1} | |
1621 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1622 | ||
e502c2c3 SO |
1623 | This lists the commits reachable from the previous version of the |
1624 | "master" branch head. This syntax can be used with any git command | |
1625 | that accepts a commit, not just with git log. Some other examples: | |
559e4d7a BF |
1626 | |
1627 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1628 | $ git show master@{2} # See where the branch pointed 2, | |
1629 | $ git show master@{3} # 3, ... changes ago. | |
1630 | $ gitk master@{yesterday} # See where it pointed yesterday, | |
1631 | $ gitk master@{"1 week ago"} # ... or last week | |
953f3d6f BF |
1632 | $ git log --walk-reflogs master # show reflog entries for master |
1633 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1634 | ||
1635 | A separate reflog is kept for the HEAD, so | |
1636 | ||
1637 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1638 | $ git show HEAD@{"1 week ago"} | |
559e4d7a BF |
1639 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1640 | ||
953f3d6f BF |
1641 | will show what HEAD pointed to one week ago, not what the current branch |
1642 | pointed to one week ago. This allows you to see the history of what | |
1643 | you've checked out. | |
1644 | ||
559e4d7a | 1645 | The reflogs are kept by default for 30 days, after which they may be |
5162e697 | 1646 | pruned. See linkgit:git-reflog[1] and linkgit:git-gc[1] to learn |
559e4d7a | 1647 | how to control this pruning, and see the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" |
9d83e382 | 1648 | section of linkgit:gitrevisions[7] for details. |
559e4d7a BF |
1649 | |
1650 | Note that the reflog history is very different from normal git history. | |
1651 | While normal history is shared by every repository that works on the | |
1652 | same project, the reflog history is not shared: it tells you only about | |
1653 | how the branches in your local repository have changed over time. | |
1654 | ||
59723040 | 1655 | [[dangling-object-recovery]] |
559e4d7a BF |
1656 | Examining dangling objects |
1657 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
1658 | ||
59723040 BF |
1659 | In some situations the reflog may not be able to save you. For example, |
1660 | suppose you delete a branch, then realize you need the history it | |
1661 | contained. The reflog is also deleted; however, if you have not yet | |
1662 | pruned the repository, then you may still be able to find the lost | |
6127c086 | 1663 | commits in the dangling objects that `git fsck` reports. See |
59723040 | 1664 | <<dangling-objects>> for the details. |
559e4d7a BF |
1665 | |
1666 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1667 | $ git fsck | |
1668 | dangling commit 7281251ddd2a61e38657c827739c57015671a6b3 | |
1669 | dangling commit 2706a059f258c6b245f298dc4ff2ccd30ec21a63 | |
1670 | dangling commit 13472b7c4b80851a1bc551779171dcb03655e9b5 | |
1671 | ... | |
1672 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1673 | ||
aacd404e | 1674 | You can examine |
559e4d7a BF |
1675 | one of those dangling commits with, for example, |
1676 | ||
1677 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
1678 | $ gitk 7281251ddd --not --all | |
1679 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
1680 | ||
1681 | which does what it sounds like: it says that you want to see the commit | |
1682 | history that is described by the dangling commit(s), but not the | |
1683 | history that is described by all your existing branches and tags. Thus | |
1684 | you get exactly the history reachable from that commit that is lost. | |
1685 | (And notice that it might not be just one commit: we only report the | |
1686 | "tip of the line" as being dangling, but there might be a whole deep | |
79c96c57 | 1687 | and complex commit history that was dropped.) |
559e4d7a BF |
1688 | |
1689 | If you decide you want the history back, you can always create a new | |
1690 | reference pointing to it, for example, a new branch: | |
1691 | ||
1692 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
a6080a0a | 1693 | $ git branch recovered-branch 7281251ddd |
559e4d7a BF |
1694 | ------------------------------------------------ |
1695 | ||
59723040 BF |
1696 | Other types of dangling objects (blobs and trees) are also possible, and |
1697 | dangling objects can arise in other situations. | |
1698 | ||
11e016a3 | 1699 | |
e34caace | 1700 | [[sharing-development]] |
d19fbc3c | 1701 | Sharing development with others |
b684f830 | 1702 | =============================== |
d19fbc3c | 1703 | |
aa971cb9 | 1704 | [[getting-updates-With-git-pull]] |
6127c086 | 1705 | Getting updates with git pull |
b684f830 | 1706 | ----------------------------- |
d19fbc3c | 1707 | |
e63ec003 | 1708 | After you clone a repository and commit a few changes of your own, you |
d19fbc3c BF |
1709 | may wish to check the original repository for updates and merge them |
1710 | into your own work. | |
1711 | ||
aa971cb9 | 1712 | We have already seen <<Updating-a-repository-With-git-fetch,how to |
0e615b25 | 1713 | keep remote-tracking branches up to date>> with linkgit:git-fetch[1], |
d19fbc3c BF |
1714 | and how to merge two branches. So you can merge in changes from the |
1715 | original repository's master branch with: | |
1716 | ||
1717 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1718 | $ git fetch | |
1719 | $ git merge origin/master | |
1720 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1721 | ||
5162e697 | 1722 | However, the linkgit:git-pull[1] command provides a way to do this in |
d19fbc3c BF |
1723 | one step: |
1724 | ||
1725 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1726 | $ git pull origin master | |
1727 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1728 | ||
66a062a1 MM |
1729 | In fact, if you have "master" checked out, then this branch has been |
1730 | configured by "git clone" to get changes from the HEAD branch of the | |
1731 | origin repository. So often you can | |
0eb4f7cd | 1732 | accomplish the above with just a simple |
d19fbc3c BF |
1733 | |
1734 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1735 | $ git pull | |
1736 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1737 | ||
66a062a1 MM |
1738 | This command will fetch changes from the remote branches to your |
1739 | remote-tracking branches `origin/*`, and merge the default branch into | |
1740 | the current branch. | |
1741 | ||
29b9a66f MM |
1742 | More generally, a branch that is created from a remote-tracking branch |
1743 | will pull | |
0eb4f7cd BF |
1744 | by default from that branch. See the descriptions of the |
1745 | branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge options in | |
5162e697 DM |
1746 | linkgit:git-config[1], and the discussion of the `--track` option in |
1747 | linkgit:git-checkout[1], to learn how to control these defaults. | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1748 | |
1749 | In addition to saving you keystrokes, "git pull" also helps you by | |
1750 | producing a default commit message documenting the branch and | |
1751 | repository that you pulled from. | |
1752 | ||
1753 | (But note that no such commit will be created in the case of a | |
a75d7b54 | 1754 | <<fast-forwards,fast-forward>>; instead, your branch will just be |
79c96c57 | 1755 | updated to point to the latest commit from the upstream branch.) |
d19fbc3c | 1756 | |
6127c086 | 1757 | The `git pull` command can also be given "." as the "remote" repository, |
1191ee18 | 1758 | in which case it just merges in a branch from the current repository; so |
4c63ff45 BF |
1759 | the commands |
1760 | ||
1761 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1762 | $ git pull . branch | |
1763 | $ git merge branch | |
1764 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1765 | ||
1766 | are roughly equivalent. The former is actually very commonly used. | |
1767 | ||
e34caace | 1768 | [[submitting-patches]] |
d19fbc3c | 1769 | Submitting patches to a project |
b684f830 | 1770 | ------------------------------- |
d19fbc3c BF |
1771 | |
1772 | If you just have a few changes, the simplest way to submit them may | |
1773 | just be to send them as patches in email: | |
1774 | ||
5162e697 | 1775 | First, use linkgit:git-format-patch[1]; for example: |
d19fbc3c BF |
1776 | |
1777 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
eb6ae7f4 | 1778 | $ git format-patch origin |
d19fbc3c BF |
1779 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1780 | ||
1781 | will produce a numbered series of files in the current directory, one | |
1782 | for each patch in the current branch but not in origin/HEAD. | |
1783 | ||
d84cef18 PO |
1784 | `git format-patch` can include an initial "cover letter". You can insert |
1785 | commentary on individual patches after the three dash line which | |
1786 | `format-patch` places after the commit message but before the patch | |
1787 | itself. If you use `git notes` to track your cover letter material, | |
1788 | `git format-patch --notes` will include the commit's notes in a similar | |
1789 | manner. | |
1790 | ||
d19fbc3c BF |
1791 | You can then import these into your mail client and send them by |
1792 | hand. However, if you have a lot to send at once, you may prefer to | |
5162e697 | 1793 | use the linkgit:git-send-email[1] script to automate the process. |
d19fbc3c BF |
1794 | Consult the mailing list for your project first to determine how they |
1795 | prefer such patches be handled. | |
1796 | ||
e34caace | 1797 | [[importing-patches]] |
d19fbc3c | 1798 | Importing patches to a project |
b684f830 | 1799 | ------------------------------ |
d19fbc3c | 1800 | |
5162e697 | 1801 | Git also provides a tool called linkgit:git-am[1] (am stands for |
d19fbc3c BF |
1802 | "apply mailbox"), for importing such an emailed series of patches. |
1803 | Just save all of the patch-containing messages, in order, into a | |
1804 | single mailbox file, say "patches.mbox", then run | |
1805 | ||
1806 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
eb6ae7f4 | 1807 | $ git am -3 patches.mbox |
d19fbc3c BF |
1808 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1809 | ||
1810 | Git will apply each patch in order; if any conflicts are found, it | |
1811 | will stop, and you can fix the conflicts as described in | |
01997b4a BF |
1812 | "<<resolving-a-merge,Resolving a merge>>". (The "-3" option tells |
1813 | git to perform a merge; if you would prefer it just to abort and | |
1814 | leave your tree and index untouched, you may omit that option.) | |
1815 | ||
1816 | Once the index is updated with the results of the conflict | |
1817 | resolution, instead of creating a new commit, just run | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1818 | |
1819 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1820 | $ git am --resolved | |
1821 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1822 | ||
1823 | and git will create the commit for you and continue applying the | |
1824 | remaining patches from the mailbox. | |
1825 | ||
1826 | The final result will be a series of commits, one for each patch in | |
1827 | the original mailbox, with authorship and commit log message each | |
1828 | taken from the message containing each patch. | |
1829 | ||
eda69449 BF |
1830 | [[public-repositories]] |
1831 | Public git repositories | |
1832 | ----------------------- | |
d19fbc3c | 1833 | |
6e30fb0c DK |
1834 | Another way to submit changes to a project is to tell the maintainer |
1835 | of that project to pull the changes from your repository using | |
aa971cb9 | 1836 | linkgit:git-pull[1]. In the section "<<getting-updates-With-git-pull, |
6127c086 | 1837 | Getting updates with `git pull`>>" we described this as a way to get |
6e30fb0c DK |
1838 | updates from the "main" repository, but it works just as well in the |
1839 | other direction. | |
d19fbc3c | 1840 | |
eda69449 BF |
1841 | If you and the maintainer both have accounts on the same machine, then |
1842 | you can just pull changes from each other's repositories directly; | |
11d51533 | 1843 | commands that accept repository URLs as arguments will also accept a |
eda69449 | 1844 | local directory name: |
d19fbc3c BF |
1845 | |
1846 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1847 | $ git clone /path/to/repository | |
1848 | $ git pull /path/to/other/repository | |
1849 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1850 | ||
c9016158 | 1851 | or an ssh URL: |
11d51533 BF |
1852 | |
1853 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1854 | $ git clone ssh://yourhost/~you/repository | |
1855 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1856 | ||
1857 | For projects with few developers, or for synchronizing a few private | |
1858 | repositories, this may be all you need. | |
1859 | ||
eda69449 BF |
1860 | However, the more common way to do this is to maintain a separate public |
1861 | repository (usually on a different host) for others to pull changes | |
1862 | from. This is usually more convenient, and allows you to cleanly | |
1863 | separate private work in progress from publicly visible work. | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1864 | |
1865 | You will continue to do your day-to-day work in your personal | |
1866 | repository, but periodically "push" changes from your personal | |
1867 | repository into your public repository, allowing other developers to | |
1868 | pull from that repository. So the flow of changes, in a situation | |
1869 | where there is one other developer with a public repository, looks | |
1870 | like this: | |
1871 | ||
1872 | you push | |
1873 | your personal repo ------------------> your public repo | |
a6080a0a | 1874 | ^ | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1875 | | | |
1876 | | you pull | they pull | |
1877 | | | | |
1878 | | | | |
1879 | | they push V | |
1880 | their public repo <------------------- their repo | |
1881 | ||
11d51533 BF |
1882 | We explain how to do this in the following sections. |
1883 | ||
eda69449 BF |
1884 | [[setting-up-a-public-repository]] |
1885 | Setting up a public repository | |
1886 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
1887 | ||
1888 | Assume your personal repository is in the directory ~/proj. We | |
6127c086 | 1889 | first create a new clone of the repository and tell `git daemon` that it |
eda69449 | 1890 | is meant to be public: |
d19fbc3c BF |
1891 | |
1892 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
52c80037 | 1893 | $ git clone --bare ~/proj proj.git |
eda69449 | 1894 | $ touch proj.git/git-daemon-export-ok |
d19fbc3c BF |
1895 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1896 | ||
52c80037 | 1897 | The resulting directory proj.git contains a "bare" git repository--it is |
eda69449 BF |
1898 | just the contents of the ".git" directory, without any files checked out |
1899 | around it. | |
d19fbc3c | 1900 | |
c64415e2 | 1901 | Next, copy proj.git to the server where you plan to host the |
d19fbc3c BF |
1902 | public repository. You can use scp, rsync, or whatever is most |
1903 | convenient. | |
1904 | ||
eda69449 BF |
1905 | [[exporting-via-git]] |
1906 | Exporting a git repository via the git protocol | |
1907 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
1908 | ||
1909 | This is the preferred method. | |
1910 | ||
1911 | If someone else administers the server, they should tell you what | |
c9016158 | 1912 | directory to put the repository in, and what git:// URL it will appear |
eda69449 | 1913 | at. You can then skip to the section |
d19fbc3c BF |
1914 | "<<pushing-changes-to-a-public-repository,Pushing changes to a public |
1915 | repository>>", below. | |
1916 | ||
5162e697 | 1917 | Otherwise, all you need to do is start linkgit:git-daemon[1]; it will |
eda69449 BF |
1918 | listen on port 9418. By default, it will allow access to any directory |
1919 | that looks like a git directory and contains the magic file | |
6127c086 | 1920 | git-daemon-export-ok. Passing some directory paths as `git daemon` |
eda69449 BF |
1921 | arguments will further restrict the exports to those paths. |
1922 | ||
6127c086 | 1923 | You can also run `git daemon` as an inetd service; see the |
5162e697 | 1924 | linkgit:git-daemon[1] man page for details. (See especially the |
eda69449 | 1925 | examples section.) |
d19fbc3c BF |
1926 | |
1927 | [[exporting-via-http]] | |
de3f2c7b | 1928 | Exporting a git repository via HTTP |
eda69449 | 1929 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
d19fbc3c BF |
1930 | |
1931 | The git protocol gives better performance and reliability, but on a | |
de3f2c7b | 1932 | host with a web server set up, HTTP exports may be simpler to set up. |
d19fbc3c BF |
1933 | |
1934 | All you need to do is place the newly created bare git repository in | |
1935 | a directory that is exported by the web server, and make some | |
1936 | adjustments to give web clients some extra information they need: | |
1937 | ||
1938 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1939 | $ mv proj.git /home/you/public_html/proj.git | |
1940 | $ cd proj.git | |
c64415e2 | 1941 | $ git --bare update-server-info |
7dce9918 | 1942 | $ mv hooks/post-update.sample hooks/post-update |
d19fbc3c BF |
1943 | ------------------------------------------------- |
1944 | ||
1945 | (For an explanation of the last two lines, see | |
6998e4db | 1946 | linkgit:git-update-server-info[1] and linkgit:githooks[5].) |
d19fbc3c | 1947 | |
c9016158 RW |
1948 | Advertise the URL of proj.git. Anybody else should then be able to |
1949 | clone or pull from that URL, for example with a command line like: | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1950 | |
1951 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1952 | $ git clone http://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git | |
1953 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1954 | ||
1955 | (See also | |
1956 | link:howto/setup-git-server-over-http.txt[setup-git-server-over-http] | |
1957 | for a slightly more sophisticated setup using WebDAV which also | |
de3f2c7b | 1958 | allows pushing over HTTP.) |
d19fbc3c | 1959 | |
d19fbc3c BF |
1960 | [[pushing-changes-to-a-public-repository]] |
1961 | Pushing changes to a public repository | |
eda69449 | 1962 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
d19fbc3c | 1963 | |
eda69449 | 1964 | Note that the two techniques outlined above (exporting via |
d19fbc3c BF |
1965 | <<exporting-via-http,http>> or <<exporting-via-git,git>>) allow other |
1966 | maintainers to fetch your latest changes, but they do not allow write | |
1967 | access, which you will need to update the public repository with the | |
1968 | latest changes created in your private repository. | |
1969 | ||
5162e697 | 1970 | The simplest way to do this is using linkgit:git-push[1] and ssh; to |
d19fbc3c BF |
1971 | update the remote branch named "master" with the latest state of your |
1972 | branch named "master", run | |
1973 | ||
1974 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1975 | $ git push ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git master:master | |
1976 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1977 | ||
1978 | or just | |
1979 | ||
1980 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1981 | $ git push ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git master | |
1982 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1983 | ||
6127c086 | 1984 | As with `git fetch`, `git push` will complain if this does not result in a |
a75d7b54 | 1985 | <<fast-forwards,fast-forward>>; see the following section for details on |
81eb417a | 1986 | handling this case. |
d19fbc3c | 1987 | |
11d51533 BF |
1988 | Note that the target of a "push" is normally a |
1989 | <<def_bare_repository,bare>> repository. You can also push to a | |
1990 | repository that has a checked-out working tree, but the working tree | |
1991 | will not be updated by the push. This may lead to unexpected results if | |
1992 | the branch you push to is the currently checked-out branch! | |
1993 | ||
6127c086 | 1994 | As with `git fetch`, you may also set up configuration options to |
e9b49083 TK |
1995 | save typing; so, for example: |
1996 | ||
1997 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1998 | $ git remote add public-repo ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git | |
1999 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2000 | ||
2001 | adds the following to `.git/config`: | |
d19fbc3c BF |
2002 | |
2003 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
d19fbc3c | 2004 | [remote "public-repo"] |
e9b49083 TK |
2005 | url = yourserver.com:proj.git |
2006 | fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/example/* | |
d19fbc3c BF |
2007 | ------------------------------------------------- |
2008 | ||
e9b49083 | 2009 | which lets you do the same push with just |
d19fbc3c BF |
2010 | |
2011 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2012 | $ git push public-repo master | |
2013 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2014 | ||
2015 | See the explanations of the remote.<name>.url, branch.<name>.remote, | |
5162e697 | 2016 | and remote.<name>.push options in linkgit:git-config[1] for |
d19fbc3c BF |
2017 | details. |
2018 | ||
81eb417a BF |
2019 | [[forcing-push]] |
2020 | What to do when a push fails | |
2021 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
2022 | ||
a75d7b54 | 2023 | If a push would not result in a <<fast-forwards,fast-forward>> of the |
81eb417a BF |
2024 | remote branch, then it will fail with an error like: |
2025 | ||
2026 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2027 | error: remote 'refs/heads/master' is not an ancestor of | |
2028 | local 'refs/heads/master'. | |
2029 | Maybe you are not up-to-date and need to pull first? | |
2030 | error: failed to push to 'ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git' | |
2031 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2032 | ||
2033 | This can happen, for example, if you: | |
2034 | ||
6127c086 FC |
2035 | - use `git reset --hard` to remove already-published commits, or |
2036 | - use `git commit --amend` to replace already-published commits | |
7cb192ea | 2037 | (as in <<fixing-a-mistake-by-rewriting-history>>), or |
6127c086 | 2038 | - use `git rebase` to rebase any already-published commits (as |
81eb417a BF |
2039 | in <<using-git-rebase>>). |
2040 | ||
6127c086 | 2041 | You may force `git push` to perform the update anyway by preceding the |
81eb417a BF |
2042 | branch name with a plus sign: |
2043 | ||
2044 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2045 | $ git push ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git +master | |
2046 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2047 | ||
d1471e06 TK |
2048 | Note the addition of the `+` sign. Alternatively, you can use the |
2049 | `-f` flag to force the remote update, as in: | |
2050 | ||
2051 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2052 | $ git push -f ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git master | |
2053 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2054 | ||
81eb417a | 2055 | Normally whenever a branch head in a public repository is modified, it |
9e5d87d4 | 2056 | is modified to point to a descendant of the commit that it pointed to |
81eb417a | 2057 | before. By forcing a push in this situation, you break that convention. |
aa971cb9 | 2058 | (See <<problems-With-rewriting-history>>.) |
81eb417a BF |
2059 | |
2060 | Nevertheless, this is a common practice for people that need a simple | |
2061 | way to publish a work-in-progress patch series, and it is an acceptable | |
2062 | compromise as long as you warn other developers that this is how you | |
2063 | intend to manage the branch. | |
2064 | ||
2065 | It's also possible for a push to fail in this way when other people have | |
2066 | the right to push to the same repository. In that case, the correct | |
843c81dc EH |
2067 | solution is to retry the push after first updating your work: either by a |
2068 | pull, or by a fetch followed by a rebase; see the | |
81eb417a | 2069 | <<setting-up-a-shared-repository,next section>> and |
6998e4db | 2070 | linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7] for more. |
81eb417a | 2071 | |
e34caace | 2072 | [[setting-up-a-shared-repository]] |
d19fbc3c | 2073 | Setting up a shared repository |
eda69449 | 2074 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
d19fbc3c BF |
2075 | |
2076 | Another way to collaborate is by using a model similar to that | |
2077 | commonly used in CVS, where several developers with special rights | |
2078 | all push to and pull from a single shared repository. See | |
6998e4db | 2079 | linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7] for instructions on how to |
d19fbc3c BF |
2080 | set this up. |
2081 | ||
8fae2225 BF |
2082 | However, while there is nothing wrong with git's support for shared |
2083 | repositories, this mode of operation is not generally recommended, | |
2084 | simply because the mode of collaboration that git supports--by | |
2085 | exchanging patches and pulling from public repositories--has so many | |
2086 | advantages over the central shared repository: | |
2087 | ||
2088 | - Git's ability to quickly import and merge patches allows a | |
2089 | single maintainer to process incoming changes even at very | |
6127c086 | 2090 | high rates. And when that becomes too much, `git pull` provides |
8fae2225 BF |
2091 | an easy way for that maintainer to delegate this job to other |
2092 | maintainers while still allowing optional review of incoming | |
2093 | changes. | |
2094 | - Since every developer's repository has the same complete copy | |
2095 | of the project history, no repository is special, and it is | |
2096 | trivial for another developer to take over maintenance of a | |
2097 | project, either by mutual agreement, or because a maintainer | |
2098 | becomes unresponsive or difficult to work with. | |
2099 | - The lack of a central group of "committers" means there is | |
2100 | less need for formal decisions about who is "in" and who is | |
2101 | "out". | |
2102 | ||
e34caace | 2103 | [[setting-up-gitweb]] |
eda69449 BF |
2104 | Allowing web browsing of a repository |
2105 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
d19fbc3c | 2106 | |
a8cd1402 BF |
2107 | The gitweb cgi script provides users an easy way to browse your |
2108 | project's files and history without having to install git; see the file | |
04483524 | 2109 | gitweb/INSTALL in the git source tree for instructions on setting it up. |
d19fbc3c | 2110 | |
e34caace | 2111 | [[sharing-development-examples]] |
b684f830 BF |
2112 | Examples |
2113 | -------- | |
d19fbc3c | 2114 | |
9e2163ea BF |
2115 | [[maintaining-topic-branches]] |
2116 | Maintaining topic branches for a Linux subsystem maintainer | |
2117 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
2118 | ||
2119 | This describes how Tony Luck uses git in his role as maintainer of the | |
2120 | IA64 architecture for the Linux kernel. | |
2121 | ||
2122 | He uses two public branches: | |
2123 | ||
2124 | - A "test" tree into which patches are initially placed so that they | |
2125 | can get some exposure when integrated with other ongoing development. | |
2126 | This tree is available to Andrew for pulling into -mm whenever he | |
2127 | wants. | |
2128 | ||
2129 | - A "release" tree into which tested patches are moved for final sanity | |
2130 | checking, and as a vehicle to send them upstream to Linus (by sending | |
2131 | him a "please pull" request.) | |
2132 | ||
2133 | He also uses a set of temporary branches ("topic branches"), each | |
2134 | containing a logical grouping of patches. | |
2135 | ||
2136 | To set this up, first create your work tree by cloning Linus's public | |
2137 | tree: | |
2138 | ||
2139 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2140 | $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git work | |
2141 | $ cd work | |
2142 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2143 | ||
29b9a66f | 2144 | Linus's tree will be stored in the remote-tracking branch named origin/master, |
5162e697 DM |
2145 | and can be updated using linkgit:git-fetch[1]; you can track other |
2146 | public trees using linkgit:git-remote[1] to set up a "remote" and | |
2147 | linkgit:git-fetch[1] to keep them up-to-date; see | |
6e30fb0c | 2148 | <<repositories-and-branches>>. |
9e2163ea BF |
2149 | |
2150 | Now create the branches in which you are going to work; these start out | |
2151 | at the current tip of origin/master branch, and should be set up (using | |
5162e697 | 2152 | the --track option to linkgit:git-branch[1]) to merge changes in from |
9e2163ea BF |
2153 | Linus by default. |
2154 | ||
2155 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2156 | $ git branch --track test origin/master | |
2157 | $ git branch --track release origin/master | |
2158 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2159 | ||
5162e697 | 2160 | These can be easily kept up to date using linkgit:git-pull[1]. |
9e2163ea BF |
2161 | |
2162 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2163 | $ git checkout test && git pull | |
2164 | $ git checkout release && git pull | |
2165 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2166 | ||
2167 | Important note! If you have any local changes in these branches, then | |
2168 | this merge will create a commit object in the history (with no local | |
a75d7b54 | 2169 | changes git will simply do a "fast-forward" merge). Many people dislike |
9e2163ea BF |
2170 | the "noise" that this creates in the Linux history, so you should avoid |
2171 | doing this capriciously in the "release" branch, as these noisy commits | |
2172 | will become part of the permanent history when you ask Linus to pull | |
2173 | from the release branch. | |
2174 | ||
5162e697 | 2175 | A few configuration variables (see linkgit:git-config[1]) can |
9e2163ea BF |
2176 | make it easy to push both branches to your public tree. (See |
2177 | <<setting-up-a-public-repository>>.) | |
2178 | ||
2179 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2180 | $ cat >> .git/config <<EOF | |
2181 | [remote "mytree"] | |
2182 | url = master.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/aegl/linux-2.6.git | |
2183 | push = release | |
2184 | push = test | |
2185 | EOF | |
2186 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2187 | ||
2188 | Then you can push both the test and release trees using | |
5162e697 | 2189 | linkgit:git-push[1]: |
9e2163ea BF |
2190 | |
2191 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2192 | $ git push mytree | |
2193 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2194 | ||
2195 | or push just one of the test and release branches using: | |
2196 | ||
2197 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2198 | $ git push mytree test | |
2199 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2200 | ||
2201 | or | |
2202 | ||
2203 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2204 | $ git push mytree release | |
2205 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2206 | ||
2207 | Now to apply some patches from the community. Think of a short | |
2208 | snappy name for a branch to hold this patch (or related group of | |
352953a5 TL |
2209 | patches), and create a new branch from a recent stable tag of |
2210 | Linus's branch. Picking a stable base for your branch will: | |
2211 | 1) help you: by avoiding inclusion of unrelated and perhaps lightly | |
2212 | tested changes | |
2213 | 2) help future bug hunters that use "git bisect" to find problems | |
9e2163ea BF |
2214 | |
2215 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
352953a5 | 2216 | $ git checkout -b speed-up-spinlocks v2.6.35 |
9e2163ea BF |
2217 | ------------------------------------------------- |
2218 | ||
2219 | Now you apply the patch(es), run some tests, and commit the change(s). If | |
2220 | the patch is a multi-part series, then you should apply each as a separate | |
2221 | commit to this branch. | |
2222 | ||
2223 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2224 | $ ... patch ... test ... commit [ ... patch ... test ... commit ]* | |
2225 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2226 | ||
2227 | When you are happy with the state of this change, you can pull it into the | |
2228 | "test" branch in preparation to make it public: | |
2229 | ||
2230 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2231 | $ git checkout test && git pull . speed-up-spinlocks | |
2232 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2233 | ||
2234 | It is unlikely that you would have any conflicts here ... but you might if you | |
2235 | spent a while on this step and had also pulled new versions from upstream. | |
2236 | ||
2237 | Some time later when enough time has passed and testing done, you can pull the | |
2238 | same branch into the "release" tree ready to go upstream. This is where you | |
2239 | see the value of keeping each patch (or patch series) in its own branch. It | |
2240 | means that the patches can be moved into the "release" tree in any order. | |
2241 | ||
2242 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2243 | $ git checkout release && git pull . speed-up-spinlocks | |
2244 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2245 | ||
2246 | After a while, you will have a number of branches, and despite the | |
2247 | well chosen names you picked for each of them, you may forget what | |
2248 | they are for, or what status they are in. To get a reminder of what | |
2249 | changes are in a specific branch, use: | |
2250 | ||
2251 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
467c0197 | 2252 | $ git log linux..branchname | git shortlog |
9e2163ea BF |
2253 | ------------------------------------------------- |
2254 | ||
06ada152 | 2255 | To see whether it has already been merged into the test or release branches, |
9e2163ea BF |
2256 | use: |
2257 | ||
2258 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2259 | $ git log test..branchname | |
2260 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2261 | ||
2262 | or | |
2263 | ||
2264 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2265 | $ git log release..branchname | |
2266 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2267 | ||
06ada152 | 2268 | (If this branch has not yet been merged, you will see some log entries. |
9e2163ea BF |
2269 | If it has been merged, then there will be no output.) |
2270 | ||
2271 | Once a patch completes the great cycle (moving from test to release, | |
2272 | then pulled by Linus, and finally coming back into your local | |
06ada152 | 2273 | "origin/master" branch), the branch for this change is no longer needed. |
9e2163ea BF |
2274 | You detect this when the output from: |
2275 | ||
2276 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2277 | $ git log origin..branchname | |
2278 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2279 | ||
2280 | is empty. At this point the branch can be deleted: | |
2281 | ||
2282 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2283 | $ git branch -d branchname | |
2284 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2285 | ||
2286 | Some changes are so trivial that it is not necessary to create a separate | |
2287 | branch and then merge into each of the test and release branches. For | |
2288 | these changes, just apply directly to the "release" branch, and then | |
2289 | merge that into the "test" branch. | |
2290 | ||
2291 | To create diffstat and shortlog summaries of changes to include in a "please | |
2292 | pull" request to Linus you can use: | |
2293 | ||
2294 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2295 | $ git diff --stat origin..release | |
2296 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2297 | ||
2298 | and | |
2299 | ||
2300 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2301 | $ git log -p origin..release | git shortlog | |
2302 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2303 | ||
2304 | Here are some of the scripts that simplify all this even further. | |
2305 | ||
2306 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2307 | ==== update script ==== | |
2308 | # Update a branch in my GIT tree. If the branch to be updated | |
2309 | # is origin, then pull from kernel.org. Otherwise merge | |
2310 | # origin/master branch into test|release branch | |
2311 | ||
2312 | case "$1" in | |
2313 | test|release) | |
2314 | git checkout $1 && git pull . origin | |
2315 | ;; | |
2316 | origin) | |
fc74ecc1 | 2317 | before=$(git rev-parse refs/remotes/origin/master) |
9e2163ea | 2318 | git fetch origin |
fc74ecc1 | 2319 | after=$(git rev-parse refs/remotes/origin/master) |
9e2163ea BF |
2320 | if [ $before != $after ] |
2321 | then | |
2322 | git log $before..$after | git shortlog | |
2323 | fi | |
2324 | ;; | |
2325 | *) | |
2326 | echo "Usage: $0 origin|test|release" 1>&2 | |
2327 | exit 1 | |
2328 | ;; | |
2329 | esac | |
2330 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2331 | ||
2332 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2333 | ==== merge script ==== | |
2334 | # Merge a branch into either the test or release branch | |
2335 | ||
2336 | pname=$0 | |
2337 | ||
2338 | usage() | |
2339 | { | |
2340 | echo "Usage: $pname branch test|release" 1>&2 | |
2341 | exit 1 | |
2342 | } | |
2343 | ||
fc74ecc1 | 2344 | git show-ref -q --verify -- refs/heads/"$1" || { |
9e2163ea BF |
2345 | echo "Can't see branch <$1>" 1>&2 |
2346 | usage | |
fc74ecc1 | 2347 | } |
9e2163ea BF |
2348 | |
2349 | case "$2" in | |
2350 | test|release) | |
2351 | if [ $(git log $2..$1 | wc -c) -eq 0 ] | |
2352 | then | |
2353 | echo $1 already merged into $2 1>&2 | |
2354 | exit 1 | |
2355 | fi | |
2356 | git checkout $2 && git pull . $1 | |
2357 | ;; | |
2358 | *) | |
2359 | usage | |
2360 | ;; | |
2361 | esac | |
2362 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2363 | ||
2364 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2365 | ==== status script ==== | |
2366 | # report on status of my ia64 GIT tree | |
2367 | ||
2368 | gb=$(tput setab 2) | |
2369 | rb=$(tput setab 1) | |
2370 | restore=$(tput setab 9) | |
2371 | ||
2372 | if [ `git rev-list test..release | wc -c` -gt 0 ] | |
2373 | then | |
2374 | echo $rb Warning: commits in release that are not in test $restore | |
2375 | git log test..release | |
2376 | fi | |
2377 | ||
fc74ecc1 | 2378 | for branch in `git show-ref --heads | sed 's|^.*/||'` |
9e2163ea BF |
2379 | do |
2380 | if [ $branch = test -o $branch = release ] | |
2381 | then | |
2382 | continue | |
2383 | fi | |
2384 | ||
2385 | echo -n $gb ======= $branch ====== $restore " " | |
2386 | status= | |
2387 | for ref in test release origin/master | |
2388 | do | |
2389 | if [ `git rev-list $ref..$branch | wc -c` -gt 0 ] | |
2390 | then | |
2391 | status=$status${ref:0:1} | |
2392 | fi | |
2393 | done | |
2394 | case $status in | |
2395 | trl) | |
2396 | echo $rb Need to pull into test $restore | |
2397 | ;; | |
2398 | rl) | |
2399 | echo "In test" | |
2400 | ;; | |
2401 | l) | |
2402 | echo "Waiting for linus" | |
2403 | ;; | |
2404 | "") | |
2405 | echo $rb All done $restore | |
2406 | ;; | |
2407 | *) | |
2408 | echo $rb "<$status>" $restore | |
2409 | ;; | |
2410 | esac | |
2411 | git log origin/master..$branch | git shortlog | |
2412 | done | |
2413 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
d19fbc3c | 2414 | |
d19fbc3c | 2415 | |
d19fbc3c | 2416 | [[cleaning-up-history]] |
4c63ff45 BF |
2417 | Rewriting history and maintaining patch series |
2418 | ============================================== | |
2419 | ||
2420 | Normally commits are only added to a project, never taken away or | |
2421 | replaced. Git is designed with this assumption, and violating it will | |
2422 | cause git's merge machinery (for example) to do the wrong thing. | |
2423 | ||
2424 | However, there is a situation in which it can be useful to violate this | |
2425 | assumption. | |
2426 | ||
e34caace | 2427 | [[patch-series]] |
4c63ff45 BF |
2428 | Creating the perfect patch series |
2429 | --------------------------------- | |
2430 | ||
2431 | Suppose you are a contributor to a large project, and you want to add a | |
2432 | complicated feature, and to present it to the other developers in a way | |
2433 | that makes it easy for them to read your changes, verify that they are | |
2434 | correct, and understand why you made each change. | |
2435 | ||
b181d57f | 2436 | If you present all of your changes as a single patch (or commit), they |
79c96c57 | 2437 | may find that it is too much to digest all at once. |
4c63ff45 BF |
2438 | |
2439 | If you present them with the entire history of your work, complete with | |
2440 | mistakes, corrections, and dead ends, they may be overwhelmed. | |
2441 | ||
2442 | So the ideal is usually to produce a series of patches such that: | |
2443 | ||
2444 | 1. Each patch can be applied in order. | |
2445 | ||
2446 | 2. Each patch includes a single logical change, together with a | |
2447 | message explaining the change. | |
2448 | ||
2449 | 3. No patch introduces a regression: after applying any initial | |
2450 | part of the series, the resulting project still compiles and | |
2451 | works, and has no bugs that it didn't have before. | |
2452 | ||
2453 | 4. The complete series produces the same end result as your own | |
2454 | (probably much messier!) development process did. | |
2455 | ||
b181d57f BF |
2456 | We will introduce some tools that can help you do this, explain how to |
2457 | use them, and then explain some of the problems that can arise because | |
2458 | you are rewriting history. | |
4c63ff45 | 2459 | |
e34caace | 2460 | [[using-git-rebase]] |
6127c086 | 2461 | Keeping a patch series up to date using git rebase |
4c63ff45 BF |
2462 | -------------------------------------------------- |
2463 | ||
79c96c57 MC |
2464 | Suppose that you create a branch "mywork" on a remote-tracking branch |
2465 | "origin", and create some commits on top of it: | |
4c63ff45 BF |
2466 | |
2467 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2468 | $ git checkout -b mywork origin | |
2469 | $ vi file.txt | |
2470 | $ git commit | |
2471 | $ vi otherfile.txt | |
2472 | $ git commit | |
2473 | ... | |
2474 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2475 | ||
2476 | You have performed no merges into mywork, so it is just a simple linear | |
2477 | sequence of patches on top of "origin": | |
2478 | ||
1dc71a91 | 2479 | ................................................ |
fa8347b8 | 2480 | o--o--O <-- origin |
4c63ff45 | 2481 | \ |
fa8347b8 | 2482 | a--b--c <-- mywork |
1dc71a91 | 2483 | ................................................ |
4c63ff45 BF |
2484 | |
2485 | Some more interesting work has been done in the upstream project, and | |
2486 | "origin" has advanced: | |
2487 | ||
1dc71a91 | 2488 | ................................................ |
4c63ff45 BF |
2489 | o--o--O--o--o--o <-- origin |
2490 | \ | |
2491 | a--b--c <-- mywork | |
1dc71a91 | 2492 | ................................................ |
4c63ff45 BF |
2493 | |
2494 | At this point, you could use "pull" to merge your changes back in; | |
2495 | the result would create a new merge commit, like this: | |
2496 | ||
1dc71a91 | 2497 | ................................................ |
4c63ff45 BF |
2498 | o--o--O--o--o--o <-- origin |
2499 | \ \ | |
2500 | a--b--c--m <-- mywork | |
1dc71a91 | 2501 | ................................................ |
a6080a0a | 2502 | |
4c63ff45 BF |
2503 | However, if you prefer to keep the history in mywork a simple series of |
2504 | commits without any merges, you may instead choose to use | |
5162e697 | 2505 | linkgit:git-rebase[1]: |
4c63ff45 BF |
2506 | |
2507 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2508 | $ git checkout mywork | |
2509 | $ git rebase origin | |
2510 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2511 | ||
b181d57f | 2512 | This will remove each of your commits from mywork, temporarily saving |
51ef1daa | 2513 | them as patches (in a directory named ".git/rebase-apply"), update mywork to |
b181d57f BF |
2514 | point at the latest version of origin, then apply each of the saved |
2515 | patches to the new mywork. The result will look like: | |
4c63ff45 BF |
2516 | |
2517 | ||
1dc71a91 | 2518 | ................................................ |
4c63ff45 BF |
2519 | o--o--O--o--o--o <-- origin |
2520 | \ | |
2521 | a'--b'--c' <-- mywork | |
1dc71a91 | 2522 | ................................................ |
4c63ff45 | 2523 | |
b181d57f | 2524 | In the process, it may discover conflicts. In that case it will stop |
6127c086 | 2525 | and allow you to fix the conflicts; after fixing conflicts, use `git add` |
7a7d4ef6 | 2526 | to update the index with those contents, and then, instead of |
6127c086 | 2527 | running `git commit`, just run |
4c63ff45 BF |
2528 | |
2529 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2530 | $ git rebase --continue | |
2531 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2532 | ||
2533 | and git will continue applying the rest of the patches. | |
2534 | ||
b6cbca38 | 2535 | At any point you may use the `--abort` option to abort this process and |
4c63ff45 BF |
2536 | return mywork to the state it had before you started the rebase: |
2537 | ||
2538 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2539 | $ git rebase --abort | |
2540 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2541 | ||
7cb192ea BF |
2542 | [[rewriting-one-commit]] |
2543 | Rewriting a single commit | |
365aa199 BF |
2544 | ------------------------- |
2545 | ||
7cb192ea | 2546 | We saw in <<fixing-a-mistake-by-rewriting-history>> that you can replace the |
365aa199 BF |
2547 | most recent commit using |
2548 | ||
2549 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2550 | $ git commit --amend | |
2551 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2552 | ||
2553 | which will replace the old commit by a new commit incorporating your | |
2554 | changes, giving you a chance to edit the old commit message first. | |
2555 | ||
5162e697 | 2556 | You can also use a combination of this and linkgit:git-rebase[1] to |
7cb192ea BF |
2557 | replace a commit further back in your history and recreate the |
2558 | intervening changes on top of it. First, tag the problematic commit | |
2559 | with | |
365aa199 BF |
2560 | |
2561 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2562 | $ git tag bad mywork~5 | |
2563 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2564 | ||
6127c086 | 2565 | (Either gitk or `git log` may be useful for finding the commit.) |
365aa199 | 2566 | |
25d9f3fa BF |
2567 | Then check out that commit, edit it, and rebase the rest of the series |
2568 | on top of it (note that we could check out the commit on a temporary | |
2569 | branch, but instead we're using a <<detached-head,detached head>>): | |
365aa199 BF |
2570 | |
2571 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
25d9f3fa | 2572 | $ git checkout bad |
365aa199 BF |
2573 | $ # make changes here and update the index |
2574 | $ git commit --amend | |
25d9f3fa | 2575 | $ git rebase --onto HEAD bad mywork |
365aa199 BF |
2576 | ------------------------------------------------- |
2577 | ||
25d9f3fa BF |
2578 | When you're done, you'll be left with mywork checked out, with the top |
2579 | patches on mywork reapplied on top of your modified commit. You can | |
365aa199 BF |
2580 | then clean up with |
2581 | ||
2582 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
365aa199 BF |
2583 | $ git tag -d bad |
2584 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2585 | ||
2586 | Note that the immutable nature of git history means that you haven't really | |
2587 | "modified" existing commits; instead, you have replaced the old commits with | |
2588 | new commits having new object names. | |
2589 | ||
e34caace | 2590 | [[reordering-patch-series]] |
4c63ff45 BF |
2591 | Reordering or selecting from a patch series |
2592 | ------------------------------------------- | |
2593 | ||
5162e697 | 2594 | Given one existing commit, the linkgit:git-cherry-pick[1] command |
b181d57f BF |
2595 | allows you to apply the change introduced by that commit and create a |
2596 | new commit that records it. So, for example, if "mywork" points to a | |
2597 | series of patches on top of "origin", you might do something like: | |
2598 | ||
2599 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2600 | $ git checkout -b mywork-new origin | |
2601 | $ gitk origin..mywork & | |
2602 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2603 | ||
06ada152 | 2604 | and browse through the list of patches in the mywork branch using gitk, |
b181d57f | 2605 | applying them (possibly in a different order) to mywork-new using |
6127c086 | 2606 | cherry-pick, and possibly modifying them as you go using `git commit --amend`. |
5162e697 | 2607 | The linkgit:git-gui[1] command may also help as it allows you to |
6e30fb0c DK |
2608 | individually select diff hunks for inclusion in the index (by |
2609 | right-clicking on the diff hunk and choosing "Stage Hunk for Commit"). | |
b181d57f | 2610 | |
6127c086 | 2611 | Another technique is to use `git format-patch` to create a series of |
b181d57f | 2612 | patches, then reset the state to before the patches: |
4c63ff45 | 2613 | |
b181d57f BF |
2614 | ------------------------------------------------- |
2615 | $ git format-patch origin | |
2616 | $ git reset --hard origin | |
2617 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
4c63ff45 | 2618 | |
b181d57f | 2619 | Then modify, reorder, or eliminate patches as preferred before applying |
5162e697 | 2620 | them again with linkgit:git-am[1]. |
4c63ff45 | 2621 | |
e34caace | 2622 | [[patch-series-tools]] |
4c63ff45 BF |
2623 | Other tools |
2624 | ----------- | |
2625 | ||
73a1d050 | 2626 | There are numerous other tools, such as StGit, which exist for the |
79c96c57 | 2627 | purpose of maintaining a patch series. These are outside of the scope of |
b181d57f | 2628 | this manual. |
4c63ff45 | 2629 | |
aa971cb9 | 2630 | [[problems-With-rewriting-history]] |
4c63ff45 BF |
2631 | Problems with rewriting history |
2632 | ------------------------------- | |
2633 | ||
b181d57f BF |
2634 | The primary problem with rewriting the history of a branch has to do |
2635 | with merging. Suppose somebody fetches your branch and merges it into | |
2636 | their branch, with a result something like this: | |
2637 | ||
1dc71a91 | 2638 | ................................................ |
b181d57f BF |
2639 | o--o--O--o--o--o <-- origin |
2640 | \ \ | |
2641 | t--t--t--m <-- their branch: | |
1dc71a91 | 2642 | ................................................ |
b181d57f BF |
2643 | |
2644 | Then suppose you modify the last three commits: | |
2645 | ||
1dc71a91 | 2646 | ................................................ |
b181d57f BF |
2647 | o--o--o <-- new head of origin |
2648 | / | |
2649 | o--o--O--o--o--o <-- old head of origin | |
1dc71a91 | 2650 | ................................................ |
b181d57f BF |
2651 | |
2652 | If we examined all this history together in one repository, it will | |
2653 | look like: | |
2654 | ||
1dc71a91 | 2655 | ................................................ |
b181d57f BF |
2656 | o--o--o <-- new head of origin |
2657 | / | |
2658 | o--o--O--o--o--o <-- old head of origin | |
2659 | \ \ | |
2660 | t--t--t--m <-- their branch: | |
1dc71a91 | 2661 | ................................................ |
b181d57f BF |
2662 | |
2663 | Git has no way of knowing that the new head is an updated version of | |
2664 | the old head; it treats this situation exactly the same as it would if | |
2665 | two developers had independently done the work on the old and new heads | |
2666 | in parallel. At this point, if someone attempts to merge the new head | |
2667 | in to their branch, git will attempt to merge together the two (old and | |
2668 | new) lines of development, instead of trying to replace the old by the | |
2669 | new. The results are likely to be unexpected. | |
2670 | ||
2671 | You may still choose to publish branches whose history is rewritten, | |
2672 | and it may be useful for others to be able to fetch those branches in | |
2673 | order to examine or test them, but they should not attempt to pull such | |
2674 | branches into their own work. | |
2675 | ||
2676 | For true distributed development that supports proper merging, | |
2677 | published branches should never be rewritten. | |
2678 | ||
3fb00282 SP |
2679 | [[bisect-merges]] |
2680 | Why bisecting merge commits can be harder than bisecting linear history | |
2681 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
2682 | ||
5162e697 | 2683 | The linkgit:git-bisect[1] command correctly handles history that |
3fb00282 SP |
2684 | includes merge commits. However, when the commit that it finds is a |
2685 | merge commit, the user may need to work harder than usual to figure out | |
2686 | why that commit introduced a problem. | |
2687 | ||
2688 | Imagine this history: | |
2689 | ||
2690 | ................................................ | |
2691 | ---Z---o---X---...---o---A---C---D | |
2692 | \ / | |
2693 | o---o---Y---...---o---B | |
2694 | ................................................ | |
2695 | ||
2696 | Suppose that on the upper line of development, the meaning of one | |
2697 | of the functions that exists at Z is changed at commit X. The | |
2698 | commits from Z leading to A change both the function's | |
2699 | implementation and all calling sites that exist at Z, as well | |
2700 | as new calling sites they add, to be consistent. There is no | |
2701 | bug at A. | |
2702 | ||
2703 | Suppose that in the meantime on the lower line of development somebody | |
2704 | adds a new calling site for that function at commit Y. The | |
2705 | commits from Z leading to B all assume the old semantics of that | |
2706 | function and the callers and the callee are consistent with each | |
2707 | other. There is no bug at B, either. | |
2708 | ||
2709 | Suppose further that the two development lines merge cleanly at C, | |
2710 | so no conflict resolution is required. | |
2711 | ||
2712 | Nevertheless, the code at C is broken, because the callers added | |
2713 | on the lower line of development have not been converted to the new | |
2714 | semantics introduced on the upper line of development. So if all | |
2715 | you know is that D is bad, that Z is good, and that | |
5162e697 | 2716 | linkgit:git-bisect[1] identifies C as the culprit, how will you |
3fb00282 SP |
2717 | figure out that the problem is due to this change in semantics? |
2718 | ||
6127c086 | 2719 | When the result of a `git bisect` is a non-merge commit, you should |
3fb00282 SP |
2720 | normally be able to discover the problem by examining just that commit. |
2721 | Developers can make this easy by breaking their changes into small | |
2722 | self-contained commits. That won't help in the case above, however, | |
2723 | because the problem isn't obvious from examination of any single | |
2724 | commit; instead, a global view of the development is required. To | |
2725 | make matters worse, the change in semantics in the problematic | |
2726 | function may be just one small part of the changes in the upper | |
2727 | line of development. | |
2728 | ||
2729 | On the other hand, if instead of merging at C you had rebased the | |
2730 | history between Z to B on top of A, you would have gotten this | |
2731 | linear history: | |
2732 | ||
2733 | ................................................................ | |
2734 | ---Z---o---X--...---o---A---o---o---Y*--...---o---B*--D* | |
2735 | ................................................................ | |
2736 | ||
2737 | Bisecting between Z and D* would hit a single culprit commit Y*, | |
2738 | and understanding why Y* was broken would probably be easier. | |
2739 | ||
2740 | Partly for this reason, many experienced git users, even when | |
2741 | working on an otherwise merge-heavy project, keep the history | |
2742 | linear by rebasing against the latest upstream version before | |
2743 | publishing. | |
2744 | ||
e34caace | 2745 | [[advanced-branch-management]] |
b181d57f BF |
2746 | Advanced branch management |
2747 | ========================== | |
4c63ff45 | 2748 | |
e34caace | 2749 | [[fetching-individual-branches]] |
b181d57f BF |
2750 | Fetching individual branches |
2751 | ---------------------------- | |
2752 | ||
5162e697 | 2753 | Instead of using linkgit:git-remote[1], you can also choose just |
b181d57f BF |
2754 | to update one branch at a time, and to store it locally under an |
2755 | arbitrary name: | |
2756 | ||
2757 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2758 | $ git fetch origin todo:my-todo-work | |
2759 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2760 | ||
2761 | The first argument, "origin", just tells git to fetch from the | |
2762 | repository you originally cloned from. The second argument tells git | |
2763 | to fetch the branch named "todo" from the remote repository, and to | |
2764 | store it locally under the name refs/heads/my-todo-work. | |
2765 | ||
2766 | You can also fetch branches from other repositories; so | |
2767 | ||
2768 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2769 | $ git fetch git://example.com/proj.git master:example-master | |
2770 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2771 | ||
2772 | will create a new branch named "example-master" and store in it the | |
2773 | branch named "master" from the repository at the given URL. If you | |
2774 | already have a branch named example-master, it will attempt to | |
59723040 BF |
2775 | <<fast-forwards,fast-forward>> to the commit given by example.com's |
2776 | master branch. In more detail: | |
b181d57f | 2777 | |
59723040 BF |
2778 | [[fetch-fast-forwards]] |
2779 | git fetch and fast-forwards | |
2780 | --------------------------- | |
b181d57f | 2781 | |
6127c086 | 2782 | In the previous example, when updating an existing branch, "git fetch" |
7a7d4ef6 | 2783 | checks to make sure that the most recent commit on the remote |
b181d57f BF |
2784 | branch is a descendant of the most recent commit on your copy of the |
2785 | branch before updating your copy of the branch to point at the new | |
a75d7b54 | 2786 | commit. Git calls this process a <<fast-forwards,fast-forward>>. |
b181d57f | 2787 | |
a75d7b54 | 2788 | A fast-forward looks something like this: |
b181d57f | 2789 | |
1dc71a91 | 2790 | ................................................ |
b181d57f BF |
2791 | o--o--o--o <-- old head of the branch |
2792 | \ | |
2793 | o--o--o <-- new head of the branch | |
1dc71a91 | 2794 | ................................................ |
b181d57f BF |
2795 | |
2796 | ||
2797 | In some cases it is possible that the new head will *not* actually be | |
2798 | a descendant of the old head. For example, the developer may have | |
2799 | realized she made a serious mistake, and decided to backtrack, | |
2800 | resulting in a situation like: | |
2801 | ||
1dc71a91 | 2802 | ................................................ |
b181d57f BF |
2803 | o--o--o--o--a--b <-- old head of the branch |
2804 | \ | |
2805 | o--o--o <-- new head of the branch | |
1dc71a91 | 2806 | ................................................ |
b181d57f | 2807 | |
6127c086 | 2808 | In this case, "git fetch" will fail, and print out a warning. |
b181d57f BF |
2809 | |
2810 | In that case, you can still force git to update to the new head, as | |
2811 | described in the following section. However, note that in the | |
2812 | situation above this may mean losing the commits labeled "a" and "b", | |
2813 | unless you've already created a reference of your own pointing to | |
2814 | them. | |
2815 | ||
e34caace | 2816 | [[forcing-fetch]] |
6127c086 | 2817 | Forcing git fetch to do non-fast-forward updates |
b181d57f BF |
2818 | ------------------------------------------------ |
2819 | ||
2820 | If git fetch fails because the new head of a branch is not a | |
2821 | descendant of the old head, you may force the update with: | |
2822 | ||
2823 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2824 | $ git fetch git://example.com/proj.git +master:refs/remotes/example/master | |
2825 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2826 | ||
c64415e2 BF |
2827 | Note the addition of the "+" sign. Alternatively, you can use the "-f" |
2828 | flag to force updates of all the fetched branches, as in: | |
2829 | ||
2830 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2831 | $ git fetch -f origin | |
2832 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2833 | ||
2834 | Be aware that commits that the old version of example/master pointed at | |
2835 | may be lost, as we saw in the previous section. | |
b181d57f | 2836 | |
e34caace | 2837 | [[remote-branch-configuration]] |
29b9a66f MM |
2838 | Configuring remote-tracking branches |
2839 | ------------------------------------ | |
b181d57f BF |
2840 | |
2841 | We saw above that "origin" is just a shortcut to refer to the | |
79c96c57 | 2842 | repository that you originally cloned from. This information is |
b181d57f | 2843 | stored in git configuration variables, which you can see using |
5162e697 | 2844 | linkgit:git-config[1]: |
b181d57f BF |
2845 | |
2846 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
9d13bda3 | 2847 | $ git config -l |
b181d57f BF |
2848 | core.repositoryformatversion=0 |
2849 | core.filemode=true | |
2850 | core.logallrefupdates=true | |
2851 | remote.origin.url=git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git | |
2852 | remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* | |
2853 | branch.master.remote=origin | |
2854 | branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master | |
2855 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2856 | ||
2857 | If there are other repositories that you also use frequently, you can | |
2858 | create similar configuration options to save typing; for example, | |
b181d57f BF |
2859 | |
2860 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
47adb8ac | 2861 | $ git remote add example git://example.com/proj.git |
b181d57f BF |
2862 | ------------------------------------------------- |
2863 | ||
47adb8ac | 2864 | adds the following to `.git/config`: |
b181d57f BF |
2865 | |
2866 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
47adb8ac TK |
2867 | [remote "example"] |
2868 | url = git://example.com/proj.git | |
2869 | fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/example/* | |
b181d57f BF |
2870 | ------------------------------------------------- |
2871 | ||
47adb8ac TK |
2872 | Also note that the above configuration can be performed by directly |
2873 | editing the file `.git/config` instead of using linkgit:git-remote[1]. | |
b181d57f | 2874 | |
47adb8ac TK |
2875 | After configuring the remote, the following three commands will do the |
2876 | same thing: | |
b181d57f BF |
2877 | |
2878 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
47adb8ac TK |
2879 | $ git fetch git://example.com/proj.git +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/example/* |
2880 | $ git fetch example +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/example/* | |
b181d57f BF |
2881 | $ git fetch example |
2882 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
2883 | ||
5162e697 | 2884 | See linkgit:git-config[1] for more details on the configuration |
47adb8ac TK |
2885 | options mentioned above and linkgit:git-fetch[1] for more details on |
2886 | the refspec syntax. | |
d19fbc3c | 2887 | |
d19fbc3c | 2888 | |
036f8199 BF |
2889 | [[git-concepts]] |
2890 | Git concepts | |
2891 | ============ | |
d19fbc3c | 2892 | |
036f8199 BF |
2893 | Git is built on a small number of simple but powerful ideas. While it |
2894 | is possible to get things done without understanding them, you will find | |
2895 | git much more intuitive if you do. | |
2896 | ||
2897 | We start with the most important, the <<def_object_database,object | |
2898 | database>> and the <<def_index,index>>. | |
b181d57f | 2899 | |
e34caace | 2900 | [[the-object-database]] |
b181d57f BF |
2901 | The Object Database |
2902 | ------------------- | |
2903 | ||
1bbf1c79 BF |
2904 | |
2905 | We already saw in <<understanding-commits>> that all commits are stored | |
2906 | under a 40-digit "object name". In fact, all the information needed to | |
2907 | represent the history of a project is stored in objects with such names. | |
a6e5ef7d FC |
2908 | In each case the name is calculated by taking the SHA-1 hash of the |
2909 | contents of the object. The SHA-1 hash is a cryptographic hash function. | |
1bbf1c79 BF |
2910 | What that means to us is that it is impossible to find two different |
2911 | objects with the same name. This has a number of advantages; among | |
2912 | others: | |
2913 | ||
2914 | - Git can quickly determine whether two objects are identical or not, | |
2915 | just by comparing names. | |
06ada152 | 2916 | - Since object names are computed the same way in every repository, the |
1bbf1c79 BF |
2917 | same content stored in two repositories will always be stored under |
2918 | the same name. | |
2919 | - Git can detect errors when it reads an object, by checking that the | |
a6e5ef7d | 2920 | object's name is still the SHA-1 hash of its contents. |
1bbf1c79 BF |
2921 | |
2922 | (See <<object-details>> for the details of the object formatting and | |
a6e5ef7d | 2923 | SHA-1 calculation.) |
1bbf1c79 BF |
2924 | |
2925 | There are four different types of objects: "blob", "tree", "commit", and | |
2926 | "tag". | |
2927 | ||
2928 | - A <<def_blob_object,"blob" object>> is used to store file data. | |
843c81dc | 2929 | - A <<def_tree_object,"tree" object>> ties one or more |
1bbf1c79 BF |
2930 | "blob" objects into a directory structure. In addition, a tree object |
2931 | can refer to other tree objects, thus creating a directory hierarchy. | |
2932 | - A <<def_commit_object,"commit" object>> ties such directory hierarchies | |
2ef8ac1b | 2933 | together into a <<def_DAG,directed acyclic graph>> of revisions--each |
1bbf1c79 BF |
2934 | commit contains the object name of exactly one tree designating the |
2935 | directory hierarchy at the time of the commit. In addition, a commit | |
2936 | refers to "parent" commit objects that describe the history of how we | |
2937 | arrived at that directory hierarchy. | |
2938 | - A <<def_tag_object,"tag" object>> symbolically identifies and can be | |
2939 | used to sign other objects. It contains the object name and type of | |
2940 | another object, a symbolic name (of course!) and, optionally, a | |
2941 | signature. | |
b181d57f | 2942 | |
b181d57f BF |
2943 | The object types in some more detail: |
2944 | ||
513d419c BF |
2945 | [[commit-object]] |
2946 | Commit Object | |
2947 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
b181d57f | 2948 | |
1bbf1c79 BF |
2949 | The "commit" object links a physical state of a tree with a description |
2950 | of how we got there and why. Use the --pretty=raw option to | |
5162e697 | 2951 | linkgit:git-show[1] or linkgit:git-log[1] to examine your favorite |
1bbf1c79 BF |
2952 | commit: |
2953 | ||
2954 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
2955 | $ git show -s --pretty=raw 2be7fcb476 | |
2956 | commit 2be7fcb4764f2dbcee52635b91fedb1b3dcf7ab4 | |
2957 | tree fb3a8bdd0ceddd019615af4d57a53f43d8cee2bf | |
2958 | parent 257a84d9d02e90447b149af58b271c19405edb6a | |
2959 | author Dave Watson <dwatson@mimvista.com> 1187576872 -0400 | |
2960 | committer Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 1187591163 -0700 | |
2961 | ||
2962 | Fix misspelling of 'suppress' in docs | |
2963 | ||
2964 | Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> | |
2965 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
2966 | ||
2967 | As you can see, a commit is defined by: | |
2968 | ||
a6e5ef7d | 2969 | - a tree: The SHA-1 name of a tree object (as defined below), representing |
1bbf1c79 | 2970 | the contents of a directory at a certain point in time. |
edfbbf7e | 2971 | - parent(s): The SHA-1 name(s) of some number of commits which represent the |
9e5d87d4 | 2972 | immediately previous step(s) in the history of the project. The |
1bbf1c79 BF |
2973 | example above has one parent; merge commits may have more than |
2974 | one. A commit with no parents is called a "root" commit, and | |
2975 | represents the initial revision of a project. Each project must have | |
2976 | at least one root. A project can also have multiple roots, though | |
2977 | that isn't common (or necessarily a good idea). | |
2978 | - an author: The name of the person responsible for this change, together | |
2979 | with its date. | |
2980 | - a committer: The name of the person who actually created the commit, | |
2981 | with the date it was done. This may be different from the author, for | |
2982 | example, if the author was someone who wrote a patch and emailed it | |
2983 | to the person who used it to create the commit. | |
2984 | - a comment describing this commit. | |
2985 | ||
2986 | Note that a commit does not itself contain any information about what | |
2987 | actually changed; all changes are calculated by comparing the contents | |
2988 | of the tree referred to by this commit with the trees associated with | |
2989 | its parents. In particular, git does not attempt to record file renames | |
2990 | explicitly, though it can identify cases where the existence of the same | |
2991 | file data at changing paths suggests a rename. (See, for example, the | |
5162e697 | 2992 | -M option to linkgit:git-diff[1]). |
1bbf1c79 | 2993 | |
5162e697 | 2994 | A commit is usually created by linkgit:git-commit[1], which creates a |
1bbf1c79 BF |
2995 | commit whose parent is normally the current HEAD, and whose tree is |
2996 | taken from the content currently stored in the index. | |
b181d57f | 2997 | |
e34caace | 2998 | [[tree-object]] |
b181d57f | 2999 | Tree Object |
971aa71f | 3000 | ~~~~~~~~~~~ |
b181d57f | 3001 | |
5162e697 DM |
3002 | The ever-versatile linkgit:git-show[1] command can also be used to |
3003 | examine tree objects, but linkgit:git-ls-tree[1] will give you more | |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3004 | details: |
3005 | ||
3006 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3007 | $ git ls-tree fb3a8bdd0ce | |
3008 | 100644 blob 63c918c667fa005ff12ad89437f2fdc80926e21c .gitignore | |
3009 | 100644 blob 5529b198e8d14decbe4ad99db3f7fb632de0439d .mailmap | |
3010 | 100644 blob 6ff87c4664981e4397625791c8ea3bbb5f2279a3 COPYING | |
3011 | 040000 tree 2fb783e477100ce076f6bf57e4a6f026013dc745 Documentation | |
3012 | 100755 blob 3c0032cec592a765692234f1cba47dfdcc3a9200 GIT-VERSION-GEN | |
3013 | 100644 blob 289b046a443c0647624607d471289b2c7dcd470b INSTALL | |
3014 | 100644 blob 4eb463797adc693dc168b926b6932ff53f17d0b1 Makefile | |
3015 | 100644 blob 548142c327a6790ff8821d67c2ee1eff7a656b52 README | |
3016 | ... | |
3017 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3018 | ||
3019 | As you can see, a tree object contains a list of entries, each with a | |
a6e5ef7d | 3020 | mode, object type, SHA-1 name, and name, sorted by name. It represents |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3021 | the contents of a single directory tree. |
3022 | ||
3023 | The object type may be a blob, representing the contents of a file, or | |
3024 | another tree, representing the contents of a subdirectory. Since trees | |
a6e5ef7d FC |
3025 | and blobs, like all other objects, are named by the SHA-1 hash of their |
3026 | contents, two trees have the same SHA-1 name if and only if their | |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3027 | contents (including, recursively, the contents of all subdirectories) |
3028 | are identical. This allows git to quickly determine the differences | |
3029 | between two related tree objects, since it can ignore any entries with | |
3030 | identical object names. | |
3031 | ||
3032 | (Note: in the presence of submodules, trees may also have commits as | |
6dd14366 | 3033 | entries. See <<submodules>> for documentation.) |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3034 | |
3035 | Note that the files all have mode 644 or 755: git actually only pays | |
3036 | attention to the executable bit. | |
b181d57f | 3037 | |
513d419c BF |
3038 | [[blob-object]] |
3039 | Blob Object | |
3040 | ~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
b181d57f | 3041 | |
5162e697 | 3042 | You can use linkgit:git-show[1] to examine the contents of a blob; take, |
1bbf1c79 | 3043 | for example, the blob in the entry for "COPYING" from the tree above: |
b181d57f | 3044 | |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3045 | ------------------------------------------------ |
3046 | $ git show 6ff87c4664 | |
3047 | ||
3048 | Note that the only valid version of the GPL as far as this project | |
3049 | is concerned is _this_ particular version of the license (ie v2, not | |
3050 | v2.2 or v3.x or whatever), unless explicitly otherwise stated. | |
3051 | ... | |
3052 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
b181d57f | 3053 | |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3054 | A "blob" object is nothing but a binary blob of data. It doesn't refer |
3055 | to anything else or have attributes of any kind. | |
3056 | ||
3057 | Since the blob is entirely defined by its data, if two files in a | |
3058 | directory tree (or in multiple different versions of the repository) | |
3059 | have the same contents, they will share the same blob object. The object | |
3060 | is totally independent of its location in the directory tree, and | |
3061 | renaming a file does not change the object that file is associated with. | |
3062 | ||
3063 | Note that any tree or blob object can be examined using | |
5162e697 | 3064 | linkgit:git-show[1] with the <revision>:<path> syntax. This can |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3065 | sometimes be useful for browsing the contents of a tree that is not |
3066 | currently checked out. | |
b181d57f | 3067 | |
e34caace | 3068 | [[trust]] |
b181d57f | 3069 | Trust |
971aa71f | 3070 | ~~~~~ |
b181d57f | 3071 | |
a6e5ef7d | 3072 | If you receive the SHA-1 name of a blob from one source, and its contents |
1bbf1c79 | 3073 | from another (possibly untrusted) source, you can still trust that those |
a6e5ef7d FC |
3074 | contents are correct as long as the SHA-1 name agrees. This is because |
3075 | the SHA-1 is designed so that it is infeasible to find different contents | |
1bbf1c79 | 3076 | that produce the same hash. |
b181d57f | 3077 | |
a6e5ef7d | 3078 | Similarly, you need only trust the SHA-1 name of a top-level tree object |
1bbf1c79 | 3079 | to trust the contents of the entire directory that it refers to, and if |
a6e5ef7d | 3080 | you receive the SHA-1 name of a commit from a trusted source, then you |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3081 | can easily verify the entire history of commits reachable through |
3082 | parents of that commit, and all of those contents of the trees referred | |
3083 | to by those commits. | |
b181d57f BF |
3084 | |
3085 | So to introduce some real trust in the system, the only thing you need | |
3086 | to do is to digitally sign just 'one' special note, which includes the | |
3087 | name of a top-level commit. Your digital signature shows others | |
3088 | that you trust that commit, and the immutability of the history of | |
3089 | commits tells others that they can trust the whole history. | |
3090 | ||
3091 | In other words, you can easily validate a whole archive by just | |
a6e5ef7d | 3092 | sending out a single email that tells the people the name (SHA-1 hash) |
b181d57f BF |
3093 | of the top commit, and digitally sign that email using something |
3094 | like GPG/PGP. | |
3095 | ||
3096 | To assist in this, git also provides the tag object... | |
3097 | ||
e34caace | 3098 | [[tag-object]] |
b181d57f | 3099 | Tag Object |
971aa71f | 3100 | ~~~~~~~~~~ |
b181d57f | 3101 | |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3102 | A tag object contains an object, object type, tag name, the name of the |
3103 | person ("tagger") who created the tag, and a message, which may contain | |
843c81dc | 3104 | a signature, as can be seen using linkgit:git-cat-file[1]: |
b181d57f | 3105 | |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3106 | ------------------------------------------------ |
3107 | $ git cat-file tag v1.5.0 | |
3108 | object 437b1b20df4b356c9342dac8d38849f24ef44f27 | |
3109 | type commit | |
3110 | tag v1.5.0 | |
3111 | tagger Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 1171411200 +0000 | |
3112 | ||
3113 | GIT 1.5.0 | |
3114 | -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- | |
3115 | Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) | |
3116 | ||
3117 | iD8DBQBF0lGqwMbZpPMRm5oRAuRiAJ9ohBLd7s2kqjkKlq1qqC57SbnmzQCdG4ui | |
3118 | nLE/L9aUXdWeTFPron96DLA= | |
3119 | =2E+0 | |
3120 | -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- | |
3121 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
b181d57f | 3122 | |
5162e697 DM |
3123 | See the linkgit:git-tag[1] command to learn how to create and verify tag |
3124 | objects. (Note that linkgit:git-tag[1] can also be used to create | |
1bbf1c79 | 3125 | "lightweight tags", which are not tag objects at all, but just simple |
fc74ecc1 | 3126 | references whose names begin with "refs/tags/"). |
b181d57f | 3127 | |
09eff7b0 BF |
3128 | [[pack-files]] |
3129 | How git stores objects efficiently: pack files | |
3130 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
3131 | ||
9644ffdd | 3132 | Newly created objects are initially created in a file named after the |
a6e5ef7d | 3133 | object's SHA-1 hash (stored in .git/objects). |
09eff7b0 BF |
3134 | |
3135 | Unfortunately this system becomes inefficient once a project has a | |
3136 | lot of objects. Try this on an old project: | |
3137 | ||
3138 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3139 | $ git count-objects | |
3140 | 6930 objects, 47620 kilobytes | |
3141 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3142 | ||
3143 | The first number is the number of objects which are kept in | |
3144 | individual files. The second is the amount of space taken up by | |
3145 | those "loose" objects. | |
3146 | ||
3147 | You can save space and make git faster by moving these loose objects in | |
3148 | to a "pack file", which stores a group of objects in an efficient | |
3149 | compressed format; the details of how pack files are formatted can be | |
3150 | found in link:technical/pack-format.txt[technical/pack-format.txt]. | |
3151 | ||
3152 | To put the loose objects into a pack, just run git repack: | |
3153 | ||
3154 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3155 | $ git repack | |
3156 | Generating pack... | |
3157 | Done counting 6020 objects. | |
3158 | Deltifying 6020 objects. | |
3159 | 100% (6020/6020) done | |
3160 | Writing 6020 objects. | |
3161 | 100% (6020/6020) done | |
3162 | Total 6020, written 6020 (delta 4070), reused 0 (delta 0) | |
3163 | Pack pack-3e54ad29d5b2e05838c75df582c65257b8d08e1c created. | |
3164 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3165 | ||
3166 | You can then run | |
3167 | ||
3168 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3169 | $ git prune | |
3170 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3171 | ||
3172 | to remove any of the "loose" objects that are now contained in the | |
3173 | pack. This will also remove any unreferenced objects (which may be | |
6127c086 | 3174 | created when, for example, you use "git reset" to remove a commit). |
09eff7b0 BF |
3175 | You can verify that the loose objects are gone by looking at the |
3176 | .git/objects directory or by running | |
3177 | ||
3178 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3179 | $ git count-objects | |
3180 | 0 objects, 0 kilobytes | |
3181 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3182 | ||
3183 | Although the object files are gone, any commands that refer to those | |
3184 | objects will work exactly as they did before. | |
3185 | ||
5162e697 | 3186 | The linkgit:git-gc[1] command performs packing, pruning, and more for |
09eff7b0 BF |
3187 | you, so is normally the only high-level command you need. |
3188 | ||
3189 | [[dangling-objects]] | |
3190 | Dangling objects | |
3191 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
3192 | ||
5162e697 | 3193 | The linkgit:git-fsck[1] command will sometimes complain about dangling |
09eff7b0 BF |
3194 | objects. They are not a problem. |
3195 | ||
3196 | The most common cause of dangling objects is that you've rebased a | |
3197 | branch, or you have pulled from somebody else who rebased a branch--see | |
3198 | <<cleaning-up-history>>. In that case, the old head of the original | |
3199 | branch still exists, as does everything it pointed to. The branch | |
3200 | pointer itself just doesn't, since you replaced it with another one. | |
3201 | ||
3202 | There are also other situations that cause dangling objects. For | |
6127c086 | 3203 | example, a "dangling blob" may arise because you did a "git add" of a |
09eff7b0 BF |
3204 | file, but then, before you actually committed it and made it part of the |
3205 | bigger picture, you changed something else in that file and committed | |
2ef8ac1b | 3206 | that *updated* thing--the old state that you added originally ends up |
09eff7b0 BF |
3207 | not being pointed to by any commit or tree, so it's now a dangling blob |
3208 | object. | |
3209 | ||
3210 | Similarly, when the "recursive" merge strategy runs, and finds that | |
3211 | there are criss-cross merges and thus more than one merge base (which is | |
3212 | fairly unusual, but it does happen), it will generate one temporary | |
3213 | midway tree (or possibly even more, if you had lots of criss-crossing | |
3214 | merges and more than two merge bases) as a temporary internal merge | |
3215 | base, and again, those are real objects, but the end result will not end | |
3216 | up pointing to them, so they end up "dangling" in your repository. | |
3217 | ||
3218 | Generally, dangling objects aren't anything to worry about. They can | |
3219 | even be very useful: if you screw something up, the dangling objects can | |
3220 | be how you recover your old tree (say, you did a rebase, and realized | |
2ef8ac1b | 3221 | that you really didn't want to--you can look at what dangling objects |
09eff7b0 BF |
3222 | you have, and decide to reset your head to some old dangling state). |
3223 | ||
3224 | For commits, you can just use: | |
3225 | ||
3226 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3227 | $ gitk <dangling-commit-sha-goes-here> --not --all | |
3228 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3229 | ||
3230 | This asks for all the history reachable from the given commit but not | |
3231 | from any branch, tag, or other reference. If you decide it's something | |
3232 | you want, you can always create a new reference to it, e.g., | |
3233 | ||
3234 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3235 | $ git branch recovered-branch <dangling-commit-sha-goes-here> | |
3236 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3237 | ||
3238 | For blobs and trees, you can't do the same, but you can still examine | |
3239 | them. You can just do | |
3240 | ||
3241 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3242 | $ git show <dangling-blob/tree-sha-goes-here> | |
3243 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3244 | ||
3245 | to show what the contents of the blob were (or, for a tree, basically | |
3246 | what the "ls" for that directory was), and that may give you some idea | |
3247 | of what the operation was that left that dangling object. | |
3248 | ||
3249 | Usually, dangling blobs and trees aren't very interesting. They're | |
3250 | almost always the result of either being a half-way mergebase (the blob | |
3251 | will often even have the conflict markers from a merge in it, if you | |
3252 | have had conflicting merges that you fixed up by hand), or simply | |
6127c086 | 3253 | because you interrupted a "git fetch" with ^C or something like that, |
09eff7b0 BF |
3254 | leaving _some_ of the new objects in the object database, but just |
3255 | dangling and useless. | |
3256 | ||
3257 | Anyway, once you are sure that you're not interested in any dangling | |
3258 | state, you can just prune all unreachable objects: | |
3259 | ||
3260 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3261 | $ git prune | |
3262 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3263 | ||
3264 | and they'll be gone. But you should only run "git prune" on a quiescent | |
2ef8ac1b | 3265 | repository--it's kind of like doing a filesystem fsck recovery: you |
09eff7b0 BF |
3266 | don't want to do that while the filesystem is mounted. |
3267 | ||
6127c086 FC |
3268 | (The same is true of "git fsck" itself, btw, but since |
3269 | `git fsck` never actually *changes* the repository, it just reports | |
3270 | on what it found, `git fsck` itself is never 'dangerous' to run. | |
09eff7b0 BF |
3271 | Running it while somebody is actually changing the repository can cause |
3272 | confusing and scary messages, but it won't actually do anything bad. In | |
3273 | contrast, running "git prune" while somebody is actively changing the | |
3274 | repository is a *BAD* idea). | |
b181d57f | 3275 | |
1cdade2c BF |
3276 | [[recovering-from-repository-corruption]] |
3277 | Recovering from repository corruption | |
3278 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
3279 | ||
3280 | By design, git treats data trusted to it with caution. However, even in | |
3281 | the absence of bugs in git itself, it is still possible that hardware or | |
3282 | operating system errors could corrupt data. | |
3283 | ||
3284 | The first defense against such problems is backups. You can back up a | |
3285 | git directory using clone, or just using cp, tar, or any other backup | |
3286 | mechanism. | |
3287 | ||
3288 | As a last resort, you can search for the corrupted objects and attempt | |
3289 | to replace them by hand. Back up your repository before attempting this | |
3290 | in case you corrupt things even more in the process. | |
3291 | ||
3292 | We'll assume that the problem is a single missing or corrupted blob, | |
9e5d87d4 | 3293 | which is sometimes a solvable problem. (Recovering missing trees and |
1cdade2c BF |
3294 | especially commits is *much* harder). |
3295 | ||
3296 | Before starting, verify that there is corruption, and figure out where | |
5162e697 | 3297 | it is with linkgit:git-fsck[1]; this may be time-consuming. |
1cdade2c BF |
3298 | |
3299 | Assume the output looks like this: | |
3300 | ||
3301 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
c6a13b2c | 3302 | $ git fsck --full --no-dangling |
1cdade2c BF |
3303 | broken link from tree 2d9263c6d23595e7cb2a21e5ebbb53655278dff8 |
3304 | to blob 4b9458b3786228369c63936db65827de3cc06200 | |
3305 | missing blob 4b9458b3786228369c63936db65827de3cc06200 | |
3306 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3307 | ||
1cdade2c BF |
3308 | Now you know that blob 4b9458b3 is missing, and that the tree 2d9263c6 |
3309 | points to it. If you could find just one copy of that missing blob | |
3310 | object, possibly in some other repository, you could move it into | |
3311 | .git/objects/4b/9458b3... and be done. Suppose you can't. You can | |
5162e697 | 3312 | still examine the tree that pointed to it with linkgit:git-ls-tree[1], |
1cdade2c BF |
3313 | which might output something like: |
3314 | ||
3315 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3316 | $ git ls-tree 2d9263c6d23595e7cb2a21e5ebbb53655278dff8 | |
3317 | 100644 blob 8d14531846b95bfa3564b58ccfb7913a034323b8 .gitignore | |
3318 | 100644 blob ebf9bf84da0aab5ed944264a5db2a65fe3a3e883 .mailmap | |
3319 | 100644 blob ca442d313d86dc67e0a2e5d584b465bd382cbf5c COPYING | |
3320 | ... | |
3321 | 100644 blob 4b9458b3786228369c63936db65827de3cc06200 myfile | |
3322 | ... | |
3323 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3324 | ||
3325 | So now you know that the missing blob was the data for a file named | |
3326 | "myfile". And chances are you can also identify the directory--let's | |
3327 | say it's in "somedirectory". If you're lucky the missing copy might be | |
3328 | the same as the copy you have checked out in your working tree at | |
3329 | "somedirectory/myfile"; you can test whether that's right with | |
5162e697 | 3330 | linkgit:git-hash-object[1]: |
1cdade2c BF |
3331 | |
3332 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3333 | $ git hash-object -w somedirectory/myfile | |
3334 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3335 | ||
3336 | which will create and store a blob object with the contents of | |
a6e5ef7d | 3337 | somedirectory/myfile, and output the SHA-1 of that object. if you're |
1cdade2c BF |
3338 | extremely lucky it might be 4b9458b3786228369c63936db65827de3cc06200, in |
3339 | which case you've guessed right, and the corruption is fixed! | |
3340 | ||
3341 | Otherwise, you need more information. How do you tell which version of | |
3342 | the file has been lost? | |
3343 | ||
3344 | The easiest way to do this is with: | |
3345 | ||
3346 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3347 | $ git log --raw --all --full-history -- somedirectory/myfile | |
3348 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3349 | ||
3350 | Because you're asking for raw output, you'll now get something like | |
3351 | ||
3352 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3353 | commit abc | |
3354 | Author: | |
3355 | Date: | |
3356 | ... | |
3357 | :100644 100644 4b9458b... newsha... M somedirectory/myfile | |
3358 | ||
3359 | ||
3360 | commit xyz | |
3361 | Author: | |
3362 | Date: | |
3363 | ||
3364 | ... | |
3365 | :100644 100644 oldsha... 4b9458b... M somedirectory/myfile | |
3366 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3367 | ||
edfbbf7e Å N |
3368 | This tells you that the immediately following version of the file was |
3369 | "newsha", and that the immediately preceding version was "oldsha". | |
1cdade2c BF |
3370 | You also know the commit messages that went with the change from oldsha |
3371 | to 4b9458b and with the change from 4b9458b to newsha. | |
3372 | ||
3373 | If you've been committing small enough changes, you may now have a good | |
3374 | shot at reconstructing the contents of the in-between state 4b9458b. | |
3375 | ||
3376 | If you can do that, you can now recreate the missing object with | |
3377 | ||
3378 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3379 | $ git hash-object -w <recreated-file> | |
3380 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3381 | ||
3382 | and your repository is good again! | |
3383 | ||
1ab58e8d | 3384 | (Btw, you could have ignored the fsck, and started with doing a |
1cdade2c BF |
3385 | |
3386 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3387 | $ git log --raw --all | |
3388 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
3389 | ||
1ab58e8d | 3390 | and just looked for the sha of the missing object (4b9458b..) in that |
da2c7b3d | 3391 | whole thing. It's up to you--Git does *have* a lot of information, it is |
1cdade2c BF |
3392 | just missing one particular blob version. |
3393 | ||
e34caace | 3394 | [[the-index]] |
1c097891 BF |
3395 | The index |
3396 | ----------- | |
3397 | ||
3398 | The index is a binary file (generally kept in .git/index) containing a | |
a6e5ef7d | 3399 | sorted list of path names, each with permissions and the SHA-1 of a blob |
5162e697 | 3400 | object; linkgit:git-ls-files[1] can show you the contents of the index: |
b181d57f | 3401 | |
1c097891 BF |
3402 | ------------------------------------------------- |
3403 | $ git ls-files --stage | |
3404 | 100644 63c918c667fa005ff12ad89437f2fdc80926e21c 0 .gitignore | |
3405 | 100644 5529b198e8d14decbe4ad99db3f7fb632de0439d 0 .mailmap | |
3406 | 100644 6ff87c4664981e4397625791c8ea3bbb5f2279a3 0 COPYING | |
3407 | 100644 a37b2152bd26be2c2289e1f57a292534a51a93c7 0 Documentation/.gitignore | |
3408 | 100644 fbefe9a45b00a54b58d94d06eca48b03d40a50e0 0 Documentation/Makefile | |
3409 | ... | |
3410 | 100644 2511aef8d89ab52be5ec6a5e46236b4b6bcd07ea 0 xdiff/xtypes.h | |
3411 | 100644 2ade97b2574a9f77e7ae4002a4e07a6a38e46d07 0 xdiff/xutils.c | |
3412 | 100644 d5de8292e05e7c36c4b68857c1cf9855e3d2f70a 0 xdiff/xutils.h | |
3413 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3414 | ||
3415 | Note that in older documentation you may see the index called the | |
3416 | "current directory cache" or just the "cache". It has three important | |
3417 | properties: | |
3418 | ||
3419 | 1. The index contains all the information necessary to generate a single | |
3420 | (uniquely determined) tree object. | |
3421 | + | |
5162e697 | 3422 | For example, running linkgit:git-commit[1] generates this tree object |
1c097891 BF |
3423 | from the index, stores it in the object database, and uses it as the |
3424 | tree object associated with the new commit. | |
3425 | ||
3426 | 2. The index enables fast comparisons between the tree object it defines | |
3427 | and the working tree. | |
3428 | + | |
3429 | It does this by storing some additional data for each entry (such as | |
3430 | the last modified time). This data is not displayed above, and is not | |
3431 | stored in the created tree object, but it can be used to determine | |
3432 | quickly which files in the working directory differ from what was | |
3433 | stored in the index, and thus save git from having to read all of the | |
3434 | data from such files to look for changes. | |
3435 | ||
3436 | 3. It can efficiently represent information about merge conflicts | |
3437 | between different tree objects, allowing each pathname to be | |
b181d57f | 3438 | associated with sufficient information about the trees involved that |
1c097891 BF |
3439 | you can create a three-way merge between them. |
3440 | + | |
3441 | We saw in <<conflict-resolution>> that during a merge the index can | |
3442 | store multiple versions of a single file (called "stages"). The third | |
5162e697 | 3443 | column in the linkgit:git-ls-files[1] output above is the stage |
1c097891 BF |
3444 | number, and will take on values other than 0 for files with merge |
3445 | conflicts. | |
3446 | ||
3447 | The index is thus a sort of temporary staging area, which is filled with | |
3448 | a tree which you are in the process of working on. | |
3449 | ||
3450 | If you blow the index away entirely, you generally haven't lost any | |
3451 | information as long as you have the name of the tree that it described. | |
b181d57f | 3452 | |
38a457ba MV |
3453 | [[submodules]] |
3454 | Submodules | |
3455 | ========== | |
3456 | ||
6dd14366 MS |
3457 | Large projects are often composed of smaller, self-contained modules. For |
3458 | example, an embedded Linux distribution's source tree would include every | |
3459 | piece of software in the distribution with some local modifications; a movie | |
3460 | player might need to build against a specific, known-working version of a | |
3461 | decompression library; several independent programs might all share the same | |
3462 | build scripts. | |
3463 | ||
3464 | With centralized revision control systems this is often accomplished by | |
3465 | including every module in one single repository. Developers can check out | |
3466 | all modules or only the modules they need to work with. They can even modify | |
3467 | files across several modules in a single commit while moving things around | |
3468 | or updating APIs and translations. | |
3469 | ||
3470 | Git does not allow partial checkouts, so duplicating this approach in Git | |
3471 | would force developers to keep a local copy of modules they are not | |
3472 | interested in touching. Commits in an enormous checkout would be slower | |
3473 | than you'd expect as Git would have to scan every directory for changes. | |
3474 | If modules have a lot of local history, clones would take forever. | |
3475 | ||
3476 | On the plus side, distributed revision control systems can much better | |
3477 | integrate with external sources. In a centralized model, a single arbitrary | |
3478 | snapshot of the external project is exported from its own revision control | |
3479 | and then imported into the local revision control on a vendor branch. All | |
3480 | the history is hidden. With distributed revision control you can clone the | |
3481 | entire external history and much more easily follow development and re-merge | |
3482 | local changes. | |
3483 | ||
3484 | Git's submodule support allows a repository to contain, as a subdirectory, a | |
3485 | checkout of an external project. Submodules maintain their own identity; | |
3486 | the submodule support just stores the submodule repository location and | |
3487 | commit ID, so other developers who clone the containing project | |
3488 | ("superproject") can easily clone all the submodules at the same revision. | |
3489 | Partial checkouts of the superproject are possible: you can tell Git to | |
3490 | clone none, some or all of the submodules. | |
3491 | ||
5162e697 | 3492 | The linkgit:git-submodule[1] command is available since Git 1.5.3. Users |
6dd14366 MS |
3493 | with Git 1.5.2 can look up the submodule commits in the repository and |
3494 | manually check them out; earlier versions won't recognize the submodules at | |
3495 | all. | |
38a457ba MV |
3496 | |
3497 | To see how submodule support works, create (for example) four example | |
3498 | repositories that can be used later as a submodule: | |
3499 | ||
3500 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3501 | $ mkdir ~/git | |
3502 | $ cd ~/git | |
3503 | $ for i in a b c d | |
3504 | do | |
3505 | mkdir $i | |
3506 | cd $i | |
3507 | git init | |
3508 | echo "module $i" > $i.txt | |
3509 | git add $i.txt | |
3510 | git commit -m "Initial commit, submodule $i" | |
3511 | cd .. | |
3512 | done | |
3513 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3514 | ||
3515 | Now create the superproject and add all the submodules: | |
3516 | ||
3517 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3518 | $ mkdir super | |
3519 | $ cd super | |
3520 | $ git init | |
3521 | $ for i in a b c d | |
3522 | do | |
a56bf585 | 3523 | git submodule add ~/git/$i $i |
38a457ba MV |
3524 | done |
3525 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3526 | ||
3527 | NOTE: Do not use local URLs here if you plan to publish your superproject! | |
3528 | ||
6127c086 | 3529 | See what files `git submodule` created: |
38a457ba MV |
3530 | |
3531 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3532 | $ ls -a | |
3533 | . .. .git .gitmodules a b c d | |
3534 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3535 | ||
6127c086 | 3536 | The `git submodule add <repo> <path>` command does a couple of things: |
38a457ba | 3537 | |
a56bf585 AMS |
3538 | - It clones the submodule from <repo> to the given <path> under the |
3539 | current directory and by default checks out the master branch. | |
5162e697 | 3540 | - It adds the submodule's clone path to the linkgit:gitmodules[5] file and |
6dd14366 | 3541 | adds this file to the index, ready to be committed. |
38a457ba MV |
3542 | - It adds the submodule's current commit ID to the index, ready to be |
3543 | committed. | |
3544 | ||
3545 | Commit the superproject: | |
3546 | ||
3547 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3548 | $ git commit -m "Add submodules a, b, c and d." | |
3549 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3550 | ||
3551 | Now clone the superproject: | |
3552 | ||
3553 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3554 | $ cd .. | |
3555 | $ git clone super cloned | |
3556 | $ cd cloned | |
3557 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3558 | ||
3559 | The submodule directories are there, but they're empty: | |
3560 | ||
3561 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3562 | $ ls -a a | |
3563 | . .. | |
3564 | $ git submodule status | |
3565 | -d266b9873ad50488163457f025db7cdd9683d88b a | |
3566 | -e81d457da15309b4fef4249aba9b50187999670d b | |
3567 | -c1536a972b9affea0f16e0680ba87332dc059146 c | |
3568 | -d96249ff5d57de5de093e6baff9e0aafa5276a74 d | |
3569 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3570 | ||
3571 | NOTE: The commit object names shown above would be different for you, but they | |
3572 | should match the HEAD commit object names of your repositories. You can check | |
3573 | it by running `git ls-remote ../a`. | |
3574 | ||
3575 | Pulling down the submodules is a two-step process. First run `git submodule | |
3576 | init` to add the submodule repository URLs to `.git/config`: | |
3577 | ||
3578 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3579 | $ git submodule init | |
3580 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3581 | ||
6127c086 | 3582 | Now use `git submodule update` to clone the repositories and check out the |
38a457ba MV |
3583 | commits specified in the superproject: |
3584 | ||
3585 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3586 | $ git submodule update | |
3587 | $ cd a | |
3588 | $ ls -a | |
3589 | . .. .git a.txt | |
3590 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3591 | ||
6127c086 FC |
3592 | One major difference between `git submodule update` and `git submodule add` is |
3593 | that `git submodule update` checks out a specific commit, rather than the tip | |
38a457ba MV |
3594 | of a branch. It's like checking out a tag: the head is detached, so you're not |
3595 | working on a branch. | |
3596 | ||
3597 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3598 | $ git branch | |
3599 | * (no branch) | |
3600 | master | |
3601 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3602 | ||
3603 | If you want to make a change within a submodule and you have a detached head, | |
3604 | then you should create or checkout a branch, make your changes, publish the | |
3605 | change within the submodule, and then update the superproject to reference the | |
3606 | new commit: | |
3607 | ||
3608 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3609 | $ git checkout master | |
3610 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3611 | ||
3612 | or | |
3613 | ||
3614 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3615 | $ git checkout -b fix-up | |
3616 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3617 | ||
3618 | then | |
3619 | ||
3620 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3621 | $ echo "adding a line again" >> a.txt | |
3622 | $ git commit -a -m "Updated the submodule from within the superproject." | |
3623 | $ git push | |
3624 | $ cd .. | |
3625 | $ git diff | |
3626 | diff --git a/a b/a | |
3627 | index d266b98..261dfac 160000 | |
3628 | --- a/a | |
3629 | +++ b/a | |
3630 | @@ -1 +1 @@ | |
3631 | -Subproject commit d266b9873ad50488163457f025db7cdd9683d88b | |
3632 | +Subproject commit 261dfac35cb99d380eb966e102c1197139f7fa24 | |
3633 | $ git add a | |
3634 | $ git commit -m "Updated submodule a." | |
3635 | $ git push | |
3636 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3637 | ||
3638 | You have to run `git submodule update` after `git pull` if you want to update | |
3639 | submodules, too. | |
3640 | ||
3641 | Pitfalls with submodules | |
3642 | ------------------------ | |
3643 | ||
3644 | Always publish the submodule change before publishing the change to the | |
3645 | superproject that references it. If you forget to publish the submodule change, | |
3646 | others won't be able to clone the repository: | |
3647 | ||
3648 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3649 | $ cd ~/git/super/a | |
3650 | $ echo i added another line to this file >> a.txt | |
3651 | $ git commit -a -m "doing it wrong this time" | |
3652 | $ cd .. | |
3653 | $ git add a | |
3654 | $ git commit -m "Updated submodule a again." | |
3655 | $ git push | |
3656 | $ cd ~/git/cloned | |
3657 | $ git pull | |
3658 | $ git submodule update | |
3659 | error: pathspec '261dfac35cb99d380eb966e102c1197139f7fa24' did not match any file(s) known to git. | |
3660 | Did you forget to 'git add'? | |
3661 | Unable to checkout '261dfac35cb99d380eb966e102c1197139f7fa24' in submodule path 'a' | |
3662 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3663 | ||
8d9e7d52 JL |
3664 | In older git versions it could be easily forgotten to commit new or modified |
3665 | files in a submodule, which silently leads to similar problems as not pushing | |
3666 | the submodule changes. Starting with git 1.7.0 both "git status" and "git diff" | |
3667 | in the superproject show submodules as modified when they contain new or | |
3668 | modified files to protect against accidentally committing such a state. "git | |
3669 | diff" will also add a "-dirty" to the work tree side when generating patch | |
3670 | output or used with the --submodule option: | |
3671 | ||
3672 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3673 | $ git diff | |
3674 | diff --git a/sub b/sub | |
3675 | --- a/sub | |
3676 | +++ b/sub | |
3677 | @@ -1 +1 @@ | |
3678 | -Subproject commit 3f356705649b5d566d97ff843cf193359229a453 | |
3679 | +Subproject commit 3f356705649b5d566d97ff843cf193359229a453-dirty | |
3680 | $ git diff --submodule | |
3681 | Submodule sub 3f35670..3f35670-dirty: | |
3682 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3683 | ||
38a457ba MV |
3684 | You also should not rewind branches in a submodule beyond commits that were |
3685 | ever recorded in any superproject. | |
3686 | ||
3687 | It's not safe to run `git submodule update` if you've made and committed | |
3688 | changes within a submodule without checking out a branch first. They will be | |
3689 | silently overwritten: | |
3690 | ||
3691 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3692 | $ cat a.txt | |
3693 | module a | |
3694 | $ echo line added from private2 >> a.txt | |
3695 | $ git commit -a -m "line added inside private2" | |
3696 | $ cd .. | |
3697 | $ git submodule update | |
3698 | Submodule path 'a': checked out 'd266b9873ad50488163457f025db7cdd9683d88b' | |
3699 | $ cd a | |
3700 | $ cat a.txt | |
3701 | module a | |
3702 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
3703 | ||
3704 | NOTE: The changes are still visible in the submodule's reflog. | |
3705 | ||
3706 | This is not the case if you did not commit your changes. | |
3707 | ||
1c6045ff BF |
3708 | [[low-level-operations]] |
3709 | Low-level git operations | |
3710 | ======================== | |
b181d57f | 3711 | |
1c6045ff BF |
3712 | Many of the higher-level commands were originally implemented as shell |
3713 | scripts using a smaller core of low-level git commands. These can still | |
3714 | be useful when doing unusual things with git, or just as a way to | |
3715 | understand its inner workings. | |
b181d57f | 3716 | |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3717 | [[object-manipulation]] |
3718 | Object access and manipulation | |
3719 | ------------------------------ | |
3720 | ||
5162e697 DM |
3721 | The linkgit:git-cat-file[1] command can show the contents of any object, |
3722 | though the higher-level linkgit:git-show[1] is usually more useful. | |
1bbf1c79 | 3723 | |
5162e697 | 3724 | The linkgit:git-commit-tree[1] command allows constructing commits with |
1bbf1c79 BF |
3725 | arbitrary parents and trees. |
3726 | ||
5162e697 DM |
3727 | A tree can be created with linkgit:git-write-tree[1] and its data can be |
3728 | accessed by linkgit:git-ls-tree[1]. Two trees can be compared with | |
3729 | linkgit:git-diff-tree[1]. | |
1bbf1c79 | 3730 | |
5162e697 DM |
3731 | A tag is created with linkgit:git-mktag[1], and the signature can be |
3732 | verified by linkgit:git-verify-tag[1], though it is normally simpler to | |
3733 | use linkgit:git-tag[1] for both. | |
1bbf1c79 | 3734 | |
e34caace | 3735 | [[the-workflow]] |
b181d57f BF |
3736 | The Workflow |
3737 | ------------ | |
3738 | ||
5162e697 DM |
3739 | High-level operations such as linkgit:git-commit[1], |
3740 | linkgit:git-checkout[1] and linkgit:git-reset[1] work by moving data | |
06ada152 RW |
3741 | between the working tree, the index, and the object database. Git |
3742 | provides low-level operations which perform each of these steps | |
3743 | individually. | |
1c6045ff | 3744 | |
b181d57f BF |
3745 | Generally, all "git" operations work on the index file. Some operations |
3746 | work *purely* on the index file (showing the current state of the | |
1c6045ff BF |
3747 | index), but most operations move data between the index file and either |
3748 | the database or the working directory. Thus there are four main | |
3749 | combinations: | |
b181d57f | 3750 | |
e34caace | 3751 | [[working-directory-to-index]] |
b181d57f BF |
3752 | working directory -> index |
3753 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
3754 | ||
5162e697 | 3755 | The linkgit:git-update-index[1] command updates the index with |
1c6045ff BF |
3756 | information from the working directory. You generally update the |
3757 | index information by just specifying the filename you want to update, | |
3758 | like so: | |
b181d57f BF |
3759 | |
3760 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1c6045ff | 3761 | $ git update-index filename |
b181d57f BF |
3762 | ------------------------------------------------- |
3763 | ||
3764 | but to avoid common mistakes with filename globbing etc, the command | |
3765 | will not normally add totally new entries or remove old entries, | |
3766 | i.e. it will normally just update existing cache entries. | |
3767 | ||
3768 | To tell git that yes, you really do realize that certain files no | |
3769 | longer exist, or that new files should be added, you | |
3770 | should use the `--remove` and `--add` flags respectively. | |
3771 | ||
3772 | NOTE! A `--remove` flag does 'not' mean that subsequent filenames will | |
3773 | necessarily be removed: if the files still exist in your directory | |
3774 | structure, the index will be updated with their new status, not | |
10455d2a | 3775 | removed. The only thing `--remove` means is that update-index will be |
b181d57f BF |
3776 | considering a removed file to be a valid thing, and if the file really |
3777 | does not exist any more, it will update the index accordingly. | |
3778 | ||
467c0197 | 3779 | As a special case, you can also do `git update-index --refresh`, which |
b181d57f BF |
3780 | will refresh the "stat" information of each index to match the current |
3781 | stat information. It will 'not' update the object status itself, and | |
3782 | it will only update the fields that are used to quickly test whether | |
3783 | an object still matches its old backing store object. | |
3784 | ||
5162e697 DM |
3785 | The previously introduced linkgit:git-add[1] is just a wrapper for |
3786 | linkgit:git-update-index[1]. | |
1c6045ff | 3787 | |
e34caace | 3788 | [[index-to-object-database]] |
b181d57f BF |
3789 | index -> object database |
3790 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
3791 | ||
3792 | You write your current index file to a "tree" object with the program | |
3793 | ||
3794 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
1c6045ff | 3795 | $ git write-tree |
b181d57f BF |
3796 | ------------------------------------------------- |
3797 | ||
2ef8ac1b | 3798 | that doesn't come with any options--it will just write out the |
b181d57f BF |
3799 | current index into the set of tree objects that describe that state, |
3800 | and it will return the name of the resulting top-level tree. You can | |
3801 | use that tree to re-generate the index at any time by going in the | |
3802 | other direction: | |
3803 | ||
e34caace | 3804 | [[object-database-to-index]] |
b181d57f BF |
3805 | object database -> index |
3806 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
3807 | ||
3808 | You read a "tree" file from the object database, and use that to | |
2ef8ac1b | 3809 | populate (and overwrite--don't do this if your index contains any |
b181d57f BF |
3810 | unsaved state that you might want to restore later!) your current |
3811 | index. Normal operation is just | |
3812 | ||
3813 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
a6e5ef7d | 3814 | $ git read-tree <SHA-1 of tree> |
b181d57f BF |
3815 | ------------------------------------------------- |
3816 | ||
3817 | and your index file will now be equivalent to the tree that you saved | |
3818 | earlier. However, that is only your 'index' file: your working | |
3819 | directory contents have not been modified. | |
3820 | ||
e34caace | 3821 | [[index-to-working-directory]] |
b181d57f BF |
3822 | index -> working directory |
3823 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
3824 | ||
3825 | You update your working directory from the index by "checking out" | |
3826 | files. This is not a very common operation, since normally you'd just | |
3827 | keep your files updated, and rather than write to your working | |
3828 | directory, you'd tell the index files about the changes in your | |
6127c086 | 3829 | working directory (i.e. `git update-index`). |
b181d57f BF |
3830 | |
3831 | However, if you decide to jump to a new version, or check out somebody | |
3832 | else's version, or just restore a previous tree, you'd populate your | |
3833 | index file with read-tree, and then you need to check out the result | |
3834 | with | |
3835 | ||
3836 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
b1889c36 | 3837 | $ git checkout-index filename |
b181d57f BF |
3838 | ------------------------------------------------- |
3839 | ||
3840 | or, if you want to check out all of the index, use `-a`. | |
3841 | ||
6127c086 | 3842 | NOTE! `git checkout-index` normally refuses to overwrite old files, so |
b181d57f BF |
3843 | if you have an old version of the tree already checked out, you will |
3844 | need to use the "-f" flag ('before' the "-a" flag or the filename) to | |
3845 | 'force' the checkout. | |
3846 | ||
3847 | ||
3848 | Finally, there are a few odds and ends which are not purely moving | |
3849 | from one representation to the other: | |
3850 | ||
e34caace | 3851 | [[tying-it-all-together]] |
b181d57f BF |
3852 | Tying it all together |
3853 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
3854 | ||
467c0197 | 3855 | To commit a tree you have instantiated with "git write-tree", you'd |
b181d57f | 3856 | create a "commit" object that refers to that tree and the history |
2ef8ac1b | 3857 | behind it--most notably the "parent" commits that preceded it in |
b181d57f BF |
3858 | history. |
3859 | ||
3860 | Normally a "commit" has one parent: the previous state of the tree | |
3861 | before a certain change was made. However, sometimes it can have two | |
3862 | or more parent commits, in which case we call it a "merge", due to the | |
3863 | fact that such a commit brings together ("merges") two or more | |
3864 | previous states represented by other commits. | |
3865 | ||
3866 | In other words, while a "tree" represents a particular directory state | |
3867 | of a working directory, a "commit" represents that state in "time", | |
3868 | and explains how we got there. | |
3869 | ||
3870 | You create a commit object by giving it the tree that describes the | |
3871 | state at the time of the commit, and a list of parents: | |
3872 | ||
3873 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
0adda936 | 3874 | $ git commit-tree <tree> -p <parent> [(-p <parent2>)...] |
b181d57f BF |
3875 | ------------------------------------------------- |
3876 | ||
3877 | and then giving the reason for the commit on stdin (either through | |
3878 | redirection from a pipe or file, or by just typing it at the tty). | |
3879 | ||
6127c086 | 3880 | `git commit-tree` will return the name of the object that represents |
b181d57f BF |
3881 | that commit, and you should save it away for later use. Normally, |
3882 | you'd commit a new `HEAD` state, and while git doesn't care where you | |
3883 | save the note about that state, in practice we tend to just write the | |
3884 | result to the file pointed at by `.git/HEAD`, so that we can always see | |
3885 | what the last committed state was. | |
3886 | ||
3887 | Here is an ASCII art by Jon Loeliger that illustrates how | |
3888 | various pieces fit together. | |
3889 | ||
3890 | ------------ | |
3891 | ||
3892 | commit-tree | |
3893 | commit obj | |
3894 | +----+ | |
3895 | | | | |
3896 | | | | |
3897 | V V | |
3898 | +-----------+ | |
3899 | | Object DB | | |
3900 | | Backing | | |
3901 | | Store | | |
3902 | +-----------+ | |
3903 | ^ | |
3904 | write-tree | | | |
3905 | tree obj | | | |
3906 | | | read-tree | |
3907 | | | tree obj | |
3908 | V | |
3909 | +-----------+ | |
3910 | | Index | | |
3911 | | "cache" | | |
3912 | +-----------+ | |
3913 | update-index ^ | |
3914 | blob obj | | | |
3915 | | | | |
3916 | checkout-index -u | | checkout-index | |
3917 | stat | | blob obj | |
3918 | V | |
3919 | +-----------+ | |
3920 | | Working | | |
3921 | | Directory | | |
3922 | +-----------+ | |
3923 | ||
3924 | ------------ | |
3925 | ||
3926 | ||
e34caace | 3927 | [[examining-the-data]] |
b181d57f BF |
3928 | Examining the data |
3929 | ------------------ | |
3930 | ||
3931 | You can examine the data represented in the object database and the | |
3932 | index with various helper tools. For every object, you can use | |
5162e697 | 3933 | linkgit:git-cat-file[1] to examine details about the |
b181d57f BF |
3934 | object: |
3935 | ||
3936 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
b1889c36 | 3937 | $ git cat-file -t <objectname> |
b181d57f BF |
3938 | ------------------------------------------------- |
3939 | ||
3940 | shows the type of the object, and once you have the type (which is | |
3941 | usually implicit in where you find the object), you can use | |
3942 | ||
3943 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
b1889c36 | 3944 | $ git cat-file blob|tree|commit|tag <objectname> |
b181d57f BF |
3945 | ------------------------------------------------- |
3946 | ||
3947 | to show its contents. NOTE! Trees have binary content, and as a result | |
3948 | there is a special helper for showing that content, called | |
6127c086 | 3949 | `git ls-tree`, which turns the binary content into a more easily |
b181d57f BF |
3950 | readable form. |
3951 | ||
3952 | It's especially instructive to look at "commit" objects, since those | |
3953 | tend to be small and fairly self-explanatory. In particular, if you | |
3954 | follow the convention of having the top commit name in `.git/HEAD`, | |
3955 | you can do | |
3956 | ||
3957 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
b1889c36 | 3958 | $ git cat-file commit HEAD |
b181d57f BF |
3959 | ------------------------------------------------- |
3960 | ||
3961 | to see what the top commit was. | |
3962 | ||
e34caace | 3963 | [[merging-multiple-trees]] |
b181d57f | 3964 | Merging multiple trees |
d19fbc3c BF |
3965 | ---------------------- |
3966 | ||
b181d57f BF |
3967 | Git helps you do a three-way merge, which you can expand to n-way by |
3968 | repeating the merge procedure arbitrary times until you finally | |
3969 | "commit" the state. The normal situation is that you'd only do one | |
3970 | three-way merge (two parents), and commit it, but if you like to, you | |
3971 | can do multiple parents in one go. | |
3972 | ||
3973 | To do a three-way merge, you need the two sets of "commit" objects | |
3974 | that you want to merge, use those to find the closest common parent (a | |
3975 | third "commit" object), and then use those commit objects to find the | |
3976 | state of the directory ("tree" object) at these points. | |
3977 | ||
3978 | To get the "base" for the merge, you first look up the common parent | |
3979 | of two commits with | |
3980 | ||
3981 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
b1889c36 | 3982 | $ git merge-base <commit1> <commit2> |
b181d57f BF |
3983 | ------------------------------------------------- |
3984 | ||
3985 | which will return you the commit they are both based on. You should | |
3986 | now look up the "tree" objects of those commits, which you can easily | |
3987 | do with (for example) | |
3988 | ||
3989 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
b1889c36 | 3990 | $ git cat-file commit <commitname> | head -1 |
b181d57f BF |
3991 | ------------------------------------------------- |
3992 | ||
3993 | since the tree object information is always the first line in a commit | |
3994 | object. | |
3995 | ||
1191ee18 | 3996 | Once you know the three trees you are going to merge (the one "original" |
c64415e2 | 3997 | tree, aka the common tree, and the two "result" trees, aka the branches |
1191ee18 BF |
3998 | you want to merge), you do a "merge" read into the index. This will |
3999 | complain if it has to throw away your old index contents, so you should | |
2ef8ac1b | 4000 | make sure that you've committed those--in fact you would normally |
1191ee18 BF |
4001 | always do a merge against your last commit (which should thus match what |
4002 | you have in your current index anyway). | |
b181d57f BF |
4003 | |
4004 | To do the merge, do | |
4005 | ||
4006 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
b1889c36 | 4007 | $ git read-tree -m -u <origtree> <yourtree> <targettree> |
b181d57f BF |
4008 | ------------------------------------------------- |
4009 | ||
4010 | which will do all trivial merge operations for you directly in the | |
4011 | index file, and you can just write the result out with | |
467c0197 | 4012 | `git write-tree`. |
b181d57f BF |
4013 | |
4014 | ||
e34caace | 4015 | [[merging-multiple-trees-2]] |
b181d57f BF |
4016 | Merging multiple trees, continued |
4017 | --------------------------------- | |
4018 | ||
4019 | Sadly, many merges aren't trivial. If there are files that have | |
06ada152 | 4020 | been added, moved or removed, or if both branches have modified the |
b181d57f BF |
4021 | same file, you will be left with an index tree that contains "merge |
4022 | entries" in it. Such an index tree can 'NOT' be written out to a tree | |
4023 | object, and you will have to resolve any such merge clashes using | |
4024 | other tools before you can write out the result. | |
4025 | ||
b1889c36 | 4026 | You can examine such index state with `git ls-files --unmerged` |
b181d57f BF |
4027 | command. An example: |
4028 | ||
4029 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
b1889c36 JN |
4030 | $ git read-tree -m $orig HEAD $target |
4031 | $ git ls-files --unmerged | |
b181d57f BF |
4032 | 100644 263414f423d0e4d70dae8fe53fa34614ff3e2860 1 hello.c |
4033 | 100644 06fa6a24256dc7e560efa5687fa84b51f0263c3a 2 hello.c | |
4034 | 100644 cc44c73eb783565da5831b4d820c962954019b69 3 hello.c | |
4035 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
4036 | ||
b1889c36 | 4037 | Each line of the `git ls-files --unmerged` output begins with |
a6e5ef7d | 4038 | the blob mode bits, blob SHA-1, 'stage number', and the |
b181d57f | 4039 | filename. The 'stage number' is git's way to say which tree it |
edfbbf7e Å N |
4040 | came from: stage 1 corresponds to the `$orig` tree, stage 2 to |
4041 | the `HEAD` tree, and stage 3 to the `$target` tree. | |
b181d57f BF |
4042 | |
4043 | Earlier we said that trivial merges are done inside | |
6127c086 | 4044 | `git read-tree -m`. For example, if the file did not change |
b181d57f BF |
4045 | from `$orig` to `HEAD` nor `$target`, or if the file changed |
4046 | from `$orig` to `HEAD` and `$orig` to `$target` the same way, | |
4047 | obviously the final outcome is what is in `HEAD`. What the | |
4048 | above example shows is that file `hello.c` was changed from | |
4049 | `$orig` to `HEAD` and `$orig` to `$target` in a different way. | |
4050 | You could resolve this by running your favorite 3-way merge | |
c64415e2 BF |
4051 | program, e.g. `diff3`, `merge`, or git's own merge-file, on |
4052 | the blob objects from these three stages yourself, like this: | |
b181d57f BF |
4053 | |
4054 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
b1889c36 JN |
4055 | $ git cat-file blob 263414f... >hello.c~1 |
4056 | $ git cat-file blob 06fa6a2... >hello.c~2 | |
4057 | $ git cat-file blob cc44c73... >hello.c~3 | |
c64415e2 | 4058 | $ git merge-file hello.c~2 hello.c~1 hello.c~3 |
b181d57f BF |
4059 | ------------------------------------------------ |
4060 | ||
4061 | This would leave the merge result in `hello.c~2` file, along | |
4062 | with conflict markers if there are conflicts. After verifying | |
4063 | the merge result makes sense, you can tell git what the final | |
4064 | merge result for this file is by: | |
4065 | ||
4066 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
4067 | $ mv -f hello.c~2 hello.c | |
b1889c36 | 4068 | $ git update-index hello.c |
b181d57f BF |
4069 | ------------------------------------------------- |
4070 | ||
6127c086 | 4071 | When a path is in the "unmerged" state, running `git update-index` for |
b181d57f BF |
4072 | that path tells git to mark the path resolved. |
4073 | ||
4074 | The above is the description of a git merge at the lowest level, | |
4075 | to help you understand what conceptually happens under the hood. | |
6127c086 FC |
4076 | In practice, nobody, not even git itself, runs `git cat-file` three times |
4077 | for this. There is a `git merge-index` program that extracts the | |
b181d57f BF |
4078 | stages to temporary files and calls a "merge" script on it: |
4079 | ||
4080 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
b1889c36 | 4081 | $ git merge-index git-merge-one-file hello.c |
b181d57f BF |
4082 | ------------------------------------------------- |
4083 | ||
6127c086 | 4084 | and that is what higher level `git merge -s resolve` is implemented with. |
b181d57f | 4085 | |
971aa71f BF |
4086 | [[hacking-git]] |
4087 | Hacking git | |
4088 | =========== | |
4089 | ||
4090 | This chapter covers internal details of the git implementation which | |
4091 | probably only git developers need to understand. | |
4092 | ||
f2327c6c BF |
4093 | [[object-details]] |
4094 | Object storage format | |
4095 | --------------------- | |
4096 | ||
4097 | All objects have a statically determined "type" which identifies the | |
4098 | format of the object (i.e. how it is used, and how it can refer to other | |
4099 | objects). There are currently four different object types: "blob", | |
4100 | "tree", "commit", and "tag". | |
4101 | ||
4102 | Regardless of object type, all objects share the following | |
4103 | characteristics: they are all deflated with zlib, and have a header | |
4104 | that not only specifies their type, but also provides size information | |
a6e5ef7d | 4105 | about the data in the object. It's worth noting that the SHA-1 hash |
f2327c6c BF |
4106 | that is used to name the object is the hash of the original data |
4107 | plus this header, so `sha1sum` 'file' does not match the object name | |
4108 | for 'file'. | |
4109 | (Historical note: in the dawn of the age of git the hash | |
a6e5ef7d | 4110 | was the SHA-1 of the 'compressed' object.) |
f2327c6c BF |
4111 | |
4112 | As a result, the general consistency of an object can always be tested | |
4113 | independently of the contents or the type of the object: all objects can | |
4114 | be validated by verifying that (a) their hashes match the content of the | |
4115 | file and (b) the object successfully inflates to a stream of bytes that | |
4116 | forms a sequence of <ascii type without space> {plus} <space> {plus} <ascii decimal | |
4117 | size> {plus} <byte\0> {plus} <binary object data>. | |
4118 | ||
4119 | The structured objects can further have their structure and | |
4120 | connectivity to other objects verified. This is generally done with | |
6127c086 | 4121 | the `git fsck` program, which generates a full dependency graph |
f2327c6c BF |
4122 | of all objects, and verifies their internal consistency (in addition |
4123 | to just verifying their superficial consistency through the hash). | |
4124 | ||
126640af | 4125 | [[birdview-on-the-source-code]] |
a5fc33b4 BF |
4126 | A birds-eye view of Git's source code |
4127 | ------------------------------------- | |
126640af | 4128 | |
a5fc33b4 BF |
4129 | It is not always easy for new developers to find their way through Git's |
4130 | source code. This section gives you a little guidance to show where to | |
4131 | start. | |
126640af | 4132 | |
a5fc33b4 | 4133 | A good place to start is with the contents of the initial commit, with: |
126640af JS |
4134 | |
4135 | ---------------------------------------------------- | |
a5fc33b4 | 4136 | $ git checkout e83c5163 |
126640af JS |
4137 | ---------------------------------------------------- |
4138 | ||
a5fc33b4 BF |
4139 | The initial revision lays the foundation for almost everything git has |
4140 | today, but is small enough to read in one sitting. | |
126640af | 4141 | |
a5fc33b4 BF |
4142 | Note that terminology has changed since that revision. For example, the |
4143 | README in that revision uses the word "changeset" to describe what we | |
4144 | now call a <<def_commit_object,commit>>. | |
126640af | 4145 | |
843c81dc | 4146 | Also, we do not call it "cache" any more, but rather "index"; however, the |
126640af JS |
4147 | file is still called `cache.h`. Remark: Not much reason to change it now, |
4148 | especially since there is no good single name for it anyway, because it is | |
4149 | basically _the_ header file which is included by _all_ of Git's C sources. | |
4150 | ||
a5fc33b4 BF |
4151 | If you grasp the ideas in that initial commit, you should check out a |
4152 | more recent version and skim `cache.h`, `object.h` and `commit.h`. | |
126640af JS |
4153 | |
4154 | In the early days, Git (in the tradition of UNIX) was a bunch of programs | |
4155 | which were extremely simple, and which you used in scripts, piping the | |
4156 | output of one into another. This turned out to be good for initial | |
4157 | development, since it was easier to test new things. However, recently | |
4158 | many of these parts have become builtins, and some of the core has been | |
4159 | "libified", i.e. put into libgit.a for performance, portability reasons, | |
4160 | and to avoid code duplication. | |
4161 | ||
4162 | By now, you know what the index is (and find the corresponding data | |
4163 | structures in `cache.h`), and that there are just a couple of object types | |
4164 | (blobs, trees, commits and tags) which inherit their common structure from | |
4165 | `struct object`, which is their first member (and thus, you can cast e.g. | |
4166 | `(struct object *)commit` to achieve the _same_ as `&commit->object`, i.e. | |
4167 | get at the object name and flags). | |
4168 | ||
4169 | Now is a good point to take a break to let this information sink in. | |
4170 | ||
4171 | Next step: get familiar with the object naming. Read <<naming-commits>>. | |
4172 | There are quite a few ways to name an object (and not only revisions!). | |
4173 | All of these are handled in `sha1_name.c`. Just have a quick look at | |
4174 | the function `get_sha1()`. A lot of the special handling is done by | |
4175 | functions like `get_sha1_basic()` or the likes. | |
4176 | ||
4177 | This is just to get you into the groove for the most libified part of Git: | |
4178 | the revision walker. | |
4179 | ||
6127c086 | 4180 | Basically, the initial version of `git log` was a shell script: |
126640af JS |
4181 | |
4182 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
4183 | $ git-rev-list --pretty $(git-rev-parse --default HEAD "$@") | \ | |
4184 | LESS=-S ${PAGER:-less} | |
4185 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
4186 | ||
4187 | What does this mean? | |
4188 | ||
6127c086 | 4189 | `git rev-list` is the original version of the revision walker, which |
126640af | 4190 | _always_ printed a list of revisions to stdout. It is still functional, |
57f6ec02 | 4191 | and needs to, since most new Git commands start out as scripts using |
6127c086 | 4192 | `git rev-list`. |
126640af | 4193 | |
6127c086 | 4194 | `git rev-parse` is not as important any more; it was only used to filter out |
126640af JS |
4195 | options that were relevant for the different plumbing commands that were |
4196 | called by the script. | |
4197 | ||
6127c086 | 4198 | Most of what `git rev-list` did is contained in `revision.c` and |
126640af JS |
4199 | `revision.h`. It wraps the options in a struct named `rev_info`, which |
4200 | controls how and what revisions are walked, and more. | |
4201 | ||
6127c086 | 4202 | The original job of `git rev-parse` is now taken by the function |
126640af JS |
4203 | `setup_revisions()`, which parses the revisions and the common command line |
4204 | options for the revision walker. This information is stored in the struct | |
4205 | `rev_info` for later consumption. You can do your own command line option | |
4206 | parsing after calling `setup_revisions()`. After that, you have to call | |
4207 | `prepare_revision_walk()` for initialization, and then you can get the | |
4208 | commits one by one with the function `get_revision()`. | |
4209 | ||
4210 | If you are interested in more details of the revision walking process, | |
4211 | just have a look at the first implementation of `cmd_log()`; call | |
6cf378f0 | 4212 | `git show v1.3.0~155^2~4` and scroll down to that function (note that you |
126640af JS |
4213 | no longer need to call `setup_pager()` directly). |
4214 | ||
6127c086 | 4215 | Nowadays, `git log` is a builtin, which means that it is _contained_ in the |
126640af JS |
4216 | command `git`. The source side of a builtin is |
4217 | ||
4218 | - a function called `cmd_<bla>`, typically defined in `builtin-<bla>.c`, | |
4219 | and declared in `builtin.h`, | |
4220 | ||
4221 | - an entry in the `commands[]` array in `git.c`, and | |
4222 | ||
4223 | - an entry in `BUILTIN_OBJECTS` in the `Makefile`. | |
4224 | ||
4225 | Sometimes, more than one builtin is contained in one source file. For | |
4226 | example, `cmd_whatchanged()` and `cmd_log()` both reside in `builtin-log.c`, | |
4227 | since they share quite a bit of code. In that case, the commands which are | |
4228 | _not_ named like the `.c` file in which they live have to be listed in | |
4229 | `BUILT_INS` in the `Makefile`. | |
4230 | ||
6127c086 | 4231 | `git log` looks more complicated in C than it does in the original script, |
126640af JS |
4232 | but that allows for a much greater flexibility and performance. |
4233 | ||
4234 | Here again it is a good point to take a pause. | |
4235 | ||
4236 | Lesson three is: study the code. Really, it is the best way to learn about | |
4237 | the organization of Git (after you know the basic concepts). | |
4238 | ||
4239 | So, think about something which you are interested in, say, "how can I | |
4240 | access a blob just knowing the object name of it?". The first step is to | |
4241 | find a Git command with which you can do it. In this example, it is either | |
6127c086 | 4242 | `git show` or `git cat-file`. |
126640af | 4243 | |
6127c086 | 4244 | For the sake of clarity, let's stay with `git cat-file`, because it |
126640af JS |
4245 | |
4246 | - is plumbing, and | |
4247 | ||
4248 | - was around even in the initial commit (it literally went only through | |
4249 | some 20 revisions as `cat-file.c`, was renamed to `builtin-cat-file.c` | |
4250 | when made a builtin, and then saw less than 10 versions). | |
4251 | ||
4252 | So, look into `builtin-cat-file.c`, search for `cmd_cat_file()` and look what | |
4253 | it does. | |
4254 | ||
4255 | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | |
4256 | git_config(git_default_config); | |
4257 | if (argc != 3) | |
6127c086 | 4258 | usage("git cat-file [-t|-s|-e|-p|<type>] <sha1>"); |
126640af JS |
4259 | if (get_sha1(argv[2], sha1)) |
4260 | die("Not a valid object name %s", argv[2]); | |
4261 | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | |
4262 | ||
4263 | Let's skip over the obvious details; the only really interesting part | |
4264 | here is the call to `get_sha1()`. It tries to interpret `argv[2]` as an | |
4265 | object name, and if it refers to an object which is present in the current | |
4266 | repository, it writes the resulting SHA-1 into the variable `sha1`. | |
4267 | ||
4268 | Two things are interesting here: | |
4269 | ||
4270 | - `get_sha1()` returns 0 on _success_. This might surprise some new | |
4271 | Git hackers, but there is a long tradition in UNIX to return different | |
2ef8ac1b | 4272 | negative numbers in case of different errors--and 0 on success. |
126640af JS |
4273 | |
4274 | - the variable `sha1` in the function signature of `get_sha1()` is `unsigned | |
6cf378f0 | 4275 | char *`, but is actually expected to be a pointer to `unsigned |
126640af | 4276 | char[20]`. This variable will contain the 160-bit SHA-1 of the given |
6cf378f0 | 4277 | commit. Note that whenever a SHA-1 is passed as `unsigned char *`, it |
126640af | 4278 | is the binary representation, as opposed to the ASCII representation in |
a5fc33b4 | 4279 | hex characters, which is passed as `char *`. |
126640af JS |
4280 | |
4281 | You will see both of these things throughout the code. | |
4282 | ||
4283 | Now, for the meat: | |
4284 | ||
4285 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
4286 | case 0: | |
4287 | buf = read_object_with_reference(sha1, argv[1], &size, NULL); | |
4288 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
4289 | ||
4290 | This is how you read a blob (actually, not only a blob, but any type of | |
4291 | object). To know how the function `read_object_with_reference()` actually | |
4292 | works, find the source code for it (something like `git grep | |
4293 | read_object_with | grep ":[a-z]"` in the git repository), and read | |
4294 | the source. | |
4295 | ||
4296 | To find out how the result can be used, just read on in `cmd_cat_file()`: | |
4297 | ||
4298 | ----------------------------------- | |
4299 | write_or_die(1, buf, size); | |
4300 | ----------------------------------- | |
4301 | ||
4302 | Sometimes, you do not know where to look for a feature. In many such cases, | |
6127c086 | 4303 | it helps to search through the output of `git log`, and then `git show` the |
126640af JS |
4304 | corresponding commit. |
4305 | ||
6127c086 | 4306 | Example: If you know that there was some test case for `git bundle`, but |
126640af JS |
4307 | do not remember where it was (yes, you _could_ `git grep bundle t/`, but that |
4308 | does not illustrate the point!): | |
4309 | ||
4310 | ------------------------ | |
4311 | $ git log --no-merges t/ | |
4312 | ------------------------ | |
4313 | ||
4314 | In the pager (`less`), just search for "bundle", go a few lines back, | |
4315 | and see that it is in commit 18449ab0... Now just copy this object name, | |
4316 | and paste it into the command line | |
4317 | ||
4318 | ------------------- | |
4319 | $ git show 18449ab0 | |
4320 | ------------------- | |
4321 | ||
4322 | Voila. | |
4323 | ||
4324 | Another example: Find out what to do in order to make some script a | |
4325 | builtin: | |
4326 | ||
4327 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
4328 | $ git log --no-merges --diff-filter=A builtin-*.c | |
4329 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
4330 | ||
4331 | You see, Git is actually the best tool to find out about the source of Git | |
4332 | itself! | |
4333 | ||
e34caace | 4334 | [[glossary]] |
73a1d050 | 4335 | Git Glossary |
497c8331 CC |
4336 | ============ |
4337 | ||
4338 | include::glossary-content.txt[] | |
d19fbc3c | 4339 | |
2624d9a5 | 4340 | [[git-quick-start]] |
99f171bb BF |
4341 | Appendix A: Git Quick Reference |
4342 | =============================== | |
2624d9a5 | 4343 | |
99f171bb BF |
4344 | This is a quick summary of the major commands; the previous chapters |
4345 | explain how these work in more detail. | |
2624d9a5 BF |
4346 | |
4347 | [[quick-creating-a-new-repository]] | |
4348 | Creating a new repository | |
4349 | ------------------------- | |
4350 | ||
4351 | From a tarball: | |
4352 | ||
4353 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4354 | $ tar xzf project.tar.gz | |
4355 | $ cd project | |
4356 | $ git init | |
4357 | Initialized empty Git repository in .git/ | |
4358 | $ git add . | |
4359 | $ git commit | |
4360 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4361 | ||
4362 | From a remote repository: | |
4363 | ||
4364 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4365 | $ git clone git://example.com/pub/project.git | |
4366 | $ cd project | |
4367 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4368 | ||
4369 | [[managing-branches]] | |
4370 | Managing branches | |
4371 | ----------------- | |
4372 | ||
4373 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4374 | $ git branch # list all local branches in this repo | |
4375 | $ git checkout test # switch working directory to branch "test" | |
4376 | $ git branch new # create branch "new" starting at current HEAD | |
4377 | $ git branch -d new # delete branch "new" | |
4378 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4379 | ||
06ada152 | 4380 | Instead of basing a new branch on current HEAD (the default), use: |
2624d9a5 BF |
4381 | |
4382 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4383 | $ git branch new test # branch named "test" | |
4384 | $ git branch new v2.6.15 # tag named v2.6.15 | |
4385 | $ git branch new HEAD^ # commit before the most recent | |
4386 | $ git branch new HEAD^^ # commit before that | |
4387 | $ git branch new test~10 # ten commits before tip of branch "test" | |
4388 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4389 | ||
4390 | Create and switch to a new branch at the same time: | |
4391 | ||
4392 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4393 | $ git checkout -b new v2.6.15 | |
4394 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4395 | ||
4396 | Update and examine branches from the repository you cloned from: | |
4397 | ||
4398 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4399 | $ git fetch # update | |
4400 | $ git branch -r # list | |
4401 | origin/master | |
4402 | origin/next | |
4403 | ... | |
4404 | $ git checkout -b masterwork origin/master | |
4405 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4406 | ||
4407 | Fetch a branch from a different repository, and give it a new | |
4408 | name in your repository: | |
4409 | ||
4410 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4411 | $ git fetch git://example.com/project.git theirbranch:mybranch | |
4412 | $ git fetch git://example.com/project.git v2.6.15:mybranch | |
4413 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4414 | ||
4415 | Keep a list of repositories you work with regularly: | |
4416 | ||
4417 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4418 | $ git remote add example git://example.com/project.git | |
4419 | $ git remote # list remote repositories | |
4420 | example | |
4421 | origin | |
4422 | $ git remote show example # get details | |
4423 | * remote example | |
4424 | URL: git://example.com/project.git | |
4425 | Tracked remote branches | |
20244ea2 JS |
4426 | master |
4427 | next | |
4428 | ... | |
2624d9a5 BF |
4429 | $ git fetch example # update branches from example |
4430 | $ git branch -r # list all remote branches | |
4431 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4432 | ||
4433 | ||
4434 | [[exploring-history]] | |
4435 | Exploring history | |
4436 | ----------------- | |
4437 | ||
4438 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4439 | $ gitk # visualize and browse history | |
4440 | $ git log # list all commits | |
4441 | $ git log src/ # ...modifying src/ | |
4442 | $ git log v2.6.15..v2.6.16 # ...in v2.6.16, not in v2.6.15 | |
4443 | $ git log master..test # ...in branch test, not in branch master | |
4444 | $ git log test..master # ...in branch master, but not in test | |
4445 | $ git log test...master # ...in one branch, not in both | |
4446 | $ git log -S'foo()' # ...where difference contain "foo()" | |
4447 | $ git log --since="2 weeks ago" | |
4448 | $ git log -p # show patches as well | |
4449 | $ git show # most recent commit | |
4450 | $ git diff v2.6.15..v2.6.16 # diff between two tagged versions | |
4451 | $ git diff v2.6.15..HEAD # diff with current head | |
4452 | $ git grep "foo()" # search working directory for "foo()" | |
4453 | $ git grep v2.6.15 "foo()" # search old tree for "foo()" | |
4454 | $ git show v2.6.15:a.txt # look at old version of a.txt | |
4455 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4456 | ||
4457 | Search for regressions: | |
4458 | ||
4459 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4460 | $ git bisect start | |
4461 | $ git bisect bad # current version is bad | |
4462 | $ git bisect good v2.6.13-rc2 # last known good revision | |
4463 | Bisecting: 675 revisions left to test after this | |
4464 | # test here, then: | |
4465 | $ git bisect good # if this revision is good, or | |
4466 | $ git bisect bad # if this revision is bad. | |
4467 | # repeat until done. | |
4468 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4469 | ||
4470 | [[making-changes]] | |
4471 | Making changes | |
4472 | -------------- | |
4473 | ||
4474 | Make sure git knows who to blame: | |
4475 | ||
4476 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
4477 | $ cat >>~/.gitconfig <<\EOF | |
4478 | [user] | |
4479 | name = Your Name Comes Here | |
4480 | email = you@yourdomain.example.com | |
4481 | EOF | |
4482 | ------------------------------------------------ | |
4483 | ||
4484 | Select file contents to include in the next commit, then make the | |
4485 | commit: | |
4486 | ||
4487 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4488 | $ git add a.txt # updated file | |
4489 | $ git add b.txt # new file | |
4490 | $ git rm c.txt # old file | |
4491 | $ git commit | |
4492 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4493 | ||
4494 | Or, prepare and create the commit in one step: | |
4495 | ||
4496 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4497 | $ git commit d.txt # use latest content only of d.txt | |
4498 | $ git commit -a # use latest content of all tracked files | |
4499 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4500 | ||
4501 | [[merging]] | |
4502 | Merging | |
4503 | ------- | |
4504 | ||
4505 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4506 | $ git merge test # merge branch "test" into the current branch | |
4507 | $ git pull git://example.com/project.git master | |
4508 | # fetch and merge in remote branch | |
4509 | $ git pull . test # equivalent to git merge test | |
4510 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4511 | ||
4512 | [[sharing-your-changes]] | |
4513 | Sharing your changes | |
4514 | -------------------- | |
4515 | ||
4516 | Importing or exporting patches: | |
4517 | ||
4518 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4519 | $ git format-patch origin..HEAD # format a patch for each commit | |
4520 | # in HEAD but not in origin | |
4521 | $ git am mbox # import patches from the mailbox "mbox" | |
4522 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4523 | ||
4524 | Fetch a branch in a different git repository, then merge into the | |
4525 | current branch: | |
4526 | ||
4527 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4528 | $ git pull git://example.com/project.git theirbranch | |
4529 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4530 | ||
4531 | Store the fetched branch into a local branch before merging into the | |
4532 | current branch: | |
4533 | ||
4534 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4535 | $ git pull git://example.com/project.git theirbranch:mybranch | |
4536 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4537 | ||
4538 | After creating commits on a local branch, update the remote | |
4539 | branch with your commits: | |
4540 | ||
4541 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4542 | $ git push ssh://example.com/project.git mybranch:theirbranch | |
4543 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4544 | ||
4545 | When remote and local branch are both named "test": | |
4546 | ||
4547 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4548 | $ git push ssh://example.com/project.git test | |
4549 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4550 | ||
4551 | Shortcut version for a frequently used remote repository: | |
4552 | ||
4553 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4554 | $ git remote add example ssh://example.com/project.git | |
4555 | $ git push example test | |
4556 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4557 | ||
4558 | [[repository-maintenance]] | |
4559 | Repository maintenance | |
4560 | ---------------------- | |
4561 | ||
4562 | Check for corruption: | |
4563 | ||
4564 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4565 | $ git fsck | |
4566 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4567 | ||
4568 | Recompress, remove unused cruft: | |
4569 | ||
4570 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4571 | $ git gc | |
4572 | ----------------------------------------------- | |
4573 | ||
4574 | ||
e34caace | 4575 | [[todo]] |
2624d9a5 BF |
4576 | Appendix B: Notes and todo list for this manual |
4577 | =============================================== | |
6bd9b682 BF |
4578 | |
4579 | This is a work in progress. | |
4580 | ||
4581 | The basic requirements: | |
ecd95b53 BF |
4582 | |
4583 | - It must be readable in order, from beginning to end, by someone | |
4584 | intelligent with a basic grasp of the UNIX command line, but without | |
4585 | any special knowledge of git. If necessary, any other prerequisites | |
4586 | should be specifically mentioned as they arise. | |
4587 | - Whenever possible, section headings should clearly describe the task | |
4588 | they explain how to do, in language that requires no more knowledge | |
4589 | than necessary: for example, "importing patches into a project" rather | |
6127c086 | 4590 | than "the `git am` command" |
6bd9b682 | 4591 | |
d5cd5de4 BF |
4592 | Think about how to create a clear chapter dependency graph that will |
4593 | allow people to get to important topics without necessarily reading | |
4594 | everything in between. | |
d19fbc3c BF |
4595 | |
4596 | Scan Documentation/ for other stuff left out; in particular: | |
ecd95b53 BF |
4597 | |
4598 | - howto's | |
4599 | - some of technical/? | |
4600 | - hooks | |
5162e697 | 4601 | - list of commands in linkgit:git[1] |
d19fbc3c BF |
4602 | |
4603 | Scan email archives for other stuff left out | |
4604 | ||
4605 | Scan man pages to see if any assume more background than this manual | |
4606 | provides. | |
4607 | ||
2f99710c | 4608 | Simplify beginning by suggesting disconnected head instead of |
b181d57f | 4609 | temporary branch creation? |
d19fbc3c | 4610 | |
2f99710c BF |
4611 | Add more good examples. Entire sections of just cookbook examples |
4612 | might be a good idea; maybe make an "advanced examples" section a | |
4613 | standard end-of-chapter section? | |
d19fbc3c BF |
4614 | |
4615 | Include cross-references to the glossary, where appropriate. | |
4616 | ||
9a241220 BF |
4617 | Document shallow clones? See draft 1.5.0 release notes for some |
4618 | documentation. | |
4619 | ||
3dff5379 | 4620 | Add a section on working with other version control systems, including |
9a241220 BF |
4621 | CVS, Subversion, and just imports of series of release tarballs. |
4622 | ||
a8cd1402 | 4623 | More details on gitweb? |
0b375ab0 BF |
4624 | |
4625 | Write a chapter on using plumbing and writing scripts. | |
d9bd321c BF |
4626 | |
4627 | Alternates, clone -reference, etc. | |
4628 | ||
1cdade2c BF |
4629 | More on recovery from repository corruption. See: |
4630 | http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=git&m=117263864820799&w=2 | |
4631 | http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=git&m=117147855503798&w=2 |