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c06818e2 JH |
1 | git-describe(1) |
2 | =============== | |
3 | ||
4 | NAME | |
5 | ---- | |
7bd7f280 | 6 | git-describe - Show the most recent tag that is reachable from a commit |
c06818e2 JH |
7 | |
8 | ||
9 | SYNOPSIS | |
10 | -------- | |
c5b3e0f5 | 11 | [verse] |
b1889c36 | 12 | 'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] <committish>... |
9f67d2e8 | 13 | 'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] --dirty[=<mark>] |
c06818e2 JH |
14 | |
15 | DESCRIPTION | |
16 | ----------- | |
17 | The command finds the most recent tag that is reachable from a | |
b7893cde IH |
18 | commit. If the tag points to the commit, then only the tag is |
19 | shown. Otherwise, it suffixes the tag name with the number of | |
20 | additional commits on top of the tagged object and the | |
21 | abbreviated object name of the most recent commit. | |
c06818e2 | 22 | |
7e425c4f SP |
23 | By default (without --all or --tags) `git describe` only shows |
24 | annotated tags. For more information about creating annotated tags | |
25 | see the -a and -s options to linkgit:git-tag[1]. | |
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26 | |
27 | OPTIONS | |
28 | ------- | |
f448e24e AMS |
29 | <committish>...:: |
30 | Committish object names to describe. | |
c06818e2 | 31 | |
9f67d2e8 JP |
32 | --dirty[=<mark>]:: |
33 | Describe the working tree. | |
34 | It means describe HEAD and appends <mark> (`-dirty` by | |
35 | default) if the working tree is dirty. | |
36 | ||
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37 | --all:: |
38 | Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any ref | |
7e425c4f | 39 | found in `.git/refs/`. This option enables matching |
29b9a66f | 40 | any known branch, remote-tracking branch, or lightweight tag. |
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41 | |
42 | --tags:: | |
43 | Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any tag | |
7e425c4f SP |
44 | found in `.git/refs/tags`. This option enables matching |
45 | a lightweight (non-annotated) tag. | |
c06818e2 | 46 | |
23615708 SP |
47 | --contains:: |
48 | Instead of finding the tag that predates the commit, find | |
49 | the tag that comes after the commit, and thus contains it. | |
50 | Automatically implies --tags. | |
51 | ||
c06818e2 | 52 | --abbrev=<n>:: |
b938f62a | 53 | Instead of using the default 7 hexadecimal digits as the |
492cf3f7 GA |
54 | abbreviated object name, use <n> digits, or as many digits |
55 | as needed to form a unique object name. An <n> of 0 | |
56 | will suppress long format, only showing the closest tag. | |
c06818e2 | 57 | |
8713ab30 SP |
58 | --candidates=<n>:: |
59 | Instead of considering only the 10 most recent tags as | |
60 | candidates to describe the input committish consider | |
61 | up to <n> candidates. Increasing <n> above 10 will take | |
62 | slightly longer but may produce a more accurate result. | |
2c33f757 SP |
63 | An <n> of 0 will cause only exact matches to be output. |
64 | ||
65 | --exact-match:: | |
66 | Only output exact matches (a tag directly references the | |
67 | supplied commit). This is a synonym for --candidates=0. | |
8713ab30 SP |
68 | |
69 | --debug:: | |
70 | Verbosely display information about the searching strategy | |
71 | being employed to standard error. The tag name will still | |
72 | be printed to standard out. | |
c06818e2 | 73 | |
518120e3 SB |
74 | --long:: |
75 | Always output the long format (the tag, the number of commits | |
76 | and the abbreviated commit name) even when it matches a tag. | |
77 | This is useful when you want to see parts of the commit object name | |
78 | in "describe" output, even when the commit in question happens to be | |
79 | a tagged version. Instead of just emitting the tag name, it will | |
492cf3f7 GA |
80 | describe such a commit as v1.2-0-gdeadbee (0th commit since tag v1.2 |
81 | that points at object deadbee....). | |
518120e3 | 82 | |
30ffa603 PH |
83 | --match <pattern>:: |
84 | Only consider tags matching the given pattern (can be used to avoid | |
85 | leaking private tags made from the repository). | |
86 | ||
a3800f66 SB |
87 | --always:: |
88 | Show uniquely abbreviated commit object as fallback. | |
89 | ||
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90 | EXAMPLES |
91 | -------- | |
92 | ||
93 | With something like git.git current tree, I get: | |
94 | ||
b1889c36 | 95 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe parent |
1891261e | 96 | v1.0.4-14-g2414721 |
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97 | |
98 | i.e. the current head of my "parent" branch is based on v1.0.4, | |
323b9db8 | 99 | but since it has a few commits on top of that, |
1891261e JH |
100 | describe has added the number of additional commits ("14") and |
101 | an abbreviated object name for the commit itself ("2414721") | |
102 | at the end. | |
103 | ||
104 | The number of additional commits is the number | |
105 | of commits which would be displayed by "git log v1.0.4..parent". | |
106 | The hash suffix is "-g" + 7-char abbreviation for the tip commit | |
107 | of parent (which was `2414721b194453f058079d897d13c4e377f92dc6`). | |
846b8f68 MH |
108 | The "g" prefix stands for "git" and is used to allow describing the version of |
109 | a software depending on the SCM the software is managed with. This is useful | |
110 | in an environment where people may use different SCMs. | |
c06818e2 | 111 | |
0b444cdb | 112 | Doing a 'git describe' on a tag-name will just show the tag name: |
c06818e2 | 113 | |
b1889c36 | 114 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe v1.0.4 |
c06818e2 JH |
115 | v1.0.4 |
116 | ||
117 | With --all, the command can use branch heads as references, so | |
118 | the output shows the reference path as well: | |
119 | ||
120 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 v1.0.5^2 | |
1891261e | 121 | tags/v1.0.0-21-g975b |
c06818e2 | 122 | |
492cf3f7 | 123 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 HEAD^ |
1891261e JH |
124 | heads/lt/describe-7-g975b |
125 | ||
126 | With --abbrev set to 0, the command can be used to find the | |
127 | closest tagname without any suffix: | |
128 | ||
129 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --abbrev=0 v1.0.5^2 | |
130 | tags/v1.0.0 | |
c06818e2 | 131 | |
492cf3f7 | 132 | Note that the suffix you get if you type these commands today may be |
0a565de4 | 133 | longer than what Linus saw above when he ran these commands, as your |
492cf3f7 GA |
134 | git repository may have new commits whose object names begin with |
135 | 975b that did not exist back then, and "-g975b" suffix alone may not | |
136 | be sufficient to disambiguate these commits. | |
137 | ||
138 | ||
8713ab30 SP |
139 | SEARCH STRATEGY |
140 | --------------- | |
141 | ||
0b444cdb | 142 | For each committish supplied, 'git describe' will first look for |
8713ab30 SP |
143 | a tag which tags exactly that commit. Annotated tags will always |
144 | be preferred over lightweight tags, and tags with newer dates will | |
145 | always be preferred over tags with older dates. If an exact match | |
146 | is found, its name will be output and searching will stop. | |
147 | ||
0b444cdb | 148 | If an exact match was not found, 'git describe' will walk back |
8713ab30 SP |
149 | through the commit history to locate an ancestor commit which |
150 | has been tagged. The ancestor's tag will be output along with an | |
151 | abbreviation of the input committish's SHA1. | |
152 | ||
153 | If multiple tags were found during the walk then the tag which | |
154 | has the fewest commits different from the input committish will be | |
155 | selected and output. Here fewest commits different is defined as | |
483bc4f0 | 156 | the number of commits which would be shown by `git log tag..input` |
8713ab30 SP |
157 | will be the smallest number of commits possible. |
158 | ||
c06818e2 JH |
159 | GIT |
160 | --- | |
9e1f0a85 | 161 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |