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1 | git-describe(1) |
2 | =============== | |
3 | ||
4 | NAME | |
5 | ---- | |
7bd7f280 | 6 | git-describe - Show the most recent tag that is reachable from a commit |
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7 | |
8 | ||
9 | SYNOPSIS | |
10 | -------- | |
23615708 | 11 | 'git-describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] <committish>... |
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12 | |
13 | DESCRIPTION | |
14 | ----------- | |
15 | The command finds the most recent tag that is reachable from a | |
16 | commit, and if the commit itself is pointed at by the tag, shows | |
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17 | the tag. Otherwise, it suffixes the tag name with the number of |
18 | additional commits and the abbreviated object name of the commit. | |
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19 | |
20 | ||
21 | OPTIONS | |
22 | ------- | |
23 | <committish>:: | |
37425065 | 24 | The object name of the committish. |
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25 | |
26 | --all:: | |
27 | Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any ref | |
28 | found in `.git/refs/`. | |
29 | ||
30 | --tags:: | |
31 | Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any tag | |
32 | found in `.git/refs/tags`. | |
33 | ||
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34 | --contains:: |
35 | Instead of finding the tag that predates the commit, find | |
36 | the tag that comes after the commit, and thus contains it. | |
37 | Automatically implies --tags. | |
38 | ||
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39 | --abbrev=<n>:: |
40 | Instead of using the default 8 hexadecimal digits as the | |
41 | abbreviated object name, use <n> digits. | |
42 | ||
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43 | --candidates=<n>:: |
44 | Instead of considering only the 10 most recent tags as | |
45 | candidates to describe the input committish consider | |
46 | up to <n> candidates. Increasing <n> above 10 will take | |
47 | slightly longer but may produce a more accurate result. | |
48 | ||
49 | --debug:: | |
50 | Verbosely display information about the searching strategy | |
51 | being employed to standard error. The tag name will still | |
52 | be printed to standard out. | |
c06818e2 | 53 | |
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54 | --long:: |
55 | Always output the long format (the tag, the number of commits | |
56 | and the abbreviated commit name) even when it matches a tag. | |
57 | This is useful when you want to see parts of the commit object name | |
58 | in "describe" output, even when the commit in question happens to be | |
59 | a tagged version. Instead of just emitting the tag name, it will | |
60 | describe such a commit as v1.2-0-deadbeef (0th commit since tag v1.2 | |
61 | that points at object deadbeef....). | |
62 | ||
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63 | --match <pattern>:: |
64 | Only consider tags matching the given pattern (can be used to avoid | |
65 | leaking private tags made from the repository). | |
66 | ||
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67 | EXAMPLES |
68 | -------- | |
69 | ||
70 | With something like git.git current tree, I get: | |
71 | ||
72 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git-describe parent | |
1891261e | 73 | v1.0.4-14-g2414721 |
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74 | |
75 | i.e. the current head of my "parent" branch is based on v1.0.4, | |
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76 | but since it has a handful commits on top of that, |
77 | describe has added the number of additional commits ("14") and | |
78 | an abbreviated object name for the commit itself ("2414721") | |
79 | at the end. | |
80 | ||
81 | The number of additional commits is the number | |
82 | of commits which would be displayed by "git log v1.0.4..parent". | |
83 | The hash suffix is "-g" + 7-char abbreviation for the tip commit | |
84 | of parent (which was `2414721b194453f058079d897d13c4e377f92dc6`). | |
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85 | |
86 | Doing a "git-describe" on a tag-name will just show the tag name: | |
87 | ||
88 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git-describe v1.0.4 | |
89 | v1.0.4 | |
90 | ||
91 | With --all, the command can use branch heads as references, so | |
92 | the output shows the reference path as well: | |
93 | ||
94 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 v1.0.5^2 | |
1891261e | 95 | tags/v1.0.0-21-g975b |
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96 | |
97 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all HEAD^ | |
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98 | heads/lt/describe-7-g975b |
99 | ||
100 | With --abbrev set to 0, the command can be used to find the | |
101 | closest tagname without any suffix: | |
102 | ||
103 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --abbrev=0 v1.0.5^2 | |
104 | tags/v1.0.0 | |
c06818e2 | 105 | |
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106 | SEARCH STRATEGY |
107 | --------------- | |
108 | ||
109 | For each committish supplied "git describe" will first look for | |
110 | a tag which tags exactly that commit. Annotated tags will always | |
111 | be preferred over lightweight tags, and tags with newer dates will | |
112 | always be preferred over tags with older dates. If an exact match | |
113 | is found, its name will be output and searching will stop. | |
114 | ||
115 | If an exact match was not found "git describe" will walk back | |
116 | through the commit history to locate an ancestor commit which | |
117 | has been tagged. The ancestor's tag will be output along with an | |
118 | abbreviation of the input committish's SHA1. | |
119 | ||
120 | If multiple tags were found during the walk then the tag which | |
121 | has the fewest commits different from the input committish will be | |
122 | selected and output. Here fewest commits different is defined as | |
123 | the number of commits which would be shown by "git log tag..input" | |
124 | will be the smallest number of commits possible. | |
125 | ||
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126 | |
127 | Author | |
128 | ------ | |
129 | Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>, but somewhat | |
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130 | butchered by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>. Later significantly |
131 | updated by Shawn Pearce <spearce@spearce.org>. | |
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132 | |
133 | Documentation | |
134 | -------------- | |
135 | Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. | |
136 | ||
137 | GIT | |
138 | --- | |
5162e697 | 139 | Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite |