]>
Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
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 | -------- | |
b1889c36 | 11 | 'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] <committish>... |
9f67d2e8 | 12 | 'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] --dirty[=<mark>] |
c06818e2 JH |
13 | |
14 | DESCRIPTION | |
15 | ----------- | |
16 | The command finds the most recent tag that is reachable from a | |
b7893cde IH |
17 | commit. If the tag points to the commit, then only the tag is |
18 | shown. Otherwise, it suffixes the tag name with the number of | |
19 | additional commits on top of the tagged object and the | |
20 | abbreviated object name of the most recent commit. | |
c06818e2 | 21 | |
7e425c4f SP |
22 | By default (without --all or --tags) `git describe` only shows |
23 | annotated tags. For more information about creating annotated tags | |
24 | see the -a and -s options to linkgit:git-tag[1]. | |
c06818e2 JH |
25 | |
26 | OPTIONS | |
27 | ------- | |
f448e24e AMS |
28 | <committish>...:: |
29 | Committish object names to describe. | |
c06818e2 | 30 | |
9f67d2e8 JP |
31 | --dirty[=<mark>]:: |
32 | Describe the working tree. | |
33 | It means describe HEAD and appends <mark> (`-dirty` by | |
34 | default) if the working tree is dirty. | |
35 | ||
c06818e2 JH |
36 | --all:: |
37 | Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any ref | |
7e425c4f SP |
38 | found in `.git/refs/`. This option enables matching |
39 | any known branch, remote branch, or lightweight tag. | |
c06818e2 JH |
40 | |
41 | --tags:: | |
42 | Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any tag | |
7e425c4f SP |
43 | found in `.git/refs/tags`. This option enables matching |
44 | a lightweight (non-annotated) tag. | |
c06818e2 | 45 | |
23615708 SP |
46 | --contains:: |
47 | Instead of finding the tag that predates the commit, find | |
48 | the tag that comes after the commit, and thus contains it. | |
49 | Automatically implies --tags. | |
50 | ||
c06818e2 | 51 | --abbrev=<n>:: |
b938f62a | 52 | Instead of using the default 7 hexadecimal digits as the |
492cf3f7 GA |
53 | abbreviated object name, use <n> digits, or as many digits |
54 | as needed to form a unique object name. An <n> of 0 | |
55 | will suppress long format, only showing the closest tag. | |
c06818e2 | 56 | |
8713ab30 SP |
57 | --candidates=<n>:: |
58 | Instead of considering only the 10 most recent tags as | |
59 | candidates to describe the input committish consider | |
60 | up to <n> candidates. Increasing <n> above 10 will take | |
61 | slightly longer but may produce a more accurate result. | |
2c33f757 SP |
62 | An <n> of 0 will cause only exact matches to be output. |
63 | ||
64 | --exact-match:: | |
65 | Only output exact matches (a tag directly references the | |
66 | supplied commit). This is a synonym for --candidates=0. | |
8713ab30 SP |
67 | |
68 | --debug:: | |
69 | Verbosely display information about the searching strategy | |
70 | being employed to standard error. The tag name will still | |
71 | be printed to standard out. | |
c06818e2 | 72 | |
518120e3 SB |
73 | --long:: |
74 | Always output the long format (the tag, the number of commits | |
75 | and the abbreviated commit name) even when it matches a tag. | |
76 | This is useful when you want to see parts of the commit object name | |
77 | in "describe" output, even when the commit in question happens to be | |
78 | a tagged version. Instead of just emitting the tag name, it will | |
492cf3f7 GA |
79 | describe such a commit as v1.2-0-gdeadbee (0th commit since tag v1.2 |
80 | that points at object deadbee....). | |
518120e3 | 81 | |
30ffa603 PH |
82 | --match <pattern>:: |
83 | Only consider tags matching the given pattern (can be used to avoid | |
84 | leaking private tags made from the repository). | |
85 | ||
a3800f66 SB |
86 | --always:: |
87 | Show uniquely abbreviated commit object as fallback. | |
88 | ||
c06818e2 JH |
89 | EXAMPLES |
90 | -------- | |
91 | ||
92 | With something like git.git current tree, I get: | |
93 | ||
b1889c36 | 94 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe parent |
1891261e | 95 | v1.0.4-14-g2414721 |
c06818e2 JH |
96 | |
97 | i.e. the current head of my "parent" branch is based on v1.0.4, | |
323b9db8 | 98 | but since it has a few commits on top of that, |
1891261e JH |
99 | describe has added the number of additional commits ("14") and |
100 | an abbreviated object name for the commit itself ("2414721") | |
101 | at the end. | |
102 | ||
103 | The number of additional commits is the number | |
104 | of commits which would be displayed by "git log v1.0.4..parent". | |
105 | The hash suffix is "-g" + 7-char abbreviation for the tip commit | |
106 | of parent (which was `2414721b194453f058079d897d13c4e377f92dc6`). | |
c06818e2 | 107 | |
ba020ef5 | 108 | Doing a 'git-describe' on a tag-name will just show the tag name: |
c06818e2 | 109 | |
b1889c36 | 110 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe v1.0.4 |
c06818e2 JH |
111 | v1.0.4 |
112 | ||
113 | With --all, the command can use branch heads as references, so | |
114 | the output shows the reference path as well: | |
115 | ||
116 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 v1.0.5^2 | |
1891261e | 117 | tags/v1.0.0-21-g975b |
c06818e2 | 118 | |
492cf3f7 | 119 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 HEAD^ |
1891261e JH |
120 | heads/lt/describe-7-g975b |
121 | ||
122 | With --abbrev set to 0, the command can be used to find the | |
123 | closest tagname without any suffix: | |
124 | ||
125 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --abbrev=0 v1.0.5^2 | |
126 | tags/v1.0.0 | |
c06818e2 | 127 | |
492cf3f7 | 128 | Note that the suffix you get if you type these commands today may be |
0a565de4 | 129 | longer than what Linus saw above when he ran these commands, as your |
492cf3f7 GA |
130 | git repository may have new commits whose object names begin with |
131 | 975b that did not exist back then, and "-g975b" suffix alone may not | |
132 | be sufficient to disambiguate these commits. | |
133 | ||
134 | ||
8713ab30 SP |
135 | SEARCH STRATEGY |
136 | --------------- | |
137 | ||
ba020ef5 | 138 | For each committish supplied, 'git-describe' will first look for |
8713ab30 SP |
139 | a tag which tags exactly that commit. Annotated tags will always |
140 | be preferred over lightweight tags, and tags with newer dates will | |
141 | always be preferred over tags with older dates. If an exact match | |
142 | is found, its name will be output and searching will stop. | |
143 | ||
ba020ef5 | 144 | If an exact match was not found, 'git-describe' will walk back |
8713ab30 SP |
145 | through the commit history to locate an ancestor commit which |
146 | has been tagged. The ancestor's tag will be output along with an | |
147 | abbreviation of the input committish's SHA1. | |
148 | ||
149 | If multiple tags were found during the walk then the tag which | |
150 | has the fewest commits different from the input committish will be | |
151 | selected and output. Here fewest commits different is defined as | |
483bc4f0 | 152 | the number of commits which would be shown by `git log tag..input` |
8713ab30 SP |
153 | will be the smallest number of commits possible. |
154 | ||
c06818e2 JH |
155 | |
156 | Author | |
157 | ------ | |
158 | Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>, but somewhat | |
59eb68aa | 159 | butchered by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>. Later significantly |
1891261e | 160 | updated by Shawn Pearce <spearce@spearce.org>. |
c06818e2 JH |
161 | |
162 | Documentation | |
163 | -------------- | |
164 | Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. | |
165 | ||
166 | GIT | |
167 | --- | |
9e1f0a85 | 168 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |