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1 | git-describe(1) |
2 | =============== | |
3 | ||
4 | NAME | |
5 | ---- | |
25f600e1 | 6 | git-describe - Describe a commit using the most recent tag reachable from it |
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7 | |
8 | ||
9 | SYNOPSIS | |
10 | -------- | |
c5b3e0f5 | 11 | [verse] |
2bd07065 | 12 | 'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] [<commit-ish>...] |
9f67d2e8 | 13 | 'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] --dirty[=<mark>] |
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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 | ------- | |
a8a5406a | 29 | <commit-ish>...:: |
2bd07065 | 30 | Commit-ish object names to describe. Defaults to HEAD if omitted. |
c06818e2 | 31 | |
9f67d2e8 | 32 | --dirty[=<mark>]:: |
b0176ce6 SB |
33 | --broken[=<mark>]:: |
34 | Describe the state of the working tree. When the working | |
35 | tree matches HEAD, the output is the same as "git describe | |
36 | HEAD". If the working tree has local modification "-dirty" | |
37 | is appended to it. If a repository is corrupt and Git | |
38 | cannot determine if there is local modification, Git will | |
39 | error out, unless `--broken' is given, which appends | |
40 | the suffix "-broken" instead. | |
9f67d2e8 | 41 | |
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42 | --all:: |
43 | Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any ref | |
831e61f8 | 44 | found in `refs/` namespace. This option enables matching |
29b9a66f | 45 | any known branch, remote-tracking branch, or lightweight tag. |
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46 | |
47 | --tags:: | |
48 | Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any tag | |
831e61f8 | 49 | found in `refs/tags` namespace. This option enables matching |
7e425c4f | 50 | a lightweight (non-annotated) tag. |
c06818e2 | 51 | |
23615708 SP |
52 | --contains:: |
53 | Instead of finding the tag that predates the commit, find | |
54 | the tag that comes after the commit, and thus contains it. | |
55 | Automatically implies --tags. | |
56 | ||
c06818e2 | 57 | --abbrev=<n>:: |
b938f62a | 58 | Instead of using the default 7 hexadecimal digits as the |
492cf3f7 GA |
59 | abbreviated object name, use <n> digits, or as many digits |
60 | as needed to form a unique object name. An <n> of 0 | |
61 | will suppress long format, only showing the closest tag. | |
c06818e2 | 62 | |
8713ab30 SP |
63 | --candidates=<n>:: |
64 | Instead of considering only the 10 most recent tags as | |
a8a5406a | 65 | candidates to describe the input commit-ish consider |
8713ab30 SP |
66 | up to <n> candidates. Increasing <n> above 10 will take |
67 | slightly longer but may produce a more accurate result. | |
2c33f757 SP |
68 | An <n> of 0 will cause only exact matches to be output. |
69 | ||
70 | --exact-match:: | |
71 | Only output exact matches (a tag directly references the | |
72 | supplied commit). This is a synonym for --candidates=0. | |
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73 | |
74 | --debug:: | |
75 | Verbosely display information about the searching strategy | |
76 | being employed to standard error. The tag name will still | |
77 | be printed to standard out. | |
c06818e2 | 78 | |
518120e3 SB |
79 | --long:: |
80 | Always output the long format (the tag, the number of commits | |
81 | and the abbreviated commit name) even when it matches a tag. | |
82 | This is useful when you want to see parts of the commit object name | |
83 | in "describe" output, even when the commit in question happens to be | |
84 | a tagged version. Instead of just emitting the tag name, it will | |
492cf3f7 GA |
85 | describe such a commit as v1.2-0-gdeadbee (0th commit since tag v1.2 |
86 | that points at object deadbee....). | |
518120e3 | 87 | |
30ffa603 | 88 | --match <pattern>:: |
52291497 GP |
89 | Only consider tags matching the given `glob(7)` pattern, |
90 | excluding the "refs/tags/" prefix. This can be used to avoid | |
43f8080e JK |
91 | leaking private tags from the repository. If given multiple times, a |
92 | list of patterns will be accumulated, and tags matching any of the | |
93 | patterns will be considered. Use `--no-match` to clear and reset the | |
94 | list of patterns. | |
30ffa603 | 95 | |
77d21f29 JK |
96 | --exclude <pattern>:: |
97 | Do not consider tags matching the given `glob(7)` pattern, excluding | |
98 | the "refs/tags/" prefix. This can be used to narrow the tag space and | |
99 | find only tags matching some meaningful criteria. If given multiple | |
100 | times, a list of patterns will be accumulated and tags matching any | |
101 | of the patterns will be excluded. When combined with --match a tag will | |
102 | be considered when it matches at least one --match pattern and does not | |
103 | match any of the --exclude patterns. Use `--no-exclude` to clear and | |
104 | reset the list of patterns. | |
105 | ||
a3800f66 SB |
106 | --always:: |
107 | Show uniquely abbreviated commit object as fallback. | |
108 | ||
e00dd1e9 MC |
109 | --first-parent:: |
110 | Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge commit. | |
111 | This is useful when you wish to not match tags on branches merged | |
112 | in the history of the target commit. | |
113 | ||
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114 | EXAMPLES |
115 | -------- | |
116 | ||
117 | With something like git.git current tree, I get: | |
118 | ||
b1889c36 | 119 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe parent |
1891261e | 120 | v1.0.4-14-g2414721 |
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121 | |
122 | i.e. the current head of my "parent" branch is based on v1.0.4, | |
323b9db8 | 123 | but since it has a few commits on top of that, |
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124 | describe has added the number of additional commits ("14") and |
125 | an abbreviated object name for the commit itself ("2414721") | |
126 | at the end. | |
127 | ||
128 | The number of additional commits is the number | |
129 | of commits which would be displayed by "git log v1.0.4..parent". | |
130 | The hash suffix is "-g" + 7-char abbreviation for the tip commit | |
131 | of parent (which was `2414721b194453f058079d897d13c4e377f92dc6`). | |
846b8f68 MH |
132 | The "g" prefix stands for "git" and is used to allow describing the version of |
133 | a software depending on the SCM the software is managed with. This is useful | |
134 | in an environment where people may use different SCMs. | |
c06818e2 | 135 | |
0b444cdb | 136 | Doing a 'git describe' on a tag-name will just show the tag name: |
c06818e2 | 137 | |
b1889c36 | 138 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe v1.0.4 |
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139 | v1.0.4 |
140 | ||
141 | With --all, the command can use branch heads as references, so | |
142 | the output shows the reference path as well: | |
143 | ||
144 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 v1.0.5^2 | |
1891261e | 145 | tags/v1.0.0-21-g975b |
c06818e2 | 146 | |
492cf3f7 | 147 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 HEAD^ |
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148 | heads/lt/describe-7-g975b |
149 | ||
150 | With --abbrev set to 0, the command can be used to find the | |
151 | closest tagname without any suffix: | |
152 | ||
153 | [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --abbrev=0 v1.0.5^2 | |
154 | tags/v1.0.0 | |
c06818e2 | 155 | |
492cf3f7 | 156 | Note that the suffix you get if you type these commands today may be |
0a565de4 | 157 | longer than what Linus saw above when he ran these commands, as your |
2de9b711 | 158 | Git repository may have new commits whose object names begin with |
492cf3f7 GA |
159 | 975b that did not exist back then, and "-g975b" suffix alone may not |
160 | be sufficient to disambiguate these commits. | |
161 | ||
162 | ||
8713ab30 SP |
163 | SEARCH STRATEGY |
164 | --------------- | |
165 | ||
a8a5406a | 166 | For each commit-ish supplied, 'git describe' will first look for |
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167 | a tag which tags exactly that commit. Annotated tags will always |
168 | be preferred over lightweight tags, and tags with newer dates will | |
169 | always be preferred over tags with older dates. If an exact match | |
170 | is found, its name will be output and searching will stop. | |
171 | ||
0b444cdb | 172 | If an exact match was not found, 'git describe' will walk back |
8713ab30 SP |
173 | through the commit history to locate an ancestor commit which |
174 | has been tagged. The ancestor's tag will be output along with an | |
bcf9626a | 175 | abbreviation of the input commit-ish's SHA-1. If `--first-parent` was |
e00dd1e9 MC |
176 | specified then the walk will only consider the first parent of each |
177 | commit. | |
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178 | |
179 | If multiple tags were found during the walk then the tag which | |
a8a5406a | 180 | has the fewest commits different from the input commit-ish will be |
8713ab30 | 181 | selected and output. Here fewest commits different is defined as |
483bc4f0 | 182 | the number of commits which would be shown by `git log tag..input` |
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183 | will be the smallest number of commits possible. |
184 | ||
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185 | GIT |
186 | --- | |
9e1f0a85 | 187 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |