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a5af0e2c | 1 | gitcli(7) |
2f7ee089 PH |
2 | ========= |
3 | ||
4 | NAME | |
5 | ---- | |
6 | gitcli - git command line interface and conventions | |
7 | ||
8 | SYNOPSIS | |
9 | -------- | |
10 | gitcli | |
11 | ||
12 | ||
13 | DESCRIPTION | |
14 | ----------- | |
15 | ||
d0658ec6 JH |
16 | This manual describes the convention used throughout git CLI. |
17 | ||
18 | Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes | |
19 | "tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their | |
20 | arguments. Here are the rules: | |
21 | ||
22 | * Revisions come first and then paths. | |
23 | E.g. in `git diff v1.0 v2.0 arch/x86 include/asm-x86`, | |
24 | `v1.0` and `v2.0` are revisions and `arch/x86` and `include/asm-x86` | |
25 | are paths. | |
26 | ||
27 | * When an argument can be misunderstood as either a revision or a path, | |
6cf378f0 JK |
28 | they can be disambiguated by placing `--` between them. |
29 | E.g. `git diff -- HEAD` is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work | |
d0658ec6 JH |
30 | tree. Please show changes between the version I staged in the index |
31 | and what I have in the work tree for that file". not "show difference | |
32 | between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say | |
6cf378f0 | 33 | `git diff HEAD --` to ask for the latter. |
d0658ec6 | 34 | |
6cf378f0 | 35 | * Without disambiguating `--`, git makes a reasonable guess, but errors |
d0658ec6 JH |
36 | out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a |
37 | file called HEAD in your work tree, `git diff HEAD` is ambiguous, and | |
6cf378f0 | 38 | you have to say either `git diff HEAD --` or `git diff -- HEAD` to |
d0658ec6 | 39 | disambiguate. |
008566e0 | 40 | + |
d0658ec6 JH |
41 | When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is |
42 | a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing | |
6cf378f0 | 43 | disambiguating `--` at appropriate places. |
d0658ec6 | 44 | |
8300016e JH |
45 | * Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect |
46 | them from getting globbed by the shell. These two mean different | |
47 | things: | |
48 | + | |
49 | -------------------------------- | |
50 | $ git checkout -- *.c | |
51 | $ git checkout -- \*.c | |
52 | -------------------------------- | |
53 | + | |
54 | The former lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking | |
55 | the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version | |
56 | in the index. The latter passes the `*.c` to Git, and you are asking | |
57 | the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to your | |
58 | working tree. After running `git add hello.c; rm hello.c`, you will _not_ | |
59 | see `hello.c` in your working tree with the former, but with the latter | |
60 | you will. | |
61 | ||
d0658ec6 JH |
62 | Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are |
63 | scripting git: | |
2f7ee089 PH |
64 | |
65 | * it's preferred to use the non dashed form of git commands, which means that | |
dcb11263 | 66 | you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`. |
2f7ee089 | 67 | |
dcb11263 CJ |
68 | * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b` |
69 | to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work). | |
2f7ee089 PH |
70 | |
71 | * when a command line option takes an argument, use the 'sticked' form. In | |
dcb11263 CJ |
72 | other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short |
73 | options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg` | |
2f7ee089 PH |
74 | for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be |
75 | written in the 'sticked' form. | |
76 | ||
77 | * when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is | |
78 | not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write | |
dcb11263 | 79 | `git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work |
2f7ee089 PH |
80 | if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree. |
81 | ||
9c81990b JH |
82 | * many commands allow a long option "--option" to be abbreviated |
83 | only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option | |
84 | whose name begins with "opt", you may be able to spell "--opt" to | |
85 | invoke the "--option" flag), but you should fully spell them out | |
86 | when writing your scripts; later versions of Git may introduce a | |
87 | new option whose name shares the same prefix, e.g. "--optimize", | |
88 | to make a short prefix that used to be unique no longer unique. | |
89 | ||
2f7ee089 | 90 | |
d0658ec6 JH |
91 | ENHANCED OPTION PARSER |
92 | ---------------------- | |
2f7ee089 PH |
93 | From the git 1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not all of them at the |
94 | time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser. | |
95 | ||
30462a74 | 96 | Here is a list of the facilities provided by this option parser. |
2f7ee089 PH |
97 | |
98 | ||
99 | Magic Options | |
100 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
101 | Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a | |
102 | couple of magic command line options: | |
103 | ||
104 | -h:: | |
105 | gives a pretty printed usage of the command. | |
106 | + | |
107 | --------------------------------------------- | |
108 | $ git describe -h | |
3ddcb198 | 109 | usage: git describe [options] <committish>* |
2f7ee089 PH |
110 | |
111 | --contains find the tag that comes after the commit | |
112 | --debug debug search strategy on stderr | |
113 | --all use any ref in .git/refs | |
114 | --tags use any tag in .git/refs/tags | |
115 | --abbrev [<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s | |
116 | --candidates <n> consider <n> most recent tags (default: 10) | |
117 | --------------------------------------------- | |
118 | ||
119 | --help-all:: | |
120 | Some git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that | |
121 | are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This | |
122 | option gives the full list of options. | |
123 | ||
124 | ||
125 | Negating options | |
126 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
dcb11263 CJ |
127 | Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `--no-`. For |
128 | example, `git branch` has the option `--track` which is 'on' by default. You | |
129 | can use `--no-track` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `--color` | |
130 | and `--no-color`. | |
2f7ee089 PH |
131 | |
132 | ||
133 | Aggregating short options | |
134 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
135 | Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short | |
dcb11263 CJ |
136 | options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or |
137 | `git clean -fdx`. | |
2f7ee089 PH |
138 | |
139 | ||
30462a74 JH |
140 | Abbreviating long options |
141 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
142 | Commands that support the enhanced option parser accepts unique | |
143 | prefix of a long option as if it is fully spelled out, but use this | |
144 | with a caution. For example, `git commit --amen` behaves as if you | |
145 | typed `git commit --amend`, but that is true only until a later version | |
146 | of Git introduces another option that shares the same prefix, | |
147 | e.g `git commit --amenity" option. | |
148 | ||
149 | ||
2f7ee089 PH |
150 | Separating argument from the option |
151 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
152 | You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate | |
153 | word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work: | |
154 | ||
155 | ---------------------------- | |
156 | $ git foo --long-opt=Arg | |
157 | $ git foo --long-opt Arg | |
158 | $ git foo -oArg | |
159 | $ git foo -o Arg | |
160 | ---------------------------- | |
161 | ||
f1cdcc70 | 162 | However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the |
2f7ee089 PH |
163 | 'sticked' form must be used: |
164 | ---------------------------- | |
165 | $ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct | |
166 | $ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct | |
167 | $ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT | |
168 | ---------------------------- | |
169 | ||
170 | ||
aa0c1f20 NS |
171 | NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS |
172 | ------------------------------------ | |
173 | ||
174 | Many commands that can work on files in the working tree | |
175 | and/or in the index can take `--cached` and/or `--index` | |
176 | options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because | |
177 | the index was originally called cache, these two are | |
178 | synonyms. They are *not* -- these two options mean very | |
179 | different things. | |
180 | ||
181 | * The `--cached` option is used to ask a command that | |
182 | usually works on files in the working tree to *only* work | |
183 | with the index. For example, `git grep`, when used | |
184 | without a commit to specify from which commit to look for | |
185 | strings in, usually works on files in the working tree, | |
186 | but with the `--cached` option, it looks for strings in | |
187 | the index. | |
188 | ||
189 | * The `--index` option is used to ask a command that | |
190 | usually works on files in the working tree to *also* | |
191 | affect the index. For example, `git stash apply` usually | |
192 | merges changes recorded in a stash to the working tree, | |
193 | but with the `--index` option, it also merges changes to | |
194 | the index as well. | |
195 | ||
196 | `git apply` command can be used with `--cached` and | |
197 | `--index` (but not at the same time). Usually the command | |
198 | only affects the files in the working tree, but with | |
199 | `--index`, it patches both the files and their index | |
200 | entries, and with `--cached`, it modifies only the index | |
201 | entries. | |
202 | ||
203 | See also http://marc.info/?l=git&m=116563135620359 and | |
204 | http://marc.info/?l=git&m=119150393620273 for further | |
205 | information. | |
206 | ||
2f7ee089 PH |
207 | GIT |
208 | --- | |
9e1f0a85 | 209 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |