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1 | gitcli(7) | |
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 | ||
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, | |
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 | |
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 | |
33 | `git diff HEAD --` to ask for the latter. | |
34 | ||
35 | * Without disambiguating `--`, Git makes a reasonable guess, but errors | |
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 | |
38 | you have to say either `git diff HEAD --` or `git diff -- HEAD` to | |
39 | disambiguate. | |
40 | ||
41 | * Because `--` disambiguates revisions and paths in some commands, it | |
42 | cannot be used for those commands to separate options and revisions. | |
43 | You can use `--end-of-options` for this (it also works for commands | |
44 | that do not distinguish between revisions in paths, in which case it | |
45 | is simply an alias for `--`). | |
46 | + | |
47 | When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is | |
48 | a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing | |
49 | disambiguating `--` at appropriate places. | |
50 | ||
51 | * Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect | |
52 | them from getting globbed by the shell. These two mean different | |
53 | things: | |
54 | + | |
55 | -------------------------------- | |
56 | $ git restore *.c | |
57 | $ git restore \*.c | |
58 | -------------------------------- | |
59 | + | |
60 | The former lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking | |
61 | the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version | |
62 | in the index. The latter passes the `*.c` to Git, and you are asking | |
63 | the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to your | |
64 | working tree. After running `git add hello.c; rm hello.c`, you will _not_ | |
65 | see `hello.c` in your working tree with the former, but with the latter | |
66 | you will. | |
67 | ||
68 | * Just as the filesystem '.' (period) refers to the current directory, | |
69 | using a '.' as a repository name in Git (a dot-repository) is a relative | |
70 | path and means your current repository. | |
71 | ||
72 | Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are | |
73 | scripting Git: | |
74 | ||
75 | * it's preferred to use the non-dashed form of Git commands, which means that | |
76 | you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`. | |
77 | ||
78 | * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b` | |
79 | to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work). | |
80 | ||
81 | * when a command-line option takes an argument, use the 'stuck' form. In | |
82 | other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short | |
83 | options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg` | |
84 | for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be | |
85 | written in the 'stuck' form. | |
86 | ||
87 | * when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is | |
88 | not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write | |
89 | `git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work | |
90 | if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree. | |
91 | ||
92 | * many commands allow a long option `--option` to be abbreviated | |
93 | only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option | |
94 | whose name begins with `opt`, you may be able to spell `--opt` to | |
95 | invoke the `--option` flag), but you should fully spell them out | |
96 | when writing your scripts; later versions of Git may introduce a | |
97 | new option whose name shares the same prefix, e.g. `--optimize`, | |
98 | to make a short prefix that used to be unique no longer unique. | |
99 | ||
100 | ||
101 | ENHANCED OPTION PARSER | |
102 | ---------------------- | |
103 | From the Git 1.5.4 series and further, many Git commands (not all of them at the | |
104 | time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser. | |
105 | ||
106 | Here is a list of the facilities provided by this option parser. | |
107 | ||
108 | ||
109 | Magic Options | |
110 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
111 | Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a | |
112 | couple of magic command-line options: | |
113 | ||
114 | -h:: | |
115 | gives a pretty printed usage of the command. | |
116 | + | |
117 | --------------------------------------------- | |
118 | $ git describe -h | |
119 | usage: git describe [<options>] <commit-ish>* | |
120 | or: git describe [<options>] --dirty | |
121 | ||
122 | --contains find the tag that comes after the commit | |
123 | --debug debug search strategy on stderr | |
124 | --all use any ref | |
125 | --tags use any tag, even unannotated | |
126 | --long always use long format | |
127 | --abbrev[=<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s | |
128 | --------------------------------------------- | |
129 | ||
130 | --help-all:: | |
131 | Some Git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that | |
132 | are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This | |
133 | option gives the full list of options. | |
134 | ||
135 | ||
136 | Negating options | |
137 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
138 | Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `--no-`. For | |
139 | example, `git branch` has the option `--track` which is 'on' by default. You | |
140 | can use `--no-track` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `--color` | |
141 | and `--no-color`. | |
142 | ||
143 | ||
144 | Aggregating short options | |
145 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
146 | Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short | |
147 | options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or | |
148 | `git clean -fdx`. | |
149 | ||
150 | ||
151 | Abbreviating long options | |
152 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
153 | Commands that support the enhanced option parser accepts unique | |
154 | prefix of a long option as if it is fully spelled out, but use this | |
155 | with a caution. For example, `git commit --amen` behaves as if you | |
156 | typed `git commit --amend`, but that is true only until a later version | |
157 | of Git introduces another option that shares the same prefix, | |
158 | e.g. `git commit --amenity` option. | |
159 | ||
160 | ||
161 | Separating argument from the option | |
162 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
163 | You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate | |
164 | word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work: | |
165 | ||
166 | ---------------------------- | |
167 | $ git foo --long-opt=Arg | |
168 | $ git foo --long-opt Arg | |
169 | $ git foo -oArg | |
170 | $ git foo -o Arg | |
171 | ---------------------------- | |
172 | ||
173 | However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the | |
174 | 'stuck' form must be used: | |
175 | ---------------------------- | |
176 | $ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct | |
177 | $ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct | |
178 | $ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT | |
179 | ---------------------------- | |
180 | ||
181 | ||
182 | NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS | |
183 | ------------------------------------ | |
184 | ||
185 | Many commands that can work on files in the working tree | |
186 | and/or in the index can take `--cached` and/or `--index` | |
187 | options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because | |
188 | the index was originally called cache, these two are | |
189 | synonyms. They are *not* -- these two options mean very | |
190 | different things. | |
191 | ||
192 | * The `--cached` option is used to ask a command that | |
193 | usually works on files in the working tree to *only* work | |
194 | with the index. For example, `git grep`, when used | |
195 | without a commit to specify from which commit to look for | |
196 | strings in, usually works on files in the working tree, | |
197 | but with the `--cached` option, it looks for strings in | |
198 | the index. | |
199 | ||
200 | * The `--index` option is used to ask a command that | |
201 | usually works on files in the working tree to *also* | |
202 | affect the index. For example, `git stash apply` usually | |
203 | merges changes recorded in a stash entry to the working tree, | |
204 | but with the `--index` option, it also merges changes to | |
205 | the index as well. | |
206 | ||
207 | `git apply` command can be used with `--cached` and | |
208 | `--index` (but not at the same time). Usually the command | |
209 | only affects the files in the working tree, but with | |
210 | `--index`, it patches both the files and their index | |
211 | entries, and with `--cached`, it modifies only the index | |
212 | entries. | |
213 | ||
214 | See also http://marc.info/?l=git&m=116563135620359 and | |
215 | http://marc.info/?l=git&m=119150393620273 for further | |
216 | information. | |
217 | ||
218 | Some other commands that also work on files in the working tree and/or | |
219 | in the index can take `--staged` and/or `--worktree`. | |
220 | ||
221 | * `--staged` is exactly like `--cached`, which is used to ask a | |
222 | command to only work on the index, not the working tree. | |
223 | ||
224 | * `--worktree` is the opposite, to ask a command to work on the | |
225 | working tree only, not the index. | |
226 | ||
227 | * The two options can be specified together to ask a command to work | |
228 | on both the index and the working tree. | |
229 | ||
230 | GIT | |
231 | --- | |
232 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |