Documentation/git-help.txt

   1 git-help(1)
   2 ===========
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-help - Display help information about Git
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10 [verse]
  11 'git help' [-a|--all] [--[no-]verbose] [--[no-]external-commands] [--[no-]aliases]
  12 'git help' [[-i|--info] [-m|--man] [-w|--web]] [<command>|<guide>]
  13 'git help' [-g|--guides]
  14 'git help' [-c|--config]
  15
  16 DESCRIPTION
  17 -----------
  18
  19 With no options and no '<command>' or '<guide>' given, the synopsis of the 'git'
  20 command and a list of the most commonly used Git commands are printed
  21 on the standard output.
  22
  23 If the option `--all` or `-a` is given, all available commands are
  24 printed on the standard output.
  25
  26 If the option `--guides` or `-g` is given, a list of the
  27 Git concept guides is also printed on the standard output.
  28
  29 If a command, or a guide, is given, a manual page for that command or
  30 guide is brought up. The 'man' program is used by default for this
  31 purpose, but this can be overridden by other options or configuration
  32 variables.
  33
  34 If an alias is given, git shows the definition of the alias on
  35 standard output. To get the manual page for the aliased command, use
  36 `git <command> --help`.
  37
  38 Note that `git --help ...` is identical to `git help ...` because the
  39 former is internally converted into the latter.
  40
  41 To display the linkgit:git[1] man page, use `git help git`.
  42
  43 This page can be displayed with 'git help help' or `git help --help`
  44
  45 OPTIONS
  46 -------
  47 -a::
  48 --all::
  49         Prints all the available commands on the standard output.
  50
  51 --no-external-commands::
  52         When used with `--all`, exclude the listing of external "git-*"
  53         commands found in the `$PATH`.
  54
  55 --no-aliases::
  56         When used with `--all`, exclude the listing of configured
  57         aliases.
  58
  59 --verbose::
  60         When used with `--all` print description for all recognized
  61         commands. This is the default.
  62
  63 -c::
  64 --config::
  65         List all available configuration variables. This is a short
  66         summary of the list in linkgit:git-config[1].
  67
  68 -g::
  69 --guides::
  70         Prints a list of the Git concept guides on the standard output.
  71
  72 -i::
  73 --info::
  74         Display manual page for the command in the 'info' format. The
  75         'info' program will be used for that purpose.
  76
  77 -m::
  78 --man::
  79         Display manual page for the command in the 'man' format. This
  80         option may be used to override a value set in the
  81         `help.format` configuration variable.
  82 +
  83 By default the 'man' program will be used to display the manual page,
  84 but the `man.viewer` configuration variable may be used to choose
  85 other display programs (see below).
  86
  87 -w::
  88 --web::
  89         Display manual page for the command in the 'web' (HTML)
  90         format. A web browser will be used for that purpose.
  91 +
  92 The web browser can be specified using the configuration variable
  93 `help.browser`, or `web.browser` if the former is not set. If none of
  94 these config variables is set, the 'git web{litdd}browse' helper script
  95 (called by 'git help') will pick a suitable default. See
  96 linkgit:git-web{litdd}browse[1] for more information about this.
  97
  98 CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
  99 -----------------------
 100
 101 help.format
 102 ~~~~~~~~~~~
 103
 104 If no command-line option is passed, the `help.format` configuration
 105 variable will be checked. The following values are supported for this
 106 variable; they make 'git help' behave as their corresponding command-
 107 line option:
 108
 109 * "man" corresponds to '-m|--man',
 110 * "info" corresponds to '-i|--info',
 111 * "web" or "html" correspond to '-w|--web'.
 112
 113 help.browser, web.browser and browser.<tool>.path
 114 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 115
 116 The `help.browser`, `web.browser` and `browser.<tool>.path` will also
 117 be checked if the 'web' format is chosen (either by command-line
 118 option or configuration variable). See '-w|--web' in the OPTIONS
 119 section above and linkgit:git-web{litdd}browse[1].
 120
 121 man.viewer
 122 ~~~~~~~~~~
 123
 124 The `man.viewer` configuration variable will be checked if the 'man'
 125 format is chosen. The following values are currently supported:
 126
 127 * "man": use the 'man' program as usual,
 128 * "woman": use 'emacsclient' to launch the "woman" mode in emacs
 129   (this only works starting with emacsclient versions 22),
 130 * "konqueror": use 'kfmclient' to open the man page in a new konqueror
 131   tab (see 'Note about konqueror' below).
 132
 133 Values for other tools can be used if there is a corresponding
 134 `man.<tool>.cmd` configuration entry (see below).
 135
 136 Multiple values may be given to the `man.viewer` configuration
 137 variable. Their corresponding programs will be tried in the order
 138 listed in the configuration file.
 139
 140 For example, this configuration:
 141
 142 ------------------------------------------------
 143         [man]
 144                 viewer = konqueror
 145                 viewer = woman
 146 ------------------------------------------------
 147
 148 will try to use konqueror first. But this may fail (for example, if
 149 DISPLAY is not set) and in that case emacs' woman mode will be tried.
 150
 151 If everything fails, or if no viewer is configured, the viewer specified
 152 in the `GIT_MAN_VIEWER` environment variable will be tried.  If that
 153 fails too, the 'man' program will be tried anyway.
 154
 155 man.<tool>.path
 156 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 157
 158 You can explicitly provide a full path to your preferred man viewer by
 159 setting the configuration variable `man.<tool>.path`. For example, you
 160 can configure the absolute path to konqueror by setting
 161 'man.konqueror.path'. Otherwise, 'git help' assumes the tool is
 162 available in PATH.
 163
 164 man.<tool>.cmd
 165 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 166
 167 When the man viewer, specified by the `man.viewer` configuration
 168 variables, is not among the supported ones, then the corresponding
 169 `man.<tool>.cmd` configuration variable will be looked up. If this
 170 variable exists then the specified tool will be treated as a custom
 171 command and a shell eval will be used to run the command with the man
 172 page passed as arguments.
 173
 174 Note about konqueror
 175 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 176
 177 When 'konqueror' is specified in the `man.viewer` configuration
 178 variable, we launch 'kfmclient' to try to open the man page on an
 179 already opened konqueror in a new tab if possible.
 180
 181 For consistency, we also try such a trick if 'man.konqueror.path' is
 182 set to something like `A_PATH_TO/konqueror`. That means we will try to
 183 launch `A_PATH_TO/kfmclient` instead.
 184
 185 If you really want to use 'konqueror', then you can use something like
 186 the following:
 187
 188 ------------------------------------------------
 189         [man]
 190                 viewer = konq
 191
 192         [man "konq"]
 193                 cmd = A_PATH_TO/konqueror
 194 ------------------------------------------------
 195
 196 Note about git config --global
 197 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 198
 199 Note that all these configuration variables should probably be set
 200 using the `--global` flag, for example like this:
 201
 202 ------------------------------------------------
 203 $ git config --global help.format web
 204 $ git config --global web.browser firefox
 205 ------------------------------------------------
 206
 207 as they are probably more user specific than repository specific.
 208 See linkgit:git-config[1] for more information about this.
 209
 210 GIT
 211 ---
 212 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite