Documentation/line-range-format.txt

   1 '<start>' and '<end>' can take one of these forms:
   2
   3 - number
   4 +
   5 If '<start>' or '<end>' is a number, it specifies an
   6 absolute line number (lines count from 1).
   7 +
   8
   9 - `/regex/`
  10 +
  11 This form will use the first line matching the given
  12 POSIX regex. If '<start>' is a regex, it will search from the end of
  13 the previous `-L` range, if any, otherwise from the start of file.
  14 If '<start>' is `^/regex/`, it will search from the start of file.
  15 If '<end>' is a regex, it will search
  16 starting at the line given by '<start>'.
  17 +
  18
  19 - +offset or -offset
  20 +
  21 This is only valid for '<end>' and will specify a number
  22 of lines before or after the line given by '<start>'.
  23
  24 +
  25 If `:<funcname>` is given in place of '<start>' and '<end>', it is a
  26 regular expression that denotes the range from the first funcname line
  27 that matches '<funcname>', up to the next funcname line. `:<funcname>`
  28 searches from the end of the previous `-L` range, if any, otherwise
  29 from the start of file. `^:<funcname>` searches from the start of
  30 file. The function names are determined in the same way as `git diff`
  31 works out patch hunk headers (see 'Defining a custom hunk-header'
  32 in linkgit:gitattributes[5]).