git-rev-parse.txt: clarify --git-dir

[thirdparty/git.git] / Documentation / git-rev-parse.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt b/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt
index be4c0533603443cd9b4df5bf732bbcdd31802a11..ff23cb0219d602803a83da273195fcc4ca71b5f5 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ OPTIONS
        properly quoted for consumption by shell.  Useful when
        you expect your parameter to contain whitespaces and
        newlines (e.g. when using pickaxe `-S` with
-       'git diff-\*'). In contrast to the `--sq-quote` option,
+       'git diff-{asterisk}'). In contrast to the `--sq-quote` option,
        the command input is still interpreted as usual.
 
 --not::
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ OPTIONS
        unfortunately named tag "master"), and show them as full
        refnames (e.g. "refs/heads/master").
 
---abbrev-ref[={strict|loose}]::
+--abbrev-ref[=(strict|loose)]::
        A non-ambiguous short name of the objects name.
        The option core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict
        abbreviation mode.
@@ -112,14 +112,15 @@ OPTIONS
 +
 If a `pattern` is given, only refs matching the given shell glob are
 shown.  If the pattern does not contain a globbing character (`?`,
-`\*`, or `[`), it is turned into a prefix match by appending `/\*`.
+`{asterisk}`, or `[`), it is turned into a prefix match by
+appending `/{asterisk}`.
 
 --glob=pattern::
        Show all refs matching the shell glob pattern `pattern`. If
        the pattern does not start with `refs/`, this is automatically
        prepended.  If the pattern does not contain a globbing
-       character (`?`, `\*`, or `[`), it is turned into a prefix
-       match by appending `/\*`.
+       character (`?`, `{asterisk}`, or `[`), it is turned into a prefix
+       match by appending `/{asterisk}`.
 
 --show-toplevel::
        Show the absolute path of the top-level directory.
@@ -135,7 +136,12 @@ shown.  If the pattern does not contain a globbing character (`?`,
        directory (typically a sequence of "../", or an empty string).
 
 --git-dir::
-       Show `$GIT_DIR` if defined else show the path to the .git directory.
+       Show `$GIT_DIR` if defined. Otherwise show the path to
+       the .git directory, relative to the current directory.
++
+If `$GIT_DIR` is not defined and the current directory
+is not detected to lie in a git repository or work tree
+print a message to stderr and exit with nonzero status.
 
 --is-inside-git-dir::
        When the current working directory is below the repository