Documentation/gitcli.txt

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