6 git-rev-parse - Pick out and massage parameters
11 'git-rev-parse' [ --option ] <args>...
16 Many git porcelainish commands take mixture of flags
17 (i.e. parameters that begin with a dash '-') and parameters
18 meant for underlying `git-rev-list` command they use internally
19 and flags and parameters for other commands they use as the
20 downstream of `git-rev-list`. This command is used to
21 distinguish between them.
27 Use `git-rev-parse` in option parsing mode (see PARSEOPT section below).
30 Only meaningful in `--parseopt` mode. Tells the option parser to echo
31 out the first `--` met instead of skipping it.
34 Do not output flags and parameters not meant for
35 `git-rev-list` command.
38 Do not output flags and parameters meant for
39 `git-rev-list` command.
42 Do not output non-flag parameters.
45 Do not output flag parameters.
48 If there is no parameter given by the user, use `<arg>`
52 The parameter given must be usable as a single, valid
53 object name. Otherwise barf and abort.
57 Only meaningful in `--verify` mode. Do not output an error
58 message if the first argument is not a valid object name;
59 instead exit with non-zero status silently.
62 Usually the output is made one line per flag and
63 parameter. This option makes output a single line,
64 properly quoted for consumption by shell. Useful when
65 you expect your parameter to contain whitespaces and
66 newlines (e.g. when using pickaxe `-S` with
70 When showing object names, prefix them with '{caret}' and
71 strip '{caret}' prefix from the object names that already have
75 Usually the object names are output in SHA1 form (with
76 possible '{caret}' prefix); this option makes them output in a
77 form as close to the original input as possible.
79 --symbolic-full-name::
80 This is similar to \--symbolic, but it omits input that
81 are not refs (i.e. branch or tag names; or more
82 explicitly disambiguating "heads/master" form, when you
83 want to name the "master" branch when there is an
84 unfortunately named tag "master"), and show them as full
85 refnames (e.g. "refs/heads/master").
88 Show all refs found in `$GIT_DIR/refs`.
91 Show branch refs found in `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads`.
94 Show tag refs found in `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags`.
97 Show tag refs found in `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes`.
100 When the command is invoked from a subdirectory, show the
101 path of the current directory relative to the top-level
105 When the command is invoked from a subdirectory, show the
106 path of the top-level directory relative to the current
107 directory (typically a sequence of "../", or an empty string).
110 Show `$GIT_DIR` if defined else show the path to the .git directory.
112 --is-inside-git-dir::
113 When the current working directory is below the repository
114 directory print "true", otherwise "false".
116 --is-inside-work-tree::
117 When the current working directory is inside the work tree of the
118 repository print "true", otherwise "false".
120 --is-bare-repository::
121 When the repository is bare print "true", otherwise "false".
125 Instead of outputting the full SHA1 values of object names try to
126 abbreviate them to a shorter unique name. When no length is specified
127 7 is used. The minimum length is 4.
131 Parses the date string, and outputs corresponding
132 --max-age= parameter for git-rev-list command.
135 --before=datestring::
136 Parses the date string, and outputs corresponding
137 --min-age= parameter for git-rev-list command.
140 Flags and parameters to be parsed.
146 A revision parameter typically, but not necessarily, names a
147 commit object. They use what is called an 'extended SHA1'
148 syntax. Here are various ways to spell object names. The
149 ones listed near the end of this list are to name trees and
150 blobs contained in a commit.
152 * The full SHA1 object name (40-byte hexadecimal string), or
153 a substring of such that is unique within the repository.
154 E.g. dae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735 and dae86e both
155 name the same commit object if there are no other object in
156 your repository whose object name starts with dae86e.
158 * An output from `git-describe`; i.e. a closest tag, followed by a
159 dash, a `g`, and an abbreviated object name.
161 * A symbolic ref name. E.g. 'master' typically means the commit
162 object referenced by $GIT_DIR/refs/heads/master. If you
163 happen to have both heads/master and tags/master, you can
164 explicitly say 'heads/master' to tell git which one you mean.
165 When ambiguous, a `<name>` is disambiguated by taking the
166 first match in the following rules:
168 . if `$GIT_DIR/<name>` exists, that is what you mean (this is usually
169 useful only for `HEAD`, `FETCH_HEAD` and `MERGE_HEAD`);
171 . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/<name>` if exists;
173 . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags/<name>` if exists;
175 . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/<name>` if exists;
177 . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/<name>` if exists;
179 . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD` if exists.
181 * A ref followed by the suffix '@' with a date specification
183 pair (e.g. '\{yesterday\}', '\{1 month 2 weeks 3 days 1 hour 1
184 second ago\}' or '\{1979-02-26 18:30:00\}') to specify the value
185 of the ref at a prior point in time. This suffix may only be
186 used immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an
187 existing log ($GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>). Note that this looks up the state
188 of your *local* ref at a given time; e.g., what was in your local
189 `master` branch last week. If you want to look at commits made during
190 certain times, see `--since` and `--until`.
192 * A ref followed by the suffix '@' with an ordinal specification
193 enclosed in a brace pair (e.g. '\{1\}', '\{15\}') to specify
194 the n-th prior value of that ref. For example 'master@\{1\}'
195 is the immediate prior value of 'master' while 'master@\{5\}'
196 is the 5th prior value of 'master'. This suffix may only be used
197 immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an existing
198 log ($GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>).
200 * You can use the '@' construct with an empty ref part to get at a
201 reflog of the current branch. For example, if you are on the
202 branch 'blabla', then '@\{1\}' means the same as 'blabla@\{1\}'.
204 * A suffix '{caret}' to a revision parameter means the first parent of
205 that commit object. '{caret}<n>' means the <n>th parent (i.e.
207 is equivalent to 'rev{caret}1'). As a special rule,
208 'rev{caret}0' means the commit itself and is used when 'rev' is the
209 object name of a tag object that refers to a commit object.
211 * A suffix '{tilde}<n>' to a revision parameter means the commit
212 object that is the <n>th generation grand-parent of the named
213 commit object, following only the first parent. I.e. rev~3 is
214 equivalent to rev{caret}{caret}{caret} which is equivalent to
215 rev{caret}1{caret}1{caret}1. See below for a illustration of
216 the usage of this form.
218 * A suffix '{caret}' followed by an object type name enclosed in
219 brace pair (e.g. `v0.99.8{caret}\{commit\}`) means the object
220 could be a tag, and dereference the tag recursively until an
221 object of that type is found or the object cannot be
222 dereferenced anymore (in which case, barf). `rev{caret}0`
223 introduced earlier is a short-hand for `rev{caret}\{commit\}`.
225 * A suffix '{caret}' followed by an empty brace pair
226 (e.g. `v0.99.8{caret}\{\}`) means the object could be a tag,
227 and dereference the tag recursively until a non-tag object is
230 * A colon, followed by a slash, followed by a text: this names
231 a commit whose commit message starts with the specified text.
232 This name returns the youngest matching commit which is
233 reachable from any ref. If the commit message starts with a
234 '!', you have to repeat that; the special sequence ':/!',
235 followed by something else than '!' is reserved for now.
237 * A suffix ':' followed by a path; this names the blob or tree
238 at the given path in the tree-ish object named by the part
241 * A colon, optionally followed by a stage number (0 to 3) and a
242 colon, followed by a path; this names a blob object in the
243 index at the given path. Missing stage number (and the colon
244 that follows it) names a stage 0 entry. During a merge, stage
245 1 is the common ancestor, stage 2 is the target branch's version
246 (typically the current branch), and stage 3 is the version from
247 the branch being merged.
249 Here is an illustration, by Jon Loeliger. Both commit nodes B
250 and C are parents of commit node A. Parent commits are ordered
253 ........................................
264 ........................................
269 D = A^^ = A^1^1 = A~2
272 G = A^^^ = A^1^1^1 = A~3
273 H = D^2 = B^^2 = A^^^2 = A~2^2
274 I = F^ = B^3^ = A^^3^
275 J = F^2 = B^3^2 = A^^3^2
281 History traversing commands such as `git-log` operate on a set
282 of commits, not just a single commit. To these commands,
283 specifying a single revision with the notation described in the
284 previous section means the set of commits reachable from that
285 commit, following the commit ancestry chain.
287 To exclude commits reachable from a commit, a prefix `{caret}`
288 notation is used. E.g. "`{caret}r1 r2`" means commits reachable
289 from `r2` but exclude the ones reachable from `r1`.
291 This set operation appears so often that there is a shorthand
292 for it. "`r1..r2`" is equivalent to "`{caret}r1 r2`". It is
293 the difference of two sets (subtract the set of commits
294 reachable from `r1` from the set of commits reachable from
297 A similar notation "`r1\...r2`" is called symmetric difference
298 of `r1` and `r2` and is defined as
299 "`r1 r2 --not $(git-merge-base --all r1 r2)`".
300 It is the set of commits that are reachable from either one of
301 `r1` or `r2` but not from both.
303 Two other shorthands for naming a set that is formed by a commit
304 and its parent commits exists. `r1{caret}@` notation means all
305 parents of `r1`. `r1{caret}!` includes commit `r1` but excludes
308 Here are a handful of examples:
322 In `--parseopt` mode, `git-rev-parse` helps massaging options to bring to shell
323 scripts the same facilities C builtins have. It works as an option normalizer
324 (e.g. splits single switches aggregate values), a bit like `getopt(1)` does.
326 It takes on the standard input the specification of the options to parse and
327 understand, and echoes on the standard output a line suitable for `sh(1)` `eval`
328 to replace the arguments with normalized ones. In case of error, it outputs
329 usage on the standard error stream, and exits with code 129.
334 `git-rev-parse --parseopt` input format is fully text based. It has two parts,
335 separated by a line that contains only `--`. The lines before the separator
336 (should be more than one) are used for the usage.
337 The lines after the separator describe the options.
339 Each line of options has this format:
342 <opt_spec><flags>* SP+ help LF
346 its format is the short option character, then the long option name
347 separated by a comma. Both parts are not required, though at least one
348 is necessary. `h,help`, `dry-run` and `f` are all three correct
352 `<flags>` are of `*`, `=`, `?` or `!`.
353 * Use `=` if the option takes an argument.
355 * Use `?` to mean that the option is optional (though its use is discouraged).
357 * Use `*` to mean that this option should not be listed in the usage
358 generated for the `-h` argument. It's shown for `--help-all` as
359 documented in linkgit:gitcli[7].
361 * Use `!` to not make the corresponding negated long option available.
363 The remainder of the line, after stripping the spaces, is used
364 as the help associated to the option.
366 Blank lines are ignored, and lines that don't match this specification are used
367 as option group headers (start the line with a space to create such
375 some-command [options] <args>...
377 some-command does foo and bar!
381 foo some nifty option --foo
382 bar= some cool option --bar with an argument
384 An option group Header
385 C? option C with an optional argument"
387 eval `echo "$OPTS_SPEC" | git-rev-parse --parseopt -- "$@" || echo exit $?`
393 * Print the object name of the current commit:
396 $ git rev-parse --verify HEAD
399 * Print the commit object name from the revision in the $REV shell variable:
402 $ git rev-parse --verify $REV
405 This will error out if $REV is empty or not a valid revision.
410 $ git rev-parse --default master --verify $REV
413 but if $REV is empty, the commit object name from master will be printed.
418 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> .
419 Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> and Pierre Habouzit <madcoder@debian.org>
423 Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
427 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite