6 gitcli - git command line interface and conventions
16 This manual describes best practice in how to use git CLI. Here are
17 the rules that you should follow when you are scripting git:
19 * it's preferred to use the non dashed form of git commands, which means that
20 you should prefer `"git foo"` to `"git-foo"`.
22 * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `"git foo -a -b"`
23 to `"git foo -ab"`, the latter may not even work).
25 * when a command line option takes an argument, use the 'sticked' form. In
26 other words, write `"git foo -oArg"` instead of `"git foo -o Arg"` for short
27 options, and `"git foo --long-opt=Arg"` instead of `"git foo --long-opt Arg"`
28 for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be
29 written in the 'sticked' form.
31 * when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is
32 not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write
33 `"git log -1 HEAD"` but write `"git log -1 HEAD --"`; the former will not work
34 if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree.
39 From the git 1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not all of them at the
40 time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser.
42 Here is an exhaustive list of the facilities provided by this option parser.
47 Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a
48 couple of magic command line options:
51 gives a pretty printed usage of the command.
53 ---------------------------------------------
55 usage: git-describe [options] <committish>*
57 --contains find the tag that comes after the commit
58 --debug debug search strategy on stderr
59 --all use any ref in .git/refs
60 --tags use any tag in .git/refs/tags
61 --abbrev [<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s
62 --candidates <n> consider <n> most recent tags (default: 10)
63 ---------------------------------------------
66 Some git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that
67 are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This
68 option gives the full list of options.
73 Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `"--no-"`. For
74 example, `"git branch"` has the option `"--track"` which is 'on' by default. You
75 can use `"--no-track"` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `"--color"`
79 Aggregating short options
80 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
81 Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short
82 options. This means that you can for example use `"git rm -rf"` or
86 Separating argument from the option
87 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
88 You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate
89 word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work:
91 ----------------------------
92 $ git foo --long-opt=Arg
93 $ git foo --long-opt Arg
96 ----------------------------
98 However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the
99 'sticked' form must be used:
100 ----------------------------
101 $ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct
102 $ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct
103 $ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT
104 ----------------------------
109 Documentation by Pierre Habouzit.
113 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite