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307 <title>gitcli(
7)
</title>
312 gitcli(
7) Manual Page
315 <div class=
"sectionbody">
317 git command line interface and conventions
322 <div class=
"sectionbody">
323 <div class=
"para"><p>gitcli
</p></div>
325 <h2 id=
"_description">DESCRIPTION
</h2>
326 <div class=
"sectionbody">
327 <div class=
"para"><p>This manual describes the convention used throughout git CLI.
</p></div>
328 <div class=
"para"><p>Many commands take revisions (most often
"commits", but sometimes
329 "tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their
330 arguments. Here are the rules:
</p></div>
331 <div class=
"ilist"><ul>
334 Revisions come first and then paths.
335 E.g. in
<tt>git diff v1.0 v2.0 arch/x86 include/asm-x86
</tt>,
336 <tt>v1.0
</tt> and
<tt>v2.0
</tt> are revisions and
<tt>arch/x86
</tt> and
<tt>include/asm-x86
</tt>
342 When an argument can be misunderstood as either a revision or a path,
343 they can be disambiguated by placing
<tt>--
</tt> between them.
344 E.g.
<tt>git diff -- HEAD
</tt> is,
"I have a file called HEAD in my work
345 tree. Please show changes between the version I staged in the index
346 and what I have in the work tree for that file". not
"show difference
347 between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say
348 <tt>git diff HEAD --
</tt> to ask for the latter.
353 Without disambiguating
<tt>--
</tt>, git makes a reasonable guess, but errors
354 out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a
355 file called HEAD in your work tree,
<tt>git diff HEAD
</tt> is ambiguous, and
356 you have to say either
<tt>git diff HEAD --
</tt> or
<tt>git diff -- HEAD
</tt> to
361 <div class=
"para"><p>When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is
362 a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing
363 disambiguating
<tt>--
</tt> at appropriate places.
</p></div>
364 <div class=
"para"><p>Here are the rules regarding the
"flags" that you should follow when you are
365 scripting git:
</p></div>
366 <div class=
"ilist"><ul>
369 it's preferred to use the non dashed form of git commands, which means that
370 you should prefer
<tt>git foo
</tt> to
<tt>git-foo
</tt>.
375 splitting short options to separate words (prefer
<tt>git foo -a -b
</tt>
376 to
<tt>git foo -ab
</tt>, the latter may not even work).
381 when a command line option takes an argument, use the
<em>sticked
</em> form. In
382 other words, write
<tt>git foo -oArg
</tt> instead of
<tt>git foo -o Arg
</tt> for short
383 options, and
<tt>git foo --long-opt=Arg
</tt> instead of
<tt>git foo --long-opt Arg
</tt>
384 for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be
385 written in the
<em>sticked
</em> form.
390 when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is
391 not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write
392 <tt>git log -
1 HEAD
</tt> but write
<tt>git log -
1 HEAD --
</tt>; the former will not work
393 if you happen to have a file called
<tt>HEAD
</tt> in the work tree.
398 <h2 id=
"_enhanced_option_parser">ENHANCED OPTION PARSER
</h2>
399 <div class=
"sectionbody">
400 <div class=
"para"><p>From the git
1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not all of them at the
401 time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser.
</p></div>
402 <div class=
"para"><p>Here is an exhaustive list of the facilities provided by this option parser.
</p></div>
403 <h3 id=
"_magic_options">Magic Options
</h3><div style=
"clear:left"></div>
404 <div class=
"para"><p>Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a
405 couple of magic command line options:
</p></div>
406 <div class=
"vlist"><dl>
412 gives a pretty printed usage of the command.
414 <div class=
"listingblock">
415 <div class=
"content">
416 <pre><tt>$ git describe -h
417 usage: git describe [options]
<committish
>*
419 --contains find the tag that comes after the commit
420 --debug debug search strategy on stderr
421 --all use any ref in .git/refs
422 --tags use any tag in .git/refs/tags
423 --abbrev [
<n
>] use
<n
> digits to display SHA-
1s
424 --candidates
<n
> consider
<n
> most recent tags (default:
10)
</tt></pre>
432 Some git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that
433 are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This
434 option gives the full list of options.
438 <h3 id=
"_negating_options">Negating options
</h3><div style=
"clear:left"></div>
439 <div class=
"para"><p>Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing
<tt>--no-
</tt>. For
440 example,
<tt>git branch
</tt> has the option
<tt>--track
</tt> which is
<em>on
</em> by default. You
441 can use
<tt>--no-track
</tt> to override that behaviour. The same goes for
<tt>--color
</tt>
442 and
<tt>--no-color
</tt>.
</p></div>
443 <h3 id=
"_aggregating_short_options">Aggregating short options
</h3><div style=
"clear:left"></div>
444 <div class=
"para"><p>Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short
445 options. This means that you can for example use
<tt>git rm -rf
</tt> or
446 <tt>git clean -fdx
</tt>.
</p></div>
447 <h3 id=
"_separating_argument_from_the_option">Separating argument from the option
</h3><div style=
"clear:left"></div>
448 <div class=
"para"><p>You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate
449 word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work:
</p></div>
450 <div class=
"listingblock">
451 <div class=
"content">
452 <pre><tt>$ git foo --long-opt=Arg
453 $ git foo --long-opt Arg
455 $ git foo -o Arg
</tt></pre>
457 <div class=
"para"><p>However, this is
<strong>NOT
</strong> allowed for switches with an optional value, where the
458 <em>sticked
</em> form must be used:
</p></div>
459 <div class=
"listingblock">
460 <div class=
"content">
461 <pre><tt>$ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct
462 $ git describe --abbrev=
10 HEAD # correct
463 $ git describe --abbrev
10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT
</tt></pre>
466 <h2 id=
"_notes_on_frequently_confused_options">NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS
</h2>
467 <div class=
"sectionbody">
468 <div class=
"para"><p>Many commands that can work on files in the working tree
469 and/or in the index can take
<tt>--cached
</tt> and/or
<tt>--index
</tt>
470 options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because
471 the index was originally called cache, these two are
472 synonyms. They are
<strong>not
</strong> — these two options mean very
473 different things.
</p></div>
474 <div class=
"ilist"><ul>
477 The
<tt>--cached
</tt> option is used to ask a command that
478 usually works on files in the working tree to
<strong>only
</strong> work
479 with the index. For example,
<tt>git grep
</tt>, when used
480 without a commit to specify from which commit to look for
481 strings in, usually works on files in the working tree,
482 but with the
<tt>--cached
</tt> option, it looks for strings in
488 The
<tt>--index
</tt> option is used to ask a command that
489 usually works on files in the working tree to
<strong>also
</strong>
490 affect the index. For example,
<tt>git stash apply
</tt> usually
491 merges changes recorded in a stash to the working tree,
492 but with the
<tt>--index
</tt> option, it also merges changes to
497 <div class=
"para"><p><tt>git apply
</tt> command can be used with
<tt>--cached
</tt> and
498 <tt>--index
</tt> (but not at the same time). Usually the command
499 only affects the files in the working tree, but with
500 <tt>--index
</tt>, it patches both the files and their index
501 entries, and with
<tt>--cached
</tt>, it modifies only the index
503 <div class=
"para"><p>See also http://marc.info/?l=git
&m=
116563135620359 and
504 http://marc.info/?l=git
&m=
119150393620273 for further
505 information.
</p></div>
507 <h2 id=
"_documentation">Documentation
</h2>
508 <div class=
"sectionbody">
509 <div class=
"para"><p>Documentation by Pierre Habouzit and the git-list
<git@vger.kernel.org
>.
</p></div>
511 <h2 id=
"_git">GIT
</h2>
512 <div class=
"sectionbody">
513 <div class=
"para"><p>Part of the
<a href=
"git.html">git(
1)
</a> suite
</p></div>
516 <div id=
"footer-text">
517 Last updated
2009-
09-
23 06:
50:
48 UTC