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 306 </style>
 307 <title>gitcli(7)</title>
 308 </head>
 309 <body>
 310 <div id="header">
 311 <h1>
 312 gitcli(7) Manual Page
 313 </h1>
 314 <h2>NAME</h2>
 315 <div class="sectionbody">
 316 <p>gitcli -
 317    git command line interface and conventions
 318 </p>
 319 </div>
 320 </div>
 321 <h2>SYNOPSIS</h2>
 322 <div class="sectionbody">
 323 <div class="para"><p>gitcli</p></div>
 324 </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>
 332 <li>
 333 <p>
 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>
 337    are paths.
 338 </p>
 339 </li>
 340 <li>
 341 <p>
 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.
 349 </p>
 350 </li>
 351 <li>
 352 <p>
 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
 357    disambiguate.
 358 </p>
 359 </li>
 360 </ul></div>
 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>
 367 <li>
 368 <p>
 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>.
 371 </p>
 372 </li>
 373 <li>
 374 <p>
 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).
 377 </p>
 378 </li>
 379 <li>
 380 <p>
 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.
 386 </p>
 387 </li>
 388 <li>
 389 <p>
 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.
 394 </p>
 395 </li>
 396 </ul></div>
 397 </div>
 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>
 407 <dt>
 408 -h
 409 </dt>
 410 <dd>
 411 <p>
 412         gives a pretty printed usage of the command.
 413 </p>
 414 <div class="listingblock">
 415 <div class="content">
 416 <pre><tt>$ git describe -h
 417 usage: git describe [options] &lt;committish&gt;*
 418
 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 [&lt;n&gt;]        use &lt;n&gt; digits to display SHA-1s
 424     --candidates &lt;n&gt;      consider &lt;n&gt; most recent tags (default: 10)</tt></pre>
 425 </div></div>
 426 </dd>
 427 <dt>
 428 --help-all
 429 </dt>
 430 <dd>
 431 <p>
 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.
 435 </p>
 436 </dd>
 437 </dl></div>
 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
 454 $ git foo -oArg
 455 $ git foo -o Arg</tt></pre>
 456 </div></div>
 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>
 464 </div></div>
 465 </div>
 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> &#8212; these two options mean very
 473 different things.</p></div>
 474 <div class="ilist"><ul>
 475 <li>
 476 <p>
 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
 483    the index.
 484 </p>
 485 </li>
 486 <li>
 487 <p>
 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
 493    the index as well.
 494 </p>
 495 </li>
 496 </ul></div>
 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
 502 entries.</p></div>
 503 <div class="para"><p>See also http://marc.info/?l=git&amp;m=116563135620359 and
 504 http://marc.info/?l=git&amp;m=119150393620273 for further
 505 information.</p></div>
 506 </div>
 507 <h2 id="_documentation">Documentation</h2>
 508 <div class="sectionbody">
 509 <div class="para"><p>Documentation by Pierre Habouzit and the git-list &lt;git@vger.kernel.org&gt;.</p></div>
 510 </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>
 514 </div>
 515 <div id="footer">
 516 <div id="footer-text">
 517 Last updated 2009-09-23 06:50:48 UTC
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