6 gitcli - git command line interface and conventions
16 This manual describes the convention used throughout git CLI.
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:
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`
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.
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
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.
45 * Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect
46 them from getting globbed by the shell. These two mean different
49 --------------------------------
51 $ git checkout -- \*.c
52 --------------------------------
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
62 Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are
65 * it's preferred to use the non dashed form of git commands, which means that
66 you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`.
68 * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b`
69 to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work).
71 * when a command line option takes an argument, use the 'sticked' form. In
72 other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short
73 options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg`
74 for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be
75 written in the 'sticked' form.
77 * when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is
78 not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write
79 `git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work
80 if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree.
83 ENHANCED OPTION PARSER
84 ----------------------
85 From the git 1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not all of them at the
86 time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser.
88 Here is an exhaustive list of the facilities provided by this option parser.
93 Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a
94 couple of magic command line options:
97 gives a pretty printed usage of the command.
99 ---------------------------------------------
101 usage: git describe [options] <committish>*
103 --contains find the tag that comes after the commit
104 --debug debug search strategy on stderr
105 --all use any ref in .git/refs
106 --tags use any tag in .git/refs/tags
107 --abbrev [<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s
108 --candidates <n> consider <n> most recent tags (default: 10)
109 ---------------------------------------------
112 Some git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that
113 are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This
114 option gives the full list of options.
119 Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `--no-`. For
120 example, `git branch` has the option `--track` which is 'on' by default. You
121 can use `--no-track` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `--color`
125 Aggregating short options
126 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
127 Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short
128 options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or
132 Separating argument from the option
133 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
134 You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate
135 word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work:
137 ----------------------------
138 $ git foo --long-opt=Arg
139 $ git foo --long-opt Arg
142 ----------------------------
144 However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the
145 'sticked' form must be used:
146 ----------------------------
147 $ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct
148 $ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct
149 $ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT
150 ----------------------------
153 NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS
154 ------------------------------------
156 Many commands that can work on files in the working tree
157 and/or in the index can take `--cached` and/or `--index`
158 options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because
159 the index was originally called cache, these two are
160 synonyms. They are *not* -- these two options mean very
163 * The `--cached` option is used to ask a command that
164 usually works on files in the working tree to *only* work
165 with the index. For example, `git grep`, when used
166 without a commit to specify from which commit to look for
167 strings in, usually works on files in the working tree,
168 but with the `--cached` option, it looks for strings in
171 * The `--index` option is used to ask a command that
172 usually works on files in the working tree to *also*
173 affect the index. For example, `git stash apply` usually
174 merges changes recorded in a stash to the working tree,
175 but with the `--index` option, it also merges changes to
178 `git apply` command can be used with `--cached` and
179 `--index` (but not at the same time). Usually the command
180 only affects the files in the working tree, but with
181 `--index`, it patches both the files and their index
182 entries, and with `--cached`, it modifies only the index
185 See also http://marc.info/?l=git&m=116563135620359 and
186 http://marc.info/?l=git&m=119150393620273 for further
191 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite