1gitcli(7) 2========= 3 4NAME 5---- 6gitcli - Git command-line interface and conventions 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10gitcli 11 12 13DESCRIPTION 14----------- 15 16This manual describes the convention used throughout Git CLI. 17 18Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes 19"tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their 20arguments. Here are the rules: 21 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` 25 are paths. 26 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. 34 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 39 disambiguate. 40+ 41When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is 42a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing 43disambiguating `--` at appropriate places. 44 45 * Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect 46 them from getting globbed by the shell. These two mean different 47 things: 48+ 49-------------------------------- 50$ git checkout -- *.c 51$ git checkout -- \*.c 52-------------------------------- 53+ 54The former lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking 55the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version 56in the index. The latter passes the `*.c` to Git, and you are asking 57the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to your 58working tree. After running `git add hello.c; rm hello.c`, you will _not_ 59see `hello.c` in your working tree with the former, but with the latter 60you will. 61 62 * Just as the filesystem '.' (period) refers to the current directory, 63 using a '.' as a repository name in Git (a dot-repository) is a relative 64 path and means your current repository. 65 66Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are 67scripting Git: 68 69 * it's preferred to use the non-dashed form of Git commands, which means that 70 you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`. 71 72 * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b` 73 to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work). 74 75 * when a command-line option takes an argument, use the 'stuck' form. In 76 other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short 77 options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg` 78 for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be 79 written in the 'stuck' form. 80 81 * when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is 82 not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write 83 `git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work 84 if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree. 85 86 * many commands allow a long option `--option` to be abbreviated 87 only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option 88 whose name begins with `opt`, you may be able to spell `--opt` to 89 invoke the `--option` flag), but you should fully spell them out 90 when writing your scripts; later versions of Git may introduce a 91 new option whose name shares the same prefix, e.g. `--optimize`, 92 to make a short prefix that used to be unique no longer unique. 93 94 95ENHANCED OPTION PARSER 96---------------------- 97From the Git 1.5.4 series and further, many Git commands (not all of them at the 98time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser. 99 100Here is a list of the facilities provided by this option parser. 101 102 103Magic Options 104~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 105Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a 106couple of magic command-line options: 107 108-h:: 109 gives a pretty printed usage of the command. 110+ 111--------------------------------------------- 112$ git describe -h 113usage: git describe [options] <commit-ish>* 114 or: git describe [options] --dirty 115 116 --contains find the tag that comes after the commit 117 --debug debug search strategy on stderr 118 --all use any ref 119 --tags use any tag, even unannotated 120 --long always use long format 121 --abbrev[=<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s 122--------------------------------------------- 123 124--help-all:: 125 Some Git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that 126 are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This 127 option gives the full list of options. 128 129 130Negating options 131~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 132Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `--no-`. For 133example, `git branch` has the option `--track` which is 'on' by default. You 134can use `--no-track` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `--color` 135and `--no-color`. 136 137 138Aggregating short options 139~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 140Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short 141options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or 142`git clean -fdx`. 143 144 145Abbreviating long options 146~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 147Commands that support the enhanced option parser accepts unique 148prefix of a long option as if it is fully spelled out, but use this 149with a caution. For example, `git commit --amen` behaves as if you 150typed `git commit --amend`, but that is true only until a later version 151of Git introduces another option that shares the same prefix, 152e.g. `git commit --amenity` option. 153 154 155Separating argument from the option 156~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 157You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate 158word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work: 159 160---------------------------- 161$ git foo --long-opt=Arg 162$ git foo --long-opt Arg 163$ git foo -oArg 164$ git foo -o Arg 165---------------------------- 166 167However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the 168'stuck' form must be used: 169---------------------------- 170$ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct 171$ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct 172$ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT 173---------------------------- 174 175 176NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS 177------------------------------------ 178 179Many commands that can work on files in the working tree 180and/or in the index can take `--cached` and/or `--index` 181options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because 182the index was originally called cache, these two are 183synonyms. They are *not* -- these two options mean very 184different things. 185 186 * The `--cached` option is used to ask a command that 187 usually works on files in the working tree to *only* work 188 with the index. For example, `git grep`, when used 189 without a commit to specify from which commit to look for 190 strings in, usually works on files in the working tree, 191 but with the `--cached` option, it looks for strings in 192 the index. 193 194 * The `--index` option is used to ask a command that 195 usually works on files in the working tree to *also* 196 affect the index. For example, `git stash apply` usually 197 merges changes recorded in a stash to the working tree, 198 but with the `--index` option, it also merges changes to 199 the index as well. 200 201`git apply` command can be used with `--cached` and 202`--index` (but not at the same time). Usually the command 203only affects the files in the working tree, but with 204`--index`, it patches both the files and their index 205entries, and with `--cached`, it modifies only the index 206entries. 207 208See also http://marc.info/?l=git&m=116563135620359 and 209http://marc.info/?l=git&m=119150393620273 for further 210information. 211 212GIT 213--- 214Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite