1git(7) 2====== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git - the stupid content tracker 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git' [--version] [--exec-path[=GIT_EXEC_PATH]] [-p|--paginate] 13 [--bare] [--git-dir=GIT_DIR] [--help] COMMAND [ARGS] 14 15DESCRIPTION 16----------- 17Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an 18unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations 19and full access to internals. 20 21See this link:tutorial.html[tutorial] to get started, then see 22link:everyday.html[Everyday Git] for a useful minimum set of commands, and 23"man git-commandname" for documentation of each command. CVS users may 24also want to read link:cvs-migration.html[CVS migration]. 25 26The COMMAND is either a name of a Git command (see below) or an alias 27as defined in the configuration file (see gitlink:git-repo-config[1]). 28 29OPTIONS 30------- 31--version:: 32 Prints the git suite version that the 'git' program came from. 33 34--help:: 35 Prints the synopsis and a list of the most commonly used 36 commands. If a git command is named this option will bring up 37 the man-page for that command. If the option '--all' or '-a' is 38 given then all available commands are printed. 39 40--exec-path:: 41 Path to wherever your core git programs are installed. 42 This can also be controlled by setting the GIT_EXEC_PATH 43 environment variable. If no path is given 'git' will print 44 the current setting and then exit. 45 46-p|--paginate:: 47 Pipe all output into 'less' (or if set, $PAGER). 48 49--git-dir=<path>:: 50 Set the path to the repository. This can also be controlled by 51 setting the GIT_DIR environment variable. 52 53--bare:: 54 Same as --git-dir=`pwd`. 55 56FURTHER DOCUMENTATION 57--------------------- 58 59See the references above to get started using git. The following is 60probably more detail than necessary for a first-time user. 61 62The <<Discussion,Discussion>> section below and the 63link:core-tutorial.html[Core tutorial] both provide introductions to the 64underlying git architecture. 65 66See also the link:howto-index.html[howto] documents for some useful 67examples. 68 69GIT COMMANDS 70------------ 71 72We divide git into high level ("porcelain") commands and low level 73("plumbing") commands. 74 75High-level commands (porcelain) 76------------------------------- 77 78We separate the porcelain commands into the main commands and some 79ancillary user utilities. 80 81Main porcelain commands 82~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 83 84gitlink:git-add[1]:: 85 Add paths to the index. 86 87gitlink:git-am[1]:: 88 Apply patches from a mailbox, but cooler. 89 90gitlink:git-applymbox[1]:: 91 Apply patches from a mailbox, original version by Linus. 92 93gitlink:git-archive[1]:: 94 Creates an archive of files from a named tree. 95 96gitlink:git-bisect[1]:: 97 Find the change that introduced a bug by binary search. 98 99gitlink:git-branch[1]:: 100 Create and Show branches. 101 102gitlink:git-checkout[1]:: 103 Checkout and switch to a branch. 104 105gitlink:git-cherry-pick[1]:: 106 Cherry-pick the effect of an existing commit. 107 108gitlink:git-clean[1]:: 109 Remove untracked files from the working tree. 110 111gitlink:git-clone[1]:: 112 Clones a repository into a new directory. 113 114gitlink:git-commit[1]:: 115 Record changes to the repository. 116 117gitlink:git-diff[1]:: 118 Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc. 119 120gitlink:git-fetch[1]:: 121 Download from a remote repository via various protocols. 122 123gitlink:git-format-patch[1]:: 124 Prepare patches for e-mail submission. 125 126gitlink:git-grep[1]:: 127 Print lines matching a pattern. 128 129gitlink:gitk[1]:: 130 The git repository browser. 131 132gitlink:git-log[1]:: 133 Shows commit logs. 134 135gitlink:git-ls-remote[1]:: 136 Shows references in a remote or local repository. 137 138gitlink:git-merge[1]:: 139 Grand unified merge driver. 140 141gitlink:git-mv[1]:: 142 Move or rename a file, a directory, or a symlink. 143 144gitlink:git-pack-refs[1]:: 145 Pack heads and tags for efficient repository access. 146 147gitlink:git-pull[1]:: 148 Fetch from and merge with a remote repository or a local branch. 149 150gitlink:git-push[1]:: 151 Update remote refs along with associated objects. 152 153gitlink:git-rebase[1]:: 154 Rebase local commits to the updated upstream head. 155 156gitlink:git-repack[1]:: 157 Pack unpacked objects in a repository. 158 159gitlink:git-rerere[1]:: 160 Reuse recorded resolution of conflicted merges. 161 162gitlink:git-reset[1]:: 163 Reset current HEAD to the specified state. 164 165gitlink:git-resolve[1]:: 166 Merge two commits. 167 168gitlink:git-revert[1]:: 169 Revert an existing commit. 170 171gitlink:git-rm[1]:: 172 Remove files from the working tree and from the index. 173 174gitlink:git-shortlog[1]:: 175 Summarizes 'git log' output. 176 177gitlink:git-show[1]:: 178 Show one commit log and its diff. 179 180gitlink:git-show-branch[1]:: 181 Show branches and their commits. 182 183gitlink:git-status[1]:: 184 Shows the working tree status. 185 186gitlink:git-verify-tag[1]:: 187 Check the GPG signature of tag. 188 189gitlink:git-whatchanged[1]:: 190 Shows commit logs and differences they introduce. 191 192 193Ancillary Commands 194~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 195Manipulators: 196 197gitlink:git-applypatch[1]:: 198 Apply one patch extracted from an e-mail. 199 200gitlink:git-archimport[1]:: 201 Import an arch repository into git. 202 203gitlink:git-convert-objects[1]:: 204 Converts old-style git repository. 205 206gitlink:git-cvsimport[1]:: 207 Salvage your data out of another SCM people love to hate. 208 209gitlink:git-cvsexportcommit[1]:: 210 Export a single commit to a CVS checkout. 211 212gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]:: 213 A CVS server emulator for git. 214 215gitlink:git-lost-found[1]:: 216 Recover lost refs that luckily have not yet been pruned. 217 218gitlink:git-merge-one-file[1]:: 219 The standard helper program to use with `git-merge-index`. 220 221gitlink:git-prune[1]:: 222 Prunes all unreachable objects from the object database. 223 224gitlink:git-quiltimport[1]:: 225 Applies a quilt patchset onto the current branch. 226 227gitlink:git-relink[1]:: 228 Hardlink common objects in local repositories. 229 230gitlink:git-svn[1]:: 231 Bidirectional operation between a single Subversion branch and git. 232 233gitlink:git-svnimport[1]:: 234 Import a SVN repository into git. 235 236gitlink:git-sh-setup[1]:: 237 Common git shell script setup code. 238 239gitlink:git-symbolic-ref[1]:: 240 Read and modify symbolic refs. 241 242gitlink:git-tag[1]:: 243 An example script to create a tag object signed with GPG. 244 245gitlink:git-update-ref[1]:: 246 Update the object name stored in a ref safely. 247 248 249Interrogators: 250 251gitlink:git-annotate[1]:: 252 Annotate file lines with commit info. 253 254gitlink:git-blame[1]:: 255 Find out where each line in a file came from. 256 257gitlink:git-check-ref-format[1]:: 258 Make sure ref name is well formed. 259 260gitlink:git-cherry[1]:: 261 Find commits not merged upstream. 262 263gitlink:git-count-objects[1]:: 264 Count unpacked number of objects and their disk consumption. 265 266gitlink:git-daemon[1]:: 267 A really simple server for git repositories. 268 269gitlink:git-fmt-merge-msg[1]:: 270 Produce a merge commit message. 271 272gitlink:git-get-tar-commit-id[1]:: 273 Extract commit ID from an archive created using git-tar-tree. 274 275gitlink:git-imap-send[1]:: 276 Dump a mailbox from stdin into an imap folder. 277 278gitlink:git-instaweb[1]:: 279 Instantly browse your working repository in gitweb. 280 281gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]:: 282 Extracts patch and authorship information from a single 283 e-mail message, optionally transliterating the commit 284 message into utf-8. 285 286gitlink:git-mailsplit[1]:: 287 A stupid program to split UNIX mbox format mailbox into 288 individual pieces of e-mail. 289 290gitlink:git-merge-tree[1]:: 291 Show three-way merge without touching index. 292 293gitlink:git-patch-id[1]:: 294 Compute unique ID for a patch. 295 296gitlink:git-parse-remote[1]:: 297 Routines to help parsing `$GIT_DIR/remotes/` files. 298 299gitlink:git-request-pull[1]:: 300 git-request-pull. 301 302gitlink:git-rev-parse[1]:: 303 Pick out and massage parameters. 304 305gitlink:git-runstatus[1]:: 306 A helper for git-status and git-commit. 307 308gitlink:git-send-email[1]:: 309 Send patch e-mails out of "format-patch --mbox" output. 310 311gitlink:git-symbolic-ref[1]:: 312 Read and modify symbolic refs. 313 314gitlink:git-stripspace[1]:: 315 Filter out empty lines. 316 317 318Low-level commands (plumbing) 319----------------------------- 320 321Although git includes its 322own porcelain layer, its low-level commands are sufficient to support 323development of alternative porcelains. Developers of such porcelains 324might start by reading about gitlink:git-update-index[1] and 325gitlink:git-read-tree[1]. 326 327We divide the low-level commands into commands that manipulate objects (in 328the repository, index, and working tree), commands that interrogate and 329compare objects, and commands that move objects and references between 330repositories. 331 332Manipulation commands 333~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 334gitlink:git-apply[1]:: 335 Reads a "diff -up1" or git generated patch file and 336 applies it to the working tree. 337 338gitlink:git-checkout-index[1]:: 339 Copy files from the index to the working tree. 340 341gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]:: 342 Creates a new commit object. 343 344gitlink:git-hash-object[1]:: 345 Computes the object ID from a file. 346 347gitlink:git-index-pack[1]:: 348 Build pack idx file for an existing packed archive. 349 350gitlink:git-init-db[1]:: 351 Creates an empty git object database, or reinitialize an 352 existing one. 353 354gitlink:git-merge-file[1]:: 355 Runs a threeway merge. 356 357gitlink:git-merge-index[1]:: 358 Runs a merge for files needing merging. 359 360gitlink:git-mktag[1]:: 361 Creates a tag object. 362 363gitlink:git-mktree[1]:: 364 Build a tree-object from ls-tree formatted text. 365 366gitlink:git-pack-objects[1]:: 367 Creates a packed archive of objects. 368 369gitlink:git-prune-packed[1]:: 370 Remove extra objects that are already in pack files. 371 372gitlink:git-read-tree[1]:: 373 Reads tree information into the index. 374 375gitlink:git-repo-config[1]:: 376 Get and set options in .git/config. 377 378gitlink:git-unpack-objects[1]:: 379 Unpacks objects out of a packed archive. 380 381gitlink:git-update-index[1]:: 382 Registers files in the working tree to the index. 383 384gitlink:git-write-tree[1]:: 385 Creates a tree from the index. 386 387 388Interrogation commands 389~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 390 391gitlink:git-cat-file[1]:: 392 Provide content or type/size information for repository objects. 393 394gitlink:git-describe[1]:: 395 Show the most recent tag that is reachable from a commit. 396 397gitlink:git-diff-index[1]:: 398 Compares content and mode of blobs between the index and repository. 399 400gitlink:git-diff-files[1]:: 401 Compares files in the working tree and the index. 402 403gitlink:git-diff-stages[1]:: 404 Compares two "merge stages" in the index. 405 406gitlink:git-diff-tree[1]:: 407 Compares the content and mode of blobs found via two tree objects. 408 409gitlink:git-for-each-ref[1]:: 410 Output information on each ref. 411 412gitlink:git-fsck-objects[1]:: 413 Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database. 414 415gitlink:git-ls-files[1]:: 416 Information about files in the index and the working tree. 417 418gitlink:git-ls-tree[1]:: 419 Displays a tree object in human readable form. 420 421gitlink:git-merge-base[1]:: 422 Finds as good common ancestors as possible for a merge. 423 424gitlink:git-name-rev[1]:: 425 Find symbolic names for given revs. 426 427gitlink:git-pack-redundant[1]:: 428 Find redundant pack files. 429 430gitlink:git-rev-list[1]:: 431 Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order. 432 433gitlink:git-show-index[1]:: 434 Displays contents of a pack idx file. 435 436gitlink:git-show-ref[1]:: 437 List references in a local repository. 438 439gitlink:git-tar-tree[1]:: 440 Creates a tar archive of the files in the named tree object. 441 442gitlink:git-unpack-file[1]:: 443 Creates a temporary file with a blob's contents. 444 445gitlink:git-var[1]:: 446 Displays a git logical variable. 447 448gitlink:git-verify-pack[1]:: 449 Validates packed git archive files. 450 451In general, the interrogate commands do not touch the files in 452the working tree. 453 454 455Synching repositories 456~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 457 458gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1]:: 459 Updates from a remote repository (engine for ssh and 460 local transport). 461 462gitlink:git-http-fetch[1]:: 463 Downloads a remote git repository via HTTP by walking 464 commit chain. 465 466gitlink:git-local-fetch[1]:: 467 Duplicates another git repository on a local system by 468 walking commit chain. 469 470gitlink:git-peek-remote[1]:: 471 Lists references on a remote repository using 472 upload-pack protocol (engine for ssh and local 473 transport). 474 475gitlink:git-receive-pack[1]:: 476 Invoked by 'git-send-pack' to receive what is pushed to it. 477 478gitlink:git-send-pack[1]:: 479 Pushes to a remote repository, intelligently. 480 481gitlink:git-http-push[1]:: 482 Push missing objects using HTTP/DAV. 483 484gitlink:git-shell[1]:: 485 Restricted shell for GIT-only SSH access. 486 487gitlink:git-ssh-fetch[1]:: 488 Pulls from a remote repository over ssh connection by 489 walking commit chain. 490 491gitlink:git-ssh-upload[1]:: 492 Helper "server-side" program used by git-ssh-fetch. 493 494gitlink:git-update-server-info[1]:: 495 Updates auxiliary information on a dumb server to help 496 clients discover references and packs on it. 497 498gitlink:git-upload-archive[1]:: 499 Invoked by 'git-archive' to send a generated archive. 500 501gitlink:git-upload-pack[1]:: 502 Invoked by 'git-fetch-pack' to push 503 what are asked for. 504 505 506Configuration Mechanism 507----------------------- 508 509Starting from 0.99.9 (actually mid 0.99.8.GIT), `.git/config` file 510is used to hold per-repository configuration options. It is a 511simple text file modeled after `.ini` format familiar to some 512people. Here is an example: 513 514------------ 515# 516# A '#' or ';' character indicates a comment. 517# 518 519; core variables 520[core] 521 ; Don't trust file modes 522 filemode = false 523 524; user identity 525[user] 526 name = "Junio C Hamano" 527 email = "junkio@twinsun.com" 528 529------------ 530 531Various commands read from the configuration file and adjust 532their operation accordingly. 533 534 535Identifier Terminology 536---------------------- 537<object>:: 538 Indicates the object name for any type of object. 539 540<blob>:: 541 Indicates a blob object name. 542 543<tree>:: 544 Indicates a tree object name. 545 546<commit>:: 547 Indicates a commit object name. 548 549<tree-ish>:: 550 Indicates a tree, commit or tag object name. A 551 command that takes a <tree-ish> argument ultimately wants to 552 operate on a <tree> object but automatically dereferences 553 <commit> and <tag> objects that point at a <tree>. 554 555<type>:: 556 Indicates that an object type is required. 557 Currently one of: `blob`, `tree`, `commit`, or `tag`. 558 559<file>:: 560 Indicates a filename - almost always relative to the 561 root of the tree structure `GIT_INDEX_FILE` describes. 562 563Symbolic Identifiers 564-------------------- 565Any git command accepting any <object> can also use the following 566symbolic notation: 567 568HEAD:: 569 indicates the head of the current branch (i.e. the 570 contents of `$GIT_DIR/HEAD`). 571 572<tag>:: 573 a valid tag 'name' 574 (i.e. the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags/<tag>`). 575 576<head>:: 577 a valid head 'name' 578 (i.e. the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/<head>`). 579 580For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see 581"SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1]. 582 583 584File/Directory Structure 585------------------------ 586 587Please see link:repository-layout.html[repository layout] document. 588 589Read link:hooks.html[hooks] for more details about each hook. 590 591Higher level SCMs may provide and manage additional information in the 592`$GIT_DIR`. 593 594 595Terminology 596----------- 597Please see link:glossary.html[glossary] document. 598 599 600Environment Variables 601--------------------- 602Various git commands use the following environment variables: 603 604The git Repository 605~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 606These environment variables apply to 'all' core git commands. Nb: it 607is worth noting that they may be used/overridden by SCMS sitting above 608git so take care if using Cogito etc. 609 610'GIT_INDEX_FILE':: 611 This environment allows the specification of an alternate 612 index file. If not specified, the default of `$GIT_DIR/index` 613 is used. 614 615'GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY':: 616 If the object storage directory is specified via this 617 environment variable then the sha1 directories are created 618 underneath - otherwise the default `$GIT_DIR/objects` 619 directory is used. 620 621'GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES':: 622 Due to the immutable nature of git objects, old objects can be 623 archived into shared, read-only directories. This variable 624 specifies a ":" separated list of git object directories which 625 can be used to search for git objects. New objects will not be 626 written to these directories. 627 628'GIT_DIR':: 629 If the 'GIT_DIR' environment variable is set then it 630 specifies a path to use instead of the default `.git` 631 for the base of the repository. 632 633git Commits 634~~~~~~~~~~~ 635'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME':: 636'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL':: 637'GIT_AUTHOR_DATE':: 638'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME':: 639'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL':: 640 see gitlink:git-commit-tree[1] 641 642git Diffs 643~~~~~~~~~ 644'GIT_DIFF_OPTS':: 645 Only valid setting is "--unified=??" or "-u??" to set the 646 number of context lines shown when a unified diff is created. 647 This takes precedence over any "-U" or "--unified" option 648 value passed on the git diff command line. 649 650'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF':: 651 When the environment variable 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF' is set, the 652 program named by it is called, instead of the diff invocation 653 described above. For a path that is added, removed, or modified, 654 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF' is called with 7 parameters: 655 656 path old-file old-hex old-mode new-file new-hex new-mode 657+ 658where: 659 660 <old|new>-file:: are files GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF can use to read the 661 contents of <old|new>, 662 <old|new>-hex:: are the 40-hexdigit SHA1 hashes, 663 <old|new>-mode:: are the octal representation of the file modes. 664 665+ 666The file parameters can point at the user's working file 667(e.g. `new-file` in "git-diff-files"), `/dev/null` (e.g. `old-file` 668when a new file is added), or a temporary file (e.g. `old-file` in the 669index). 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF' should not worry about unlinking the 670temporary file --- it is removed when 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF' exits. 671+ 672For a path that is unmerged, 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF' is called with 1 673parameter, <path>. 674 675other 676~~~~~ 677'GIT_PAGER':: 678 This environment variable overrides `$PAGER`. 679 680'GIT_TRACE':: 681 If this variable is set to "1", "2" or "true" (comparison 682 is case insensitive), git will print `trace:` messages on 683 stderr telling about alias expansion, built-in command 684 execution and external command execution. 685 If this variable is set to an integer value greater than 1 686 and lower than 10 (strictly) then git will interpret this 687 value as an open file descriptor and will try to write the 688 trace messages into this file descriptor. 689 Alternatively, if this variable is set to an absolute path 690 (starting with a '/' character), git will interpret this 691 as a file path and will try to write the trace messages 692 into it. 693 694Discussion[[Discussion]] 695------------------------ 696include::README[] 697 698Authors 699------- 700* git's founding father is Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>. 701* The current git nurse is Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>. 702* The git potty was written by Andres Ericsson <ae@op5.se>. 703* General upbringing is handled by the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 704 705Documentation 706-------------- 707The documentation for git suite was started by David Greaves 708<david@dgreaves.com>, and later enhanced greatly by the 709contributors on the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 710 711GIT 712--- 713Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite 714