Documentation / git.txton commit Merge branch 'sb/blame-color' (3d24129)
   1git(1)
   2======
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git - the stupid content tracker
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git' [--version] [--help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
  13    [--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
  14    [-p|--paginate|-P|--no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--bare]
  15    [--git-dir=<path>] [--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>]
  16    [--super-prefix=<path>]
  17    <command> [<args>]
  18
  19DESCRIPTION
  20-----------
  21Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an
  22unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations
  23and full access to internals.
  24
  25See linkgit:gittutorial[7] to get started, then see
  26linkgit:giteveryday[7] for a useful minimum set of
  27commands.  The link:user-manual.html[Git User's Manual] has a more
  28in-depth introduction.
  29
  30After you mastered the basic concepts, you can come back to this
  31page to learn what commands Git offers.  You can learn more about
  32individual Git commands with "git help command".  linkgit:gitcli[7]
  33manual page gives you an overview of the command-line command syntax.
  34
  35A formatted and hyperlinked copy of the latest Git documentation
  36can be viewed at `https://git.github.io/htmldocs/git.html`.
  37
  38
  39OPTIONS
  40-------
  41--version::
  42        Prints the Git suite version that the 'git' program came from.
  43
  44--help::
  45        Prints the synopsis and a list of the most commonly used
  46        commands. If the option `--all` or `-a` is given then all
  47        available commands are printed. If a Git command is named this
  48        option will bring up the manual page for that command.
  49+
  50Other options are available to control how the manual page is
  51displayed. See linkgit:git-help[1] for more information,
  52because `git --help ...` is converted internally into `git
  53help ...`.
  54
  55-C <path>::
  56        Run as if git was started in '<path>' instead of the current working
  57        directory.  When multiple `-C` options are given, each subsequent
  58        non-absolute `-C <path>` is interpreted relative to the preceding `-C
  59        <path>`.
  60+
  61This option affects options that expect path name like `--git-dir` and
  62`--work-tree` in that their interpretations of the path names would be
  63made relative to the working directory caused by the `-C` option. For
  64example the following invocations are equivalent:
  65
  66    git --git-dir=a.git --work-tree=b -C c status
  67    git --git-dir=c/a.git --work-tree=c/b status
  68
  69-c <name>=<value>::
  70        Pass a configuration parameter to the command. The value
  71        given will override values from configuration files.
  72        The <name> is expected in the same format as listed by
  73        'git config' (subkeys separated by dots).
  74+
  75Note that omitting the `=` in `git -c foo.bar ...` is allowed and sets
  76`foo.bar` to the boolean true value (just like `[foo]bar` would in a
  77config file). Including the equals but with an empty value (like `git -c
  78foo.bar= ...`) sets `foo.bar` to the empty string which `git config
  79--bool` will convert to `false`.
  80
  81--exec-path[=<path>]::
  82        Path to wherever your core Git programs are installed.
  83        This can also be controlled by setting the GIT_EXEC_PATH
  84        environment variable. If no path is given, 'git' will print
  85        the current setting and then exit.
  86
  87--html-path::
  88        Print the path, without trailing slash, where Git's HTML
  89        documentation is installed and exit.
  90
  91--man-path::
  92        Print the manpath (see `man(1)`) for the man pages for
  93        this version of Git and exit.
  94
  95--info-path::
  96        Print the path where the Info files documenting this
  97        version of Git are installed and exit.
  98
  99-p::
 100--paginate::
 101        Pipe all output into 'less' (or if set, $PAGER) if standard
 102        output is a terminal.  This overrides the `pager.<cmd>`
 103        configuration options (see the "Configuration Mechanism" section
 104        below).
 105
 106-P::
 107--no-pager::
 108        Do not pipe Git output into a pager.
 109
 110--git-dir=<path>::
 111        Set the path to the repository. This can also be controlled by
 112        setting the `GIT_DIR` environment variable. It can be an absolute
 113        path or relative path to current working directory.
 114
 115--work-tree=<path>::
 116        Set the path to the working tree. It can be an absolute path
 117        or a path relative to the current working directory.
 118        This can also be controlled by setting the GIT_WORK_TREE
 119        environment variable and the core.worktree configuration
 120        variable (see core.worktree in linkgit:git-config[1] for a
 121        more detailed discussion).
 122
 123--namespace=<path>::
 124        Set the Git namespace.  See linkgit:gitnamespaces[7] for more
 125        details.  Equivalent to setting the `GIT_NAMESPACE` environment
 126        variable.
 127
 128--super-prefix=<path>::
 129        Currently for internal use only.  Set a prefix which gives a path from
 130        above a repository down to its root.  One use is to give submodules
 131        context about the superproject that invoked it.
 132
 133--bare::
 134        Treat the repository as a bare repository.  If GIT_DIR
 135        environment is not set, it is set to the current working
 136        directory.
 137
 138--no-replace-objects::
 139        Do not use replacement refs to replace Git objects. See
 140        linkgit:git-replace[1] for more information.
 141
 142--literal-pathspecs::
 143        Treat pathspecs literally (i.e. no globbing, no pathspec magic).
 144        This is equivalent to setting the `GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS` environment
 145        variable to `1`.
 146
 147--glob-pathspecs::
 148        Add "glob" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting
 149        the `GIT_GLOB_PATHSPECS` environment variable to `1`. Disabling
 150        globbing on individual pathspecs can be done using pathspec
 151        magic ":(literal)"
 152
 153--noglob-pathspecs::
 154        Add "literal" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting
 155        the `GIT_NOGLOB_PATHSPECS` environment variable to `1`. Enabling
 156        globbing on individual pathspecs can be done using pathspec
 157        magic ":(glob)"
 158
 159--icase-pathspecs::
 160        Add "icase" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting
 161        the `GIT_ICASE_PATHSPECS` environment variable to `1`.
 162
 163--no-optional-locks::
 164        Do not perform optional operations that require locks. This is
 165        equivalent to setting the `GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS` to `0`.
 166
 167GIT COMMANDS
 168------------
 169
 170We divide Git into high level ("porcelain") commands and low level
 171("plumbing") commands.
 172
 173High-level commands (porcelain)
 174-------------------------------
 175
 176We separate the porcelain commands into the main commands and some
 177ancillary user utilities.
 178
 179Main porcelain commands
 180~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 181
 182include::cmds-mainporcelain.txt[]
 183
 184Ancillary Commands
 185~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 186Manipulators:
 187
 188include::cmds-ancillarymanipulators.txt[]
 189
 190Interrogators:
 191
 192include::cmds-ancillaryinterrogators.txt[]
 193
 194
 195Interacting with Others
 196~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 197
 198These commands are to interact with foreign SCM and with other
 199people via patch over e-mail.
 200
 201include::cmds-foreignscminterface.txt[]
 202
 203
 204Low-level commands (plumbing)
 205-----------------------------
 206
 207Although Git includes its
 208own porcelain layer, its low-level commands are sufficient to support
 209development of alternative porcelains.  Developers of such porcelains
 210might start by reading about linkgit:git-update-index[1] and
 211linkgit:git-read-tree[1].
 212
 213The interface (input, output, set of options and the semantics)
 214to these low-level commands are meant to be a lot more stable
 215than Porcelain level commands, because these commands are
 216primarily for scripted use.  The interface to Porcelain commands
 217on the other hand are subject to change in order to improve the
 218end user experience.
 219
 220The following description divides
 221the low-level commands into commands that manipulate objects (in
 222the repository, index, and working tree), commands that interrogate and
 223compare objects, and commands that move objects and references between
 224repositories.
 225
 226
 227Manipulation commands
 228~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 229
 230include::cmds-plumbingmanipulators.txt[]
 231
 232
 233Interrogation commands
 234~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 235
 236include::cmds-plumbinginterrogators.txt[]
 237
 238In general, the interrogate commands do not touch the files in
 239the working tree.
 240
 241
 242Synching repositories
 243~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 244
 245include::cmds-synchingrepositories.txt[]
 246
 247The following are helper commands used by the above; end users
 248typically do not use them directly.
 249
 250include::cmds-synchelpers.txt[]
 251
 252
 253Internal helper commands
 254~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 255
 256These are internal helper commands used by other commands; end
 257users typically do not use them directly.
 258
 259include::cmds-purehelpers.txt[]
 260
 261
 262Configuration Mechanism
 263-----------------------
 264
 265Git uses a simple text format to store customizations that are per
 266repository and are per user.  Such a configuration file may look
 267like this:
 268
 269------------
 270#
 271# A '#' or ';' character indicates a comment.
 272#
 273
 274; core variables
 275[core]
 276        ; Don't trust file modes
 277        filemode = false
 278
 279; user identity
 280[user]
 281        name = "Junio C Hamano"
 282        email = "gitster@pobox.com"
 283
 284------------
 285
 286Various commands read from the configuration file and adjust
 287their operation accordingly.  See linkgit:git-config[1] for a
 288list and more details about the configuration mechanism.
 289
 290
 291Identifier Terminology
 292----------------------
 293<object>::
 294        Indicates the object name for any type of object.
 295
 296<blob>::
 297        Indicates a blob object name.
 298
 299<tree>::
 300        Indicates a tree object name.
 301
 302<commit>::
 303        Indicates a commit object name.
 304
 305<tree-ish>::
 306        Indicates a tree, commit or tag object name.  A
 307        command that takes a <tree-ish> argument ultimately wants to
 308        operate on a <tree> object but automatically dereferences
 309        <commit> and <tag> objects that point at a <tree>.
 310
 311<commit-ish>::
 312        Indicates a commit or tag object name.  A
 313        command that takes a <commit-ish> argument ultimately wants to
 314        operate on a <commit> object but automatically dereferences
 315        <tag> objects that point at a <commit>.
 316
 317<type>::
 318        Indicates that an object type is required.
 319        Currently one of: `blob`, `tree`, `commit`, or `tag`.
 320
 321<file>::
 322        Indicates a filename - almost always relative to the
 323        root of the tree structure `GIT_INDEX_FILE` describes.
 324
 325Symbolic Identifiers
 326--------------------
 327Any Git command accepting any <object> can also use the following
 328symbolic notation:
 329
 330HEAD::
 331        indicates the head of the current branch.
 332
 333<tag>::
 334        a valid tag 'name'
 335        (i.e. a `refs/tags/<tag>` reference).
 336
 337<head>::
 338        a valid head 'name'
 339        (i.e. a `refs/heads/<head>` reference).
 340
 341For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see
 342"SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7].
 343
 344
 345File/Directory Structure
 346------------------------
 347
 348Please see the linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5] document.
 349
 350Read linkgit:githooks[5] for more details about each hook.
 351
 352Higher level SCMs may provide and manage additional information in the
 353`$GIT_DIR`.
 354
 355
 356Terminology
 357-----------
 358Please see linkgit:gitglossary[7].
 359
 360
 361Environment Variables
 362---------------------
 363Various Git commands use the following environment variables:
 364
 365The Git Repository
 366~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 367These environment variables apply to 'all' core Git commands. Nb: it
 368is worth noting that they may be used/overridden by SCMS sitting above
 369Git so take care if using a foreign front-end.
 370
 371`GIT_INDEX_FILE`::
 372        This environment allows the specification of an alternate
 373        index file. If not specified, the default of `$GIT_DIR/index`
 374        is used.
 375
 376`GIT_INDEX_VERSION`::
 377        This environment variable allows the specification of an index
 378        version for new repositories.  It won't affect existing index
 379        files.  By default index file version 2 or 3 is used. See
 380        linkgit:git-update-index[1] for more information.
 381
 382`GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY`::
 383        If the object storage directory is specified via this
 384        environment variable then the sha1 directories are created
 385        underneath - otherwise the default `$GIT_DIR/objects`
 386        directory is used.
 387
 388`GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES`::
 389        Due to the immutable nature of Git objects, old objects can be
 390        archived into shared, read-only directories. This variable
 391        specifies a ":" separated (on Windows ";" separated) list
 392        of Git object directories which can be used to search for Git
 393        objects. New objects will not be written to these directories.
 394+
 395        Entries that begin with `"` (double-quote) will be interpreted
 396        as C-style quoted paths, removing leading and trailing
 397        double-quotes and respecting backslash escapes. E.g., the value
 398        `"path-with-\"-and-:-in-it":vanilla-path` has two paths:
 399        `path-with-"-and-:-in-it` and `vanilla-path`.
 400
 401`GIT_DIR`::
 402        If the `GIT_DIR` environment variable is set then it
 403        specifies a path to use instead of the default `.git`
 404        for the base of the repository.
 405        The `--git-dir` command-line option also sets this value.
 406
 407`GIT_WORK_TREE`::
 408        Set the path to the root of the working tree.
 409        This can also be controlled by the `--work-tree` command-line
 410        option and the core.worktree configuration variable.
 411
 412`GIT_NAMESPACE`::
 413        Set the Git namespace; see linkgit:gitnamespaces[7] for details.
 414        The `--namespace` command-line option also sets this value.
 415
 416`GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES`::
 417        This should be a colon-separated list of absolute paths.  If
 418        set, it is a list of directories that Git should not chdir up
 419        into while looking for a repository directory (useful for
 420        excluding slow-loading network directories).  It will not
 421        exclude the current working directory or a GIT_DIR set on the
 422        command line or in the environment.  Normally, Git has to read
 423        the entries in this list and resolve any symlink that
 424        might be present in order to compare them with the current
 425        directory.  However, if even this access is slow, you
 426        can add an empty entry to the list to tell Git that the
 427        subsequent entries are not symlinks and needn't be resolved;
 428        e.g.,
 429        `GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES=/maybe/symlink::/very/slow/non/symlink`.
 430
 431`GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM`::
 432        When run in a directory that does not have ".git" repository
 433        directory, Git tries to find such a directory in the parent
 434        directories to find the top of the working tree, but by default it
 435        does not cross filesystem boundaries.  This environment variable
 436        can be set to true to tell Git not to stop at filesystem
 437        boundaries.  Like `GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES`, this will not affect
 438        an explicit repository directory set via `GIT_DIR` or on the
 439        command line.
 440
 441`GIT_COMMON_DIR`::
 442        If this variable is set to a path, non-worktree files that are
 443        normally in $GIT_DIR will be taken from this path
 444        instead. Worktree-specific files such as HEAD or index are
 445        taken from $GIT_DIR. See linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5] and
 446        linkgit:git-worktree[1] for
 447        details. This variable has lower precedence than other path
 448        variables such as GIT_INDEX_FILE, GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY...
 449
 450Git Commits
 451~~~~~~~~~~~
 452`GIT_AUTHOR_NAME`::
 453`GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL`::
 454`GIT_AUTHOR_DATE`::
 455`GIT_COMMITTER_NAME`::
 456`GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL`::
 457`GIT_COMMITTER_DATE`::
 458'EMAIL'::
 459        see linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]
 460
 461Git Diffs
 462~~~~~~~~~
 463`GIT_DIFF_OPTS`::
 464        Only valid setting is "--unified=??" or "-u??" to set the
 465        number of context lines shown when a unified diff is created.
 466        This takes precedence over any "-U" or "--unified" option
 467        value passed on the Git diff command line.
 468
 469`GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF`::
 470        When the environment variable `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` is set, the
 471        program named by it is called, instead of the diff invocation
 472        described above.  For a path that is added, removed, or modified,
 473        `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` is called with 7 parameters:
 474
 475        path old-file old-hex old-mode new-file new-hex new-mode
 476+
 477where:
 478
 479        <old|new>-file:: are files GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF can use to read the
 480                         contents of <old|new>,
 481        <old|new>-hex:: are the 40-hexdigit SHA-1 hashes,
 482        <old|new>-mode:: are the octal representation of the file modes.
 483+
 484The file parameters can point at the user's working file
 485(e.g. `new-file` in "git-diff-files"), `/dev/null` (e.g. `old-file`
 486when a new file is added), or a temporary file (e.g. `old-file` in the
 487index).  `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` should not worry about unlinking the
 488temporary file --- it is removed when `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` exits.
 489+
 490For a path that is unmerged, `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` is called with 1
 491parameter, <path>.
 492+
 493For each path `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` is called, two environment variables,
 494`GIT_DIFF_PATH_COUNTER` and `GIT_DIFF_PATH_TOTAL` are set.
 495
 496`GIT_DIFF_PATH_COUNTER`::
 497        A 1-based counter incremented by one for every path.
 498
 499`GIT_DIFF_PATH_TOTAL`::
 500        The total number of paths.
 501
 502other
 503~~~~~
 504`GIT_MERGE_VERBOSITY`::
 505        A number controlling the amount of output shown by
 506        the recursive merge strategy.  Overrides merge.verbosity.
 507        See linkgit:git-merge[1]
 508
 509`GIT_PAGER`::
 510        This environment variable overrides `$PAGER`. If it is set
 511        to an empty string or to the value "cat", Git will not launch
 512        a pager.  See also the `core.pager` option in
 513        linkgit:git-config[1].
 514
 515`GIT_EDITOR`::
 516        This environment variable overrides `$EDITOR` and `$VISUAL`.
 517        It is used by several Git commands when, on interactive mode,
 518        an editor is to be launched. See also linkgit:git-var[1]
 519        and the `core.editor` option in linkgit:git-config[1].
 520
 521`GIT_SSH`::
 522`GIT_SSH_COMMAND`::
 523        If either of these environment variables is set then 'git fetch'
 524        and 'git push' will use the specified command instead of 'ssh'
 525        when they need to connect to a remote system.
 526        The command-line parameters passed to the configured command are
 527        determined by the ssh variant.  See `ssh.variant` option in
 528        linkgit:git-config[1] for details.
 529
 530+
 531`$GIT_SSH_COMMAND` takes precedence over `$GIT_SSH`, and is interpreted
 532by the shell, which allows additional arguments to be included.
 533`$GIT_SSH` on the other hand must be just the path to a program
 534(which can be a wrapper shell script, if additional arguments are
 535needed).
 536+
 537Usually it is easier to configure any desired options through your
 538personal `.ssh/config` file.  Please consult your ssh documentation
 539for further details.
 540
 541`GIT_SSH_VARIANT`::
 542        If this environment variable is set, it overrides Git's autodetection
 543        whether `GIT_SSH`/`GIT_SSH_COMMAND`/`core.sshCommand` refer to OpenSSH,
 544        plink or tortoiseplink. This variable overrides the config setting
 545        `ssh.variant` that serves the same purpose.
 546
 547`GIT_ASKPASS`::
 548        If this environment variable is set, then Git commands which need to
 549        acquire passwords or passphrases (e.g. for HTTP or IMAP authentication)
 550        will call this program with a suitable prompt as command-line argument
 551        and read the password from its STDOUT. See also the `core.askPass`
 552        option in linkgit:git-config[1].
 553
 554`GIT_TERMINAL_PROMPT`::
 555        If this environment variable is set to `0`, git will not prompt
 556        on the terminal (e.g., when asking for HTTP authentication).
 557
 558`GIT_CONFIG_NOSYSTEM`::
 559        Whether to skip reading settings from the system-wide
 560        `$(prefix)/etc/gitconfig` file.  This environment variable can
 561        be used along with `$HOME` and `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME` to create a
 562        predictable environment for a picky script, or you can set it
 563        temporarily to avoid using a buggy `/etc/gitconfig` file while
 564        waiting for someone with sufficient permissions to fix it.
 565
 566`GIT_FLUSH`::
 567        If this environment variable is set to "1", then commands such
 568        as 'git blame' (in incremental mode), 'git rev-list', 'git log',
 569        'git check-attr' and 'git check-ignore' will
 570        force a flush of the output stream after each record have been
 571        flushed. If this
 572        variable is set to "0", the output of these commands will be done
 573        using completely buffered I/O.   If this environment variable is
 574        not set, Git will choose buffered or record-oriented flushing
 575        based on whether stdout appears to be redirected to a file or not.
 576
 577`GIT_TRACE`::
 578        Enables general trace messages, e.g. alias expansion, built-in
 579        command execution and external command execution.
 580+
 581If this variable is set to "1", "2" or "true" (comparison
 582is case insensitive), trace messages will be printed to
 583stderr.
 584+
 585If the variable is set to an integer value greater than 2
 586and lower than 10 (strictly) then Git will interpret this
 587value as an open file descriptor and will try to write the
 588trace messages into this file descriptor.
 589+
 590Alternatively, if the variable is set to an absolute path
 591(starting with a '/' character), Git will interpret this
 592as a file path and will try to write the trace messages
 593into it.
 594+
 595Unsetting the variable, or setting it to empty, "0" or
 596"false" (case insensitive) disables trace messages.
 597
 598`GIT_TRACE_FSMONITOR`::
 599        Enables trace messages for the filesystem monitor extension.
 600        See `GIT_TRACE` for available trace output options.
 601
 602`GIT_TRACE_PACK_ACCESS`::
 603        Enables trace messages for all accesses to any packs. For each
 604        access, the pack file name and an offset in the pack is
 605        recorded. This may be helpful for troubleshooting some
 606        pack-related performance problems.
 607        See `GIT_TRACE` for available trace output options.
 608
 609`GIT_TRACE_PACKET`::
 610        Enables trace messages for all packets coming in or out of a
 611        given program. This can help with debugging object negotiation
 612        or other protocol issues. Tracing is turned off at a packet
 613        starting with "PACK" (but see `GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE` below).
 614        See `GIT_TRACE` for available trace output options.
 615
 616`GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE`::
 617        Enables tracing of packfiles sent or received by a
 618        given program. Unlike other trace output, this trace is
 619        verbatim: no headers, and no quoting of binary data. You almost
 620        certainly want to direct into a file (e.g.,
 621        `GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE=/tmp/my.pack`) rather than displaying it on
 622        the terminal or mixing it with other trace output.
 623+
 624Note that this is currently only implemented for the client side
 625of clones and fetches.
 626
 627`GIT_TRACE_PERFORMANCE`::
 628        Enables performance related trace messages, e.g. total execution
 629        time of each Git command.
 630        See `GIT_TRACE` for available trace output options.
 631
 632`GIT_TRACE_SETUP`::
 633        Enables trace messages printing the .git, working tree and current
 634        working directory after Git has completed its setup phase.
 635        See `GIT_TRACE` for available trace output options.
 636
 637`GIT_TRACE_SHALLOW`::
 638        Enables trace messages that can help debugging fetching /
 639        cloning of shallow repositories.
 640        See `GIT_TRACE` for available trace output options.
 641
 642`GIT_TRACE_CURL`::
 643        Enables a curl full trace dump of all incoming and outgoing data,
 644        including descriptive information, of the git transport protocol.
 645        This is similar to doing curl `--trace-ascii` on the command line.
 646        This option overrides setting the `GIT_CURL_VERBOSE` environment
 647        variable.
 648        See `GIT_TRACE` for available trace output options.
 649
 650`GIT_TRACE_CURL_NO_DATA`::
 651        When a curl trace is enabled (see `GIT_TRACE_CURL` above), do not dump
 652        data (that is, only dump info lines and headers).
 653
 654`GIT_REDACT_COOKIES`::
 655        This can be set to a comma-separated list of strings. When a curl trace
 656        is enabled (see `GIT_TRACE_CURL` above), whenever a "Cookies:" header
 657        sent by the client is dumped, values of cookies whose key is in that
 658        list (case-sensitive) are redacted.
 659
 660`GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS`::
 661        Setting this variable to `1` will cause Git to treat all
 662        pathspecs literally, rather than as glob patterns. For example,
 663        running `GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS=1 git log -- '*.c'` will search
 664        for commits that touch the path `*.c`, not any paths that the
 665        glob `*.c` matches. You might want this if you are feeding
 666        literal paths to Git (e.g., paths previously given to you by
 667        `git ls-tree`, `--raw` diff output, etc).
 668
 669`GIT_GLOB_PATHSPECS`::
 670        Setting this variable to `1` will cause Git to treat all
 671        pathspecs as glob patterns (aka "glob" magic).
 672
 673`GIT_NOGLOB_PATHSPECS`::
 674        Setting this variable to `1` will cause Git to treat all
 675        pathspecs as literal (aka "literal" magic).
 676
 677`GIT_ICASE_PATHSPECS`::
 678        Setting this variable to `1` will cause Git to treat all
 679        pathspecs as case-insensitive.
 680
 681`GIT_REFLOG_ACTION`::
 682        When a ref is updated, reflog entries are created to keep
 683        track of the reason why the ref was updated (which is
 684        typically the name of the high-level command that updated
 685        the ref), in addition to the old and new values of the ref.
 686        A scripted Porcelain command can use set_reflog_action
 687        helper function in `git-sh-setup` to set its name to this
 688        variable when it is invoked as the top level command by the
 689        end user, to be recorded in the body of the reflog.
 690
 691`GIT_REF_PARANOIA`::
 692        If set to `1`, include broken or badly named refs when iterating
 693        over lists of refs. In a normal, non-corrupted repository, this
 694        does nothing. However, enabling it may help git to detect and
 695        abort some operations in the presence of broken refs. Git sets
 696        this variable automatically when performing destructive
 697        operations like linkgit:git-prune[1]. You should not need to set
 698        it yourself unless you want to be paranoid about making sure
 699        an operation has touched every ref (e.g., because you are
 700        cloning a repository to make a backup).
 701
 702`GIT_ALLOW_PROTOCOL`::
 703        If set to a colon-separated list of protocols, behave as if
 704        `protocol.allow` is set to `never`, and each of the listed
 705        protocols has `protocol.<name>.allow` set to `always`
 706        (overriding any existing configuration). In other words, any
 707        protocol not mentioned will be disallowed (i.e., this is a
 708        whitelist, not a blacklist). See the description of
 709        `protocol.allow` in linkgit:git-config[1] for more details.
 710
 711`GIT_PROTOCOL_FROM_USER`::
 712        Set to 0 to prevent protocols used by fetch/push/clone which are
 713        configured to the `user` state.  This is useful to restrict recursive
 714        submodule initialization from an untrusted repository or for programs
 715        which feed potentially-untrusted URLS to git commands.  See
 716        linkgit:git-config[1] for more details.
 717
 718`GIT_PROTOCOL`::
 719        For internal use only.  Used in handshaking the wire protocol.
 720        Contains a colon ':' separated list of keys with optional values
 721        'key[=value]'.  Presence of unknown keys and values must be
 722        ignored.
 723
 724`GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS`::
 725        If set to `0`, Git will complete any requested operation without
 726        performing any optional sub-operations that require taking a lock.
 727        For example, this will prevent `git status` from refreshing the
 728        index as a side effect. This is useful for processes running in
 729        the background which do not want to cause lock contention with
 730        other operations on the repository.  Defaults to `1`.
 731
 732`GIT_REDIRECT_STDIN`::
 733`GIT_REDIRECT_STDOUT`::
 734`GIT_REDIRECT_STDERR`::
 735        Windows-only: allow redirecting the standard input/output/error
 736        handles to paths specified by the environment variables. This is
 737        particularly useful in multi-threaded applications where the
 738        canonical way to pass standard handles via `CreateProcess()` is
 739        not an option because it would require the handles to be marked
 740        inheritable (and consequently *every* spawned process would
 741        inherit them, possibly blocking regular Git operations). The
 742        primary intended use case is to use named pipes for communication
 743        (e.g. `\\.\pipe\my-git-stdin-123`).
 744+
 745Two special values are supported: `off` will simply close the
 746corresponding standard handle, and if `GIT_REDIRECT_STDERR` is
 747`2>&1`, standard error will be redirected to the same handle as
 748standard output.
 749
 750`GIT_PRINT_SHA1_ELLIPSIS` (deprecated)::
 751        If set to `yes`, print an ellipsis following an
 752        (abbreviated) SHA-1 value.  This affects indications of
 753        detached HEADs (linkgit:git-checkout[1]) and the raw
 754        diff output (linkgit:git-diff[1]).  Printing an
 755        ellipsis in the cases mentioned is no longer considered
 756        adequate and support for it is likely to be removed in the
 757        foreseeable future (along with the variable).
 758
 759Discussion[[Discussion]]
 760------------------------
 761
 762More detail on the following is available from the
 763link:user-manual.html#git-concepts[Git concepts chapter of the
 764user-manual] and linkgit:gitcore-tutorial[7].
 765
 766A Git project normally consists of a working directory with a ".git"
 767subdirectory at the top level.  The .git directory contains, among other
 768things, a compressed object database representing the complete history
 769of the project, an "index" file which links that history to the current
 770contents of the working tree, and named pointers into that history such
 771as tags and branch heads.
 772
 773The object database contains objects of three main types: blobs, which
 774hold file data; trees, which point to blobs and other trees to build up
 775directory hierarchies; and commits, which each reference a single tree
 776and some number of parent commits.
 777
 778The commit, equivalent to what other systems call a "changeset" or
 779"version", represents a step in the project's history, and each parent
 780represents an immediately preceding step.  Commits with more than one
 781parent represent merges of independent lines of development.
 782
 783All objects are named by the SHA-1 hash of their contents, normally
 784written as a string of 40 hex digits.  Such names are globally unique.
 785The entire history leading up to a commit can be vouched for by signing
 786just that commit.  A fourth object type, the tag, is provided for this
 787purpose.
 788
 789When first created, objects are stored in individual files, but for
 790efficiency may later be compressed together into "pack files".
 791
 792Named pointers called refs mark interesting points in history.  A ref
 793may contain the SHA-1 name of an object or the name of another ref.  Refs
 794with names beginning `ref/head/` contain the SHA-1 name of the most
 795recent commit (or "head") of a branch under development.  SHA-1 names of
 796tags of interest are stored under `ref/tags/`.  A special ref named
 797`HEAD` contains the name of the currently checked-out branch.
 798
 799The index file is initialized with a list of all paths and, for each
 800path, a blob object and a set of attributes.  The blob object represents
 801the contents of the file as of the head of the current branch.  The
 802attributes (last modified time, size, etc.) are taken from the
 803corresponding file in the working tree.  Subsequent changes to the
 804working tree can be found by comparing these attributes.  The index may
 805be updated with new content, and new commits may be created from the
 806content stored in the index.
 807
 808The index is also capable of storing multiple entries (called "stages")
 809for a given pathname.  These stages are used to hold the various
 810unmerged version of a file when a merge is in progress.
 811
 812FURTHER DOCUMENTATION
 813---------------------
 814
 815See the references in the "description" section to get started
 816using Git.  The following is probably more detail than necessary
 817for a first-time user.
 818
 819The link:user-manual.html#git-concepts[Git concepts chapter of the
 820user-manual] and linkgit:gitcore-tutorial[7] both provide
 821introductions to the underlying Git architecture.
 822
 823See linkgit:gitworkflows[7] for an overview of recommended workflows.
 824
 825See also the link:howto-index.html[howto] documents for some useful
 826examples.
 827
 828The internals are documented in the
 829link:technical/api-index.html[Git API documentation].
 830
 831Users migrating from CVS may also want to
 832read linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7].
 833
 834
 835Authors
 836-------
 837Git was started by Linus Torvalds, and is currently maintained by Junio
 838C Hamano. Numerous contributions have come from the Git mailing list
 839<git@vger.kernel.org>.  http://www.openhub.net/p/git/contributors/summary
 840gives you a more complete list of contributors.
 841
 842If you have a clone of git.git itself, the
 843output of linkgit:git-shortlog[1] and linkgit:git-blame[1] can show you
 844the authors for specific parts of the project.
 845
 846Reporting Bugs
 847--------------
 848
 849Report bugs to the Git mailing list <git@vger.kernel.org> where the
 850development and maintenance is primarily done.  You do not have to be
 851subscribed to the list to send a message there.
 852
 853Issues which are security relevant should be disclosed privately to
 854the Git Security mailing list <git-security@googlegroups.com>.
 855
 856SEE ALSO
 857--------
 858linkgit:gittutorial[7], linkgit:gittutorial-2[7],
 859linkgit:giteveryday[7], linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7],
 860linkgit:gitglossary[7], linkgit:gitcore-tutorial[7],
 861linkgit:gitcli[7], link:user-manual.html[The Git User's Manual],
 862linkgit:gitworkflows[7]
 863
 864GIT
 865---
 866Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite