Documentation / git-rev-parse.txton commit git: run in a directory given with -C option (44e1e4d)
   1git-rev-parse(1)
   2================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-rev-parse - Pick out and massage parameters
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git rev-parse' [ --option ] <args>...
  13
  14DESCRIPTION
  15-----------
  16
  17Many Git porcelainish commands take mixture of flags
  18(i.e. parameters that begin with a dash '-') and parameters
  19meant for the underlying 'git rev-list' command they use internally
  20and flags and parameters for the other commands they use
  21downstream of 'git rev-list'.  This command is used to
  22distinguish between them.
  23
  24
  25OPTIONS
  26-------
  27--parseopt::
  28        Use 'git rev-parse' in option parsing mode (see PARSEOPT section below).
  29
  30--keep-dashdash::
  31        Only meaningful in `--parseopt` mode. Tells the option parser to echo
  32        out the first `--` met instead of skipping it.
  33
  34--stop-at-non-option::
  35        Only meaningful in `--parseopt` mode.  Lets the option parser stop at
  36        the first non-option argument.  This can be used to parse sub-commands
  37        that take options themselves.
  38
  39--sq-quote::
  40        Use 'git rev-parse' in shell quoting mode (see SQ-QUOTE
  41        section below). In contrast to the `--sq` option below, this
  42        mode does only quoting. Nothing else is done to command input.
  43
  44--revs-only::
  45        Do not output flags and parameters not meant for
  46        'git rev-list' command.
  47
  48--no-revs::
  49        Do not output flags and parameters meant for
  50        'git rev-list' command.
  51
  52--flags::
  53        Do not output non-flag parameters.
  54
  55--no-flags::
  56        Do not output flag parameters.
  57
  58--default <arg>::
  59        If there is no parameter given by the user, use `<arg>`
  60        instead.
  61
  62--prefix <arg>::
  63        Behave as if 'git rev-parse' was invoked from the `<arg>`
  64        subdirectory of the working tree.  Any relative filenames are
  65        resolved as if they are prefixed by `<arg>` and will be printed
  66        in that form.
  67+
  68This can be used to convert arguments to a command run in a subdirectory
  69so that they can still be used after moving to the top-level of the
  70repository.  For example:
  71+
  72----
  73prefix=$(git rev-parse --show-prefix)
  74cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
  75eval "set -- $(git rev-parse --sq --prefix "$prefix" "$@")"
  76----
  77
  78--verify::
  79        Verify that exactly one parameter is provided, and that it
  80        can be turned into a raw 20-byte SHA-1 that can be used to
  81        access the object database. If so, emit it to the standard
  82        output; otherwise, error out.
  83+
  84If you want to make sure that the output actually names an object in
  85your object database and/or can be used as a specific type of object
  86you require, you can add "^{type}" peeling operator to the parameter.
  87For example, `git rev-parse "$VAR^{commit}"` will make sure `$VAR`
  88names an existing object that is a commit-ish (i.e. a commit, or an
  89annotated tag that points at a commit).  To make sure that `$VAR`
  90names an existing object of any type, `git rev-parse "$VAR^{object}"`
  91can be used.
  92
  93-q::
  94--quiet::
  95        Only meaningful in `--verify` mode. Do not output an error
  96        message if the first argument is not a valid object name;
  97        instead exit with non-zero status silently.
  98
  99--sq::
 100        Usually the output is made one line per flag and
 101        parameter.  This option makes output a single line,
 102        properly quoted for consumption by shell.  Useful when
 103        you expect your parameter to contain whitespaces and
 104        newlines (e.g. when using pickaxe `-S` with
 105        'git diff-{asterisk}'). In contrast to the `--sq-quote` option,
 106        the command input is still interpreted as usual.
 107
 108--not::
 109        When showing object names, prefix them with '{caret}' and
 110        strip '{caret}' prefix from the object names that already have
 111        one.
 112
 113--symbolic::
 114        Usually the object names are output in SHA-1 form (with
 115        possible '{caret}' prefix); this option makes them output in a
 116        form as close to the original input as possible.
 117
 118--symbolic-full-name::
 119        This is similar to \--symbolic, but it omits input that
 120        are not refs (i.e. branch or tag names; or more
 121        explicitly disambiguating "heads/master" form, when you
 122        want to name the "master" branch when there is an
 123        unfortunately named tag "master"), and show them as full
 124        refnames (e.g. "refs/heads/master").
 125
 126--abbrev-ref[=(strict|loose)]::
 127        A non-ambiguous short name of the objects name.
 128        The option core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict
 129        abbreviation mode.
 130
 131--disambiguate=<prefix>::
 132        Show every object whose name begins with the given prefix.
 133        The <prefix> must be at least 4 hexadecimal digits long to
 134        avoid listing each and every object in the repository by
 135        mistake.
 136
 137--all::
 138        Show all refs found in `refs/`.
 139
 140--branches[=pattern]::
 141--tags[=pattern]::
 142--remotes[=pattern]::
 143        Show all branches, tags, or remote-tracking branches,
 144        respectively (i.e., refs found in `refs/heads`,
 145        `refs/tags`, or `refs/remotes`, respectively).
 146+
 147If a `pattern` is given, only refs matching the given shell glob are
 148shown.  If the pattern does not contain a globbing character (`?`,
 149`*`, or `[`), it is turned into a prefix match by appending `/*`.
 150
 151--glob=pattern::
 152        Show all refs matching the shell glob pattern `pattern`. If
 153        the pattern does not start with `refs/`, this is automatically
 154        prepended.  If the pattern does not contain a globbing
 155        character (`?`, `*`, or `[`), it is turned into a prefix
 156        match by appending `/*`.
 157
 158--show-toplevel::
 159        Show the absolute path of the top-level directory.
 160
 161--show-prefix::
 162        When the command is invoked from a subdirectory, show the
 163        path of the current directory relative to the top-level
 164        directory.
 165
 166--show-cdup::
 167        When the command is invoked from a subdirectory, show the
 168        path of the top-level directory relative to the current
 169        directory (typically a sequence of "../", or an empty string).
 170
 171--git-dir::
 172        Show `$GIT_DIR` if defined. Otherwise show the path to
 173        the .git directory. The path shown, when relative, is
 174        relative to the current working directory.
 175+
 176If `$GIT_DIR` is not defined and the current directory
 177is not detected to lie in a Git repository or work tree
 178print a message to stderr and exit with nonzero status.
 179
 180--is-inside-git-dir::
 181        When the current working directory is below the repository
 182        directory print "true", otherwise "false".
 183
 184--is-inside-work-tree::
 185        When the current working directory is inside the work tree of the
 186        repository print "true", otherwise "false".
 187
 188--is-bare-repository::
 189        When the repository is bare print "true", otherwise "false".
 190
 191--local-env-vars::
 192        List the GIT_* environment variables that are local to the
 193        repository (e.g. GIT_DIR or GIT_WORK_TREE, but not GIT_EDITOR).
 194        Only the names of the variables are listed, not their value,
 195        even if they are set.
 196
 197--short::
 198--short=number::
 199        Instead of outputting the full SHA-1 values of object names try to
 200        abbreviate them to a shorter unique name. When no length is specified
 201        7 is used. The minimum length is 4.
 202
 203--since=datestring::
 204--after=datestring::
 205        Parse the date string, and output the corresponding
 206        --max-age= parameter for 'git rev-list'.
 207
 208--until=datestring::
 209--before=datestring::
 210        Parse the date string, and output the corresponding
 211        --min-age= parameter for 'git rev-list'.
 212
 213<args>...::
 214        Flags and parameters to be parsed.
 215
 216--resolve-git-dir <path>::
 217        Check if <path> is a valid repository or a gitfile that
 218        points at a valid repository, and print the location of the
 219        repository.  If <path> is a gitfile then the resolved path
 220        to the real repository is printed.
 221
 222
 223include::revisions.txt[]
 224
 225PARSEOPT
 226--------
 227
 228In `--parseopt` mode, 'git rev-parse' helps massaging options to bring to shell
 229scripts the same facilities C builtins have. It works as an option normalizer
 230(e.g. splits single switches aggregate values), a bit like `getopt(1)` does.
 231
 232It takes on the standard input the specification of the options to parse and
 233understand, and echoes on the standard output a string suitable for `sh(1)` `eval`
 234to replace the arguments with normalized ones.  In case of error, it outputs
 235usage on the standard error stream, and exits with code 129.
 236
 237Note: Make sure you quote the result when passing it to `eval`.  See
 238below for an example.
 239
 240Input Format
 241~~~~~~~~~~~~
 242
 243'git rev-parse --parseopt' input format is fully text based. It has two parts,
 244separated by a line that contains only `--`. The lines before the separator
 245(should be more than one) are used for the usage.
 246The lines after the separator describe the options.
 247
 248Each line of options has this format:
 249
 250------------
 251<opt_spec><flags>* SP+ help LF
 252------------
 253
 254`<opt_spec>`::
 255        its format is the short option character, then the long option name
 256        separated by a comma. Both parts are not required, though at least one
 257        is necessary. `h,help`, `dry-run` and `f` are all three correct
 258        `<opt_spec>`.
 259
 260`<flags>`::
 261        `<flags>` are of `*`, `=`, `?` or `!`.
 262        * Use `=` if the option takes an argument.
 263
 264        * Use `?` to mean that the option is optional (though its use is discouraged).
 265
 266        * Use `*` to mean that this option should not be listed in the usage
 267          generated for the `-h` argument. It's shown for `--help-all` as
 268          documented in linkgit:gitcli[7].
 269
 270        * Use `!` to not make the corresponding negated long option available.
 271
 272The remainder of the line, after stripping the spaces, is used
 273as the help associated to the option.
 274
 275Blank lines are ignored, and lines that don't match this specification are used
 276as option group headers (start the line with a space to create such
 277lines on purpose).
 278
 279Example
 280~~~~~~~
 281
 282------------
 283OPTS_SPEC="\
 284some-command [options] <args>...
 285
 286some-command does foo and bar!
 287--
 288h,help    show the help
 289
 290foo       some nifty option --foo
 291bar=      some cool option --bar with an argument
 292
 293  An option group Header
 294C?        option C with an optional argument"
 295
 296eval "$(echo "$OPTS_SPEC" | git rev-parse --parseopt -- "$@" || echo exit $?)"
 297------------
 298
 299SQ-QUOTE
 300--------
 301
 302In `--sq-quote` mode, 'git rev-parse' echoes on the standard output a
 303single line suitable for `sh(1)` `eval`. This line is made by
 304normalizing the arguments following `--sq-quote`. Nothing other than
 305quoting the arguments is done.
 306
 307If you want command input to still be interpreted as usual by
 308'git rev-parse' before the output is shell quoted, see the `--sq`
 309option.
 310
 311Example
 312~~~~~~~
 313
 314------------
 315$ cat >your-git-script.sh <<\EOF
 316#!/bin/sh
 317args=$(git rev-parse --sq-quote "$@")   # quote user-supplied arguments
 318command="git frotz -n24 $args"          # and use it inside a handcrafted
 319                                        # command line
 320eval "$command"
 321EOF
 322
 323$ sh your-git-script.sh "a b'c"
 324------------
 325
 326EXAMPLES
 327--------
 328
 329* Print the object name of the current commit:
 330+
 331------------
 332$ git rev-parse --verify HEAD
 333------------
 334
 335* Print the commit object name from the revision in the $REV shell variable:
 336+
 337------------
 338$ git rev-parse --verify $REV^{commit}
 339------------
 340+
 341This will error out if $REV is empty or not a valid revision.
 342
 343* Similar to above:
 344+
 345------------
 346$ git rev-parse --default master --verify $REV
 347------------
 348+
 349but if $REV is empty, the commit object name from master will be printed.
 350
 351GIT
 352---
 353Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite