1git(1) 2====== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git - the stupid content tracker 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git' [--version] [--exec-path[=GIT_EXEC_PATH]] 13 [-p|--paginate|--no-pager] 14 [--bare] [--git-dir=GIT_DIR] [--work-tree=GIT_WORK_TREE] 15 [--help] COMMAND [ARGS] 16 17DESCRIPTION 18----------- 19Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an 20unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations 21and full access to internals. 22 23See linkgit:gittutorial[7] to get started, then see 24link:everyday.html[Everyday Git] for a useful minimum set of commands, and 25"man git-commandname" for documentation of each command. CVS users may 26also want to read linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7]. See 27the link:user-manual.html[Git User's Manual] for a more in-depth 28introduction. 29 30The COMMAND is either a name of a Git command (see below) or an alias 31as defined in the configuration file (see linkgit:git-config[1]). 32 33Formatted and hyperlinked version of the latest git 34documentation can be viewed at 35`http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/`. 36 37ifdef::stalenotes[] 38[NOTE] 39============ 40 41You are reading the documentation for the latest (possibly 42unreleased) version of git, that is available from 'master' 43branch of the `git.git` repository. 44Documentation for older releases are available here: 45 46* link:v1.5.6.3/git.html[documentation for release 1.5.6.3] 47 48* release notes for 49 link:RelNotes-1.5.6.3.txt[1.5.6.3]. 50 link:RelNotes-1.5.6.2.txt[1.5.6.2]. 51 link:RelNotes-1.5.6.1.txt[1.5.6.1]. 52 link:RelNotes-1.5.6.txt[1.5.6]. 53 54* link:v1.5.5.4/git.html[documentation for release 1.5.5.4] 55 56* release notes for 57 link:RelNotes-1.5.5.4.txt[1.5.5.4], 58 link:RelNotes-1.5.5.3.txt[1.5.5.3], 59 link:RelNotes-1.5.5.2.txt[1.5.5.2], 60 link:RelNotes-1.5.5.1.txt[1.5.5.1], 61 link:RelNotes-1.5.5.txt[1.5.5]. 62 63* link:v1.5.4.5/git.html[documentation for release 1.5.4.5] 64 65* release notes for 66 link:RelNotes-1.5.4.5.txt[1.5.4.5], 67 link:RelNotes-1.5.4.4.txt[1.5.4.4], 68 link:RelNotes-1.5.4.3.txt[1.5.4.3], 69 link:RelNotes-1.5.4.2.txt[1.5.4.2], 70 link:RelNotes-1.5.4.1.txt[1.5.4.1], 71 link:RelNotes-1.5.4.txt[1.5.4]. 72 73* link:v1.5.3.8/git.html[documentation for release 1.5.3.8] 74 75* release notes for 76 link:RelNotes-1.5.3.8.txt[1.5.3.8], 77 link:RelNotes-1.5.3.7.txt[1.5.3.7], 78 link:RelNotes-1.5.3.6.txt[1.5.3.6], 79 link:RelNotes-1.5.3.5.txt[1.5.3.5], 80 link:RelNotes-1.5.3.4.txt[1.5.3.4], 81 link:RelNotes-1.5.3.3.txt[1.5.3.3], 82 link:RelNotes-1.5.3.2.txt[1.5.3.2], 83 link:RelNotes-1.5.3.1.txt[1.5.3.1], 84 link:RelNotes-1.5.3.txt[1.5.3]. 85 86* link:v1.5.2.5/git.html[documentation for release 1.5.2.5] 87 88* release notes for 89 link:RelNotes-1.5.2.5.txt[1.5.2.5], 90 link:RelNotes-1.5.2.4.txt[1.5.2.4], 91 link:RelNotes-1.5.2.3.txt[1.5.2.3], 92 link:RelNotes-1.5.2.2.txt[1.5.2.2], 93 link:RelNotes-1.5.2.1.txt[1.5.2.1], 94 link:RelNotes-1.5.2.txt[1.5.2]. 95 96* link:v1.5.1.6/git.html[documentation for release 1.5.1.6] 97 98* release notes for 99 link:RelNotes-1.5.1.6.txt[1.5.1.6], 100 link:RelNotes-1.5.1.5.txt[1.5.1.5], 101 link:RelNotes-1.5.1.4.txt[1.5.1.4], 102 link:RelNotes-1.5.1.3.txt[1.5.1.3], 103 link:RelNotes-1.5.1.2.txt[1.5.1.2], 104 link:RelNotes-1.5.1.1.txt[1.5.1.1], 105 link:RelNotes-1.5.1.txt[1.5.1]. 106 107* link:v1.5.0.7/git.html[documentation for release 1.5.0.7] 108 109* release notes for 110 link:RelNotes-1.5.0.7.txt[1.5.0.7], 111 link:RelNotes-1.5.0.6.txt[1.5.0.6], 112 link:RelNotes-1.5.0.5.txt[1.5.0.5], 113 link:RelNotes-1.5.0.3.txt[1.5.0.3], 114 link:RelNotes-1.5.0.2.txt[1.5.0.2], 115 link:RelNotes-1.5.0.1.txt[1.5.0.1], 116 link:RelNotes-1.5.0.txt[1.5.0]. 117 118* documentation for release link:v1.4.4.4/git.html[1.4.4.4], 119 link:v1.3.3/git.html[1.3.3], 120 link:v1.2.6/git.html[1.2.6], 121 link:v1.0.13/git.html[1.0.13]. 122 123============ 124 125endif::stalenotes[] 126 127OPTIONS 128------- 129--version:: 130 Prints the git suite version that the 'git' program came from. 131 132--help:: 133 Prints the synopsis and a list of the most commonly used 134 commands. If the option '--all' or '-a' is given then all 135 available commands are printed. If a git command is named this 136 option will bring up the manual page for that command. 137+ 138Other options are available to control how the manual page is 139displayed. See linkgit:git-help[1] for more information, 140because `git --help ...` is converted internally into `git 141help ...`. 142 143--exec-path:: 144 Path to wherever your core git programs are installed. 145 This can also be controlled by setting the GIT_EXEC_PATH 146 environment variable. If no path is given, 'git' will print 147 the current setting and then exit. 148 149-p:: 150--paginate:: 151 Pipe all output into 'less' (or if set, $PAGER). 152 153--no-pager:: 154 Do not pipe git output into a pager. 155 156--git-dir=<path>:: 157 Set the path to the repository. This can also be controlled by 158 setting the GIT_DIR environment variable. It can be an absolute 159 path or relative path to current working directory. 160 161--work-tree=<path>:: 162 Set the path to the working tree. The value will not be 163 used in combination with repositories found automatically in 164 a .git directory (i.e. $GIT_DIR is not set). 165 This can also be controlled by setting the GIT_WORK_TREE 166 environment variable and the core.worktree configuration 167 variable. It can be an absolute path or relative path to 168 the directory specified by --git-dir or GIT_DIR. 169 Note: If --git-dir or GIT_DIR are specified but none of 170 --work-tree, GIT_WORK_TREE and core.worktree is specified, 171 the current working directory is regarded as the top directory 172 of your working tree. 173 174--bare:: 175 Treat the repository as a bare repository. If GIT_DIR 176 environment is not set, it is set to the current working 177 directory. 178 179 180FURTHER DOCUMENTATION 181--------------------- 182 183See the references above to get started using git. The following is 184probably more detail than necessary for a first-time user. 185 186The link:user-manual.html#git-concepts[git concepts chapter of the 187user-manual] and linkgit:gitcore-tutorial[7] both provide 188introductions to the underlying git architecture. 189 190See also the link:howto-index.html[howto] documents for some useful 191examples. 192 193The internals are documented in the 194link:technical/api-index.html[GIT API documentation]. 195 196GIT COMMANDS 197------------ 198 199We divide git into high level ("porcelain") commands and low level 200("plumbing") commands. 201 202High-level commands (porcelain) 203------------------------------- 204 205We separate the porcelain commands into the main commands and some 206ancillary user utilities. 207 208Main porcelain commands 209~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 210 211include::cmds-mainporcelain.txt[] 212 213Ancillary Commands 214~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 215Manipulators: 216 217include::cmds-ancillarymanipulators.txt[] 218 219Interrogators: 220 221include::cmds-ancillaryinterrogators.txt[] 222 223 224Interacting with Others 225~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 226 227These commands are to interact with foreign SCM and with other 228people via patch over e-mail. 229 230include::cmds-foreignscminterface.txt[] 231 232 233Low-level commands (plumbing) 234----------------------------- 235 236Although git includes its 237own porcelain layer, its low-level commands are sufficient to support 238development of alternative porcelains. Developers of such porcelains 239might start by reading about linkgit:git-update-index[1] and 240linkgit:git-read-tree[1]. 241 242The interface (input, output, set of options and the semantics) 243to these low-level commands are meant to be a lot more stable 244than Porcelain level commands, because these commands are 245primarily for scripted use. The interface to Porcelain commands 246on the other hand are subject to change in order to improve the 247end user experience. 248 249The following description divides 250the low-level commands into commands that manipulate objects (in 251the repository, index, and working tree), commands that interrogate and 252compare objects, and commands that move objects and references between 253repositories. 254 255 256Manipulation commands 257~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 258 259include::cmds-plumbingmanipulators.txt[] 260 261 262Interrogation commands 263~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 264 265include::cmds-plumbinginterrogators.txt[] 266 267In general, the interrogate commands do not touch the files in 268the working tree. 269 270 271Synching repositories 272~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 273 274include::cmds-synchingrepositories.txt[] 275 276The following are helper programs used by the above; end users 277typically do not use them directly. 278 279include::cmds-synchelpers.txt[] 280 281 282Internal helper commands 283~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 284 285These are internal helper commands used by other commands; end 286users typically do not use them directly. 287 288include::cmds-purehelpers.txt[] 289 290 291Configuration Mechanism 292----------------------- 293 294Starting from 0.99.9 (actually mid 0.99.8.GIT), `.git/config` file 295is used to hold per-repository configuration options. It is a 296simple text file modeled after `.ini` format familiar to some 297people. Here is an example: 298 299------------ 300# 301# A '#' or ';' character indicates a comment. 302# 303 304; core variables 305[core] 306 ; Don't trust file modes 307 filemode = false 308 309; user identity 310[user] 311 name = "Junio C Hamano" 312 email = "junkio@twinsun.com" 313 314------------ 315 316Various commands read from the configuration file and adjust 317their operation accordingly. 318 319 320Identifier Terminology 321---------------------- 322<object>:: 323 Indicates the object name for any type of object. 324 325<blob>:: 326 Indicates a blob object name. 327 328<tree>:: 329 Indicates a tree object name. 330 331<commit>:: 332 Indicates a commit object name. 333 334<tree-ish>:: 335 Indicates a tree, commit or tag object name. A 336 command that takes a <tree-ish> argument ultimately wants to 337 operate on a <tree> object but automatically dereferences 338 <commit> and <tag> objects that point at a <tree>. 339 340<commit-ish>:: 341 Indicates a commit or tag object name. A 342 command that takes a <commit-ish> argument ultimately wants to 343 operate on a <commit> object but automatically dereferences 344 <tag> objects that point at a <commit>. 345 346<type>:: 347 Indicates that an object type is required. 348 Currently one of: `blob`, `tree`, `commit`, or `tag`. 349 350<file>:: 351 Indicates a filename - almost always relative to the 352 root of the tree structure `GIT_INDEX_FILE` describes. 353 354Symbolic Identifiers 355-------------------- 356Any git command accepting any <object> can also use the following 357symbolic notation: 358 359HEAD:: 360 indicates the head of the current branch (i.e. the 361 contents of `$GIT_DIR/HEAD`). 362 363<tag>:: 364 a valid tag 'name' 365 (i.e. the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags/<tag>`). 366 367<head>:: 368 a valid head 'name' 369 (i.e. the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/<head>`). 370 371For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see 372"SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. 373 374 375File/Directory Structure 376------------------------ 377 378Please see the linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5] document. 379 380Read linkgit:githooks[5] for more details about each hook. 381 382Higher level SCMs may provide and manage additional information in the 383`$GIT_DIR`. 384 385 386Terminology 387----------- 388Please see linkgit:gitglossary[7]. 389 390 391Environment Variables 392--------------------- 393Various git commands use the following environment variables: 394 395The git Repository 396~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 397These environment variables apply to 'all' core git commands. Nb: it 398is worth noting that they may be used/overridden by SCMS sitting above 399git so take care if using Cogito etc. 400 401'GIT_INDEX_FILE':: 402 This environment allows the specification of an alternate 403 index file. If not specified, the default of `$GIT_DIR/index` 404 is used. 405 406'GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY':: 407 If the object storage directory is specified via this 408 environment variable then the sha1 directories are created 409 underneath - otherwise the default `$GIT_DIR/objects` 410 directory is used. 411 412'GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES':: 413 Due to the immutable nature of git objects, old objects can be 414 archived into shared, read-only directories. This variable 415 specifies a ":" separated (on Windows ";" separated) list 416 of git object directories which can be used to search for git 417 objects. New objects will not be written to these directories. 418 419'GIT_DIR':: 420 If the 'GIT_DIR' environment variable is set then it 421 specifies a path to use instead of the default `.git` 422 for the base of the repository. 423 424'GIT_WORK_TREE':: 425 Set the path to the working tree. The value will not be 426 used in combination with repositories found automatically in 427 a .git directory (i.e. $GIT_DIR is not set). 428 This can also be controlled by the '--work-tree' command line 429 option and the core.worktree configuration variable. 430 431'GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES':: 432 This should be a colon-separated list of absolute paths. 433 If set, it is a list of directories that git should not chdir 434 up into while looking for a repository directory. 435 It will not exclude the current working directory or 436 a GIT_DIR set on the command line or in the environment. 437 (Useful for excluding slow-loading network directories.) 438 439git Commits 440~~~~~~~~~~~ 441'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME':: 442'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL':: 443'GIT_AUTHOR_DATE':: 444'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME':: 445'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL':: 446'GIT_COMMITTER_DATE':: 447'EMAIL':: 448 see linkgit:git-commit-tree[1] 449 450git Diffs 451~~~~~~~~~ 452'GIT_DIFF_OPTS':: 453 Only valid setting is "--unified=??" or "-u??" to set the 454 number of context lines shown when a unified diff is created. 455 This takes precedence over any "-U" or "--unified" option 456 value passed on the git diff command line. 457 458'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF':: 459 When the environment variable 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF' is set, the 460 program named by it is called, instead of the diff invocation 461 described above. For a path that is added, removed, or modified, 462 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF' is called with 7 parameters: 463 464 path old-file old-hex old-mode new-file new-hex new-mode 465+ 466where: 467 468 <old|new>-file:: are files GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF can use to read the 469 contents of <old|new>, 470 <old|new>-hex:: are the 40-hexdigit SHA1 hashes, 471 <old|new>-mode:: are the octal representation of the file modes. 472 473+ 474The file parameters can point at the user's working file 475(e.g. `new-file` in "git-diff-files"), `/dev/null` (e.g. `old-file` 476when a new file is added), or a temporary file (e.g. `old-file` in the 477index). 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF' should not worry about unlinking the 478temporary file --- it is removed when 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF' exits. 479+ 480For a path that is unmerged, 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF' is called with 1 481parameter, <path>. 482 483other 484~~~~~ 485'GIT_MERGE_VERBOSITY':: 486 A number controlling the amount of output shown by 487 the recursive merge strategy. Overrides merge.verbosity. 488 See linkgit:git-merge[1] 489 490'GIT_PAGER':: 491 This environment variable overrides `$PAGER`. If it is set 492 to an empty string or to the value "cat", git will not launch 493 a pager. 494 495'GIT_SSH':: 496 If this environment variable is set then 'git-fetch' 497 and 'git-push' will use this command instead 498 of 'ssh' when they need to connect to a remote system. 499 The '$GIT_SSH' command will be given exactly two arguments: 500 the 'username@host' (or just 'host') from the URL and the 501 shell command to execute on that remote system. 502+ 503To pass options to the program that you want to list in GIT_SSH 504you will need to wrap the program and options into a shell script, 505then set GIT_SSH to refer to the shell script. 506+ 507Usually it is easier to configure any desired options through your 508personal `.ssh/config` file. Please consult your ssh documentation 509for further details. 510 511'GIT_FLUSH':: 512 If this environment variable is set to "1", then commands such 513 as 'git-blame' (in incremental mode), 'git-rev-list', 'git-log', 514 and 'git-whatchanged' will force a flush of the output stream 515 after each commit-oriented record have been flushed. If this 516 variable is set to "0", the output of these commands will be done 517 using completely buffered I/O. If this environment variable is 518 not set, git will choose buffered or record-oriented flushing 519 based on whether stdout appears to be redirected to a file or not. 520 521'GIT_TRACE':: 522 If this variable is set to "1", "2" or "true" (comparison 523 is case insensitive), git will print `trace:` messages on 524 stderr telling about alias expansion, built-in command 525 execution and external command execution. 526 If this variable is set to an integer value greater than 1 527 and lower than 10 (strictly) then git will interpret this 528 value as an open file descriptor and will try to write the 529 trace messages into this file descriptor. 530 Alternatively, if this variable is set to an absolute path 531 (starting with a '/' character), git will interpret this 532 as a file path and will try to write the trace messages 533 into it. 534 535Discussion[[Discussion]] 536------------------------ 537 538More detail on the following is available from the 539link:user-manual.html#git-concepts[git concepts chapter of the 540user-manual] and linkgit:gitcore-tutorial[7]. 541 542A git project normally consists of a working directory with a ".git" 543subdirectory at the top level. The .git directory contains, among other 544things, a compressed object database representing the complete history 545of the project, an "index" file which links that history to the current 546contents of the working tree, and named pointers into that history such 547as tags and branch heads. 548 549The object database contains objects of three main types: blobs, which 550hold file data; trees, which point to blobs and other trees to build up 551directory hierarchies; and commits, which each reference a single tree 552and some number of parent commits. 553 554The commit, equivalent to what other systems call a "changeset" or 555"version", represents a step in the project's history, and each parent 556represents an immediately preceding step. Commits with more than one 557parent represent merges of independent lines of development. 558 559All objects are named by the SHA1 hash of their contents, normally 560written as a string of 40 hex digits. Such names are globally unique. 561The entire history leading up to a commit can be vouched for by signing 562just that commit. A fourth object type, the tag, is provided for this 563purpose. 564 565When first created, objects are stored in individual files, but for 566efficiency may later be compressed together into "pack files". 567 568Named pointers called refs mark interesting points in history. A ref 569may contain the SHA1 name of an object or the name of another ref. Refs 570with names beginning `ref/head/` contain the SHA1 name of the most 571recent commit (or "head") of a branch under development. SHA1 names of 572tags of interest are stored under `ref/tags/`. A special ref named 573`HEAD` contains the name of the currently checked-out branch. 574 575The index file is initialized with a list of all paths and, for each 576path, a blob object and a set of attributes. The blob object represents 577the contents of the file as of the head of the current branch. The 578attributes (last modified time, size, etc.) are taken from the 579corresponding file in the working tree. Subsequent changes to the 580working tree can be found by comparing these attributes. The index may 581be updated with new content, and new commits may be created from the 582content stored in the index. 583 584The index is also capable of storing multiple entries (called "stages") 585for a given pathname. These stages are used to hold the various 586unmerged version of a file when a merge is in progress. 587 588Authors 589------- 590* git's founding father is Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>. 591* The current git nurse is Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>. 592* The git potty was written by Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se>. 593* General upbringing is handled by the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 594 595Documentation 596-------------- 597The documentation for git suite was started by David Greaves 598<david@dgreaves.com>, and later enhanced greatly by the 599contributors on the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 600 601SEE ALSO 602-------- 603linkgit:gittutorial[7], linkgit:gittutorial-2[7], 604linkgit:everyday[7], linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7], 605linkgit:gitglossary[7], linkgit:gitcore-tutorial[7], 606linkgit:gitcli[7], link:user-manual.html[The Git User's Manual] 607 608GIT 609--- 610Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite