1gitcli(5) 2========= 3 4NAME 5---- 6gitcli - git command line interface and conventions 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10gitcli 11 12 13DESCRIPTION 14----------- 15 16This manual describes best practice in how to use git CLI. Here are 17the rules that you should follow when you are scripting git: 18 19 * it's preferred to use the non dashed form of git commands, which means that 20 you should prefer `"git foo"` to `"git-foo"`. 21 22 * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `"git foo -a -b"` 23 to `"git foo -ab"`, the latter may not even work). 24 25 * when a command line option takes an argument, use the 'sticked' form. In 26 other words, write `"git foo -oArg"` instead of `"git foo -o Arg"` for short 27 options, and `"git foo --long-opt=Arg"` instead of `"git foo --long-opt Arg"` 28 for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be 29 written in the 'sticked' form. 30 31 * when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is 32 not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write 33 `"git log -1 HEAD"` but write `"git log -1 HEAD --"`; the former will not work 34 if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree. 35 36 37ENHANCED CLI 38------------ 39From the git 1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not all of them at the 40time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser. 41 42Here is an exhaustive list of the facilities provided by this option parser. 43 44 45Magic Options 46~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 47Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a 48couple of magic command line options: 49 50-h:: 51 gives a pretty printed usage of the command. 52+ 53--------------------------------------------- 54$ git describe -h 55usage: git-describe [options] <committish>* 56 57 --contains find the tag that comes after the commit 58 --debug debug search strategy on stderr 59 --all use any ref in .git/refs 60 --tags use any tag in .git/refs/tags 61 --abbrev [<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s 62 --candidates <n> consider <n> most recent tags (default: 10) 63--------------------------------------------- 64 65--help-all:: 66 Some git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that 67 are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This 68 option gives the full list of options. 69 70 71Negating options 72~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 73Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `"--no-"`. For 74example, `"git branch"` has the option `"--track"` which is 'on' by default. You 75can use `"--no-track"` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `"--color"` 76and `"--no-color"`. 77 78 79Aggregating short options 80~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 81Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short 82options. This means that you can for example use `"git rm -rf"` or 83`"git clean -fdx"`. 84 85 86Separating argument from the option 87~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 88You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate 89word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work: 90 91---------------------------- 92$ git foo --long-opt=Arg 93$ git foo --long-opt Arg 94$ git foo -oArg 95$ git foo -o Arg 96---------------------------- 97 98However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the 99'sticked' form must be used: 100---------------------------- 101$ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct 102$ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct 103$ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT 104---------------------------- 105 106 107Documentation 108------------- 109Documentation by Pierre Habouzit. 110 111GIT 112--- 113Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite