1gitcli(7) 2========= 3 4NAME 5---- 6gitcli - git command line interface and conventions 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10gitcli 11 12 13DESCRIPTION 14----------- 15 16This manual describes the convention used throughout git CLI. 17 18Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes 19"tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their 20arguments. Here are the rules: 21 22 * Revisions come first and then paths. 23 E.g. in `git diff v1.0 v2.0 arch/x86 include/asm-x86`, 24 `v1.0` and `v2.0` are revisions and `arch/x86` and `include/asm-x86` 25 are paths. 26 27 * When an argument can be misunderstood as either a revision or a path, 28 they can be disambiguated by placing `--` between them. 29 E.g. `git diff -- HEAD` is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work 30 tree. Please show changes between the version I staged in the index 31 and what I have in the work tree for that file". not "show difference 32 between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say 33 `git diff HEAD --` to ask for the latter. 34 35 * Without disambiguating `--`, git makes a reasonable guess, but errors 36 out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a 37 file called HEAD in your work tree, `git diff HEAD` is ambiguous, and 38 you have to say either `git diff HEAD --` or `git diff -- HEAD` to 39 disambiguate. 40 41When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is 42a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing 43disambiguating `--` at appropriate places. 44 45Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are 46scripting git: 47 48 * it's preferred to use the non dashed form of git commands, which means that 49 you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`. 50 51 * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b` 52 to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work). 53 54 * when a command line option takes an argument, use the 'sticked' form. In 55 other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short 56 options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg` 57 for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be 58 written in the 'sticked' form. 59 60 * when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is 61 not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write 62 `git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work 63 if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree. 64 65 * many commands allow a long option "--option" to be abbreviated 66 only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option 67 whose name begins with "opt", you may be able to spell "--opt" to 68 invoke the "--option" flag), but you should fully spell them out 69 when writing your scripts; later versions of Git may introduce a 70 new option whose name shares the same prefix, e.g. "--optimize", 71 to make a short prefix that used to be unique no longer unique. 72 73 74ENHANCED OPTION PARSER 75---------------------- 76From the git 1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not all of them at the 77time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser. 78 79Here is an exhaustive list of the facilities provided by this option parser. 80 81 82Magic Options 83~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 84Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a 85couple of magic command line options: 86 87-h:: 88 gives a pretty printed usage of the command. 89+ 90--------------------------------------------- 91$ git describe -h 92usage: git describe [options] <committish>* 93 94 --contains find the tag that comes after the commit 95 --debug debug search strategy on stderr 96 --all use any ref in .git/refs 97 --tags use any tag in .git/refs/tags 98 --abbrev [<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s 99 --candidates <n> consider <n> most recent tags (default: 10) 100--------------------------------------------- 101 102--help-all:: 103 Some git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that 104 are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This 105 option gives the full list of options. 106 107 108Negating options 109~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 110Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `--no-`. For 111example, `git branch` has the option `--track` which is 'on' by default. You 112can use `--no-track` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `--color` 113and `--no-color`. 114 115 116Aggregating short options 117~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 118Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short 119options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or 120`git clean -fdx`. 121 122 123Separating argument from the option 124~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 125You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate 126word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work: 127 128---------------------------- 129$ git foo --long-opt=Arg 130$ git foo --long-opt Arg 131$ git foo -oArg 132$ git foo -o Arg 133---------------------------- 134 135However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the 136'sticked' form must be used: 137---------------------------- 138$ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct 139$ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct 140$ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT 141---------------------------- 142 143 144NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS 145------------------------------------ 146 147Many commands that can work on files in the working tree 148and/or in the index can take `--cached` and/or `--index` 149options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because 150the index was originally called cache, these two are 151synonyms. They are *not* -- these two options mean very 152different things. 153 154 * The `--cached` option is used to ask a command that 155 usually works on files in the working tree to *only* work 156 with the index. For example, `git grep`, when used 157 without a commit to specify from which commit to look for 158 strings in, usually works on files in the working tree, 159 but with the `--cached` option, it looks for strings in 160 the index. 161 162 * The `--index` option is used to ask a command that 163 usually works on files in the working tree to *also* 164 affect the index. For example, `git stash apply` usually 165 merges changes recorded in a stash to the working tree, 166 but with the `--index` option, it also merges changes to 167 the index as well. 168 169`git apply` command can be used with `--cached` and 170`--index` (but not at the same time). Usually the command 171only affects the files in the working tree, but with 172`--index`, it patches both the files and their index 173entries, and with `--cached`, it modifies only the index 174entries. 175 176See also http://marc.info/?l=git&m=116563135620359 and 177http://marc.info/?l=git&m=119150393620273 for further 178information. 179 180GIT 181--- 182Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite