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 41 * Because `--` disambiguates revisions and paths in some commands, it 42 cannot be used for those commands to separate options and revisions. 43 You can use `--end-of-options` for this (it also works for commands 44 that do not distinguish between revisions in paths, in which case it 45 is simply an alias for `--`). 46+ 47When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is 48a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing 49disambiguating `--` at appropriate places. 50 51 * Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect 52 them from getting globbed by the shell. These two mean different 53 things: 54+ 55-------------------------------- 56$ git restore *.c 57$ git restore \*.c 58-------------------------------- 59+ 60The former lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking 61the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version 62in the index. The latter passes the `*.c` to Git, and you are asking 63the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to your 64working tree. After running `git add hello.c; rm hello.c`, you will _not_ 65see `hello.c` in your working tree with the former, but with the latter 66you will. 67 68 * Just as the filesystem '.' (period) refers to the current directory, 69 using a '.' as a repository name in Git (a dot-repository) is a relative 70 path and means your current repository. 71 72Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are 73scripting Git: 74 75 * it's preferred to use the non-dashed form of Git commands, which means that 76 you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`. 77 78 * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b` 79 to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work). 80 81 * when a command-line option takes an argument, use the 'stuck' form. In 82 other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short 83 options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg` 84 for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be 85 written in the 'stuck' form. 86 87 * when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is 88 not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write 89 `git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work 90 if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree. 91 92 * many commands allow a long option `--option` to be abbreviated 93 only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option 94 whose name begins with `opt`, you may be able to spell `--opt` to 95 invoke the `--option` flag), but you should fully spell them out 96 when writing your scripts; later versions of Git may introduce a 97 new option whose name shares the same prefix, e.g. `--optimize`, 98 to make a short prefix that used to be unique no longer unique. 99 100 101ENHANCED OPTION PARSER 102---------------------- 103From the Git 1.5.4 series and further, many Git commands (not all of them at the 104time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser. 105 106Here is a list of the facilities provided by this option parser. 107 108 109Magic Options 110~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 111Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a 112couple of magic command-line options: 113 114-h:: 115 gives a pretty printed usage of the command. 116+ 117--------------------------------------------- 118$ git describe -h 119usage: git describe [<options>] <commit-ish>* 120 or: git describe [<options>] --dirty 121 122 --contains find the tag that comes after the commit 123 --debug debug search strategy on stderr 124 --all use any ref 125 --tags use any tag, even unannotated 126 --long always use long format 127 --abbrev[=<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s 128--------------------------------------------- 129 130--help-all:: 131 Some Git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that 132 are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This 133 option gives the full list of options. 134 135 136Negating options 137~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 138Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `--no-`. For 139example, `git branch` has the option `--track` which is 'on' by default. You 140can use `--no-track` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `--color` 141and `--no-color`. 142 143 144Aggregating short options 145~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 146Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short 147options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or 148`git clean -fdx`. 149 150 151Abbreviating long options 152~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 153Commands that support the enhanced option parser accepts unique 154prefix of a long option as if it is fully spelled out, but use this 155with a caution. For example, `git commit --amen` behaves as if you 156typed `git commit --amend`, but that is true only until a later version 157of Git introduces another option that shares the same prefix, 158e.g. `git commit --amenity` option. 159 160 161Separating argument from the option 162~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 163You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate 164word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work: 165 166---------------------------- 167$ git foo --long-opt=Arg 168$ git foo --long-opt Arg 169$ git foo -oArg 170$ git foo -o Arg 171---------------------------- 172 173However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the 174'stuck' form must be used: 175---------------------------- 176$ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct 177$ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct 178$ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT 179---------------------------- 180 181 182NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS 183------------------------------------ 184 185Many commands that can work on files in the working tree 186and/or in the index can take `--cached` and/or `--index` 187options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because 188the index was originally called cache, these two are 189synonyms. They are *not* -- these two options mean very 190different things. 191 192 * The `--cached` option is used to ask a command that 193 usually works on files in the working tree to *only* work 194 with the index. For example, `git grep`, when used 195 without a commit to specify from which commit to look for 196 strings in, usually works on files in the working tree, 197 but with the `--cached` option, it looks for strings in 198 the index. 199 200 * The `--index` option is used to ask a command that 201 usually works on files in the working tree to *also* 202 affect the index. For example, `git stash apply` usually 203 merges changes recorded in a stash entry to the working tree, 204 but with the `--index` option, it also merges changes to 205 the index as well. 206 207`git apply` command can be used with `--cached` and 208`--index` (but not at the same time). Usually the command 209only affects the files in the working tree, but with 210`--index`, it patches both the files and their index 211entries, and with `--cached`, it modifies only the index 212entries. 213 214See also http://marc.info/?l=git&m=116563135620359 and 215http://marc.info/?l=git&m=119150393620273 for further 216information. 217 218Some other commands that also work on files in the working tree and/or 219in the index can take `--staged` and/or `--worktree`. 220 221* `--staged` is exactly like `--cached`, which is used to ask a 222 command to only work on the index, not the working tree. 223 224* `--worktree` is the opposite, to ask a command to work on the 225 working tree only, not the index. 226 227* The two options can be specified together to ask a command to work 228 on both the index and the working tree. 229 230GIT 231--- 232Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite