NAME
----
-git-describe - Show the most recent tag that is reachable from a commit
+git-describe - Describe a commit using the most recent tag reachable from it
SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
-'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] <committish>...
+'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] <commit-ish>...
'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] --dirty[=<mark>]
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
-------
-<committish>...::
- Committish object names to describe.
+<commit-ish>...::
+ Commit-ish object names to describe.
--dirty[=<mark>]::
Describe the working tree.
--candidates=<n>::
Instead of considering only the 10 most recent tags as
- candidates to describe the input committish consider
+ candidates to describe the input commit-ish consider
up to <n> candidates. Increasing <n> above 10 will take
slightly longer but may produce a more accurate result.
An <n> of 0 will cause only exact matches to be output.
SEARCH STRATEGY
---------------
-For each committish supplied, 'git describe' will first look for
+For each commit-ish supplied, 'git describe' will first look for
a tag which tags exactly that commit. Annotated tags will always
be preferred over lightweight tags, and tags with newer dates will
always be preferred over tags with older dates. If an exact match
If an exact match was not found, 'git describe' will walk back
through the commit history to locate an ancestor commit which
has been tagged. The ancestor's tag will be output along with an
-abbreviation of the input committish's SHA-1. If '--first-parent' was
+abbreviation of the input commit-ish's SHA-1. If '--first-parent' was
specified then the walk will only consider the first parent of each
commit.
If multiple tags were found during the walk then the tag which
-has the fewest commits different from the input committish will be
+has the fewest commits different from the input commit-ish will be
selected and output. Here fewest commits different is defined as
the number of commits which would be shown by `git log tag..input`
will be the smallest number of commits possible.