NAME
----
-git-help - display help information about git
+git-help - Display help information about Git
SYNOPSIS
--------
-'git help' [-a|--all|-i|--info|-m|--man|-w|--web] [COMMAND]
+[verse]
+'git help' [-a|--all] [-g|--guide]
+ [-i|--info|-m|--man|-w|--web] [COMMAND|GUIDE]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-With no options and no COMMAND given, the synopsis of the 'git'
-command and a list of the most commonly used git commands are printed
+With no options and no COMMAND or GUIDE given, the synopsis of the 'git'
+command and a list of the most commonly used Git commands are printed
on the standard output.
-If the option '--all' or '-a' is given, then all available commands are
+If the option `--all` or `-a` is given, all available commands are
printed on the standard output.
-If a git command is named, a manual page for that command is brought
-up. The 'man' program is used by default for this purpose, but this
-can be overridden by other options or configuration variables.
+If the option `--guide` or `-g` is given, a list of the useful
+Git guides is also printed on the standard output.
-Note that 'git --help ...' is identical as 'git help ...' because the
+If a command, or a guide, is given, a manual page for that command or
+guide is brought up. The 'man' program is used by default for this
+purpose, but this can be overridden by other options or configuration
+variables.
+
+Note that `git --help ...` is identical to `git help ...` because the
former is internally converted into the latter.
+To display the linkgit:git[1] man page, use `git help git`.
+
+This page can be displayed with 'git help help' or `git help --help`
+
OPTIONS
-------
-a::
--all::
Prints all the available commands on the standard output. This
- option supersedes any other option.
+ option overrides any given command or guide name.
+
+-g::
+--guides::
+ Prints a list of useful guides on the standard output. This
+ option overrides any given command or guide name.
-i::
--info::
--man::
Display manual page for the command in the 'man' format. This
option may be used to override a value set in the
- 'help.format' configuration variable.
+ `help.format` configuration variable.
+
By default the 'man' program will be used to display the manual page,
-but the 'man.viewer' configuration variable may be used to choose
+but the `man.viewer` configuration variable may be used to choose
other display programs (see below).
-w::
format. A web browser will be used for that purpose.
+
The web browser can be specified using the configuration variable
-'help.browser', or 'web.browser' if the former is not set. If none of
-these config variables is set, the 'git-web--browse' helper script
-(called by 'git-help') will pick a suitable default. See
-linkgit:git-web--browse[1] for more information about this.
+`help.browser`, or `web.browser` if the former is not set. If none of
+these config variables is set, the 'git web{litdd}browse' helper script
+(called by 'git help') will pick a suitable default. See
+linkgit:git-web{litdd}browse[1] for more information about this.
CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
-----------------------
help.format
~~~~~~~~~~~
-If no command line option is passed, the 'help.format' configuration
+If no command-line option is passed, the `help.format` configuration
variable will be checked. The following values are supported for this
-variable; they make 'git-help' behave as their corresponding command
+variable; they make 'git help' behave as their corresponding command-
line option:
* "man" corresponds to '-m|--man',
help.browser, web.browser and browser.<tool>.path
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-The 'help.browser', 'web.browser' and 'browser.<tool>.path' will also
-be checked if the 'web' format is chosen (either by command line
+The `help.browser`, `web.browser` and `browser.<tool>.path` will also
+be checked if the 'web' format is chosen (either by command-line
option or configuration variable). See '-w|--web' in the OPTIONS
-section above and linkgit:git-web--browse[1].
+section above and linkgit:git-web{litdd}browse[1].
man.viewer
~~~~~~~~~~
-The 'man.viewer' config variable will be checked if the 'man' format
-is chosen. The following values are currently supported:
+The `man.viewer` configuration variable will be checked if the 'man'
+format is chosen. The following values are currently supported:
* "man": use the 'man' program as usual,
* "woman": use 'emacsclient' to launch the "woman" mode in emacs
tab (see 'Note about konqueror' below).
Values for other tools can be used if there is a corresponding
-'man.<tool>.cmd' configuration entry (see below).
+`man.<tool>.cmd` configuration entry (see below).
-Multiple values may be given to the 'man.viewer' configuration
+Multiple values may be given to the `man.viewer` configuration
variable. Their corresponding programs will be tried in the order
listed in the configuration file.
viewer = woman
------------------------------------------------
-will try to use konqueror first. But this may fail (for example if
+will try to use konqueror first. But this may fail (for example, if
DISPLAY is not set) and in that case emacs' woman mode will be tried.
-If everything fails the 'man' program will be tried anyway.
+If everything fails, or if no viewer is configured, the viewer specified
+in the `GIT_MAN_VIEWER` environment variable will be tried. If that
+fails too, the 'man' program will be tried anyway.
man.<tool>.path
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can explicitly provide a full path to your preferred man viewer by
-setting the configuration variable 'man.<tool>.path'. For example, you
+setting the configuration variable `man.<tool>.path`. For example, you
can configure the absolute path to konqueror by setting
'man.konqueror.path'. Otherwise, 'git help' assumes the tool is
available in PATH.
man.<tool>.cmd
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-When the man viewer, specified by the 'man.viewer' configuration
+When the man viewer, specified by the `man.viewer` configuration
variables, is not among the supported ones, then the corresponding
-'man.<tool>.cmd' configuration variable will be looked up. If this
+`man.<tool>.cmd` configuration variable will be looked up. If this
variable exists then the specified tool will be treated as a custom
command and a shell eval will be used to run the command with the man
page passed as arguments.
Note about konqueror
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-When 'konqueror' is specified in the 'man.viewer' configuration
+When 'konqueror' is specified in the `man.viewer` configuration
variable, we launch 'kfmclient' to try to open the man page on an
already opened konqueror in a new tab if possible.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note that all these configuration variables should probably be set
-using the '--global' flag, for example like this:
+using the `--global` flag, for example like this:
------------------------------------------------
$ git config --global help.format web
as they are probably more user specific than repository specific.
See linkgit:git-config[1] for more information about this.
-Author
-------
-Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> and the git-list
-<git@vger.kernel.org>.
-
-Documentation
--------------
-Initial documentation was part of the linkgit:git[1] man page.
-Christian Couder <chriscool@tuxfamily.org> extracted and rewrote it a
-little. Maintenance is done by the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
-
GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite