-gitcli(5)
+gitcli(7)
=========
NAME
----
-gitcli - git command line interface and conventions
+gitcli - Git command line interface and conventions
SYNOPSIS
--------
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-This manual describes best practice in how to use git CLI. Here are
-the rules that you should follow when you are scripting git:
+This manual describes the convention used throughout Git CLI.
+
+Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes
+"tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their
+arguments. Here are the rules:
+
+ * Revisions come first and then paths.
+ E.g. in `git diff v1.0 v2.0 arch/x86 include/asm-x86`,
+ `v1.0` and `v2.0` are revisions and `arch/x86` and `include/asm-x86`
+ are paths.
+
+ * When an argument can be misunderstood as either a revision or a path,
+ they can be disambiguated by placing `--` between them.
+ E.g. `git diff -- HEAD` is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work
+ tree. Please show changes between the version I staged in the index
+ and what I have in the work tree for that file". not "show difference
+ between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say
+ `git diff HEAD --` to ask for the latter.
+
+ * Without disambiguating `--`, Git makes a reasonable guess, but errors
+ out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a
+ file called HEAD in your work tree, `git diff HEAD` is ambiguous, and
+ you have to say either `git diff HEAD --` or `git diff -- HEAD` to
+ disambiguate.
++
+When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is
+a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing
+disambiguating `--` at appropriate places.
+
+ * Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect
+ them from getting globbed by the shell. These two mean different
+ things:
++
+--------------------------------
+$ git checkout -- *.c
+$ git checkout -- \*.c
+--------------------------------
++
+The former lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking
+the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version
+in the index. The latter passes the `*.c` to Git, and you are asking
+the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to your
+working tree. After running `git add hello.c; rm hello.c`, you will _not_
+see `hello.c` in your working tree with the former, but with the latter
+you will.
+
+ * Just as the filesystem '.' (period) refers to the current directory,
+ using a '.' as a repository name in Git (a dot-repository) is a relative
+ path and means your current repository.
- * it's preferred to use the non dashed form of git commands, which means that
- you should prefer `"git foo"` to `"git-foo"`.
+Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are
+scripting Git:
- * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `"git foo -a -b"`
- to `"git foo -ab"`, the latter may not even work).
+ * it's preferred to use the non dashed form of Git commands, which means that
+ you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`.
+
+ * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b`
+ to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work).
* when a command line option takes an argument, use the 'sticked' form. In
- other words, write `"git foo -oArg"` instead of `"git foo -o Arg"` for short
- options, and `"git foo --long-opt=Arg"` instead of `"git foo --long-opt Arg"`
+ other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short
+ options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg`
for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be
written in the 'sticked' form.
* when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is
not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write
- `"git log -1 HEAD"` but write `"git log -1 HEAD --"`; the former will not work
+ `git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work
if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree.
+ * many commands allow a long option `--option` to be abbreviated
+ only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option
+ whose name begins with `opt`, you may be able to spell `--opt` to
+ invoke the `--option` flag), but you should fully spell them out
+ when writing your scripts; later versions of Git may introduce a
+ new option whose name shares the same prefix, e.g. `--optimize`,
+ to make a short prefix that used to be unique no longer unique.
+
-ENHANCED CLI
-------------
-From the git 1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not all of them at the
+ENHANCED OPTION PARSER
+----------------------
+From the Git 1.5.4 series and further, many Git commands (not all of them at the
time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser.
-Here is an exhaustive list of the facilities provided by this option parser.
+Here is a list of the facilities provided by this option parser.
Magic Options
+
---------------------------------------------
$ git describe -h
-usage: git-describe [options] <committish>*
+usage: git describe [options] <commit-ish>*
+ or: git describe [options] --dirty
--contains find the tag that comes after the commit
--debug debug search strategy on stderr
- --all use any ref in .git/refs
- --tags use any tag in .git/refs/tags
- --abbrev [<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s
- --candidates <n> consider <n> most recent tags (default: 10)
+ --all use any ref
+ --tags use any tag, even unannotated
+ --long always use long format
+ --abbrev[=<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s
---------------------------------------------
--help-all::
- Some git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that
+ Some Git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that
are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This
option gives the full list of options.
Negating options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `"--no-"`. For
-example, `"git branch"` has the option `"--track"` which is 'on' by default. You
-can use `"--no-track"` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `"--color"`
-and `"--no-color"`.
+Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `--no-`. For
+example, `git branch` has the option `--track` which is 'on' by default. You
+can use `--no-track` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `--color`
+and `--no-color`.
Aggregating short options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short
-options. This means that you can for example use `"git rm -rf"` or
-`"git clean -fdx"`.
+options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or
+`git clean -fdx`.
+
+
+Abbreviating long options
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Commands that support the enhanced option parser accepts unique
+prefix of a long option as if it is fully spelled out, but use this
+with a caution. For example, `git commit --amen` behaves as if you
+typed `git commit --amend`, but that is true only until a later version
+of Git introduces another option that shares the same prefix,
+e.g. `git commit --amenity` option.
Separating argument from the option
$ git foo -o Arg
----------------------------
-However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optionnal value, where the
+However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the
'sticked' form must be used:
----------------------------
$ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct
----------------------------
-Documentation
--------------
-Documentation by Pierre Habouzit.
+NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS
+------------------------------------
+
+Many commands that can work on files in the working tree
+and/or in the index can take `--cached` and/or `--index`
+options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because
+the index was originally called cache, these two are
+synonyms. They are *not* -- these two options mean very
+different things.
+
+ * The `--cached` option is used to ask a command that
+ usually works on files in the working tree to *only* work
+ with the index. For example, `git grep`, when used
+ without a commit to specify from which commit to look for
+ strings in, usually works on files in the working tree,
+ but with the `--cached` option, it looks for strings in
+ the index.
+
+ * The `--index` option is used to ask a command that
+ usually works on files in the working tree to *also*
+ affect the index. For example, `git stash apply` usually
+ merges changes recorded in a stash to the working tree,
+ but with the `--index` option, it also merges changes to
+ the index as well.
+
+`git apply` command can be used with `--cached` and
+`--index` (but not at the same time). Usually the command
+only affects the files in the working tree, but with
+`--index`, it patches both the files and their index
+entries, and with `--cached`, it modifies only the index
+entries.
+
+See also http://marc.info/?l=git&m=116563135620359 and
+http://marc.info/?l=git&m=119150393620273 for further
+information.
GIT
---
-Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite