environment variable. If no path is given 'git' will print
the current setting and then exit.
-CORE GIT COMMANDS
------------------
-Before reading this cover to cover, you may want to take a look
-at the link:tutorial.html[tutorial] document.
-The <<Discussion>> section below contains much useful definition and
-clarification info - read that first. And of the commands, I suggest
-reading gitlink:git-update-index[1] and
-gitlink:git-read-tree[1] first - I wish I had!
+NOT LEARNING CORE GIT COMMANDS
+------------------------------
+
+This manual is intended to give complete background information
+and internal workings of git, which may be too much for most
+people. The <<Discussion>> section below contains much useful
+definition and clarification - read that first.
+
+If you are interested in using git to manage (version control)
+projects, use link:everyday.html[Everyday GIT] as a guide to the
+minimum set of commands you need to know for day-to-day work.
+Most likely, that will get you started, and you can go a long
+way without knowing the low level details too much.
-If you are migrating from CVS, link:cvs-migration.html[cvs migration]
-document may be helpful after you finish the tutorial.
+The link:tutorial.html[tutorial] document covers how things
+internally work.
+
+If you are migrating from CVS, link:cvs-migration.html[cvs
+migration] document may be helpful after you finish the
+tutorial.
After you get the general feel from the tutorial and this
overview page, you may want to take a look at the
link:howto-index.html[howto] documents.
-David Greaves <david@dgreaves.com>
-08/05/05
+CORE GIT COMMANDS
+-----------------
+
+If you are writing your own Porcelain, you need to be familiar
+with most of the low level commands --- I suggest starting from
+gitlink:git-update-index[1] and gitlink:git-read-tree[1].
-Updated by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> on 2005-05-05 to
-reflect recent changes.
Commands Overview
-----------------
The git commands can helpfully be split into those that manipulate
-the repository, the index and the working fileset, those that
+the repository, the index and the files in the working tree, those that
interrogate and compare them, and those that moves objects and
references between repositories.
applies it to the working tree.
gitlink:git-checkout-index[1]::
- Copy files from the index to the working directory
+ Copy files from the index to the working tree.
gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]::
- Creates a new commit object
+ Creates a new commit object.
gitlink:git-hash-object[1]::
Computes the object ID from a file.
gitlink:git-index-pack[1]::
- Build pack index file for an existing packed archive.
+ Build pack idx file for an existing packed archive.
gitlink:git-init-db[1]::
- Creates an empty git object database
+ Creates an empty git object database, or reinitialize an
+ existing one.
gitlink:git-merge-index[1]::
- Runs a merge for files needing merging
+ Runs a merge for files needing merging.
gitlink:git-mktag[1]::
- Creates a tag object
+ Creates a tag object.
gitlink:git-pack-objects[1]::
Creates a packed archive of objects.
Remove extra objects that are already in pack files.
gitlink:git-read-tree[1]::
- Reads tree information into the directory index
+ Reads tree information into the index.
gitlink:git-repo-config[1]::
Get and set options in .git/config.
Unpacks objects out of a packed archive.
gitlink:git-update-index[1]::
- Modifies the index or directory cache
+ Registers files in the working tree to the index.
gitlink:git-write-tree[1]::
- Creates a tree from the current index
+ Creates a tree from the index.
Interrogation commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
gitlink:git-cat-file[1]::
- Provide content or type information for repository objects
+ Provide content or type/size information for repository objects.
gitlink:git-diff-index[1]::
- Compares content and mode of blobs between the index and repository
+ Compares content and mode of blobs between the index and repository.
gitlink:git-diff-files[1]::
- Compares files in the working tree and the index
+ Compares files in the working tree and the index.
gitlink:git-diff-stages[1]::
- Compares two "merge stages" in the index file.
+ Compares two "merge stages" in the index.
gitlink:git-diff-tree[1]::
- Compares the content and mode of blobs found via two tree objects
+ Compares the content and mode of blobs found via two tree objects.
gitlink:git-fsck-objects[1]::
- Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database
+ Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database.
gitlink:git-ls-files[1]::
- Information about files in the index/working directory
+ Information about files in the index and the working tree.
gitlink:git-ls-tree[1]::
- Displays a tree object in human readable form
+ Displays a tree object in human readable form.
gitlink:git-merge-base[1]::
- Finds as good a common ancestor as possible for a merge
+ Finds as good common ancestors as possible for a merge.
gitlink:git-name-rev[1]::
- Find symbolic names for given revs
+ Find symbolic names for given revs.
+
+gitlink:git-pack-redundant[1]::
+ Find redundant pack files.
gitlink:git-rev-list[1]::
- Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order
+ Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order.
gitlink:git-show-index[1]::
Displays contents of a pack idx file.
gitlink:git-tar-tree[1]::
- Creates a tar archive of the files in the named tree
+ Creates a tar archive of the files in the named tree object.
gitlink:git-unpack-file[1]::
- Creates a temporary file with a blob's contents
+ Creates a temporary file with a blob's contents.
gitlink:git-var[1]::
- Displays a git logical variable
+ Displays a git logical variable.
gitlink:git-verify-pack[1]::
- Validates packed git archive files
+ Validates packed git archive files.
-The interrogate commands may create files - and you can force them to
-touch the working file set - but in general they don't
+In general, the interrogate commands do not touch the files in
+the working tree.
Synching repositories
gitlink:git-clone-pack[1]::
Clones a repository into the current repository (engine
- for ssh and local transport)
+ for ssh and local transport).
gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1]::
- Updates from a remote repository.
+ Updates from a remote repository (engine for ssh and
+ local transport).
gitlink:git-http-fetch[1]::
- Downloads a remote git repository via HTTP
+ Downloads a remote git repository via HTTP by walking
+ commit chain.
gitlink:git-local-fetch[1]::
- Duplicates another git repository on a local system
+ Duplicates another git repository on a local system by
+ walking commit chain.
gitlink:git-peek-remote[1]::
- Lists references on a remote repository using upload-pack protocol.
+ Lists references on a remote repository using
+ upload-pack protocol (engine for ssh and local
+ transport).
gitlink:git-receive-pack[1]::
Invoked by 'git-send-pack' to receive what is pushed to it.
gitlink:git-send-pack[1]::
Pushes to a remote repository, intelligently.
+gitlink:git-http-push[1]::
+ Push missing objects using HTTP/DAV.
+
gitlink:git-shell[1]::
Restricted shell for GIT-only SSH access.
gitlink:git-ssh-fetch[1]::
- Pulls from a remote repository over ssh connection
+ Pulls from a remote repository over ssh connection by
+ walking commit chain.
gitlink:git-ssh-upload[1]::
- Helper "server-side" program used by git-ssh-fetch
+ Helper "server-side" program used by git-ssh-fetch.
gitlink:git-update-server-info[1]::
Updates auxiliary information on a dumb server to help
----------------------
gitlink:git-add[1]::
- Add paths to the index file.
+ Add paths to the index.
gitlink:git-am[1]::
Apply patches from a mailbox, but cooler.
gitlink:git-applymbox[1]::
- Apply patches from a mailbox.
+ Apply patches from a mailbox, original version by Linus.
gitlink:git-bisect[1]::
- Find the change that introduced a bug.
+ Find the change that introduced a bug by binary search.
gitlink:git-branch[1]::
Create and Show branches.
Prepare patches for e-mail submission.
gitlink:git-grep[1]::
- Print lines matching a pattern
+ Print lines matching a pattern.
gitlink:git-log[1]::
Shows commit logs.
Update remote refs along with associated objects.
gitlink:git-rebase[1]::
- Rebase local commits to new upstream head.
+ Rebase local commits to the updated upstream head.
gitlink:git-repack[1]::
Pack unpacked objects in a repository.
Import an arch repository into git.
gitlink:git-convert-objects[1]::
- Converts old-style git repository
+ Converts old-style git repository.
gitlink:git-cvsimport[1]::
Salvage your data out of another SCM people love to hate.
+gitlink:git-cvsexportcommit[1]::
+ Export a single commit to a CVS checkout.
+
gitlink:git-lost-found[1]::
Recover lost refs that luckily have not yet been pruned.
gitlink:git-merge-one-file[1]::
- The standard helper program to use with "git-merge-index"
+ The standard helper program to use with `git-merge-index`.
gitlink:git-prune[1]::
- Prunes all unreachable objects from the object database
+ Prunes all unreachable objects from the object database.
gitlink:git-relink[1]::
Hardlink common objects in local repositories.
Common git shell script setup code.
gitlink:git-symbolic-ref[1]::
- Read and modify symbolic refs
+ Read and modify symbolic refs.
gitlink:git-tag[1]::
- An example script to create a tag object signed with GPG
+ An example script to create a tag object signed with GPG.
gitlink:git-update-ref[1]::
Update the object name stored in a ref safely.
Extract commit ID from an archive created using git-tar-tree.
gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]::
- Extracts patch from a single e-mail message.
+ Extracts patch and authorship information from a single
+ e-mail message, optionally transliterating the commit
+ message into utf-8.
gitlink:git-mailsplit[1]::
- git-mailsplit.
+ A stupid program to split UNIX mbox format mailbox into
+ individual pieces of e-mail.
gitlink:git-patch-id[1]::
Compute unique ID for a patch.
gitlink:git-parse-remote[1]::
- Routines to help parsing $GIT_DIR/remotes/
+ Routines to help parsing `$GIT_DIR/remotes/` files.
gitlink:git-request-pull[1]::
git-request-pull.
---------------------------
gitlink:gitk[1]::
- gitk.
+ The gitk repository browser.
Configuration Mechanism
-----------------------
-Starting from 0.99.9 (actually mid 0.99.8.GIT), .git/config file
+Starting from 0.99.9 (actually mid 0.99.8.GIT), `.git/config` file
is used to hold per-repository configuration options. It is a
simple text file modelled after `.ini` format familiar to some
people. Here is an example:
------------
#
-# This is the config file, and
-# a '#' or ';' character indicates
-# a comment
+# A '#' or ';' character indicates a comment.
#
; core variables
Identifier Terminology
----------------------
<object>::
- Indicates the sha1 identifier for any type of object
+ Indicates the object name for any type of object.
<blob>::
- Indicates a blob object sha1 identifier
+ Indicates a blob object name.
<tree>::
- Indicates a tree object sha1 identifier
+ Indicates a tree object name.
<commit>::
- Indicates a commit object sha1 identifier
+ Indicates a commit object name.
<tree-ish>::
- Indicates a tree, commit or tag object sha1 identifier. A
+ Indicates a tree, commit or tag object name. A
command that takes a <tree-ish> argument ultimately wants to
operate on a <tree> object but automatically dereferences
<commit> and <tag> objects that point at a <tree>.
<type>::
Indicates that an object type is required.
- Currently one of: blob/tree/commit/tag
+ Currently one of: `blob`, `tree`, `commit`, or `tag`.
<file>::
- Indicates a filename - always relative to the root of
- the tree structure GIT_INDEX_FILE describes.
+ Indicates a filename - almost always relative to the
+ root of the tree structure `GIT_INDEX_FILE` describes.
Symbolic Identifiers
--------------------
symbolic notation:
HEAD::
- indicates the head of the repository (ie the contents of
- `$GIT_DIR/HEAD`)
+ indicates the head of the current branch (i.e. the
+ contents of `$GIT_DIR/HEAD`).
+
<tag>::
- a valid tag 'name'+
- (ie the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags/<tag>`)
+ a valid tag 'name'
+ (i.e. the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags/<tag>`).
+
<head>::
- a valid head 'name'+
- (ie the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/<head>`)
+ a valid head 'name'
+ (i.e. the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/<head>`).
+
<snap>::
- a valid snapshot 'name'+
- (ie the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/snap/<snap>`)
+ a valid snapshot 'name'
+ (i.e. the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/snap/<snap>`).
File/Directory Structure
Please see link:repository-layout.html[repository layout] document.
Higher level SCMs may provide and manage additional information in the
-GIT_DIR.
+`$GIT_DIR`.
Terminology
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These environment variables apply to 'all' core git commands. Nb: it
is worth noting that they may be used/overridden by SCMS sitting above
-git so take care if using Cogito etc
+git so take care if using Cogito etc.
'GIT_INDEX_FILE'::
This environment allows the specification of an alternate
written to these directories.
'GIT_DIR'::
- If the 'GIT_DIR' environment variable is set then it specifies
- a path to use instead of `./.git` for the base of the
- repository.
+ If the 'GIT_DIR' environment variable is set then it
+ specifies a path to use instead of the default `.git`
+ for the base of the repository.
git Commits
~~~~~~~~~~~
Authors
-------
- git's founding father is Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>.
- The current git nurse is Junio C. Hamano <junkio@cox.net>.
-
The git potty was written by Andres Ericsson <ae@op5.se>.
- General upbringing is handled by the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
+* git's founding father is Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>.
+* The current git nurse is Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>.
+
* The git potty was written by Andres Ericsson <ae@op5.se>.
+* General upbringing is handled by the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
Documentation
--------------
-Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
+The documentation for git suite was started by David Greaves
+<david@dgreaves.com>, and later enhanced greatly by the
+contributors on the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT
---