SPECIFYING REVISIONS
--------------------
-A revision parameter typically, but not necessarily, names a
-commit object. They use what is called an 'extended SHA1'
+A revision parameter '<rev>' typically, but not necessarily, names a
+commit object. It uses what is called an 'extended SHA1'
syntax. Here are various ways to spell object names. The
-ones listed near the end of this list are to name trees and
+ones listed near the end of this list name trees and
blobs contained in a commit.
-* The full SHA1 object name (40-byte hexadecimal string), or
- a substring of such that is unique within the repository.
+'<sha1>', e.g. 'dae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735', 'dae86e'::
+ The full SHA1 object name (40-byte hexadecimal string), or
+ a leading substring that is unique within the repository.
E.g. dae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735 and dae86e both
- name the same commit object if there are no other object in
+ name the same commit object if there is no other object in
your repository whose object name starts with dae86e.
-* An output from `git describe`; i.e. a closest tag, optionally
+'<describeOutput>', e.g. 'v1.7.4.2-679-g3bee7fb'::
+ Output from `git describe`; i.e. a closest tag, optionally
followed by a dash and a number of commits, followed by a dash, a
'g', and an abbreviated object name.
-* A symbolic ref name. E.g. 'master' typically means the commit
+'<refname>', e.g. 'master', 'heads/master', 'refs/heads/master'::
+ A symbolic ref name. E.g. 'master' typically means the commit
object referenced by 'refs/heads/master'. If you
happen to have both 'heads/master' and 'tags/master', you can
explicitly say 'heads/master' to tell git which one you mean.
When ambiguous, a '<name>' is disambiguated by taking the
first match in the following rules:
- . if '$GIT_DIR/<name>' exists, that is what you mean (this is usually
+ . If '$GIT_DIR/<name>' exists, that is what you mean (this is usually
useful only for 'HEAD', 'FETCH_HEAD', 'ORIG_HEAD', 'MERGE_HEAD'
and 'CHERRY_PICK_HEAD');
- . otherwise, 'refs/<name>' if exists;
+ . otherwise, 'refs/<name>' if it exists;
- . otherwise, 'refs/tags/<name>' if exists;
+ . otherwise, 'refs/tags/<refname>' if it exists;
- . otherwise, 'refs/heads/<name>' if exists;
+ . otherwise, 'refs/heads/<name>' if it exists;
- . otherwise, 'refs/remotes/<name>' if exists;
+ . otherwise, 'refs/remotes/<name>' if it exists;
- . otherwise, 'refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD' if exists.
+ . otherwise, 'refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD' if it exists.
+
-'HEAD' names the commit your changes in the working tree is based on.
-'FETCH_HEAD' records the branch you fetched from a remote repository
+'HEAD' names the commit on which you based the changes in the working tree.
+'FETCH_HEAD' records the branch which you fetched from a remote repository
with your last `git fetch` invocation.
-'ORIG_HEAD' is created by commands that moves your 'HEAD' in a drastic
+'ORIG_HEAD' is created by commands that move your 'HEAD' in a drastic
way, to record the position of the 'HEAD' before their operation, so that
-you can change the tip of the branch back to the state before you ran
-them easily.
-'MERGE_HEAD' records the commit(s) you are merging into your branch
+you can easily change the tip of the branch back to the state before you ran
+them.
+'MERGE_HEAD' records the commit(s) which you are merging into your branch
when you run `git merge`.
-'CHERRY_PICK_HEAD' records the commit you are cherry-picking
+'CHERRY_PICK_HEAD' records the commit which you are cherry-picking
when you run `git cherry-pick`.
+
Note that any of the 'refs/*' cases above may come either from
the '$GIT_DIR/refs' directory or from the '$GIT_DIR/packed-refs' file.
-* A ref followed by the suffix '@' with a date specification
+'<refname>@\{<date>\}', e.g. 'master@\{yesterday\}', 'HEAD@\{5 minutes ago\}'::
+ A ref followed by the suffix '@' with a date specification
enclosed in a brace
pair (e.g. '\{yesterday\}', '\{1 month 2 weeks 3 days 1 hour 1
- second ago\}' or '\{1979-02-26 18:30:00\}') to specify the value
+ second ago\}' or '\{1979-02-26 18:30:00\}') specifies the value
of the ref at a prior point in time. This suffix may only be
used immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an
existing log ('$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>'). Note that this looks up the state
'master' branch last week. If you want to look at commits made during
certain times, see '--since' and '--until'.
-* A ref followed by the suffix '@' with an ordinal specification
- enclosed in a brace pair (e.g. '\{1\}', '\{15\}') to specify
+'<refname>@\{<n>\}', e.g. 'master@\{1\}'::
+ A ref followed by the suffix '@' with an ordinal specification
+ enclosed in a brace pair (e.g. '\{1\}', '\{15\}') specifies
the n-th prior value of that ref. For example 'master@\{1\}'
is the immediate prior value of 'master' while 'master@\{5\}'
is the 5th prior value of 'master'. This suffix may only be used
immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an existing
- log ('$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>').
+ log ('$GIT_DIR/logs/<refname>').
-* You can use the '@' construct with an empty ref part to get at a
- reflog of the current branch. For example, if you are on the
- branch 'blabla', then '@\{1\}' means the same as 'blabla@\{1\}'.
+'@\{<n>\}', e.g. '@\{1\}'::
+ You can use the '@' construct with an empty ref part to get at a
+ reflog entry of the current branch. For example, if you are on
+ branch 'blabla' then '@\{1\}' means the same as 'blabla@\{1\}'.
-* The special construct '@\{-<n>\}' means the <n>th branch checked out
+'@\{-<n>\}', e.g. '@\{-1\}'::
+ The construct '@\{-<n>\}' means the <n>th branch checked out
before the current one.
-* The suffix '@\{upstream\}' to a ref (short form 'ref@\{u\}') refers to
- the branch the ref is set to build on top of. Missing ref defaults
+'<refname>@\{upstream\}', e.g. 'master@\{upstream\}', '@\{u\}'::
+ The suffix '@\{upstream\}' to a ref (short form '<refname>@\{u\}') refers to
+ the branch the ref is set to build on top of. A missing ref defaults
to the current branch.
-* A suffix '{caret}' to a revision parameter (e.g. 'HEAD{caret}') means the first parent of
+'<rev>{caret}', e.g. 'HEAD{caret}, v1.5.1{caret}0'::
+ A suffix '{caret}' to a revision parameter means the first parent of
that commit object. '{caret}<n>' means the <n>th parent (i.e.
- 'rev{caret}'
- is equivalent to 'rev{caret}1'). As a special rule,
- 'rev{caret}0' means the commit itself and is used when 'rev' is the
+ '<rev>{caret}'
+ is equivalent to '<rev>{caret}1'). As a special rule,
+ '<rev>{caret}0' means the commit itself and is used when '<rev>' is the
object name of a tag object that refers to a commit object.
-* A suffix '{tilde}<n>' to a revision parameter means the commit
+'<rev>{tilde}<n>', e.g. 'master{tilde}3'::
+ A suffix '{tilde}<n>' to a revision parameter means the commit
object that is the <n>th generation grand-parent of the named
- commit object, following only the first parent. I.e. rev~3 is
- equivalent to rev{caret}{caret}{caret} which is equivalent to
- rev{caret}1{caret}1{caret}1. See below for a illustration of
+ commit object, following only the first parents. I.e. '<rev>{tilde}3' is
+ equivalent to '<rev>{caret}{caret}{caret}' which is equivalent to
+ '<rev>{caret}1{caret}1{caret}1'. See below for an illustration of
the usage of this form.
-* A suffix '{caret}' followed by an object type name enclosed in
- brace pair (e.g. 'v0.99.8{caret}\{commit\}') means the object
+'<rev>{caret}\{<type>\}', e.g. 'v0.99.8{caret}\{commit\}'::
+ A suffix '{caret}' followed by an object type name enclosed in
+ brace pair means the object
could be a tag, and dereference the tag recursively until an
object of that type is found or the object cannot be
- dereferenced anymore (in which case, barf). 'rev{caret}0'
- introduced earlier is a short-hand for 'rev{caret}\{commit\}'.
+ dereferenced anymore (in which case, barf). '<rev>{caret}0'
+ is a short-hand for '<rev>{caret}\{commit\}'.
-* A suffix '{caret}' followed by an empty brace pair
- (e.g. 'v0.99.8{caret}\{\}') means the object could be a tag,
+'<rev>{caret}\{\}', e.g. 'v0.99.8{caret}\{\}'::
+ A suffix '{caret}' followed by an empty brace pair
+ means the object could be a tag,
and dereference the tag recursively until a non-tag object is
found.
-* A suffix '{caret}' to a revision parameter followed by a brace
- pair that contains a text led by a slash (e.g. 'HEAD^{/fix nasty bug}'):
- this is the same as ':/fix nasty bug' syntax below except that
+'<rev>{caret}\{/<text>\}', e.g. 'HEAD^{/fix nasty bug}'::
+ A suffix '{caret}' to a revision parameter, followed by a brace
+ pair that contains a text led by a slash,
+ is the same as the ':/fix nasty bug' syntax below except that
it returns the youngest matching commit which is reachable from
- the ref before '{caret}'.
+ the '<rev>' before '{caret}'.
-* A colon, followed by a slash, followed by a text (e.g. ':/fix nasty bug'): this names
+':/<text>', e.g. ':/fix nasty bug'::
+ A colon, followed by a slash, followed by a text, names
a commit whose commit message matches the specified regular expression.
This name returns the youngest matching commit which is
reachable from any ref. If the commit message starts with a
- '!', you have to repeat that; the special sequence ':/!',
- followed by something else than '!' is reserved for now.
+ '!' you have to repeat that; the special sequence ':/!',
+ followed by something else than '!', is reserved for now.
The regular expression can match any part of the commit message. To
match messages starting with a string, one can use e.g. ':/^foo'.
-* A suffix ':' followed by a path (e.g. 'HEAD:README'); this names the blob or tree
+'<rev>:<path>', e.g. 'HEAD:README', ':README', 'master:./README'::
+ A suffix ':' followed by a path names the blob or tree
at the given path in the tree-ish object named by the part
before the colon.
- ':path' (with an empty part before the colon, e.g. ':README')
+ ':path' (with an empty part before the colon)
is a special case of the syntax described next: content
recorded in the index at the given path.
- A path starting with './' or '../' is relative to current working directory.
- The given path will be converted to be relative to working tree's root directory.
+ A path starting with './' or '../' is relative to the current working directory.
+ The given path will be converted to be relative to the working tree's root directory.
This is most useful to address a blob or tree from a commit or tree that has
- the same tree structure with the working tree.
+ the same tree structure as the working tree.
-* A colon, optionally followed by a stage number (0 to 3) and a
- colon, followed by a path (e.g. ':0:README'); this names a blob object in the
- index at the given path. Missing stage number (and the colon
- that follows it, e.g. ':README') names a stage 0 entry. During a merge, stage
+':<n>:<path>', e.g. ':0:README', ':README'::
+ A colon, optionally followed by a stage number (0 to 3) and a
+ colon, followed by a path, names a blob object in the
+ index at the given path. A missing stage number (and the colon
+ that follows it) names a stage 0 entry. During a merge, stage
1 is the common ancestor, stage 2 is the target branch's version
(typically the current branch), and stage 3 is the version from
- the branch being merged.
+ the branch which is being merged.
Here is an illustration, by Jon Loeliger. Both commit nodes B
and C are parents of commit node A. Parent commits are ordered