abbreviation mode.
--all::
- Show all refs found in `$GIT_DIR/refs`.
+ Show all refs found in `refs/`.
--branches[=pattern]::
--tags[=pattern]::
--remotes[=pattern]::
Show all branches, tags, or remote-tracking branches,
- respectively (i.e., refs found in `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads`,
- `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags`, or `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes`,
- respectively).
+ respectively (i.e., refs found in `refs/heads`,
+ `refs/tags`, or `refs/remotes`, respectively).
+
If a `pattern` is given, only refs matching the given shell glob are
shown. If the pattern does not contain a globbing character (`?`,
`g`, and an abbreviated object name.
* A symbolic ref name. E.g. 'master' typically means the commit
- object referenced by $GIT_DIR/refs/heads/master. If you
+ object referenced by refs/heads/master. If you
happen to have both heads/master and tags/master, you can
explicitly say 'heads/master' to tell git which one you mean.
When ambiguous, a `<name>` is disambiguated by taking the
. if `$GIT_DIR/<name>` exists, that is what you mean (this is usually
useful only for `HEAD`, `FETCH_HEAD`, `ORIG_HEAD` and `MERGE_HEAD`);
- . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/<name>` if exists;
+ . otherwise, `refs/<name>` if exists;
- . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags/<name>` if exists;
+ . otherwise, `refs/tags/<name>` if exists;
- . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/<name>` if exists;
+ . otherwise, `refs/heads/<name>` if exists;
- . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/<name>` if exists;
+ . otherwise, `refs/remotes/<name>` if exists;
- . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD` if exists.
+ . otherwise, `refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD` if exists.
+
HEAD names the commit your changes in the working tree is based on.
FETCH_HEAD records the branch you fetched from a remote repository
them easily.
MERGE_HEAD records the commit(s) you are merging into your branch
when you run 'git merge'.
++
+Note that any of the `refs/*` cases above may come either from
+the `$GIT_DIR/refs` directory or from the `$GIT_DIR/packed-refs` file.
* A ref followed by the suffix '@' with a date specification
enclosed in a brace
the branch the ref is set to build on top of. Missing ref defaults
to the current branch.
-* A suffix '{caret}' to a revision parameter means the first parent of
+* A suffix '{caret}' to a revision parameter (e.g. 'HEAD{caret}') 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,
and dereference the tag recursively until a non-tag object is
found.
-* A colon, followed by a slash, followed by a text: this names
+* A colon, followed by a slash, followed by a text (e.g. `:/fix nasty bug`): this names
a commit whose commit message starts with the specified text.
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.
-* A suffix ':' followed by a path; this names the blob or tree
+* A suffix ':' followed by a path (e.g. `HEAD:README`); this 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`)
+ is a special case of the syntax described next: content
+ recorded in the index at the given path.
* A colon, optionally followed by a stage number (0 to 3) and a
- colon, followed by a path; this names a blob object in the
- index at the given path. Missing stage number (and the colon
- that follows it) names a stage 0 entry. During a merge, stage
+ 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
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.