object database from another object database, which is called
"alternate".
+bare repository::
+ A bare repository is normally an appropriately named
+ directory with a `.git` suffix that does not have a
+ locally checked-out copy of any of the files under revision
+ control. That is, all of the `git` administrative and
+ control files that would normally be present in the
+ hidden `.git` sub-directory are directly present in
+ the `repository.git` directory instead, and no other files
+ are present and checked out. Usually publishers of public
+ repositories make bare repositories available.
+
blob object::
Untyped object, e.g. the contents of a file.
The action of updating the working tree to a revision which was
stored in the object database.
+cherry-picking::
+ In SCM jargon, "cherry pick" means to choose a subset of
+ changes out of a series of changes (typically commits)
+ and record them as a new series of changes on top of
+ different codebase. In GIT, this is performed by
+ "git cherry-pick" command to extract the change
+ introduced by an existing commit and to record it based
+ on the tip of the current branch as a new commit.
+
clean::
A working tree is clean, if it corresponds to the revision
referenced by the current head. Also see "dirty".
objects is acyclic (there is no chain which begins and ends with the
same object).
+dangling object::
+ An unreachable object which is not reachable even from other
+ unreachable objects; a dangling object has no references to it
+ from any reference or object in the repository.
+
dircache::
You are *waaaaay* behind.
ent::
Favorite synonym to "tree-ish" by some total geeks. See
`http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ent_(Middle-earth)` for an in-depth
- explanation.
+ explanation. Avoid this term, not to confuse people.
+
+fast forward::
+ A fast-forward is a special type of merge where you have
+ a revision and you are "merging" another branch's changes
+ that happen to be a descendant of what you have.
+ In such these cases, you do not make a new merge commit but
+ instead just update to his revision. This will happen
+ frequently on a tracking branch of a remote repository.
fetch::
Fetching a branch means to get the branch's head ref from a
git archive::
Synonym for repository (for arch people).
+grafts::
+ Grafts enables two otherwise different lines of development to be
+ joined together by recording fake ancestry information for commits.
+ This way you can make git pretend the set of parents a commit
+ has is different from what was recorded when the commit was created.
+ Configured via the `.git/info/grafts` file.
+
hash::
In git's context, synonym to object name.
A ref pointing to a head. Often, this is abbreviated to "head".
Head refs are stored in `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/`.
+hook::
+ During the normal execution of several git commands,
+ call-outs are made to optional scripts that allow
+ a developer to add functionality or checking.
+ Typically, the hooks allow for a command to be pre-verified
+ and potentially aborted, and allow for a post-notification
+ after the operation is done.
+ The hook scripts are found in the `$GIT_DIR/hooks/` directory,
+ and are enabled by simply making them executable.
+
index::
A collection of files with stat information, whose contents are
stored as objects. The index is a stored version of your working
that file).
master::
- The default branch. Whenever you create a git repository, a branch
- named "master" is created, and becomes the active branch. In most
- cases, this contains the local development.
-
+ The default development branch. Whenever you create a git
+ repository, a branch named "master" is created, and becomes
+ the active branch. In most cases, this contains the local
+ development, though that is purely conventional and not required.
merge::
To merge branches means to try to accumulate the changes since a
character hexadecimal encoding of the hash of the object (possibly
followed by a white space).
-object type:
+object type::
One of the identifiers "commit","tree","tag" and "blob" describing
the type of an object.
predator.
origin::
- The default upstream branch. Most projects have one upstream
- project which they track, and by default 'origin' is used for
- that purpose. New updates from upstream will be fetched into
- this branch; you should never commit to it yourself.
+ The default upstream repository. Most projects have at
+ least one upstream project which they track. By default
+ 'origin' is used for that purpose. New upstream updates
+ will be fetched into remote tracking branches named
+ origin/name-of-upstream-branch, which you can see using
+ "git branch -r".
pack::
A set of objects which have been compressed into one file (to save
A commit object contains a (possibly empty) list of the logical
predecessor(s) in the line of development, i.e. its parents.
+pickaxe::
+ The term pickaxe refers to an option to the diffcore routines
+ that help select changes that add or delete a given text string.
+ With the --pickaxe-all option, it can be used to view the
+ full changeset that introduced or removed, say, a particular
+ line of text. See gitlink:git-diff[1].
+
plumbing::
Cute name for core git.
local head, the push fails.
reachable::
- An object is reachable from a ref/commit/tree/tag, if there is a
- chain leading from the latter to the former.
+ All of the ancestors of a given commit are said to be reachable from
+ that commit. More generally, one object is reachable from another if
+ we can reach the one from the other by a chain that follows tags to
+ whatever they tag, commits to their parents or trees, and trees to the
+ trees or blobs that they contain.
rebase::
To clean a branch by starting from the head of the main line of
changes from that branch.
ref::
- A 40-byte hex representation of a SHA1 pointing to a particular
- object. These may be stored in `$GIT_DIR/refs/`.
+ A 40-byte hex representation of a SHA1 or a name that denotes
+ a particular object. These may be stored in `$GIT_DIR/refs/`.
+
+refspec::
+ A refspec is used by fetch and push to describe the mapping
+ between remote ref and local ref. They are combined with
+ a colon in the format <src>:<dst>, preceded by an optional
+ plus sign, +. For example:
+ `git fetch $URL refs/heads/master:refs/heads/origin`
+ means "grab the master branch head from the $URL and store
+ it as my origin branch head".
+ And `git push $URL refs/heads/master:refs/heads/to-upstream`
+ means "publish my master branch head as to-upstream branch
+ at $URL". See also gitlink:git-push[1]
repository::
A collection of refs together with an object database containing
SHA1::
Synonym for object name.
+shallow repository::
+ A shallow repository has an incomplete history some of
+ whose commits have parents cauterized away (in other
+ words, git is told to pretend that these commits do not
+ have the parents, even though they are recorded in the
+ commit object). This is sometimes useful when you are
+ interested only in the recent history of a project even
+ though the real history recorded in the upstream is
+ much larger. A shallow repository is created by giving
+ `--depth` option to gitlink:git-clone[1], and its
+ history can be later deepened with gitlink:git-fetch[1].
+
+symref::
+ Symbolic reference: instead of containing the SHA1 id itself, it
+ is of the format 'ref: refs/some/thing' and when referenced, it
+ recursively dereferences to this reference. 'HEAD' is a prime
+ example of a symref. Symbolic references are manipulated with
+ the gitlink:git-symbolic-ref[1] command.
+
+topic branch::
+ A regular git branch that is used by a developer to
+ identify a conceptual line of development. Since branches
+ are very easy and inexpensive, it is often desirable to
+ have several small branches that each contain very well
+ defined concepts or small incremental yet related changes.
+
+tracking branch::
+ A regular git branch that is used to follow changes from
+ another repository. A tracking branch should not contain
+ direct modifications or have local commits made to it.
+ A tracking branch can usually be identified as the
+ right-hand-side ref in a Pull: refspec.
+
tree object::
An object containing a list of file names and modes along with refs
to the associated blob and/or tree objects. A tree is equivalent
A tag is most typically used to mark a particular point in the
commit ancestry chain.
-unmerged index:
+unmerged index::
An index which contains unmerged index entries.
+unreachable object::
+ An object which is not reachable from a branch, tag, or any
+ other reference.
+
working tree::
The set of files and directories currently being worked on,
i.e. you can work in your working tree without using git at all.