OPTIONS
-------
+--parseopt::
+ Use `git-rev-parse` in option parsing mode (see PARSEOPT section below).
+
+--keep-dash-dash::
+ Only meaningful in `--parseopt` mode. Tells the option parser to echo
+ out the first `--` met instead of skipping it.
+
--revs-only::
Do not output flags and parameters not meant for
`git-rev-list` command.
* 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 an stage 0 entry.
+ that follows it) names an 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.
Here is an illustration, by Jon Loeliger. Both node B and C are
a commit parents of commit node A. Parent commits are ordered
C^@ I J F
F^! D G H D F
+PARSEOPT
+--------
+
+In `--parseopt` mode, `git-rev-parse` helps massaging options to bring to shell
+scripts the same facilities C builtins have. It works as an option normalizer
+(e.g. splits single switches aggregate values), a bit like `getopt(1)` does.
+
+It takes on the standard input the specification of the options to parse and
+understand, and echoes on the standard output a line suitable for `sh(1)` `eval`
+to replace the arguments with normalized ones. In case of error, it outputs
+usage on the standard error stream, and exits with code 129.
+
+Input Format
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+`git-rev-parse --parseopt` input format is fully text based. It has two parts,
+separated by a line that contains only `--`. The lines before the separator
+(should be more than one) are used for the usage.
+The lines after the separator describe the options.
+
+Each line of options has this format:
+
+------------
+<opt_spec><arg_spec>? SP+ help LF
+------------
+
+`<opt_spec>`::
+ its format is the short option character, then the long option name
+ separated by a comma. Both parts are not required, though at least one
+ is necessary. `h,help`, `dry-run` and `f` are all three correct
+ `<opt_spec>`.
+
+`<arg_spec>`::
+ an `<arg_spec>` tells the option parser if the option has an argument
+ (`=`), an optional one (`?` though its use is discouraged) or none
+ (no `<arg_spec>` in that case).
+
+The remainder of the line, after stripping the spaces, is used
+as the help associated to the option.
+
+Blank lines are ignored, and lines that don't match this specification are used
+as option group headers (start the line with a space to create such
+lines on purpose).
+
+Example
+~~~~~~~
+
+------------
+OPTS_SPEC="\
+some-command [options] <args>...
+
+some-command does foo and bar!
+--
+h,help show the help
+
+foo some nifty option --foo
+bar= some cool option --bar with an argument
+
+ An option group Header
+C? option C with an optional argument"
+
+eval `echo "$OPTS_SPEC" | git-rev-parse --parseopt -- "$@" || echo exit $?`
+------------
+
+
Author
------
-Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and
-Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
+Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> .
+Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> and Pierre Habouzit <madcoder@debian.org>
Documentation
--------------