I realized that it would probably be easier to discuss this proposal
if I attached the final command listing and the rendered manual page.
Please find them attached to this message.
Thank you,
Frederick
On Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 09:54:12AM -0800, Frederick Eaton wrote:
This is a follow-up to my proposal to de-alphabetize the command
listings in the git(1) manual page, from 6 July 2018.
Some projects have manual page items listed in alphabetical order,
some don't. As I argued in my proposal, I find it easier to learn from
material which is not alphabetized. If this patch is accepted, I hope
that it will make the Git documentation more accessible to myself and
others.
I produced the reordered command list in this patch using several
sources, as indicated by comments in the new command-list.txt file.
First, all the commands in the main part of "gittutorial(7)" appear in
order, then the commands in giteveryday(7). Then appear additional
commands from a friend's shell history, in reverse order of frequency.
Then gittutorial-2(7), then gitcore-tutorial(7). After that there is a
list of "guides", followed by about 100 commands not appearing in the
earlier lists. I kept the guides and the remaining commands in their
category groupings (guide, mainporcelain, ancillarymanipulators,
etc.), but ordered the commands within each category according to my
own judgment after skimming each manual page.
To verify that the new list is a permutation of the most recent list,
I use the following command (it should produce no output and exit 0):
diff <(git show master:command-list.txt | grep -v '^#' | sort ) <(cat command-list.txt | grep -v '^#' | sort)
Note this patch changes the order of commands appearing in the
generated file "command-list.h", which mostly seems to be used by
"help.c". Probably due to the various occurrences of QSORT in
"help.c", I think this reordering has no visible effect. I am willing
to do any additional testing which may be recommended to ensure that
this patch has no undesired consequences.
Frederick Eaton (1):
Prioritize list of commands appearing in git(1), via command-list.txt.
Don't invoke 'sort' in Documentation/cmd-list.perl.
Documentation/cmd-list.perl | 2 +-
command-list.txt | 295 +++++++++++++++++++-----------------
2 files changed, 158 insertions(+), 139 deletions(-)
--
2.20.1
# Command classification list
# ---------------------------
# All supported commands, builtin or external, must be described in
# here. This info is used to list commands in various places. Each
# command is on one line followed by one or more attributes.
#
# The first attribute group is mandatory and indicates the command
# type. This group includes:
#
# mainporcelain
# ancillarymanipulators
# ancillaryinterrogators
# foreignscminterface
# plumbingmanipulators
# plumbinginterrogators
# synchingrepositories
# synchelpers
# purehelpers
#
# The type names are self explanatory. But if you want to see what
# command belongs to what group to get a better picture, have a look
# at "git" man page, "GIT COMMANDS" section.
#
# Commands of type mainporcelain can also optionally have one of these
# attributes:
#
# init
# worktree
# info
# history
# remote
#
# These commands are considered "common" and will show up in "git
# help" output in groups. Uncommon porcelain commands must not
# specify any of these attributes.
#
# "complete" attribute is used to mark that the command should be
# completable by git-completion.bash. Note that by default,
# mainporcelain commands are completable so you don't need this
# attribute.
#
# As part of the Git man page list, the man(5/7) guides are also
# specified here, which can only have "guide" attribute and nothing
# else.
#
# February 2019: This list had been sorted alphabetically but has been
# reordered to make it easier for people to learn from the main git(1)
# manual page. The new ordering is according to approximate usefulness
# / frequency of use / order of use, with some grouping by topic. The
# idea is to make it possible to read the manual page from beginning
# to end and see the most important commands first, rather than
# getting them in alphabetical order - in other words, to make the
# manual page more like a table of contents and less like an index.
# Please consider this when adding new commands.
#
### command list (do not change this line, also do not change alignment)
# command name category [category] [category]
# From gittutorial
git-help ancillaryinterrogators complete
git-config ancillarymanipulators complete
git-clone mainporcelain init
git-init mainporcelain init
git-add mainporcelain worktree
git-commit mainporcelain history
git-diff mainporcelain history
git-status mainporcelain info
git-log mainporcelain info
git-branch mainporcelain history
git-checkout mainporcelain history
git-merge mainporcelain history
gitk mainporcelain
git-pull mainporcelain remote
git-fetch mainporcelain remote
# From tutorial NEXT STEPS
git-format-patch mainporcelain
git-bisect mainporcelain info
giteveryday guide
gitworkflows guide
gitcvs-migration guide
# From giteveryday
git-reset mainporcelain worktree
git-rebase mainporcelain history
git-tag mainporcelain history
git-push mainporcelain remote
git-send-email foreignscminterface complete
git-request-pull foreignscminterface complete
git-am mainporcelain
git-revert mainporcelain
git-daemon synchingrepositories
git-shell synchelpers
git-http-backend synchingrepositories
gitweb ancillaryinterrogators
# From user feedback
git-grep mainporcelain info
git-show mainporcelain info
git-submodule mainporcelain
git-cherry-pick mainporcelain
git-clean mainporcelain
# From gittutorial-2
git-cat-file plumbinginterrogators
git-ls-tree plumbinginterrogators
git-ls-files plumbinginterrogators
gitcore-tutorial guide
gitglossary guide
# From gitcore-tutorial
git-update-index plumbingmanipulators
git-diff-files plumbinginterrogators
git-write-tree plumbingmanipulators
git-read-tree plumbingmanipulators
git-checkout-index plumbingmanipulators
git-show-branch ancillaryinterrogators complete
git-name-rev plumbinginterrogators
git-merge-index plumbingmanipulators
git-repack ancillarymanipulators complete
git-prune-packed plumbingmanipulators
git-update-server-info synchingrepositories
git-prune ancillarymanipulators
git-cherry plumbinginterrogators complete
# Guides, reordered
gittutorial guide
gittutorial-2 guide
gitrevisions guide
gitignore guide
gitcli guide
gitrepository-layout guide
gitdiffcore guide
gitmodules guide
githooks guide
gitnamespaces guide
gitattributes guide
# All other commands, sorted by man page category and then by
# approximate priority
git-stash mainporcelain
git-rm mainporcelain worktree
git-mv mainporcelain worktree
git-gui mainporcelain
git-citool mainporcelain
git-archive mainporcelain
git-shortlog mainporcelain
git-describe mainporcelain
git-gc mainporcelain
git-notes mainporcelain
git-worktree mainporcelain
git-bundle mainporcelain
git-range-diff mainporcelain
git-stage complete
git-reflog ancillarymanipulators complete
git-remote ancillarymanipulators complete
git-mergetool ancillarymanipulators complete
git-filter-branch ancillarymanipulators
git-replace ancillarymanipulators complete
git-fast-export ancillarymanipulators
git-fast-import ancillarymanipulators
git-pack-refs ancillarymanipulators
git-cvsimport foreignscminterface
git-cvsserver foreignscminterface
git-cvsexportcommit foreignscminterface
git-svn foreignscminterface
git-p4 foreignscminterface
git-quiltimport foreignscminterface
git-archimport foreignscminterface
git-imap-send foreignscminterface
git-apply plumbingmanipulators complete
git-merge-file plumbingmanipulators
git-mktag plumbingmanipulators
git-hash-object plumbingmanipulators
git-update-ref plumbingmanipulators
git-symbolic-ref plumbingmanipulators
git-commit-tree plumbingmanipulators
git-commit-graph plumbingmanipulators
git-mktree plumbingmanipulators
git-pack-objects plumbingmanipulators
git-unpack-objects plumbingmanipulators
git-index-pack plumbingmanipulators
git-multi-pack-index plumbingmanipulators
git-blame ancillaryinterrogators complete
git-annotate ancillaryinterrogators
git-instaweb ancillaryinterrogators complete
git-rerere ancillaryinterrogators
git-fsck ancillaryinterrogators complete
git-whatchanged ancillaryinterrogators complete
git-difftool ancillaryinterrogators complete
git-merge-tree ancillaryinterrogators
git-count-objects ancillaryinterrogators
git-verify-commit ancillaryinterrogators
git-verify-tag ancillaryinterrogators
git-send-pack synchingrepositories
git-fetch-pack synchingrepositories
git-parse-remote synchelpers
git-receive-pack synchelpers
git-upload-pack synchelpers
git-upload-archive synchelpers
git-http-fetch synchelpers
git-http-push synchelpers
git-var plumbinginterrogators
git-rev-list plumbinginterrogators
git-rev-parse plumbinginterrogators
git-for-each-ref plumbinginterrogators
git-show-ref plumbinginterrogators
git-ls-remote plumbinginterrogators
git-diff-tree plumbinginterrogators
git-diff-index plumbinginterrogators
git-merge-base plumbinginterrogators
git-verify-pack plumbinginterrogators
git-pack-redundant plumbinginterrogators
git-unpack-file plumbinginterrogators
git-show-index plumbinginterrogators
git-get-tar-commit-id plumbinginterrogators
git-merge-one-file purehelpers
git-sh-setup purehelpers
git-check-ref-format purehelpers
git-check-ignore purehelpers
git-check-attr purehelpers
git-credential purehelpers
git-credential-cache purehelpers
git-credential-store purehelpers
git-fmt-merge-msg purehelpers
git-check-mailmap purehelpers
git-mailsplit purehelpers
git-mailinfo purehelpers
git-interpret-trailers purehelpers
git-column purehelpers
git-stripspace purehelpers
git-patch-id purehelpers
git-sh-i18n purehelpers
GIT(1) Git Manual GIT(1)
NAME
git - the stupid content tracker
SYNOPSIS
git [--version] [--help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
[--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
[-p|--paginate|-P|--no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--bare]
[--git-dir=<path>] [--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>]
[--super-prefix=<path>]
<command> [<args>]
DESCRIPTION
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an
unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and
full access to internals.
See gittutorial(7) to get started, then see giteveryday(7) for a useful
minimum set of commands. The Git User's Manual[1] has a more in-depth
introduction.
After you mastered the basic concepts, you can come back to this page
to learn what commands Git offers. You can learn more about individual
Git commands with "git help command". gitcli(7) manual page gives you
an overview of the command-line command syntax.
A formatted and hyperlinked copy of the latest Git documentation can be
viewed at https://git.github.io/htmldocs/git.html.
OPTIONS
--version
Prints the Git suite version that the git program came from.
--help
Prints the synopsis and a list of the most commonly used commands.
If the option --all or -a is given then all available commands are
printed. If a Git command is named this option will bring up the
manual page for that command.
Other options are available to control how the manual page is
displayed. See git-help(1) for more information, because git --help
... is converted internally into git help ....
-C <path>
Run as if git was started in <path> instead of the current working
directory. When multiple -C options are given, each subsequent
non-absolute -C <path> is interpreted relative to the preceding -C
<path>.
This option affects options that expect path name like --git-dir
and --work-tree in that their interpretations of the path names
would be made relative to the working directory caused by the -C
option. For example the following invocations are equivalent:
git --git-dir=a.git --work-tree=b -C c status
git --git-dir=c/a.git --work-tree=c/b status
-c <name>=<value>
Pass a configuration parameter to the command. The value given will
override values from configuration files. The <name> is expected in
the same format as listed by git config (subkeys separated by
dots).
Note that omitting the = in git -c foo.bar ... is allowed and sets
foo.bar to the boolean true value (just like [foo]bar would in a
config file). Including the equals but with an empty value (like
git -c foo.bar= ...) sets foo.bar to the empty string which git
config --type=bool will convert to false.
--exec-path[=<path>]
Path to wherever your core Git programs are installed. This can
also be controlled by setting the GIT_EXEC_PATH environment
variable. If no path is given, git will print the current setting
and then exit.
--html-path
Print the path, without trailing slash, where Git's HTML
documentation is installed and exit.
--man-path
Print the manpath (see man(1)) for the man pages for this version
of Git and exit.
--info-path
Print the path where the Info files documenting this version of Git
are installed and exit.
-p, --paginate
Pipe all output into less (or if set, $PAGER) if standard output is
a terminal. This overrides the pager.<cmd> configuration options
(see the "Configuration Mechanism" section below).
-P, --no-pager
Do not pipe Git output into a pager.
--git-dir=<path>
Set the path to the repository. This can also be controlled by
setting the GIT_DIR environment variable. It can be an absolute
path or relative path to current working directory.
--work-tree=<path>
Set the path to the working tree. It can be an absolute path or a
path relative to the current working directory. This can also be
controlled by setting the GIT_WORK_TREE environment variable and
the core.worktree configuration variable (see core.worktree in git-
config(1) for a more detailed discussion).
--namespace=<path>
Set the Git namespace. See gitnamespaces(7) for more details.
Equivalent to setting the GIT_NAMESPACE environment variable.
--super-prefix=<path>
Currently for internal use only. Set a prefix which gives a path
from above a repository down to its root. One use is to give
submodules context about the superproject that invoked it.
--bare
Treat the repository as a bare repository. If GIT_DIR environment
is not set, it is set to the current working directory.
--no-replace-objects
Do not use replacement refs to replace Git objects. See git-
replace(1) for more information.
--literal-pathspecs
Treat pathspecs literally (i.e. no globbing, no pathspec magic).
This is equivalent to setting the GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS environment
variable to 1.
--glob-pathspecs
Add "glob" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting the
GIT_GLOB_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1. Disabling globbing on
individual pathspecs can be done using pathspec magic ":(literal)"
--noglob-pathspecs
Add "literal" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting
the GIT_NOGLOB_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1. Enabling
globbing on individual pathspecs can be done using pathspec magic
":(glob)"
--icase-pathspecs
Add "icase" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting
the GIT_ICASE_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1.
--no-optional-locks
Do not perform optional operations that require locks. This is
equivalent to setting the GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS to 0.
--list-cmds=group[,group...]
List commands by group. This is an internal/experimental option and
may change or be removed in the future. Supported groups are:
builtins, parseopt (builtin commands that use parse-options), main
(all commands in libexec directory), others (all other commands in
$PATH that have git- prefix), list-<category> (see categories in
command-list.txt), nohelpers (exclude helper commands), alias and
config (retrieve command list from config variable
completion.commands)
GIT COMMANDS
We divide Git into high level ("porcelain") commands and low level
("plumbing") commands.
HIGH-LEVEL COMMANDS (PORCELAIN)
We separate the porcelain commands into the main commands and some
ancillary user utilities.
Main porcelain commands
git-clone(1)
Clone a repository into a new directory.
git-init(1)
Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one.
git-add(1)
Add file contents to the index.
git-commit(1)
Record changes to the repository.
git-diff(1)
Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc.
git-status(1)
Show the working tree status.
git-log(1)
Show commit logs.
git-branch(1)
List, create, or delete branches.
git-checkout(1)
Switch branches or restore working tree files.
git-merge(1)
Join two or more development histories together.
gitk(1)
The Git repository browser.
git-pull(1)
Fetch from and integrate with another repository or a local branch.
git-fetch(1)
Download objects and refs from another repository.
git-format-patch(1)
Prepare patches for e-mail submission.
git-bisect(1)
Use binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug.
git-reset(1)
Reset current HEAD to the specified state.
git-rebase(1)
Reapply commits on top of another base tip.
git-tag(1)
Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG.
git-push(1)
Update remote refs along with associated objects.
git-am(1)
Apply a series of patches from a mailbox.
git-revert(1)
Revert some existing commits.
git-grep(1)
Print lines matching a pattern.
git-show(1)
Show various types of objects.
git-submodule(1)
Initialize, update or inspect submodules.
git-cherry-pick(1)
Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits.
git-clean(1)
Remove untracked files from the working tree.
git-stash(1)
Stash the changes in a dirty working directory away.
git-rm(1)
Remove files from the working tree and from the index.
git-mv(1)
Move or rename a file, a directory, or a symlink.
git-gui(1)
A portable graphical interface to Git.
git-citool(1)
Graphical alternative to git-commit.
git-archive(1)
Create an archive of files from a named tree.
git-shortlog(1)
Summarize git log output.
git-describe(1)
Give an object a human readable name based on an available ref.
git-gc(1)
Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository.
git-notes(1)
Add or inspect object notes.
git-worktree(1)
Manage multiple working trees.
git-bundle(1)
Move objects and refs by archive.
git-range-diff(1)
Compare two commit ranges (e.g. two versions of a branch).
Ancillary Commands
Manipulators:
git-config(1)
Get and set repository or global options.
git-repack(1)
Pack unpacked objects in a repository.
git-prune(1)
Prune all unreachable objects from the object database.
git-reflog(1)
Manage reflog information.
git-remote(1)
Manage set of tracked repositories.
git-mergetool(1)
Run merge conflict resolution tools to resolve merge conflicts.
git-filter-branch(1)
Rewrite branches.
git-replace(1)
Create, list, delete refs to replace objects.
git-fast-export(1)
Git data exporter.
git-fast-import(1)
Backend for fast Git data importers.
git-pack-refs(1)
Pack heads and tags for efficient repository access.
Interrogators:
git-help(1)
Display help information about Git.
gitweb(1)
Git web interface (web frontend to Git repositories).
git-show-branch(1)
Show branches and their commits.
git-blame(1)
Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file.
git-annotate(1)
Annotate file lines with commit information.
git-instaweb(1)
Instantly browse your working repository in gitweb.
git-rerere(1)
Reuse recorded resolution of conflicted merges.
git-fsck(1)
Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the
database.
git-whatchanged(1)
Show logs with difference each commit introduces.
git-difftool(1)
Show changes using common diff tools.
git-merge-tree(1)
Show three-way merge without touching index.
git-count-objects(1)
Count unpacked number of objects and their disk consumption.
git-verify-commit(1)
Check the GPG signature of commits.
git-verify-tag(1)
Check the GPG signature of tags.
Interacting with Others
These commands are to interact with foreign SCM and with other people
via patch over e-mail.
git-send-email(1)
Send a collection of patches as emails.
git-request-pull(1)
Generates a summary of pending changes.
git-cvsimport(1)
Salvage your data out of another SCM people love to hate.
git-cvsserver(1)
A CVS server emulator for Git.
git-cvsexportcommit(1)
Export a single commit to a CVS checkout.
git-svn(1)
Bidirectional operation between a Subversion repository and Git.
git-p4(1)
Import from and submit to Perforce repositories.
git-quiltimport(1)
Applies a quilt patchset onto the current branch.
git-archimport(1)
Import a GNU Arch repository into Git.
git-imap-send(1)
Send a collection of patches from stdin to an IMAP folder.
LOW-LEVEL COMMANDS (PLUMBING)
Although Git includes its own porcelain layer, its low-level commands
are sufficient to support development of alternative porcelains.
Developers of such porcelains might start by reading about git-update-
index(1) and git-read-tree(1).
The interface (input, output, set of options and the semantics) to
these low-level commands are meant to be a lot more stable than
Porcelain level commands, because these commands are primarily for
scripted use. The interface to Porcelain commands on the other hand are
subject to change in order to improve the end user experience.
The following description divides the low-level commands into commands
that manipulate objects (in the repository, index, and working tree),
commands that interrogate and compare objects, and commands that move
objects and references between repositories.
Manipulation commands
git-update-index(1)
Register file contents in the working tree to the index.
git-write-tree(1)
Create a tree object from the current index.
git-read-tree(1)
Reads tree information into the index.
git-checkout-index(1)
Copy files from the index to the working tree.
git-merge-index(1)
Run a merge for files needing merging.
git-prune-packed(1)
Remove extra objects that are already in pack files.
git-apply(1)
Apply a patch to files and/or to the index.
git-merge-file(1)
Run a three-way file merge.
git-mktag(1)
Creates a tag object.
git-hash-object(1)
Compute object ID and optionally creates a blob from a file.
git-update-ref(1)
Update the object name stored in a ref safely.
git-symbolic-ref(1)
Read, modify and delete symbolic refs.
git-commit-tree(1)
Create a new commit object.
git-commit-graph(1)
Write and verify Git commit-graph files.
git-mktree(1)
Build a tree-object from ls-tree formatted text.
git-pack-objects(1)
Create a packed archive of objects.
git-unpack-objects(1)
Unpack objects from a packed archive.
git-index-pack(1)
Build pack index file for an existing packed archive.
git-multi-pack-index(1)
Write and verify multi-pack-indexes.
Interrogation commands
git-cat-file(1)
Provide content or type and size information for repository
objects.
git-ls-tree(1)
List the contents of a tree object.
git-ls-files(1)
Show information about files in the index and the working tree.
git-diff-files(1)
Compares files in the working tree and the index.
git-name-rev(1)
Find symbolic names for given revs.
git-cherry(1)
Find commits yet to be applied to upstream.
git-var(1)
Show a Git logical variable.
git-rev-list(1)
Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order.
git-rev-parse(1)
Pick out and massage parameters.
git-for-each-ref(1)
Output information on each ref.
git-show-ref(1)
List references in a local repository.
git-ls-remote(1)
List references in a remote repository.
git-diff-tree(1)
Compares the content and mode of blobs found via two tree objects.
git-diff-index(1)
Compare a tree to the working tree or index.
git-merge-base(1)
Find as good common ancestors as possible for a merge.
git-verify-pack(1)
Validate packed Git archive files.
git-pack-redundant(1)
Find redundant pack files.
git-unpack-file(1)
Creates a temporary file with a blob's contents.
git-show-index(1)
Show packed archive index.
git-get-tar-commit-id(1)
Extract commit ID from an archive created using git-archive.
In general, the interrogate commands do not touch the files in the
working tree.
Synching repositories
git-daemon(1)
A really simple server for Git repositories.
git-http-backend(1)
Server side implementation of Git over HTTP.
git-update-server-info(1)
Update auxiliary info file to help dumb servers.
git-send-pack(1)
Push objects over Git protocol to another repository.
git-fetch-pack(1)
Receive missing objects from another repository.
The following are helper commands used by the above; end users
typically do not use them directly.
git-shell(1)
Restricted login shell for Git-only SSH access.
git-parse-remote(1)
Routines to help parsing remote repository access parameters.
git-receive-pack(1)
Receive what is pushed into the repository.
git-upload-pack(1)
Send objects packed back to git-fetch-pack.
git-upload-archive(1)
Send archive back to git-archive.
git-http-fetch(1)
Download from a remote Git repository via HTTP.
git-http-push(1)
Push objects over HTTP/DAV to another repository.
Internal helper commands
These are internal helper commands used by other commands; end users
typically do not use them directly.
git-merge-one-file(1)
The standard helper program to use with git-merge-index.
git-sh-setup(1)
Common Git shell script setup code.
git-check-ref-format(1)
Ensures that a reference name is well formed.
git-check-ignore(1)
Debug gitignore / exclude files.
git-check-attr(1)
Display gitattributes information.
git-credential(1)
Retrieve and store user credentials.
git-credential-cache(1)
Helper to temporarily store passwords in memory.
git-credential-store(1)
Helper to store credentials on disk.
git-fmt-merge-msg(1)
Produce a merge commit message.
git-check-mailmap(1)
Show canonical names and email addresses of contacts.
git-mailsplit(1)
Simple UNIX mbox splitter program.
git-mailinfo(1)
Extracts patch and authorship from a single e-mail message.
git-interpret-trailers(1)
add or parse structured information in commit messages.
git-column(1)
Display data in columns.
git-stripspace(1)
Remove unnecessary whitespace.
git-patch-id(1)
Compute unique ID for a patch.
git-sh-i18n(1)
Git's i18n setup code for shell scripts.
CONFIGURATION MECHANISM
Git uses a simple text format to store customizations that are per
repository and are per user. Such a configuration file may look like
this:
#
# A '#' or ';' character indicates a comment.
#
; core variables
[core]
; Don't trust file modes
filemode = false
; user identity
[user]
name = "Junio C Hamano"
email = "gitster@xxxxxxxxx"
Various commands read from the configuration file and adjust their
operation accordingly. See git-config(1) for a list and more details
about the configuration mechanism.
IDENTIFIER TERMINOLOGY
<object>
Indicates the object name for any type of object.
<blob>
Indicates a blob object name.
<tree>
Indicates a tree object name.
<commit>
Indicates a commit object name.
<tree-ish>
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>.
<commit-ish>
Indicates a commit or tag object name. A command that takes a
<commit-ish> argument ultimately wants to operate on a <commit>
object but automatically dereferences <tag> objects that point at a
<commit>.
<type>
Indicates that an object type is required. Currently one of: blob,
tree, commit, or tag.
<file>
Indicates a filename - almost always relative to the root of the
tree structure GIT_INDEX_FILE describes.
SYMBOLIC IDENTIFIERS
Any Git command accepting any <object> can also use the following
symbolic notation:
HEAD
indicates the head of the current branch.
<tag>
a valid tag name (i.e. a refs/tags/<tag> reference).
<head>
a valid head name (i.e. a refs/heads/<head> reference).
For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see "SPECIFYING
REVISIONS" section in gitrevisions(7).
FILE/DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
Please see the gitrepository-layout(5) document.
Read githooks(5) for more details about each hook.
Higher level SCMs may provide and manage additional information in the
$GIT_DIR.
TERMINOLOGY
Please see gitglossary(7).
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
Various Git commands use the following environment variables:
The Git Repository
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 a foreign front-end.
GIT_INDEX_FILE
This environment allows the specification of an alternate index
file. If not specified, the default of $GIT_DIR/index is used.
GIT_INDEX_VERSION
This environment variable allows the specification of an index
version for new repositories. It won't affect existing index files.
By default index file version 2 or 3 is used. See git-update-
index(1) for more information.
GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
If the object storage directory is specified via this environment
variable then the sha1 directories are created underneath -
otherwise the default $GIT_DIR/objects directory is used.
GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
Due to the immutable nature of Git objects, old objects can be
archived into shared, read-only directories. This variable
specifies a ":" separated (on Windows ";" separated) list of Git
object directories which can be used to search for Git objects. New
objects will not be written to these directories.
Entries that begin with " (double-quote) will be interpreted as
C-style quoted paths, removing leading and trailing double-quotes
and respecting backslash escapes. E.g., the value
"path-with-\"-and-:-in-it":vanilla-path has two paths:
path-with-"-and-:-in-it and vanilla-path.
GIT_DIR
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.
The --git-dir command-line option also sets this value.
GIT_WORK_TREE
Set the path to the root of the working tree. This can also be
controlled by the --work-tree command-line option and the
core.worktree configuration variable.
GIT_NAMESPACE
Set the Git namespace; see gitnamespaces(7) for details. The
--namespace command-line option also sets this value.
GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES
This should be a colon-separated list of absolute paths. If set, it
is a list of directories that Git should not chdir up into while
looking for a repository directory (useful for excluding
slow-loading network directories). It will not exclude the current
working directory or a GIT_DIR set on the command line or in the
environment. Normally, Git has to read the entries in this list and
resolve any symlink that might be present in order to compare them
with the current directory. However, if even this access is slow,
you can add an empty entry to the list to tell Git that the
subsequent entries are not symlinks and needn't be resolved; e.g.,
GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES=/maybe/symlink::/very/slow/non/symlink.
GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM
When run in a directory that does not have ".git" repository
directory, Git tries to find such a directory in the parent
directories to find the top of the working tree, but by default it
does not cross filesystem boundaries. This environment variable can
be set to true to tell Git not to stop at filesystem boundaries.
Like GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES, this will not affect an explicit
repository directory set via GIT_DIR or on the command line.
GIT_COMMON_DIR
If this variable is set to a path, non-worktree files that are
normally in $GIT_DIR will be taken from this path instead.
Worktree-specific files such as HEAD or index are taken from
$GIT_DIR. See gitrepository-layout(5) and git-worktree(1) for
details. This variable has lower precedence than other path
variables such as GIT_INDEX_FILE, GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY...
Git Commits
GIT_AUTHOR_NAME, GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL, GIT_AUTHOR_DATE, GIT_COMMITTER_NAME,
GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL, GIT_COMMITTER_DATE, EMAIL
see git-commit-tree(1)
Git Diffs
GIT_DIFF_OPTS
Only valid setting is "--unified=??" or "-u??" to set the number of
context lines shown when a unified diff is created. This takes
precedence over any "-U" or "--unified" option value passed on the
Git diff command line.
GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF
When the environment variable GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is set, the program
named by it is called, instead of the diff invocation described
above. For a path that is added, removed, or modified,
GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is called with 7 parameters:
path old-file old-hex old-mode new-file new-hex new-mode
where:
<old|new>-file
are files GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF can use to read the contents of
<old|new>,
<old|new>-hex
are the 40-hexdigit SHA-1 hashes,
<old|new>-mode
are the octal representation of the file modes.
The file parameters can point at the user's working file (e.g.
new-file in "git-diff-files"), /dev/null (e.g. old-file when a new
file is added), or a temporary file (e.g. old-file in the index).
GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF should not worry about unlinking the temporary
file --- it is removed when GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF exits.
For a path that is unmerged, GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is called with 1
parameter, <path>.
For each path GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is called, two environment
variables, GIT_DIFF_PATH_COUNTER and GIT_DIFF_PATH_TOTAL are set.
GIT_DIFF_PATH_COUNTER
A 1-based counter incremented by one for every path.
GIT_DIFF_PATH_TOTAL
The total number of paths.
other
GIT_MERGE_VERBOSITY
A number controlling the amount of output shown by the recursive
merge strategy. Overrides merge.verbosity. See git-merge(1)
GIT_PAGER
This environment variable overrides $PAGER. If it is set to an
empty string or to the value "cat", Git will not launch a pager.
See also the core.pager option in git-config(1).
GIT_EDITOR
This environment variable overrides $EDITOR and $VISUAL. It is used
by several Git commands when, on interactive mode, an editor is to
be launched. See also git-var(1) and the core.editor option in git-
config(1).
GIT_SSH, GIT_SSH_COMMAND
If either of these environment variables is set then git fetch and
git push will use the specified command instead of ssh when they
need to connect to a remote system. The command-line parameters
passed to the configured command are determined by the ssh variant.
See ssh.variant option in git-config(1) for details.
+ $GIT_SSH_COMMAND takes precedence over $GIT_SSH, and is interpreted
by the shell, which allows additional arguments to be included.
$GIT_SSH on the other hand must be just the path to a program (which
can be a wrapper shell script, if additional arguments are needed).
+ Usually it is easier to configure any desired options through your
personal .ssh/config file. Please consult your ssh documentation for
further details.
GIT_SSH_VARIANT
If this environment variable is set, it overrides Git's
autodetection whether GIT_SSH/GIT_SSH_COMMAND/core.sshCommand refer
to OpenSSH, plink or tortoiseplink. This variable overrides the
config setting ssh.variant that serves the same purpose.
GIT_ASKPASS
If this environment variable is set, then Git commands which need
to acquire passwords or passphrases (e.g. for HTTP or IMAP
authentication) will call this program with a suitable prompt as
command-line argument and read the password from its STDOUT. See
also the core.askPass option in git-config(1).
GIT_TERMINAL_PROMPT
If this environment variable is set to 0, git will not prompt on
the terminal (e.g., when asking for HTTP authentication).
GIT_CONFIG_NOSYSTEM
Whether to skip reading settings from the system-wide
$(prefix)/etc/gitconfig file. This environment variable can be used
along with $HOME and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME to create a predictable
environment for a picky script, or you can set it temporarily to
avoid using a buggy /etc/gitconfig file while waiting for someone
with sufficient permissions to fix it.
GIT_FLUSH
If this environment variable is set to "1", then commands such as
git blame (in incremental mode), git rev-list, git log, git
check-attr and git check-ignore will force a flush of the output
stream after each record have been flushed. If this variable is set
to "0", the output of these commands will be done using completely
buffered I/O. If this environment variable is not set, Git will
choose buffered or record-oriented flushing based on whether stdout
appears to be redirected to a file or not.
GIT_TRACE
Enables general trace messages, e.g. alias expansion, built-in
command execution and external command execution.
If this variable is set to "1", "2" or "true" (comparison is case
insensitive), trace messages will be printed to stderr.
If the variable is set to an integer value greater than 2 and lower
than 10 (strictly) then Git will interpret this value as an open
file descriptor and will try to write the trace messages into this
file descriptor.
Alternatively, if the variable is set to an absolute path (starting
with a / character), Git will interpret this as a file path and
will try to append the trace messages to it.
Unsetting the variable, or setting it to empty, "0" or "false"
(case insensitive) disables trace messages.
GIT_TRACE_FSMONITOR
Enables trace messages for the filesystem monitor extension. See
GIT_TRACE for available trace output options.
GIT_TRACE_PACK_ACCESS
Enables trace messages for all accesses to any packs. For each
access, the pack file name and an offset in the pack is recorded.
This may be helpful for troubleshooting some pack-related
performance problems. See GIT_TRACE for available trace output
options.
GIT_TRACE_PACKET
Enables trace messages for all packets coming in or out of a given
program. This can help with debugging object negotiation or other
protocol issues. Tracing is turned off at a packet starting with
"PACK" (but see GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE below). See GIT_TRACE for
available trace output options.
GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE
Enables tracing of packfiles sent or received by a given program.
Unlike other trace output, this trace is verbatim: no headers, and
no quoting of binary data. You almost certainly want to direct into
a file (e.g., GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE=/tmp/my.pack) rather than
displaying it on the terminal or mixing it with other trace output.
Note that this is currently only implemented for the client side of
clones and fetches.
GIT_TRACE_PERFORMANCE
Enables performance related trace messages, e.g. total execution
time of each Git command. See GIT_TRACE for available trace output
options.
GIT_TRACE_SETUP
Enables trace messages printing the .git, working tree and current
working directory after Git has completed its setup phase. See
GIT_TRACE for available trace output options.
GIT_TRACE_SHALLOW
Enables trace messages that can help debugging fetching / cloning
of shallow repositories. See GIT_TRACE for available trace output
options.
GIT_TRACE_CURL
Enables a curl full trace dump of all incoming and outgoing data,
including descriptive information, of the git transport protocol.
This is similar to doing curl --trace-ascii on the command line.
This option overrides setting the GIT_CURL_VERBOSE environment
variable. See GIT_TRACE for available trace output options.
GIT_TRACE_CURL_NO_DATA
When a curl trace is enabled (see GIT_TRACE_CURL above), do not
dump data (that is, only dump info lines and headers).
GIT_REDACT_COOKIES
This can be set to a comma-separated list of strings. When a curl
trace is enabled (see GIT_TRACE_CURL above), whenever a "Cookies:"
header sent by the client is dumped, values of cookies whose key is
in that list (case-sensitive) are redacted.
GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS
Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs
literally, rather than as glob patterns. For example, running
GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS=1 git log -- '*.c' will search for commits
that touch the path *.c, not any paths that the glob *.c matches.
You might want this if you are feeding literal paths to Git (e.g.,
paths previously given to you by git ls-tree, --raw diff output,
etc).
GIT_GLOB_PATHSPECS
Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs as
glob patterns (aka "glob" magic).
GIT_NOGLOB_PATHSPECS
Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs as
literal (aka "literal" magic).
GIT_ICASE_PATHSPECS
Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs as
case-insensitive.
GIT_REFLOG_ACTION
When a ref is updated, reflog entries are created to keep track of
the reason why the ref was updated (which is typically the name of
the high-level command that updated the ref), in addition to the
old and new values of the ref. A scripted Porcelain command can use
set_reflog_action helper function in git-sh-setup to set its name
to this variable when it is invoked as the top level command by the
end user, to be recorded in the body of the reflog.
GIT_REF_PARANOIA
If set to 1, include broken or badly named refs when iterating over
lists of refs. In a normal, non-corrupted repository, this does
nothing. However, enabling it may help git to detect and abort some
operations in the presence of broken refs. Git sets this variable
automatically when performing destructive operations like git-
prune(1). You should not need to set it yourself unless you want to
be paranoid about making sure an operation has touched every ref
(e.g., because you are cloning a repository to make a backup).
GIT_ALLOW_PROTOCOL
If set to a colon-separated list of protocols, behave as if
protocol.allow is set to never, and each of the listed protocols
has protocol.<name>.allow set to always (overriding any existing
configuration). In other words, any protocol not mentioned will be
disallowed (i.e., this is a whitelist, not a blacklist). See the
description of protocol.allow in git-config(1) for more details.
GIT_PROTOCOL_FROM_USER
Set to 0 to prevent protocols used by fetch/push/clone which are
configured to the user state. This is useful to restrict recursive
submodule initialization from an untrusted repository or for
programs which feed potentially-untrusted URLS to git commands. See
git-config(1) for more details.
GIT_PROTOCOL
For internal use only. Used in handshaking the wire protocol.
Contains a colon : separated list of keys with optional values
key[=value]. Presence of unknown keys and values must be ignored.
GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS
If set to 0, Git will complete any requested operation without
performing any optional sub-operations that require taking a lock.
For example, this will prevent git status from refreshing the index
as a side effect. This is useful for processes running in the
background which do not want to cause lock contention with other
operations on the repository. Defaults to 1.
GIT_REDIRECT_STDIN, GIT_REDIRECT_STDOUT, GIT_REDIRECT_STDERR
Windows-only: allow redirecting the standard input/output/error
handles to paths specified by the environment variables. This is
particularly useful in multi-threaded applications where the
canonical way to pass standard handles via CreateProcess() is not
an option because it would require the handles to be marked
inheritable (and consequently every spawned process would inherit
them, possibly blocking regular Git operations). The primary
intended use case is to use named pipes for communication (e.g.
\\.\pipe\my-git-stdin-123).
Two special values are supported: off will simply close the
corresponding standard handle, and if GIT_REDIRECT_STDERR is 2>&1,
standard error will be redirected to the same handle as standard
output.
GIT_PRINT_SHA1_ELLIPSIS (deprecated)
If set to yes, print an ellipsis following an (abbreviated) SHA-1
value. This affects indications of detached HEADs (git-checkout(1))
and the raw diff output (git-diff(1)). Printing an ellipsis in the
cases mentioned is no longer considered adequate and support for it
is likely to be removed in the foreseeable future (along with the
variable).
DISCUSSION
More detail on the following is available from the Git concepts chapter
of the user-manual[2] and gitcore-tutorial(7).
A Git project normally consists of a working directory with a ".git"
subdirectory at the top level. The .git directory contains, among other
things, a compressed object database representing the complete history
of the project, an "index" file which links that history to the current
contents of the working tree, and named pointers into that history such
as tags and branch heads.
The object database contains objects of three main types: blobs, which
hold file data; trees, which point to blobs and other trees to build up
directory hierarchies; and commits, which each reference a single tree
and some number of parent commits.
The commit, equivalent to what other systems call a "changeset" or
"version", represents a step in the project's history, and each parent
represents an immediately preceding step. Commits with more than one
parent represent merges of independent lines of development.
All objects are named by the SHA-1 hash of their contents, normally
written as a string of 40 hex digits. Such names are globally unique.
The entire history leading up to a commit can be vouched for by signing
just that commit. A fourth object type, the tag, is provided for this
purpose.
When first created, objects are stored in individual files, but for
efficiency may later be compressed together into "pack files".
Named pointers called refs mark interesting points in history. A ref
may contain the SHA-1 name of an object or the name of another ref.
Refs with names beginning ref/head/ contain the SHA-1 name of the most
recent commit (or "head") of a branch under development. SHA-1 names of
tags of interest are stored under ref/tags/. A special ref named HEAD
contains the name of the currently checked-out branch.
The index file is initialized with a list of all paths and, for each
path, a blob object and a set of attributes. The blob object represents
the contents of the file as of the head of the current branch. The
attributes (last modified time, size, etc.) are taken from the
corresponding file in the working tree. Subsequent changes to the
working tree can be found by comparing these attributes. The index may
be updated with new content, and new commits may be created from the
content stored in the index.
The index is also capable of storing multiple entries (called "stages")
for a given pathname. These stages are used to hold the various
unmerged version of a file when a merge is in progress.
FURTHER DOCUMENTATION
See the references in the "description" section to get started using
Git. The following is probably more detail than necessary for a
first-time user.
The Git concepts chapter of the user-manual[2] and gitcore-tutorial(7)
both provide introductions to the underlying Git architecture.
See gitworkflows(7) for an overview of recommended workflows.
See also the howto[3] documents for some useful examples.
The internals are documented in the Git API documentation[4].
Users migrating from CVS may also want to read gitcvs-migration(7).
AUTHORS
Git was started by Linus Torvalds, and is currently maintained by Junio
C Hamano. Numerous contributions have come from the Git mailing list
<git@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx[5]>.
http://www.openhub.net/p/git/contributors/summary gives you a more
complete list of contributors.
If you have a clone of git.git itself, the output of git-shortlog(1)
and git-blame(1) can show you the authors for specific parts of the
project.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to the Git mailing list <git@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx[5]> where the
development and maintenance is primarily done. You do not have to be
subscribed to the list to send a message there. See the list archive at
https://public-inbox.org/git for previous bug reports and other
discussions.
Issues which are security relevant should be disclosed privately to the
Git Security mailing list <git-security@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx[6]>.
SEE ALSO
gittutorial(7), gittutorial-2(7), giteveryday(7), gitcvs-migration(7),
gitglossary(7), gitcore-tutorial(7), gitcli(7), The Git User's
Manual[1], gitworkflows(7)
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
NOTES
1. Git User's Manual
file:///home/frederik/share/doc/git-doc/user-manual.html
2. Git concepts chapter of the user-manual
file:///home/frederik/share/doc/git-doc/user-manual.html#git-concepts
3. howto
file:///home/frederik/share/doc/git-doc/howto-index.html
4. Git API documentation
file:///home/frederik/share/doc/git-doc/technical/api-index.html
5. git@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
mailto:git@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
6. git-security@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
mailto:git-security@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Git 2.21.0.rc1.9.g3f 02/18/2019 GIT(1)
