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4683 lines
171 KiB
4683 lines
171 KiB
Git User Manual |
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=============== |
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Git is a fast distributed revision control system. |
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This manual is designed to be readable by someone with basic UNIX |
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command-line skills, but no previous knowledge of Git. |
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|
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<<repositories-and-branches>> and <<exploring-git-history>> explain how |
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to fetch and study a project using git--read these chapters to learn how |
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to build and test a particular version of a software project, search for |
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regressions, and so on. |
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People needing to do actual development will also want to read |
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<<Developing-With-git>> and <<sharing-development>>. |
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Further chapters cover more specialized topics. |
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Comprehensive reference documentation is available through the man |
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pages, or linkgit:git-help[1] command. For example, for the command |
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`git clone <repo>`, you can either use: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ man git-clone |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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or: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ git help clone |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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With the latter, you can use the manual viewer of your choice; see |
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linkgit:git-help[1] for more information. |
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See also <<git-quick-start>> for a brief overview of Git commands, |
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without any explanation. |
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Finally, see <<todo>> for ways that you can help make this manual more |
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complete. |
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[[repositories-and-branches]] |
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Repositories and Branches |
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========================= |
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[[how-to-get-a-git-repository]] |
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How to get a Git repository |
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--------------------------- |
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It will be useful to have a Git repository to experiment with as you |
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read this manual. |
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The best way to get one is by using the linkgit:git-clone[1] command to |
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download a copy of an existing repository. If you don't already have a |
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project in mind, here are some interesting examples: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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# Git itself (approx. 40MB download): |
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$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git |
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# the Linux kernel (approx. 640MB download): |
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$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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The initial clone may be time-consuming for a large project, but you |
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will only need to clone once. |
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The clone command creates a new directory named after the project |
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(`git` or `linux` in the examples above). After you cd into this |
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directory, you will see that it contains a copy of the project files, |
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called the <<def_working_tree,working tree>>, together with a special |
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top-level directory named `.git`, which contains all the information |
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about the history of the project. |
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[[how-to-check-out]] |
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How to check out a different version of a project |
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------------------------------------------------- |
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Git is best thought of as a tool for storing the history of a collection |
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of files. It stores the history as a compressed collection of |
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interrelated snapshots of the project's contents. In Git each such |
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version is called a <<def_commit,commit>>. |
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Those snapshots aren't necessarily all arranged in a single line from |
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oldest to newest; instead, work may simultaneously proceed along |
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parallel lines of development, called <<def_branch,branches>>, which may |
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merge and diverge. |
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A single Git repository can track development on multiple branches. It |
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does this by keeping a list of <<def_head,heads>> which reference the |
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latest commit on each branch; the linkgit:git-branch[1] command shows |
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you the list of branch heads: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ git branch |
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* master |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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A freshly cloned repository contains a single branch head, by default |
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named "master", with the working directory initialized to the state of |
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the project referred to by that branch head. |
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Most projects also use <<def_tag,tags>>. Tags, like heads, are |
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references into the project's history, and can be listed using the |
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linkgit:git-tag[1] command: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ git tag -l |
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v2.6.11 |
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v2.6.11-tree |
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v2.6.12 |
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v2.6.12-rc2 |
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v2.6.12-rc3 |
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v2.6.12-rc4 |
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v2.6.12-rc5 |
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v2.6.12-rc6 |
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v2.6.13 |
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... |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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Tags are expected to always point at the same version of a project, |
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while heads are expected to advance as development progresses. |
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Create a new branch head pointing to one of these versions and check it |
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out using linkgit:git-checkout[1]: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ git checkout -b new v2.6.13 |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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The working directory then reflects the contents that the project had |
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when it was tagged v2.6.13, and linkgit:git-branch[1] shows two |
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branches, with an asterisk marking the currently checked-out branch: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ git branch |
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master |
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* new |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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If you decide that you'd rather see version 2.6.17, you can modify |
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the current branch to point at v2.6.17 instead, with |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ git reset --hard v2.6.17 |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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Note that if the current branch head was your only reference to a |
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particular point in history, then resetting that branch may leave you |
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with no way to find the history it used to point to; so use this command |
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carefully. |
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[[understanding-commits]] |
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Understanding History: Commits |
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------------------------------ |
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Every change in the history of a project is represented by a commit. |
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The linkgit:git-show[1] command shows the most recent commit on the |
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current branch: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ git show |
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commit 17cf781661e6d38f737f15f53ab552f1e95960d7 |
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Author: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org.(none)> |
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Date: Tue Apr 19 14:11:06 2005 -0700 |
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Remove duplicate getenv(DB_ENVIRONMENT) call |
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Noted by Tony Luck. |
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diff --git a/init-db.c b/init-db.c |
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index 65898fa..b002dc6 100644 |
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--- a/init-db.c |
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+++ b/init-db.c |
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@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ |
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int main(int argc, char **argv) |
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{ |
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- char *sha1_dir = getenv(DB_ENVIRONMENT), *path; |
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+ char *sha1_dir, *path; |
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int len, i; |
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if (mkdir(".git", 0755) < 0) { |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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As you can see, a commit shows who made the latest change, what they |
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did, and why. |
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Every commit has a 40-hexdigit id, sometimes called the "object name" or the |
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"SHA-1 id", shown on the first line of the `git show` output. You can usually |
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refer to a commit by a shorter name, such as a tag or a branch name, but this |
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longer name can also be useful. Most importantly, it is a globally unique |
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name for this commit: so if you tell somebody else the object name (for |
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example in email), then you are guaranteed that name will refer to the same |
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commit in their repository that it does in yours (assuming their repository |
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has that commit at all). Since the object name is computed as a hash over the |
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contents of the commit, you are guaranteed that the commit can never change |
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without its name also changing. |
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In fact, in <<git-concepts>> we shall see that everything stored in Git |
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history, including file data and directory contents, is stored in an object |
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with a name that is a hash of its contents. |
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[[understanding-reachability]] |
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Understanding history: commits, parents, and reachability |
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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Every commit (except the very first commit in a project) also has a |
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parent commit which shows what happened before this commit. |
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Following the chain of parents will eventually take you back to the |
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beginning of the project. |
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However, the commits do not form a simple list; Git allows lines of |
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development to diverge and then reconverge, and the point where two |
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lines of development reconverge is called a "merge". The commit |
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representing a merge can therefore have more than one parent, with |
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each parent representing the most recent commit on one of the lines |
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of development leading to that point. |
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The best way to see how this works is using the linkgit:gitk[1] |
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command; running gitk now on a Git repository and looking for merge |
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commits will help understand how Git organizes history. |
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In the following, we say that commit X is "reachable" from commit Y |
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if commit X is an ancestor of commit Y. Equivalently, you could say |
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that Y is a descendant of X, or that there is a chain of parents |
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leading from commit Y to commit X. |
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[[history-diagrams]] |
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Understanding history: History diagrams |
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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We will sometimes represent Git history using diagrams like the one |
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below. Commits are shown as "o", and the links between them with |
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lines drawn with - / and \. Time goes left to right: |
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................................................ |
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o--o--o <-- Branch A |
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/ |
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o--o--o <-- master |
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\ |
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o--o--o <-- Branch B |
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................................................ |
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If we need to talk about a particular commit, the character "o" may |
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be replaced with another letter or number. |
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[[what-is-a-branch]] |
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Understanding history: What is a branch? |
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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When we need to be precise, we will use the word "branch" to mean a line |
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of development, and "branch head" (or just "head") to mean a reference |
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to the most recent commit on a branch. In the example above, the branch |
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head named "A" is a pointer to one particular commit, but we refer to |
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the line of three commits leading up to that point as all being part of |
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"branch A". |
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However, when no confusion will result, we often just use the term |
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"branch" both for branches and for branch heads. |
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[[manipulating-branches]] |
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Manipulating branches |
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--------------------- |
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Creating, deleting, and modifying branches is quick and easy; here's |
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a summary of the commands: |
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`git branch`:: |
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list all branches. |
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`git branch <branch>`:: |
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create a new branch named `<branch>`, referencing the same |
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point in history as the current branch. |
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`git branch <branch> <start-point>`:: |
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create a new branch named `<branch>`, referencing |
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`<start-point>`, which may be specified any way you like, |
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including using a branch name or a tag name. |
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`git branch -d <branch>`:: |
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delete the branch `<branch>`; if the branch is not fully |
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merged in its upstream branch or contained in the current branch, |
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this command will fail with a warning. |
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`git branch -D <branch>`:: |
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delete the branch `<branch>` irrespective of its merged status. |
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`git checkout <branch>`:: |
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make the current branch `<branch>`, updating the working |
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directory to reflect the version referenced by `<branch>`. |
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`git checkout -b <new> <start-point>`:: |
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create a new branch `<new>` referencing `<start-point>`, and |
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check it out. |
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The special symbol "HEAD" can always be used to refer to the current |
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branch. In fact, Git uses a file named `HEAD` in the `.git` directory |
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to remember which branch is current: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ cat .git/HEAD |
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ref: refs/heads/master |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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[[detached-head]] |
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Examining an old version without creating a new branch |
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------------------------------------------------------ |
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The `git checkout` command normally expects a branch head, but will also |
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accept an arbitrary commit; for example, you can check out the commit |
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referenced by a tag: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ git checkout v2.6.17 |
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Note: checking out 'v2.6.17'. |
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You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You can look around, make experimental |
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changes and commit them, and you can discard any commits you make in this |
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state without impacting any branches by performing another checkout. |
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If you want to create a new branch to retain commits you create, you may |
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do so (now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example: |
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git checkout -b new_branch_name |
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HEAD is now at 427abfa... Linux v2.6.17 |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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The HEAD then refers to the SHA-1 of the commit instead of to a branch, |
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and git branch shows that you are no longer on a branch: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ cat .git/HEAD |
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427abfa28afedffadfca9dd8b067eb6d36bac53f |
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$ git branch |
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* (detached from v2.6.17) |
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master |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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In this case we say that the HEAD is "detached". |
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This is an easy way to check out a particular version without having to |
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make up a name for the new branch. You can still create a new branch |
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(or tag) for this version later if you decide to. |
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[[examining-remote-branches]] |
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Examining branches from a remote repository |
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------------------------------------------- |
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The "master" branch that was created at the time you cloned is a copy |
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of the HEAD in the repository that you cloned from. That repository |
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may also have had other branches, though, and your local repository |
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keeps branches which track each of those remote branches, called |
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remote-tracking branches, which you |
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can view using the `-r` option to linkgit:git-branch[1]: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ git branch -r |
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origin/HEAD |
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origin/html |
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origin/maint |
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origin/man |
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origin/master |
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origin/next |
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origin/pu |
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origin/todo |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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In this example, "origin" is called a remote repository, or "remote" |
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for short. The branches of this repository are called "remote |
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branches" from our point of view. The remote-tracking branches listed |
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above were created based on the remote branches at clone time and will |
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be updated by `git fetch` (hence `git pull`) and `git push`. See |
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<<Updating-a-repository-With-git-fetch>> for details. |
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You might want to build on one of these remote-tracking branches |
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on a branch of your own, just as you would for a tag: |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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$ git checkout -b my-todo-copy origin/todo |
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------------------------------------------------ |
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You can also check out `origin/todo` directly to examine it or |
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write a one-off patch. See <<detached-head,detached head>>. |
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Note that the name "origin" is just the name that Git uses by default |
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to refer to the repository that you cloned from. |
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[[how-git-stores-references]] |
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Naming branches, tags, and other references |
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------------------------------------------- |
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Branches, remote-tracking branches, and tags are all references to |
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commits. All references are named with a slash-separated path name |
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starting with `refs`; the names we've been using so far are actually |
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shorthand: |
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- The branch `test` is short for `refs/heads/test`. |
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- The tag `v2.6.18` is short for `refs/tags/v2.6.18`. |
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- `origin/master` is short for `refs/remotes/origin/master`. |
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The full name is occasionally useful if, for example, there ever |
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exists a tag and a branch with the same name. |
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(Newly created refs are actually stored in the `.git/refs` directory, |
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under the path given by their name. However, for efficiency reasons |
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they may also be packed together in a single file; see |
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linkgit:git-pack-refs[1]). |
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As another useful shortcut, the "HEAD" of a repository can be referred |
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to just using the name of that repository. So, for example, "origin" |
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is usually a shortcut for the HEAD branch in the repository "origin". |
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For the complete list of paths which Git checks for references, and |
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the order it uses to decide which to choose when there are multiple |
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references with the same shorthand name, see the "SPECIFYING |
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REVISIONS" section of linkgit:gitrevisions[7]. |
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[[Updating-a-repository-With-git-fetch]] |
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Updating a repository with git fetch |
|
------------------------------------ |
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|
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After you clone a repository and commit a few changes of your own, you |
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may wish to check the original repository for updates. |
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|
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The `git-fetch` command, with no arguments, will update all of the |
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remote-tracking branches to the latest version found in the original |
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repository. It will not touch any of your own branches--not even the |
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"master" branch that was created for you on clone. |
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[[fetching-branches]] |
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Fetching branches from other repositories |
|
----------------------------------------- |
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You can also track branches from repositories other than the one you |
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cloned from, using linkgit:git-remote[1]: |
|
|
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------------------------------------------------- |
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$ git remote add staging git://git.kernel.org/.../gregkh/staging.git |
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$ git fetch staging |
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... |
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From git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging |
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* [new branch] master -> staging/master |
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* [new branch] staging-linus -> staging/staging-linus |
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* [new branch] staging-next -> staging/staging-next |
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------------------------------------------------- |
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New remote-tracking branches will be stored under the shorthand name |
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that you gave `git remote add`, in this case `staging`: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
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$ git branch -r |
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origin/HEAD -> origin/master |
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origin/master |
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staging/master |
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staging/staging-linus |
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staging/staging-next |
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------------------------------------------------- |
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If you run `git fetch <remote>` later, the remote-tracking branches |
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for the named `<remote>` will be updated. |
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|
|
If you examine the file `.git/config`, you will see that Git has added |
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a new stanza: |
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|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
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$ cat .git/config |
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... |
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[remote "staging"] |
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url = git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging.git |
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fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/staging/* |
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... |
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------------------------------------------------- |
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This is what causes Git to track the remote's branches; you may modify |
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or delete these configuration options by editing `.git/config` with a |
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text editor. (See the "CONFIGURATION FILE" section of |
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linkgit:git-config[1] for details.) |
|
|
|
[[exploring-git-history]] |
|
Exploring Git history |
|
===================== |
|
|
|
Git is best thought of as a tool for storing the history of a |
|
collection of files. It does this by storing compressed snapshots of |
|
the contents of a file hierarchy, together with "commits" which show |
|
the relationships between these snapshots. |
|
|
|
Git provides extremely flexible and fast tools for exploring the |
|
history of a project. |
|
|
|
We start with one specialized tool that is useful for finding the |
|
commit that introduced a bug into a project. |
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|
|
[[using-bisect]] |
|
How to use bisect to find a regression |
|
-------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Suppose version 2.6.18 of your project worked, but the version at |
|
"master" crashes. Sometimes the best way to find the cause of such a |
|
regression is to perform a brute-force search through the project's |
|
history to find the particular commit that caused the problem. The |
|
linkgit:git-bisect[1] command can help you do this: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git bisect start |
|
$ git bisect good v2.6.18 |
|
$ git bisect bad master |
|
Bisecting: 3537 revisions left to test after this |
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[65934a9a028b88e83e2b0f8b36618fe503349f8e] BLOCK: Make USB storage depend on SCSI rather than selecting it [try #6] |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
If you run `git branch` at this point, you'll see that Git has |
|
temporarily moved you in "(no branch)". HEAD is now detached from any |
|
branch and points directly to a commit (with commit id 65934...) that |
|
is reachable from "master" but not from v2.6.18. Compile and test it, |
|
and see whether it crashes. Assume it does crash. Then: |
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|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git bisect bad |
|
Bisecting: 1769 revisions left to test after this |
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[7eff82c8b1511017ae605f0c99ac275a7e21b867] i2c-core: Drop useless bitmaskings |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
checks out an older version. Continue like this, telling Git at each |
|
stage whether the version it gives you is good or bad, and notice |
|
that the number of revisions left to test is cut approximately in |
|
half each time. |
|
|
|
After about 13 tests (in this case), it will output the commit id of |
|
the guilty commit. You can then examine the commit with |
|
linkgit:git-show[1], find out who wrote it, and mail them your bug |
|
report with the commit id. Finally, run |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git bisect reset |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
to return you to the branch you were on before. |
|
|
|
Note that the version which `git bisect` checks out for you at each |
|
point is just a suggestion, and you're free to try a different |
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version if you think it would be a good idea. For example, |
|
occasionally you may land on a commit that broke something unrelated; |
|
run |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git bisect visualize |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
which will run gitk and label the commit it chose with a marker that |
|
says "bisect". Choose a safe-looking commit nearby, note its commit |
|
id, and check it out with: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git reset --hard fb47ddb2db... |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
then test, run `bisect good` or `bisect bad` as appropriate, and |
|
continue. |
|
|
|
Instead of `git bisect visualize` and then `git reset --hard |
|
fb47ddb2db...`, you might just want to tell Git that you want to skip |
|
the current commit: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git bisect skip |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
In this case, though, Git may not eventually be able to tell the first |
|
bad one between some first skipped commits and a later bad commit. |
|
|
|
There are also ways to automate the bisecting process if you have a |
|
test script that can tell a good from a bad commit. See |
|
linkgit:git-bisect[1] for more information about this and other `git |
|
bisect` features. |
|
|
|
[[naming-commits]] |
|
Naming commits |
|
-------------- |
|
|
|
We have seen several ways of naming commits already: |
|
|
|
- 40-hexdigit object name |
|
- branch name: refers to the commit at the head of the given |
|
branch |
|
- tag name: refers to the commit pointed to by the given tag |
|
(we've seen branches and tags are special cases of |
|
<<how-git-stores-references,references>>). |
|
- HEAD: refers to the head of the current branch |
|
|
|
There are many more; see the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section of the |
|
linkgit:gitrevisions[7] man page for the complete list of ways to |
|
name revisions. Some examples: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git show fb47ddb2 # the first few characters of the object name |
|
# are usually enough to specify it uniquely |
|
$ git show HEAD^ # the parent of the HEAD commit |
|
$ git show HEAD^^ # the grandparent |
|
$ git show HEAD~4 # the great-great-grandparent |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Recall that merge commits may have more than one parent; by default, |
|
`^` and `~` follow the first parent listed in the commit, but you can |
|
also choose: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git show HEAD^1 # show the first parent of HEAD |
|
$ git show HEAD^2 # show the second parent of HEAD |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
In addition to HEAD, there are several other special names for |
|
commits: |
|
|
|
Merges (to be discussed later), as well as operations such as |
|
`git reset`, which change the currently checked-out commit, generally |
|
set ORIG_HEAD to the value HEAD had before the current operation. |
|
|
|
The `git fetch` operation always stores the head of the last fetched |
|
branch in FETCH_HEAD. For example, if you run `git fetch` without |
|
specifying a local branch as the target of the operation |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fetch git://example.com/proj.git theirbranch |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
the fetched commits will still be available from FETCH_HEAD. |
|
|
|
When we discuss merges we'll also see the special name MERGE_HEAD, |
|
which refers to the other branch that we're merging in to the current |
|
branch. |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-rev-parse[1] command is a low-level command that is |
|
occasionally useful for translating some name for a commit to the object |
|
name for that commit: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git rev-parse origin |
|
e05db0fd4f31dde7005f075a84f96b360d05984b |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
[[creating-tags]] |
|
Creating tags |
|
------------- |
|
|
|
We can also create a tag to refer to a particular commit; after |
|
running |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git tag stable-1 1b2e1d63ff |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
You can use `stable-1` to refer to the commit 1b2e1d63ff. |
|
|
|
This creates a "lightweight" tag. If you would also like to include a |
|
comment with the tag, and possibly sign it cryptographically, then you |
|
should create a tag object instead; see the linkgit:git-tag[1] man page |
|
for details. |
|
|
|
[[browsing-revisions]] |
|
Browsing revisions |
|
------------------ |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-log[1] command can show lists of commits. On its |
|
own, it shows all commits reachable from the parent commit; but you |
|
can also make more specific requests: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log v2.5.. # commits since (not reachable from) v2.5 |
|
$ git log test..master # commits reachable from master but not test |
|
$ git log master..test # ...reachable from test but not master |
|
$ git log master...test # ...reachable from either test or master, |
|
# but not both |
|
$ git log --since="2 weeks ago" # commits from the last 2 weeks |
|
$ git log Makefile # commits which modify Makefile |
|
$ git log fs/ # ... which modify any file under fs/ |
|
$ git log -S'foo()' # commits which add or remove any file data |
|
# matching the string 'foo()' |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
And of course you can combine all of these; the following finds |
|
commits since v2.5 which touch the `Makefile` or any file under `fs`: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log v2.5.. Makefile fs/ |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
You can also ask git log to show patches: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log -p |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
See the `--pretty` option in the linkgit:git-log[1] man page for more |
|
display options. |
|
|
|
Note that git log starts with the most recent commit and works |
|
backwards through the parents; however, since Git history can contain |
|
multiple independent lines of development, the particular order that |
|
commits are listed in may be somewhat arbitrary. |
|
|
|
[[generating-diffs]] |
|
Generating diffs |
|
---------------- |
|
|
|
You can generate diffs between any two versions using |
|
linkgit:git-diff[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git diff master..test |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
That will produce the diff between the tips of the two branches. If |
|
you'd prefer to find the diff from their common ancestor to test, you |
|
can use three dots instead of two: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git diff master...test |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Sometimes what you want instead is a set of patches; for this you can |
|
use linkgit:git-format-patch[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git format-patch master..test |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
will generate a file with a patch for each commit reachable from test |
|
but not from master. |
|
|
|
[[viewing-old-file-versions]] |
|
Viewing old file versions |
|
------------------------- |
|
|
|
You can always view an old version of a file by just checking out the |
|
correct revision first. But sometimes it is more convenient to be |
|
able to view an old version of a single file without checking |
|
anything out; this command does that: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git show v2.5:fs/locks.c |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Before the colon may be anything that names a commit, and after it |
|
may be any path to a file tracked by Git. |
|
|
|
[[history-examples]] |
|
Examples |
|
-------- |
|
|
|
[[counting-commits-on-a-branch]] |
|
Counting the number of commits on a branch |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
Suppose you want to know how many commits you've made on `mybranch` |
|
since it diverged from `origin`: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log --pretty=oneline origin..mybranch | wc -l |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Alternatively, you may often see this sort of thing done with the |
|
lower-level command linkgit:git-rev-list[1], which just lists the SHA-1's |
|
of all the given commits: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git rev-list origin..mybranch | wc -l |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
[[checking-for-equal-branches]] |
|
Check whether two branches point at the same history |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
Suppose you want to check whether two branches point at the same point |
|
in history. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git diff origin..master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
will tell you whether the contents of the project are the same at the |
|
two branches; in theory, however, it's possible that the same project |
|
contents could have been arrived at by two different historical |
|
routes. You could compare the object names: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git rev-list origin |
|
e05db0fd4f31dde7005f075a84f96b360d05984b |
|
$ git rev-list master |
|
e05db0fd4f31dde7005f075a84f96b360d05984b |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Or you could recall that the `...` operator selects all commits |
|
reachable from either one reference or the other but not |
|
both; so |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log origin...master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
will return no commits when the two branches are equal. |
|
|
|
[[finding-tagged-descendants]] |
|
Find first tagged version including a given fix |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
Suppose you know that the commit e05db0fd fixed a certain problem. |
|
You'd like to find the earliest tagged release that contains that |
|
fix. |
|
|
|
Of course, there may be more than one answer--if the history branched |
|
after commit e05db0fd, then there could be multiple "earliest" tagged |
|
releases. |
|
|
|
You could just visually inspect the commits since e05db0fd: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ gitk e05db0fd.. |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
or you can use linkgit:git-name-rev[1], which will give the commit a |
|
name based on any tag it finds pointing to one of the commit's |
|
descendants: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git name-rev --tags e05db0fd |
|
e05db0fd tags/v1.5.0-rc1^0~23 |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-describe[1] command does the opposite, naming the |
|
revision using a tag on which the given commit is based: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git describe e05db0fd |
|
v1.5.0-rc0-260-ge05db0f |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
but that may sometimes help you guess which tags might come after the |
|
given commit. |
|
|
|
If you just want to verify whether a given tagged version contains a |
|
given commit, you could use linkgit:git-merge-base[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git merge-base e05db0fd v1.5.0-rc1 |
|
e05db0fd4f31dde7005f075a84f96b360d05984b |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
The merge-base command finds a common ancestor of the given commits, |
|
and always returns one or the other in the case where one is a |
|
descendant of the other; so the above output shows that e05db0fd |
|
actually is an ancestor of v1.5.0-rc1. |
|
|
|
Alternatively, note that |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log v1.5.0-rc1..e05db0fd |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
will produce empty output if and only if v1.5.0-rc1 includes e05db0fd, |
|
because it outputs only commits that are not reachable from v1.5.0-rc1. |
|
|
|
As yet another alternative, the linkgit:git-show-branch[1] command lists |
|
the commits reachable from its arguments with a display on the left-hand |
|
side that indicates which arguments that commit is reachable from. |
|
So, if you run something like |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git show-branch e05db0fd v1.5.0-rc0 v1.5.0-rc1 v1.5.0-rc2 |
|
! [e05db0fd] Fix warnings in sha1_file.c - use C99 printf format if |
|
available |
|
! [v1.5.0-rc0] GIT v1.5.0 preview |
|
! [v1.5.0-rc1] GIT v1.5.0-rc1 |
|
! [v1.5.0-rc2] GIT v1.5.0-rc2 |
|
... |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
then a line like |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
+ ++ [e05db0fd] Fix warnings in sha1_file.c - use C99 printf format if |
|
available |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
shows that e05db0fd is reachable from itself, from v1.5.0-rc1, |
|
and from v1.5.0-rc2, and not from v1.5.0-rc0. |
|
|
|
[[showing-commits-unique-to-a-branch]] |
|
Showing commits unique to a given branch |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
Suppose you would like to see all the commits reachable from the branch |
|
head named `master` but not from any other head in your repository. |
|
|
|
We can list all the heads in this repository with |
|
linkgit:git-show-ref[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git show-ref --heads |
|
bf62196b5e363d73353a9dcf094c59595f3153b7 refs/heads/core-tutorial |
|
db768d5504c1bb46f63ee9d6e1772bd047e05bf9 refs/heads/maint |
|
a07157ac624b2524a059a3414e99f6f44bebc1e7 refs/heads/master |
|
24dbc180ea14dc1aebe09f14c8ecf32010690627 refs/heads/tutorial-2 |
|
1e87486ae06626c2f31eaa63d26fc0fd646c8af2 refs/heads/tutorial-fixes |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
We can get just the branch-head names, and remove `master`, with |
|
the help of the standard utilities cut and grep: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git show-ref --heads | cut -d' ' -f2 | grep -v '^refs/heads/master' |
|
refs/heads/core-tutorial |
|
refs/heads/maint |
|
refs/heads/tutorial-2 |
|
refs/heads/tutorial-fixes |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
And then we can ask to see all the commits reachable from master |
|
but not from these other heads: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ gitk master --not $( git show-ref --heads | cut -d' ' -f2 | |
|
grep -v '^refs/heads/master' ) |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Obviously, endless variations are possible; for example, to see all |
|
commits reachable from some head but not from any tag in the repository: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ gitk $( git show-ref --heads ) --not $( git show-ref --tags ) |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
(See linkgit:gitrevisions[7] for explanations of commit-selecting |
|
syntax such as `--not`.) |
|
|
|
[[making-a-release]] |
|
Creating a changelog and tarball for a software release |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-archive[1] command can create a tar or zip archive from |
|
any version of a project; for example: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git archive -o latest.tar.gz --prefix=project/ HEAD |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
will use HEAD to produce a gzipped tar archive in which each filename |
|
is preceded by `project/`. The output file format is inferred from |
|
the output file extension if possible, see linkgit:git-archive[1] for |
|
details. |
|
|
|
Versions of Git older than 1.7.7 don't know about the `tar.gz` format, |
|
you'll need to use gzip explicitly: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git archive --format=tar --prefix=project/ HEAD | gzip >latest.tar.gz |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
If you're releasing a new version of a software project, you may want |
|
to simultaneously make a changelog to include in the release |
|
announcement. |
|
|
|
Linus Torvalds, for example, makes new kernel releases by tagging them, |
|
then running: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ release-script 2.6.12 2.6.13-rc6 2.6.13-rc7 |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
where release-script is a shell script that looks like: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
#!/bin/sh |
|
stable="$1" |
|
last="$2" |
|
new="$3" |
|
echo "# git tag v$new" |
|
echo "git archive --prefix=linux-$new/ v$new | gzip -9 > ../linux-$new.tar.gz" |
|
echo "git diff v$stable v$new | gzip -9 > ../patch-$new.gz" |
|
echo "git log --no-merges v$new ^v$last > ../ChangeLog-$new" |
|
echo "git shortlog --no-merges v$new ^v$last > ../ShortLog" |
|
echo "git diff --stat --summary -M v$last v$new > ../diffstat-$new" |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
and then he just cut-and-pastes the output commands after verifying that |
|
they look OK. |
|
|
|
[[Finding-commits-With-given-Content]] |
|
Finding commits referencing a file with given content |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
Somebody hands you a copy of a file, and asks which commits modified a |
|
file such that it contained the given content either before or after the |
|
commit. You can find out with this: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log --raw --abbrev=40 --pretty=oneline | |
|
grep -B 1 `git hash-object filename` |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Figuring out why this works is left as an exercise to the (advanced) |
|
student. The linkgit:git-log[1], linkgit:git-diff-tree[1], and |
|
linkgit:git-hash-object[1] man pages may prove helpful. |
|
|
|
[[Developing-With-git]] |
|
Developing with Git |
|
=================== |
|
|
|
[[telling-git-your-name]] |
|
Telling Git your name |
|
--------------------- |
|
|
|
Before creating any commits, you should introduce yourself to Git. |
|
The easiest way to do so is to use linkgit:git-config[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git config --global user.name 'Your Name Comes Here' |
|
$ git config --global user.email 'you@yourdomain.example.com' |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
Which will add the following to a file named `.gitconfig` in your |
|
home directory: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
[user] |
|
name = Your Name Comes Here |
|
email = you@yourdomain.example.com |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
See the "CONFIGURATION FILE" section of linkgit:git-config[1] for |
|
details on the configuration file. The file is plain text, so you can |
|
also edit it with your favorite editor. |
|
|
|
|
|
[[creating-a-new-repository]] |
|
Creating a new repository |
|
------------------------- |
|
|
|
Creating a new repository from scratch is very easy: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ mkdir project |
|
$ cd project |
|
$ git init |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
If you have some initial content (say, a tarball): |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ tar xzvf project.tar.gz |
|
$ cd project |
|
$ git init |
|
$ git add . # include everything below ./ in the first commit: |
|
$ git commit |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
[[how-to-make-a-commit]] |
|
How to make a commit |
|
-------------------- |
|
|
|
Creating a new commit takes three steps: |
|
|
|
1. Making some changes to the working directory using your |
|
favorite editor. |
|
2. Telling Git about your changes. |
|
3. Creating the commit using the content you told Git about |
|
in step 2. |
|
|
|
In practice, you can interleave and repeat steps 1 and 2 as many |
|
times as you want: in order to keep track of what you want committed |
|
at step 3, Git maintains a snapshot of the tree's contents in a |
|
special staging area called "the index." |
|
|
|
At the beginning, the content of the index will be identical to |
|
that of the HEAD. The command `git diff --cached`, which shows |
|
the difference between the HEAD and the index, should therefore |
|
produce no output at that point. |
|
|
|
Modifying the index is easy: |
|
|
|
To update the index with the contents of a new or modified file, use |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git add path/to/file |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
To remove a file from the index and from the working tree, use |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git rm path/to/file |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
After each step you can verify that |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git diff --cached |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
always shows the difference between the HEAD and the index file--this |
|
is what you'd commit if you created the commit now--and that |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git diff |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
shows the difference between the working tree and the index file. |
|
|
|
Note that `git add` always adds just the current contents of a file |
|
to the index; further changes to the same file will be ignored unless |
|
you run `git add` on the file again. |
|
|
|
When you're ready, just run |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git commit |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
and Git will prompt you for a commit message and then create the new |
|
commit. Check to make sure it looks like what you expected with |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git show |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
As a special shortcut, |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git commit -a |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
will update the index with any files that you've modified or removed |
|
and create a commit, all in one step. |
|
|
|
A number of commands are useful for keeping track of what you're |
|
about to commit: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git diff --cached # difference between HEAD and the index; what |
|
# would be committed if you ran "commit" now. |
|
$ git diff # difference between the index file and your |
|
# working directory; changes that would not |
|
# be included if you ran "commit" now. |
|
$ git diff HEAD # difference between HEAD and working tree; what |
|
# would be committed if you ran "commit -a" now. |
|
$ git status # a brief per-file summary of the above. |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
You can also use linkgit:git-gui[1] to create commits, view changes in |
|
the index and the working tree files, and individually select diff hunks |
|
for inclusion in the index (by right-clicking on the diff hunk and |
|
choosing "Stage Hunk For Commit"). |
|
|
|
[[creating-good-commit-messages]] |
|
Creating good commit messages |
|
----------------------------- |
|
|
|
Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message |
|
with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the |
|
change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough |
|
description. The text up to the first blank line in a commit |
|
message is treated as the commit title, and that title is used |
|
throughout Git. For example, linkgit:git-format-patch[1] turns a |
|
commit into email, and it uses the title on the Subject line and the |
|
rest of the commit in the body. |
|
|
|
|
|
[[ignoring-files]] |
|
Ignoring files |
|
-------------- |
|
|
|
A project will often generate files that you do 'not' want to track with Git. |
|
This typically includes files generated by a build process or temporary |
|
backup files made by your editor. Of course, 'not' tracking files with Git |
|
is just a matter of 'not' calling `git add` on them. But it quickly becomes |
|
annoying to have these untracked files lying around; e.g. they make |
|
`git add .` practically useless, and they keep showing up in the output of |
|
`git status`. |
|
|
|
You can tell Git to ignore certain files by creating a file called |
|
`.gitignore` in the top level of your working directory, with contents |
|
such as: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
# Lines starting with '#' are considered comments. |
|
# Ignore any file named foo.txt. |
|
foo.txt |
|
# Ignore (generated) html files, |
|
*.html |
|
# except foo.html which is maintained by hand. |
|
!foo.html |
|
# Ignore objects and archives. |
|
*.[oa] |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
See linkgit:gitignore[5] for a detailed explanation of the syntax. You can |
|
also place .gitignore files in other directories in your working tree, and they |
|
will apply to those directories and their subdirectories. The `.gitignore` |
|
files can be added to your repository like any other files (just run `git add |
|
.gitignore` and `git commit`, as usual), which is convenient when the exclude |
|
patterns (such as patterns matching build output files) would also make sense |
|
for other users who clone your repository. |
|
|
|
If you wish the exclude patterns to affect only certain repositories |
|
(instead of every repository for a given project), you may instead put |
|
them in a file in your repository named `.git/info/exclude`, or in any |
|
file specified by the `core.excludesFile` configuration variable. |
|
Some Git commands can also take exclude patterns directly on the |
|
command line. See linkgit:gitignore[5] for the details. |
|
|
|
[[how-to-merge]] |
|
How to merge |
|
------------ |
|
|
|
You can rejoin two diverging branches of development using |
|
linkgit:git-merge[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git merge branchname |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
merges the development in the branch `branchname` into the current |
|
branch. |
|
|
|
A merge is made by combining the changes made in `branchname` and the |
|
changes made up to the latest commit in your current branch since |
|
their histories forked. The work tree is overwritten by the result of |
|
the merge when this combining is done cleanly, or overwritten by a |
|
half-merged results when this combining results in conflicts. |
|
Therefore, if you have uncommitted changes touching the same files as |
|
the ones impacted by the merge, Git will refuse to proceed. Most of |
|
the time, you will want to commit your changes before you can merge, |
|
and if you don't, then linkgit:git-stash[1] can take these changes |
|
away while you're doing the merge, and reapply them afterwards. |
|
|
|
If the changes are independent enough, Git will automatically complete |
|
the merge and commit the result (or reuse an existing commit in case |
|
of <<fast-forwards,fast-forward>>, see below). On the other hand, |
|
if there are conflicts--for example, if the same file is |
|
modified in two different ways in the remote branch and the local |
|
branch--then you are warned; the output may look something like this: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git merge next |
|
100% (4/4) done |
|
Auto-merged file.txt |
|
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in file.txt |
|
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result. |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Conflict markers are left in the problematic files, and after |
|
you resolve the conflicts manually, you can update the index |
|
with the contents and run Git commit, as you normally would when |
|
creating a new file. |
|
|
|
If you examine the resulting commit using gitk, you will see that it |
|
has two parents, one pointing to the top of the current branch, and |
|
one to the top of the other branch. |
|
|
|
[[resolving-a-merge]] |
|
Resolving a merge |
|
----------------- |
|
|
|
When a merge isn't resolved automatically, Git leaves the index and |
|
the working tree in a special state that gives you all the |
|
information you need to help resolve the merge. |
|
|
|
Files with conflicts are marked specially in the index, so until you |
|
resolve the problem and update the index, linkgit:git-commit[1] will |
|
fail: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git commit |
|
file.txt: needs merge |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Also, linkgit:git-status[1] will list those files as "unmerged", and the |
|
files with conflicts will have conflict markers added, like this: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
<<<<<<< HEAD:file.txt |
|
Hello world |
|
======= |
|
Goodbye |
|
>>>>>>> 77976da35a11db4580b80ae27e8d65caf5208086:file.txt |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
All you need to do is edit the files to resolve the conflicts, and then |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git add file.txt |
|
$ git commit |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Note that the commit message will already be filled in for you with |
|
some information about the merge. Normally you can just use this |
|
default message unchanged, but you may add additional commentary of |
|
your own if desired. |
|
|
|
The above is all you need to know to resolve a simple merge. But Git |
|
also provides more information to help resolve conflicts: |
|
|
|
[[conflict-resolution]] |
|
Getting conflict-resolution help during a merge |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
All of the changes that Git was able to merge automatically are |
|
already added to the index file, so linkgit:git-diff[1] shows only |
|
the conflicts. It uses an unusual syntax: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git diff |
|
diff --cc file.txt |
|
index 802992c,2b60207..0000000 |
|
--- a/file.txt |
|
+++ b/file.txt |
|
@@@ -1,1 -1,1 +1,5 @@@ |
|
++<<<<<<< HEAD:file.txt |
|
+Hello world |
|
++======= |
|
+ Goodbye |
|
++>>>>>>> 77976da35a11db4580b80ae27e8d65caf5208086:file.txt |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Recall that the commit which will be committed after we resolve this |
|
conflict will have two parents instead of the usual one: one parent |
|
will be HEAD, the tip of the current branch; the other will be the |
|
tip of the other branch, which is stored temporarily in MERGE_HEAD. |
|
|
|
During the merge, the index holds three versions of each file. Each of |
|
these three "file stages" represents a different version of the file: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git show :1:file.txt # the file in a common ancestor of both branches |
|
$ git show :2:file.txt # the version from HEAD. |
|
$ git show :3:file.txt # the version from MERGE_HEAD. |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
When you ask linkgit:git-diff[1] to show the conflicts, it runs a |
|
three-way diff between the conflicted merge results in the work tree with |
|
stages 2 and 3 to show only hunks whose contents come from both sides, |
|
mixed (in other words, when a hunk's merge results come only from stage 2, |
|
that part is not conflicting and is not shown. Same for stage 3). |
|
|
|
The diff above shows the differences between the working-tree version of |
|
file.txt and the stage 2 and stage 3 versions. So instead of preceding |
|
each line by a single `+` or `-`, it now uses two columns: the first |
|
column is used for differences between the first parent and the working |
|
directory copy, and the second for differences between the second parent |
|
and the working directory copy. (See the "COMBINED DIFF FORMAT" section |
|
of linkgit:git-diff-files[1] for a details of the format.) |
|
|
|
After resolving the conflict in the obvious way (but before updating the |
|
index), the diff will look like: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git diff |
|
diff --cc file.txt |
|
index 802992c,2b60207..0000000 |
|
--- a/file.txt |
|
+++ b/file.txt |
|
@@@ -1,1 -1,1 +1,1 @@@ |
|
- Hello world |
|
-Goodbye |
|
++Goodbye world |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
This shows that our resolved version deleted "Hello world" from the |
|
first parent, deleted "Goodbye" from the second parent, and added |
|
"Goodbye world", which was previously absent from both. |
|
|
|
Some special diff options allow diffing the working directory against |
|
any of these stages: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git diff -1 file.txt # diff against stage 1 |
|
$ git diff --base file.txt # same as the above |
|
$ git diff -2 file.txt # diff against stage 2 |
|
$ git diff --ours file.txt # same as the above |
|
$ git diff -3 file.txt # diff against stage 3 |
|
$ git diff --theirs file.txt # same as the above. |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-log[1] and linkgit:gitk[1] commands also provide special help |
|
for merges: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log --merge |
|
$ gitk --merge |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
These will display all commits which exist only on HEAD or on |
|
MERGE_HEAD, and which touch an unmerged file. |
|
|
|
You may also use linkgit:git-mergetool[1], which lets you merge the |
|
unmerged files using external tools such as Emacs or kdiff3. |
|
|
|
Each time you resolve the conflicts in a file and update the index: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git add file.txt |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
the different stages of that file will be "collapsed", after which |
|
`git diff` will (by default) no longer show diffs for that file. |
|
|
|
[[undoing-a-merge]] |
|
Undoing a merge |
|
--------------- |
|
|
|
If you get stuck and decide to just give up and throw the whole mess |
|
away, you can always return to the pre-merge state with |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git reset --hard HEAD |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Or, if you've already committed the merge that you want to throw away, |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
However, this last command can be dangerous in some cases--never |
|
throw away a commit you have already committed if that commit may |
|
itself have been merged into another branch, as doing so may confuse |
|
further merges. |
|
|
|
[[fast-forwards]] |
|
Fast-forward merges |
|
------------------- |
|
|
|
There is one special case not mentioned above, which is treated |
|
differently. Normally, a merge results in a merge commit, with two |
|
parents, one pointing at each of the two lines of development that |
|
were merged. |
|
|
|
However, if the current branch is an ancestor of the other--so every commit |
|
present in the current branch is already contained in the other branch--then Git |
|
just performs a "fast-forward"; the head of the current branch is moved forward |
|
to point at the head of the merged-in branch, without any new commits being |
|
created. |
|
|
|
[[fixing-mistakes]] |
|
Fixing mistakes |
|
--------------- |
|
|
|
If you've messed up the working tree, but haven't yet committed your |
|
mistake, you can return the entire working tree to the last committed |
|
state with |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git reset --hard HEAD |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
If you make a commit that you later wish you hadn't, there are two |
|
fundamentally different ways to fix the problem: |
|
|
|
1. You can create a new commit that undoes whatever was done |
|
by the old commit. This is the correct thing if your |
|
mistake has already been made public. |
|
|
|
2. You can go back and modify the old commit. You should |
|
never do this if you have already made the history public; |
|
Git does not normally expect the "history" of a project to |
|
change, and cannot correctly perform repeated merges from |
|
a branch that has had its history changed. |
|
|
|
[[reverting-a-commit]] |
|
Fixing a mistake with a new commit |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
Creating a new commit that reverts an earlier change is very easy; |
|
just pass the linkgit:git-revert[1] command a reference to the bad |
|
commit; for example, to revert the most recent commit: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git revert HEAD |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
This will create a new commit which undoes the change in HEAD. You |
|
will be given a chance to edit the commit message for the new commit. |
|
|
|
You can also revert an earlier change, for example, the next-to-last: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git revert HEAD^ |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
In this case Git will attempt to undo the old change while leaving |
|
intact any changes made since then. If more recent changes overlap |
|
with the changes to be reverted, then you will be asked to fix |
|
conflicts manually, just as in the case of <<resolving-a-merge, |
|
resolving a merge>>. |
|
|
|
[[fixing-a-mistake-by-rewriting-history]] |
|
Fixing a mistake by rewriting history |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
If the problematic commit is the most recent commit, and you have not |
|
yet made that commit public, then you may just |
|
<<undoing-a-merge,destroy it using `git reset`>>. |
|
|
|
Alternatively, you |
|
can edit the working directory and update the index to fix your |
|
mistake, just as if you were going to <<how-to-make-a-commit,create a |
|
new commit>>, then run |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git commit --amend |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
which will replace the old commit by a new commit incorporating your |
|
changes, giving you a chance to edit the old commit message first. |
|
|
|
Again, you should never do this to a commit that may already have |
|
been merged into another branch; use linkgit:git-revert[1] instead in |
|
that case. |
|
|
|
It is also possible to replace commits further back in the history, but |
|
this is an advanced topic to be left for |
|
<<cleaning-up-history,another chapter>>. |
|
|
|
[[checkout-of-path]] |
|
Checking out an old version of a file |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
In the process of undoing a previous bad change, you may find it |
|
useful to check out an older version of a particular file using |
|
linkgit:git-checkout[1]. We've used `git checkout` before to switch |
|
branches, but it has quite different behavior if it is given a path |
|
name: the command |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout HEAD^ path/to/file |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
replaces path/to/file by the contents it had in the commit HEAD^, and |
|
also updates the index to match. It does not change branches. |
|
|
|
If you just want to look at an old version of the file, without |
|
modifying the working directory, you can do that with |
|
linkgit:git-show[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git show HEAD^:path/to/file |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
which will display the given version of the file. |
|
|
|
[[interrupted-work]] |
|
Temporarily setting aside work in progress |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
While you are in the middle of working on something complicated, you |
|
find an unrelated but obvious and trivial bug. You would like to fix it |
|
before continuing. You can use linkgit:git-stash[1] to save the current |
|
state of your work, and after fixing the bug (or, optionally after doing |
|
so on a different branch and then coming back), unstash the |
|
work-in-progress changes. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git stash save "work in progress for foo feature" |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
This command will save your changes away to the `stash`, and |
|
reset your working tree and the index to match the tip of your |
|
current branch. Then you can make your fix as usual. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
... edit and test ... |
|
$ git commit -a -m "blorpl: typofix" |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
After that, you can go back to what you were working on with |
|
`git stash pop`: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git stash pop |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
|
|
[[ensuring-good-performance]] |
|
Ensuring good performance |
|
------------------------- |
|
|
|
On large repositories, Git depends on compression to keep the history |
|
information from taking up too much space on disk or in memory. Some |
|
Git commands may automatically run linkgit:git-gc[1], so you don't |
|
have to worry about running it manually. However, compressing a large |
|
repository may take a while, so you may want to call `gc` explicitly |
|
to avoid automatic compression kicking in when it is not convenient. |
|
|
|
|
|
[[ensuring-reliability]] |
|
Ensuring reliability |
|
-------------------- |
|
|
|
[[checking-for-corruption]] |
|
Checking the repository for corruption |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-fsck[1] command runs a number of self-consistency checks |
|
on the repository, and reports on any problems. This may take some |
|
time. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fsck |
|
dangling commit 7281251ddd2a61e38657c827739c57015671a6b3 |
|
dangling commit 2706a059f258c6b245f298dc4ff2ccd30ec21a63 |
|
dangling commit 13472b7c4b80851a1bc551779171dcb03655e9b5 |
|
dangling blob 218761f9d90712d37a9c5e36f406f92202db07eb |
|
dangling commit bf093535a34a4d35731aa2bd90fe6b176302f14f |
|
dangling commit 8e4bec7f2ddaa268bef999853c25755452100f8e |
|
dangling tree d50bb86186bf27b681d25af89d3b5b68382e4085 |
|
dangling tree b24c2473f1fd3d91352a624795be026d64c8841f |
|
... |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
You will see informational messages on dangling objects. They are objects |
|
that still exist in the repository but are no longer referenced by any of |
|
your branches, and can (and will) be removed after a while with `gc`. |
|
You can run `git fsck --no-dangling` to suppress these messages, and still |
|
view real errors. |
|
|
|
[[recovering-lost-changes]] |
|
Recovering lost changes |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
[[reflogs]] |
|
Reflogs |
|
^^^^^^^ |
|
|
|
Say you modify a branch with <<fixing-mistakes,`git reset --hard`>>, |
|
and then realize that the branch was the only reference you had to |
|
that point in history. |
|
|
|
Fortunately, Git also keeps a log, called a "reflog", of all the |
|
previous values of each branch. So in this case you can still find the |
|
old history using, for example, |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log master@{1} |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
This lists the commits reachable from the previous version of the |
|
`master` branch head. This syntax can be used with any Git command |
|
that accepts a commit, not just with `git log`. Some other examples: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git show master@{2} # See where the branch pointed 2, |
|
$ git show master@{3} # 3, ... changes ago. |
|
$ gitk master@{yesterday} # See where it pointed yesterday, |
|
$ gitk master@{"1 week ago"} # ... or last week |
|
$ git log --walk-reflogs master # show reflog entries for master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
A separate reflog is kept for the HEAD, so |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git show HEAD@{"1 week ago"} |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
will show what HEAD pointed to one week ago, not what the current branch |
|
pointed to one week ago. This allows you to see the history of what |
|
you've checked out. |
|
|
|
The reflogs are kept by default for 30 days, after which they may be |
|
pruned. See linkgit:git-reflog[1] and linkgit:git-gc[1] to learn |
|
how to control this pruning, and see the "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" |
|
section of linkgit:gitrevisions[7] for details. |
|
|
|
Note that the reflog history is very different from normal Git history. |
|
While normal history is shared by every repository that works on the |
|
same project, the reflog history is not shared: it tells you only about |
|
how the branches in your local repository have changed over time. |
|
|
|
[[dangling-object-recovery]] |
|
Examining dangling objects |
|
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |
|
|
|
In some situations the reflog may not be able to save you. For example, |
|
suppose you delete a branch, then realize you need the history it |
|
contained. The reflog is also deleted; however, if you have not yet |
|
pruned the repository, then you may still be able to find the lost |
|
commits in the dangling objects that `git fsck` reports. See |
|
<<dangling-objects>> for the details. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fsck |
|
dangling commit 7281251ddd2a61e38657c827739c57015671a6b3 |
|
dangling commit 2706a059f258c6b245f298dc4ff2ccd30ec21a63 |
|
dangling commit 13472b7c4b80851a1bc551779171dcb03655e9b5 |
|
... |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
You can examine |
|
one of those dangling commits with, for example, |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ gitk 7281251ddd --not --all |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
which does what it sounds like: it says that you want to see the commit |
|
history that is described by the dangling commit(s), but not the |
|
history that is described by all your existing branches and tags. Thus |
|
you get exactly the history reachable from that commit that is lost. |
|
(And notice that it might not be just one commit: we only report the |
|
"tip of the line" as being dangling, but there might be a whole deep |
|
and complex commit history that was dropped.) |
|
|
|
If you decide you want the history back, you can always create a new |
|
reference pointing to it, for example, a new branch: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git branch recovered-branch 7281251ddd |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
Other types of dangling objects (blobs and trees) are also possible, and |
|
dangling objects can arise in other situations. |
|
|
|
|
|
[[sharing-development]] |
|
Sharing development with others |
|
=============================== |
|
|
|
[[getting-updates-With-git-pull]] |
|
Getting updates with git pull |
|
----------------------------- |
|
|
|
After you clone a repository and commit a few changes of your own, you |
|
may wish to check the original repository for updates and merge them |
|
into your own work. |
|
|
|
We have already seen <<Updating-a-repository-With-git-fetch,how to |
|
keep remote-tracking branches up to date>> with linkgit:git-fetch[1], |
|
and how to merge two branches. So you can merge in changes from the |
|
original repository's master branch with: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fetch |
|
$ git merge origin/master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
However, the linkgit:git-pull[1] command provides a way to do this in |
|
one step: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git pull origin master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
In fact, if you have `master` checked out, then this branch has been |
|
configured by `git clone` to get changes from the HEAD branch of the |
|
origin repository. So often you can |
|
accomplish the above with just a simple |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git pull |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
This command will fetch changes from the remote branches to your |
|
remote-tracking branches `origin/*`, and merge the default branch into |
|
the current branch. |
|
|
|
More generally, a branch that is created from a remote-tracking branch |
|
will pull |
|
by default from that branch. See the descriptions of the |
|
`branch.<name>.remote` and `branch.<name>.merge` options in |
|
linkgit:git-config[1], and the discussion of the `--track` option in |
|
linkgit:git-checkout[1], to learn how to control these defaults. |
|
|
|
In addition to saving you keystrokes, `git pull` also helps you by |
|
producing a default commit message documenting the branch and |
|
repository that you pulled from. |
|
|
|
(But note that no such commit will be created in the case of a |
|
<<fast-forwards,fast-forward>>; instead, your branch will just be |
|
updated to point to the latest commit from the upstream branch.) |
|
|
|
The `git pull` command can also be given `.` as the "remote" repository, |
|
in which case it just merges in a branch from the current repository; so |
|
the commands |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git pull . branch |
|
$ git merge branch |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
are roughly equivalent. |
|
|
|
[[submitting-patches]] |
|
Submitting patches to a project |
|
------------------------------- |
|
|
|
If you just have a few changes, the simplest way to submit them may |
|
just be to send them as patches in email: |
|
|
|
First, use linkgit:git-format-patch[1]; for example: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git format-patch origin |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
will produce a numbered series of files in the current directory, one |
|
for each patch in the current branch but not in `origin/HEAD`. |
|
|
|
`git format-patch` can include an initial "cover letter". You can insert |
|
commentary on individual patches after the three dash line which |
|
`format-patch` places after the commit message but before the patch |
|
itself. If you use `git notes` to track your cover letter material, |
|
`git format-patch --notes` will include the commit's notes in a similar |
|
manner. |
|
|
|
You can then import these into your mail client and send them by |
|
hand. However, if you have a lot to send at once, you may prefer to |
|
use the linkgit:git-send-email[1] script to automate the process. |
|
Consult the mailing list for your project first to determine |
|
their requirements for submitting patches. |
|
|
|
[[importing-patches]] |
|
Importing patches to a project |
|
------------------------------ |
|
|
|
Git also provides a tool called linkgit:git-am[1] (am stands for |
|
"apply mailbox"), for importing such an emailed series of patches. |
|
Just save all of the patch-containing messages, in order, into a |
|
single mailbox file, say `patches.mbox`, then run |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git am -3 patches.mbox |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Git will apply each patch in order; if any conflicts are found, it |
|
will stop, and you can fix the conflicts as described in |
|
"<<resolving-a-merge,Resolving a merge>>". (The `-3` option tells |
|
Git to perform a merge; if you would prefer it just to abort and |
|
leave your tree and index untouched, you may omit that option.) |
|
|
|
Once the index is updated with the results of the conflict |
|
resolution, instead of creating a new commit, just run |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git am --continue |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
and Git will create the commit for you and continue applying the |
|
remaining patches from the mailbox. |
|
|
|
The final result will be a series of commits, one for each patch in |
|
the original mailbox, with authorship and commit log message each |
|
taken from the message containing each patch. |
|
|
|
[[public-repositories]] |
|
Public Git repositories |
|
----------------------- |
|
|
|
Another way to submit changes to a project is to tell the maintainer |
|
of that project to pull the changes from your repository using |
|
linkgit:git-pull[1]. In the section "<<getting-updates-With-git-pull, |
|
Getting updates with `git pull`>>" we described this as a way to get |
|
updates from the "main" repository, but it works just as well in the |
|
other direction. |
|
|
|
If you and the maintainer both have accounts on the same machine, then |
|
you can just pull changes from each other's repositories directly; |
|
commands that accept repository URLs as arguments will also accept a |
|
local directory name: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git clone /path/to/repository |
|
$ git pull /path/to/other/repository |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
or an ssh URL: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git clone ssh://yourhost/~you/repository |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
For projects with few developers, or for synchronizing a few private |
|
repositories, this may be all you need. |
|
|
|
However, the more common way to do this is to maintain a separate public |
|
repository (usually on a different host) for others to pull changes |
|
from. This is usually more convenient, and allows you to cleanly |
|
separate private work in progress from publicly visible work. |
|
|
|
You will continue to do your day-to-day work in your personal |
|
repository, but periodically "push" changes from your personal |
|
repository into your public repository, allowing other developers to |
|
pull from that repository. So the flow of changes, in a situation |
|
where there is one other developer with a public repository, looks |
|
like this: |
|
|
|
you push |
|
your personal repo ------------------> your public repo |
|
^ | |
|
| | |
|
| you pull | they pull |
|
| | |
|
| | |
|
| they push V |
|
their public repo <------------------- their repo |
|
|
|
We explain how to do this in the following sections. |
|
|
|
[[setting-up-a-public-repository]] |
|
Setting up a public repository |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
Assume your personal repository is in the directory `~/proj`. We |
|
first create a new clone of the repository and tell `git daemon` that it |
|
is meant to be public: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git clone --bare ~/proj proj.git |
|
$ touch proj.git/git-daemon-export-ok |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
The resulting directory proj.git contains a "bare" git repository--it is |
|
just the contents of the `.git` directory, without any files checked out |
|
around it. |
|
|
|
Next, copy `proj.git` to the server where you plan to host the |
|
public repository. You can use scp, rsync, or whatever is most |
|
convenient. |
|
|
|
[[exporting-via-git]] |
|
Exporting a Git repository via the Git protocol |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
This is the preferred method. |
|
|
|
If someone else administers the server, they should tell you what |
|
directory to put the repository in, and what `git://` URL it will |
|
appear at. You can then skip to the section |
|
"<<pushing-changes-to-a-public-repository,Pushing changes to a public |
|
repository>>", below. |
|
|
|
Otherwise, all you need to do is start linkgit:git-daemon[1]; it will |
|
listen on port 9418. By default, it will allow access to any directory |
|
that looks like a Git directory and contains the magic file |
|
git-daemon-export-ok. Passing some directory paths as `git daemon` |
|
arguments will further restrict the exports to those paths. |
|
|
|
You can also run `git daemon` as an inetd service; see the |
|
linkgit:git-daemon[1] man page for details. (See especially the |
|
examples section.) |
|
|
|
[[exporting-via-http]] |
|
Exporting a git repository via HTTP |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
The Git protocol gives better performance and reliability, but on a |
|
host with a web server set up, HTTP exports may be simpler to set up. |
|
|
|
All you need to do is place the newly created bare Git repository in |
|
a directory that is exported by the web server, and make some |
|
adjustments to give web clients some extra information they need: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ mv proj.git /home/you/public_html/proj.git |
|
$ cd proj.git |
|
$ git --bare update-server-info |
|
$ mv hooks/post-update.sample hooks/post-update |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
(For an explanation of the last two lines, see |
|
linkgit:git-update-server-info[1] and linkgit:githooks[5].) |
|
|
|
Advertise the URL of `proj.git`. Anybody else should then be able to |
|
clone or pull from that URL, for example with a command line like: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git clone http://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
(See also |
|
link:howto/setup-git-server-over-http.html[setup-git-server-over-http] |
|
for a slightly more sophisticated setup using WebDAV which also |
|
allows pushing over HTTP.) |
|
|
|
[[pushing-changes-to-a-public-repository]] |
|
Pushing changes to a public repository |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
Note that the two techniques outlined above (exporting via |
|
<<exporting-via-http,http>> or <<exporting-via-git,git>>) allow other |
|
maintainers to fetch your latest changes, but they do not allow write |
|
access, which you will need to update the public repository with the |
|
latest changes created in your private repository. |
|
|
|
The simplest way to do this is using linkgit:git-push[1] and ssh; to |
|
update the remote branch named `master` with the latest state of your |
|
branch named `master`, run |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git push ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git master:master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
or just |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git push ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
As with `git fetch`, `git push` will complain if this does not result in a |
|
<<fast-forwards,fast-forward>>; see the following section for details on |
|
handling this case. |
|
|
|
Note that the target of a `push` is normally a |
|
<<def_bare_repository,bare>> repository. You can also push to a |
|
repository that has a checked-out working tree, but a push to update the |
|
currently checked-out branch is denied by default to prevent confusion. |
|
See the description of the receive.denyCurrentBranch option |
|
in linkgit:git-config[1] for details. |
|
|
|
As with `git fetch`, you may also set up configuration options to |
|
save typing; so, for example: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git remote add public-repo ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
adds the following to `.git/config`: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
[remote "public-repo"] |
|
url = yourserver.com:proj.git |
|
fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/example/* |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
which lets you do the same push with just |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git push public-repo master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
See the explanations of the `remote.<name>.url`, |
|
`branch.<name>.remote`, and `remote.<name>.push` options in |
|
linkgit:git-config[1] for details. |
|
|
|
[[forcing-push]] |
|
What to do when a push fails |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
If a push would not result in a <<fast-forwards,fast-forward>> of the |
|
remote branch, then it will fail with an error like: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
error: remote 'refs/heads/master' is not an ancestor of |
|
local 'refs/heads/master'. |
|
Maybe you are not up-to-date and need to pull first? |
|
error: failed to push to 'ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git' |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
This can happen, for example, if you: |
|
|
|
- use `git reset --hard` to remove already-published commits, or |
|
- use `git commit --amend` to replace already-published commits |
|
(as in <<fixing-a-mistake-by-rewriting-history>>), or |
|
- use `git rebase` to rebase any already-published commits (as |
|
in <<using-git-rebase>>). |
|
|
|
You may force `git push` to perform the update anyway by preceding the |
|
branch name with a plus sign: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git push ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git +master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Note the addition of the `+` sign. Alternatively, you can use the |
|
`-f` flag to force the remote update, as in: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git push -f ssh://yourserver.com/~you/proj.git master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Normally whenever a branch head in a public repository is modified, it |
|
is modified to point to a descendant of the commit that it pointed to |
|
before. By forcing a push in this situation, you break that convention. |
|
(See <<problems-With-rewriting-history>>.) |
|
|
|
Nevertheless, this is a common practice for people that need a simple |
|
way to publish a work-in-progress patch series, and it is an acceptable |
|
compromise as long as you warn other developers that this is how you |
|
intend to manage the branch. |
|
|
|
It's also possible for a push to fail in this way when other people have |
|
the right to push to the same repository. In that case, the correct |
|
solution is to retry the push after first updating your work: either by a |
|
pull, or by a fetch followed by a rebase; see the |
|
<<setting-up-a-shared-repository,next section>> and |
|
linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7] for more. |
|
|
|
[[setting-up-a-shared-repository]] |
|
Setting up a shared repository |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
Another way to collaborate is by using a model similar to that |
|
commonly used in CVS, where several developers with special rights |
|
all push to and pull from a single shared repository. See |
|
linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7] for instructions on how to |
|
set this up. |
|
|
|
However, while there is nothing wrong with Git's support for shared |
|
repositories, this mode of operation is not generally recommended, |
|
simply because the mode of collaboration that Git supports--by |
|
exchanging patches and pulling from public repositories--has so many |
|
advantages over the central shared repository: |
|
|
|
- Git's ability to quickly import and merge patches allows a |
|
single maintainer to process incoming changes even at very |
|
high rates. And when that becomes too much, `git pull` provides |
|
an easy way for that maintainer to delegate this job to other |
|
maintainers while still allowing optional review of incoming |
|
changes. |
|
- Since every developer's repository has the same complete copy |
|
of the project history, no repository is special, and it is |
|
trivial for another developer to take over maintenance of a |
|
project, either by mutual agreement, or because a maintainer |
|
becomes unresponsive or difficult to work with. |
|
- The lack of a central group of "committers" means there is |
|
less need for formal decisions about who is "in" and who is |
|
"out". |
|
|
|
[[setting-up-gitweb]] |
|
Allowing web browsing of a repository |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
The gitweb cgi script provides users an easy way to browse your |
|
project's revisions, file contents and logs without having to install |
|
Git. Features like RSS/Atom feeds and blame/annotation details may |
|
optionally be enabled. |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-instaweb[1] command provides a simple way to start |
|
browsing the repository using gitweb. The default server when using |
|
instaweb is lighttpd. |
|
|
|
See the file gitweb/INSTALL in the Git source tree and |
|
linkgit:gitweb[1] for instructions on details setting up a permanent |
|
installation with a CGI or Perl capable server. |
|
|
|
[[how-to-get-a-git-repository-with-minimal-history]] |
|
How to get a Git repository with minimal history |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
A <<def_shallow_clone,shallow clone>>, with its truncated |
|
history, is useful when one is interested only in recent history |
|
of a project and getting full history from the upstream is |
|
expensive. |
|
|
|
A <<def_shallow_clone,shallow clone>> is created by specifying |
|
the linkgit:git-clone[1] `--depth` switch. The depth can later be |
|
changed with the linkgit:git-fetch[1] `--depth` switch, or full |
|
history restored with `--unshallow`. |
|
|
|
Merging inside a <<def_shallow_clone,shallow clone>> will work as long |
|
as a merge base is in the recent history. |
|
Otherwise, it will be like merging unrelated histories and may |
|
have to result in huge conflicts. This limitation may make such |
|
a repository unsuitable to be used in merge based workflows. |
|
|
|
[[sharing-development-examples]] |
|
Examples |
|
-------- |
|
|
|
[[maintaining-topic-branches]] |
|
Maintaining topic branches for a Linux subsystem maintainer |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
This describes how Tony Luck uses Git in his role as maintainer of the |
|
IA64 architecture for the Linux kernel. |
|
|
|
He uses two public branches: |
|
|
|
- A "test" tree into which patches are initially placed so that they |
|
can get some exposure when integrated with other ongoing development. |
|
This tree is available to Andrew for pulling into -mm whenever he |
|
wants. |
|
|
|
- A "release" tree into which tested patches are moved for final sanity |
|
checking, and as a vehicle to send them upstream to Linus (by sending |
|
him a "please pull" request.) |
|
|
|
He also uses a set of temporary branches ("topic branches"), each |
|
containing a logical grouping of patches. |
|
|
|
To set this up, first create your work tree by cloning Linus's public |
|
tree: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git work |
|
$ cd work |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Linus's tree will be stored in the remote-tracking branch named origin/master, |
|
and can be updated using linkgit:git-fetch[1]; you can track other |
|
public trees using linkgit:git-remote[1] to set up a "remote" and |
|
linkgit:git-fetch[1] to keep them up-to-date; see |
|
<<repositories-and-branches>>. |
|
|
|
Now create the branches in which you are going to work; these start out |
|
at the current tip of origin/master branch, and should be set up (using |
|
the `--track` option to linkgit:git-branch[1]) to merge changes in from |
|
Linus by default. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git branch --track test origin/master |
|
$ git branch --track release origin/master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
These can be easily kept up to date using linkgit:git-pull[1]. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout test && git pull |
|
$ git checkout release && git pull |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Important note! If you have any local changes in these branches, then |
|
this merge will create a commit object in the history (with no local |
|
changes Git will simply do a "fast-forward" merge). Many people dislike |
|
the "noise" that this creates in the Linux history, so you should avoid |
|
doing this capriciously in the `release` branch, as these noisy commits |
|
will become part of the permanent history when you ask Linus to pull |
|
from the release branch. |
|
|
|
A few configuration variables (see linkgit:git-config[1]) can |
|
make it easy to push both branches to your public tree. (See |
|
<<setting-up-a-public-repository>>.) |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ cat >> .git/config <<EOF |
|
[remote "mytree"] |
|
url = master.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/aegl/linux.git |
|
push = release |
|
push = test |
|
EOF |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Then you can push both the test and release trees using |
|
linkgit:git-push[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git push mytree |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
or push just one of the test and release branches using: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git push mytree test |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
or |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git push mytree release |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Now to apply some patches from the community. Think of a short |
|
snappy name for a branch to hold this patch (or related group of |
|
patches), and create a new branch from a recent stable tag of |
|
Linus's branch. Picking a stable base for your branch will: |
|
1) help you: by avoiding inclusion of unrelated and perhaps lightly |
|
tested changes |
|
2) help future bug hunters that use `git bisect` to find problems |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout -b speed-up-spinlocks v2.6.35 |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Now you apply the patch(es), run some tests, and commit the change(s). If |
|
the patch is a multi-part series, then you should apply each as a separate |
|
commit to this branch. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ ... patch ... test ... commit [ ... patch ... test ... commit ]* |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
When you are happy with the state of this change, you can merge it into the |
|
"test" branch in preparation to make it public: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout test && git merge speed-up-spinlocks |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
It is unlikely that you would have any conflicts here ... but you might if you |
|
spent a while on this step and had also pulled new versions from upstream. |
|
|
|
Sometime later when enough time has passed and testing done, you can pull the |
|
same branch into the `release` tree ready to go upstream. This is where you |
|
see the value of keeping each patch (or patch series) in its own branch. It |
|
means that the patches can be moved into the `release` tree in any order. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout release && git merge speed-up-spinlocks |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
After a while, you will have a number of branches, and despite the |
|
well chosen names you picked for each of them, you may forget what |
|
they are for, or what status they are in. To get a reminder of what |
|
changes are in a specific branch, use: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log linux..branchname | git shortlog |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
To see whether it has already been merged into the test or release branches, |
|
use: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log test..branchname |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
or |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log release..branchname |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
(If this branch has not yet been merged, you will see some log entries. |
|
If it has been merged, then there will be no output.) |
|
|
|
Once a patch completes the great cycle (moving from test to release, |
|
then pulled by Linus, and finally coming back into your local |
|
`origin/master` branch), the branch for this change is no longer needed. |
|
You detect this when the output from: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log origin..branchname |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
is empty. At this point the branch can be deleted: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git branch -d branchname |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Some changes are so trivial that it is not necessary to create a separate |
|
branch and then merge into each of the test and release branches. For |
|
these changes, just apply directly to the `release` branch, and then |
|
merge that into the `test` branch. |
|
|
|
After pushing your work to `mytree`, you can use |
|
linkgit:git-request-pull[1] to prepare a "please pull" request message |
|
to send to Linus: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git push mytree |
|
$ git request-pull origin mytree release |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Here are some of the scripts that simplify all this even further. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
==== update script ==== |
|
# Update a branch in my Git tree. If the branch to be updated |
|
# is origin, then pull from kernel.org. Otherwise merge |
|
# origin/master branch into test|release branch |
|
|
|
case "$1" in |
|
test|release) |
|
git checkout $1 && git pull . origin |
|
;; |
|
origin) |
|
before=$(git rev-parse refs/remotes/origin/master) |
|
git fetch origin |
|
after=$(git rev-parse refs/remotes/origin/master) |
|
if [ $before != $after ] |
|
then |
|
git log $before..$after | git shortlog |
|
fi |
|
;; |
|
*) |
|
echo "usage: $0 origin|test|release" 1>&2 |
|
exit 1 |
|
;; |
|
esac |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
==== merge script ==== |
|
# Merge a branch into either the test or release branch |
|
|
|
pname=$0 |
|
|
|
usage() |
|
{ |
|
echo "usage: $pname branch test|release" 1>&2 |
|
exit 1 |
|
} |
|
|
|
git show-ref -q --verify -- refs/heads/"$1" || { |
|
echo "Can't see branch <$1>" 1>&2 |
|
usage |
|
} |
|
|
|
case "$2" in |
|
test|release) |
|
if [ $(git log $2..$1 | wc -c) -eq 0 ] |
|
then |
|
echo $1 already merged into $2 1>&2 |
|
exit 1 |
|
fi |
|
git checkout $2 && git pull . $1 |
|
;; |
|
*) |
|
usage |
|
;; |
|
esac |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
==== status script ==== |
|
# report on status of my ia64 Git tree |
|
|
|
gb=$(tput setab 2) |
|
rb=$(tput setab 1) |
|
restore=$(tput setab 9) |
|
|
|
if [ `git rev-list test..release | wc -c` -gt 0 ] |
|
then |
|
echo $rb Warning: commits in release that are not in test $restore |
|
git log test..release |
|
fi |
|
|
|
for branch in `git show-ref --heads | sed 's|^.*/||'` |
|
do |
|
if [ $branch = test -o $branch = release ] |
|
then |
|
continue |
|
fi |
|
|
|
echo -n $gb ======= $branch ====== $restore " " |
|
status= |
|
for ref in test release origin/master |
|
do |
|
if [ `git rev-list $ref..$branch | wc -c` -gt 0 ] |
|
then |
|
status=$status${ref:0:1} |
|
fi |
|
done |
|
case $status in |
|
trl) |
|
echo $rb Need to pull into test $restore |
|
;; |
|
rl) |
|
echo "In test" |
|
;; |
|
l) |
|
echo "Waiting for linus" |
|
;; |
|
"") |
|
echo $rb All done $restore |
|
;; |
|
*) |
|
echo $rb "<$status>" $restore |
|
;; |
|
esac |
|
git log origin/master..$branch | git shortlog |
|
done |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
[[cleaning-up-history]] |
|
Rewriting history and maintaining patch series |
|
============================================== |
|
|
|
Normally commits are only added to a project, never taken away or |
|
replaced. Git is designed with this assumption, and violating it will |
|
cause Git's merge machinery (for example) to do the wrong thing. |
|
|
|
However, there is a situation in which it can be useful to violate this |
|
assumption. |
|
|
|
[[patch-series]] |
|
Creating the perfect patch series |
|
--------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Suppose you are a contributor to a large project, and you want to add a |
|
complicated feature, and to present it to the other developers in a way |
|
that makes it easy for them to read your changes, verify that they are |
|
correct, and understand why you made each change. |
|
|
|
If you present all of your changes as a single patch (or commit), they |
|
may find that it is too much to digest all at once. |
|
|
|
If you present them with the entire history of your work, complete with |
|
mistakes, corrections, and dead ends, they may be overwhelmed. |
|
|
|
So the ideal is usually to produce a series of patches such that: |
|
|
|
1. Each patch can be applied in order. |
|
|
|
2. Each patch includes a single logical change, together with a |
|
message explaining the change. |
|
|
|
3. No patch introduces a regression: after applying any initial |
|
part of the series, the resulting project still compiles and |
|
works, and has no bugs that it didn't have before. |
|
|
|
4. The complete series produces the same end result as your own |
|
(probably much messier!) development process did. |
|
|
|
We will introduce some tools that can help you do this, explain how to |
|
use them, and then explain some of the problems that can arise because |
|
you are rewriting history. |
|
|
|
[[using-git-rebase]] |
|
Keeping a patch series up to date using git rebase |
|
-------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Suppose that you create a branch `mywork` on a remote-tracking branch |
|
`origin`, and create some commits on top of it: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout -b mywork origin |
|
$ vi file.txt |
|
$ git commit |
|
$ vi otherfile.txt |
|
$ git commit |
|
... |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
You have performed no merges into mywork, so it is just a simple linear |
|
sequence of patches on top of `origin`: |
|
|
|
................................................ |
|
o--o--O <-- origin |
|
\ |
|
a--b--c <-- mywork |
|
................................................ |
|
|
|
Some more interesting work has been done in the upstream project, and |
|
`origin` has advanced: |
|
|
|
................................................ |
|
o--o--O--o--o--o <-- origin |
|
\ |
|
a--b--c <-- mywork |
|
................................................ |
|
|
|
At this point, you could use `pull` to merge your changes back in; |
|
the result would create a new merge commit, like this: |
|
|
|
................................................ |
|
o--o--O--o--o--o <-- origin |
|
\ \ |
|
a--b--c--m <-- mywork |
|
................................................ |
|
|
|
However, if you prefer to keep the history in mywork a simple series of |
|
commits without any merges, you may instead choose to use |
|
linkgit:git-rebase[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout mywork |
|
$ git rebase origin |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
This will remove each of your commits from mywork, temporarily saving |
|
them as patches (in a directory named `.git/rebase-apply`), update mywork to |
|
point at the latest version of origin, then apply each of the saved |
|
patches to the new mywork. The result will look like: |
|
|
|
|
|
................................................ |
|
o--o--O--o--o--o <-- origin |
|
\ |
|
a'--b'--c' <-- mywork |
|
................................................ |
|
|
|
In the process, it may discover conflicts. In that case it will stop |
|
and allow you to fix the conflicts; after fixing conflicts, use `git add` |
|
to update the index with those contents, and then, instead of |
|
running `git commit`, just run |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git rebase --continue |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
and Git will continue applying the rest of the patches. |
|
|
|
At any point you may use the `--abort` option to abort this process and |
|
return mywork to the state it had before you started the rebase: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git rebase --abort |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
If you need to reorder or edit a number of commits in a branch, it may |
|
be easier to use `git rebase -i`, which allows you to reorder and |
|
squash commits, as well as marking them for individual editing during |
|
the rebase. See <<interactive-rebase>> for details, and |
|
<<reordering-patch-series>> for alternatives. |
|
|
|
[[rewriting-one-commit]] |
|
Rewriting a single commit |
|
------------------------- |
|
|
|
We saw in <<fixing-a-mistake-by-rewriting-history>> that you can replace the |
|
most recent commit using |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git commit --amend |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
which will replace the old commit by a new commit incorporating your |
|
changes, giving you a chance to edit the old commit message first. |
|
This is useful for fixing typos in your last commit, or for adjusting |
|
the patch contents of a poorly staged commit. |
|
|
|
If you need to amend commits from deeper in your history, you can |
|
use <<interactive-rebase,interactive rebase's `edit` instruction>>. |
|
|
|
[[reordering-patch-series]] |
|
Reordering or selecting from a patch series |
|
------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Sometimes you want to edit a commit deeper in your history. One |
|
approach is to use `git format-patch` to create a series of patches |
|
and then reset the state to before the patches: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git format-patch origin |
|
$ git reset --hard origin |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Then modify, reorder, or eliminate patches as needed before applying |
|
them again with linkgit:git-am[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git am *.patch |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
[[interactive-rebase]] |
|
Using interactive rebases |
|
------------------------- |
|
|
|
You can also edit a patch series with an interactive rebase. This is |
|
the same as <<reordering-patch-series,reordering a patch series using |
|
`format-patch`>>, so use whichever interface you like best. |
|
|
|
Rebase your current HEAD on the last commit you want to retain as-is. |
|
For example, if you want to reorder the last 5 commits, use: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git rebase -i HEAD~5 |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
This will open your editor with a list of steps to be taken to perform |
|
your rebase. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
pick deadbee The oneline of this commit |
|
pick fa1afe1 The oneline of the next commit |
|
... |
|
|
|
# Rebase c0ffeee..deadbee onto c0ffeee |
|
# |
|
# Commands: |
|
# p, pick = use commit |
|
# r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message |
|
# e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending |
|
# s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit |
|
# f, fixup = like "squash", but discard this commit's log message |
|
# x, exec = run command (the rest of the line) using shell |
|
# |
|
# These lines can be re-ordered; they are executed from top to bottom. |
|
# |
|
# If you remove a line here THAT COMMIT WILL BE LOST. |
|
# |
|
# However, if you remove everything, the rebase will be aborted. |
|
# |
|
# Note that empty commits are commented out |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
As explained in the comments, you can reorder commits, squash them |
|
together, edit commit messages, etc. by editing the list. Once you |
|
are satisfied, save the list and close your editor, and the rebase |
|
will begin. |
|
|
|
The rebase will stop where `pick` has been replaced with `edit` or |
|
when a step in the list fails to mechanically resolve conflicts and |
|
needs your help. When you are done editing and/or resolving conflicts |
|
you can continue with `git rebase --continue`. If you decide that |
|
things are getting too hairy, you can always bail out with `git rebase |
|
--abort`. Even after the rebase is complete, you can still recover |
|
the original branch by using the <<reflogs,reflog>>. |
|
|
|
For a more detailed discussion of the procedure and additional tips, |
|
see the "INTERACTIVE MODE" section of linkgit:git-rebase[1]. |
|
|
|
[[patch-series-tools]] |
|
Other tools |
|
----------- |
|
|
|
There are numerous other tools, such as StGit, which exist for the |
|
purpose of maintaining a patch series. These are outside of the scope of |
|
this manual. |
|
|
|
[[problems-With-rewriting-history]] |
|
Problems with rewriting history |
|
------------------------------- |
|
|
|
The primary problem with rewriting the history of a branch has to do |
|
with merging. Suppose somebody fetches your branch and merges it into |
|
their branch, with a result something like this: |
|
|
|
................................................ |
|
o--o--O--o--o--o <-- origin |
|
\ \ |
|
t--t--t--m <-- their branch: |
|
................................................ |
|
|
|
Then suppose you modify the last three commits: |
|
|
|
................................................ |
|
o--o--o <-- new head of origin |
|
/ |
|
o--o--O--o--o--o <-- old head of origin |
|
................................................ |
|
|
|
If we examined all this history together in one repository, it will |
|
look like: |
|
|
|
................................................ |
|
o--o--o <-- new head of origin |
|
/ |
|
o--o--O--o--o--o <-- old head of origin |
|
\ \ |
|
t--t--t--m <-- their branch: |
|
................................................ |
|
|
|
Git has no way of knowing that the new head is an updated version of |
|
the old head; it treats this situation exactly the same as it would if |
|
two developers had independently done the work on the old and new heads |
|
in parallel. At this point, if someone attempts to merge the new head |
|
in to their branch, Git will attempt to merge together the two (old and |
|
new) lines of development, instead of trying to replace the old by the |
|
new. The results are likely to be unexpected. |
|
|
|
You may still choose to publish branches whose history is rewritten, |
|
and it may be useful for others to be able to fetch those branches in |
|
order to examine or test them, but they should not attempt to pull such |
|
branches into their own work. |
|
|
|
For true distributed development that supports proper merging, |
|
published branches should never be rewritten. |
|
|
|
[[bisect-merges]] |
|
Why bisecting merge commits can be harder than bisecting linear history |
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-bisect[1] command correctly handles history that |
|
includes merge commits. However, when the commit that it finds is a |
|
merge commit, the user may need to work harder than usual to figure out |
|
why that commit introduced a problem. |
|
|
|
Imagine this history: |
|
|
|
................................................ |
|
---Z---o---X---...---o---A---C---D |
|
\ / |
|
o---o---Y---...---o---B |
|
................................................ |
|
|
|
Suppose that on the upper line of development, the meaning of one |
|
of the functions that exists at Z is changed at commit X. The |
|
commits from Z leading to A change both the function's |
|
implementation and all calling sites that exist at Z, as well |
|
as new calling sites they add, to be consistent. There is no |
|
bug at A. |
|
|
|
Suppose that in the meantime on the lower line of development somebody |
|
adds a new calling site for that function at commit Y. The |
|
commits from Z leading to B all assume the old semantics of that |
|
function and the callers and the callee are consistent with each |
|
other. There is no bug at B, either. |
|
|
|
Suppose further that the two development lines merge cleanly at C, |
|
so no conflict resolution is required. |
|
|
|
Nevertheless, the code at C is broken, because the callers added |
|
on the lower line of development have not been converted to the new |
|
semantics introduced on the upper line of development. So if all |
|
you know is that D is bad, that Z is good, and that |
|
linkgit:git-bisect[1] identifies C as the culprit, how will you |
|
figure out that the problem is due to this change in semantics? |
|
|
|
When the result of a `git bisect` is a non-merge commit, you should |
|
normally be able to discover the problem by examining just that commit. |
|
Developers can make this easy by breaking their changes into small |
|
self-contained commits. That won't help in the case above, however, |
|
because the problem isn't obvious from examination of any single |
|
commit; instead, a global view of the development is required. To |
|
make matters worse, the change in semantics in the problematic |
|
function may be just one small part of the changes in the upper |
|
line of development. |
|
|
|
On the other hand, if instead of merging at C you had rebased the |
|
history between Z to B on top of A, you would have gotten this |
|
linear history: |
|
|
|
................................................................ |
|
---Z---o---X--...---o---A---o---o---Y*--...---o---B*--D* |
|
................................................................ |
|
|
|
Bisecting between Z and D* would hit a single culprit commit Y*, |
|
and understanding why Y* was broken would probably be easier. |
|
|
|
Partly for this reason, many experienced Git users, even when |
|
working on an otherwise merge-heavy project, keep the history |
|
linear by rebasing against the latest upstream version before |
|
publishing. |
|
|
|
[[advanced-branch-management]] |
|
Advanced branch management |
|
========================== |
|
|
|
[[fetching-individual-branches]] |
|
Fetching individual branches |
|
---------------------------- |
|
|
|
Instead of using linkgit:git-remote[1], you can also choose just |
|
to update one branch at a time, and to store it locally under an |
|
arbitrary name: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fetch origin todo:my-todo-work |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
The first argument, `origin`, just tells Git to fetch from the |
|
repository you originally cloned from. The second argument tells Git |
|
to fetch the branch named `todo` from the remote repository, and to |
|
store it locally under the name `refs/heads/my-todo-work`. |
|
|
|
You can also fetch branches from other repositories; so |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fetch git://example.com/proj.git master:example-master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
will create a new branch named `example-master` and store in it the |
|
branch named `master` from the repository at the given URL. If you |
|
already have a branch named example-master, it will attempt to |
|
<<fast-forwards,fast-forward>> to the commit given by example.com's |
|
master branch. In more detail: |
|
|
|
[[fetch-fast-forwards]] |
|
git fetch and fast-forwards |
|
--------------------------- |
|
|
|
In the previous example, when updating an existing branch, `git fetch` |
|
checks to make sure that the most recent commit on the remote |
|
branch is a descendant of the most recent commit on your copy of the |
|
branch before updating your copy of the branch to point at the new |
|
commit. Git calls this process a <<fast-forwards,fast-forward>>. |
|
|
|
A fast-forward looks something like this: |
|
|
|
................................................ |
|
o--o--o--o <-- old head of the branch |
|
\ |
|
o--o--o <-- new head of the branch |
|
................................................ |
|
|
|
|
|
In some cases it is possible that the new head will *not* actually be |
|
a descendant of the old head. For example, the developer may have |
|
realized she made a serious mistake, and decided to backtrack, |
|
resulting in a situation like: |
|
|
|
................................................ |
|
o--o--o--o--a--b <-- old head of the branch |
|
\ |
|
o--o--o <-- new head of the branch |
|
................................................ |
|
|
|
In this case, `git fetch` will fail, and print out a warning. |
|
|
|
In that case, you can still force Git to update to the new head, as |
|
described in the following section. However, note that in the |
|
situation above this may mean losing the commits labeled `a` and `b`, |
|
unless you've already created a reference of your own pointing to |
|
them. |
|
|
|
[[forcing-fetch]] |
|
Forcing git fetch to do non-fast-forward updates |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
If git fetch fails because the new head of a branch is not a |
|
descendant of the old head, you may force the update with: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fetch git://example.com/proj.git +master:refs/remotes/example/master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Note the addition of the `+` sign. Alternatively, you can use the `-f` |
|
flag to force updates of all the fetched branches, as in: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fetch -f origin |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Be aware that commits that the old version of example/master pointed at |
|
may be lost, as we saw in the previous section. |
|
|
|
[[remote-branch-configuration]] |
|
Configuring remote-tracking branches |
|
------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
We saw above that `origin` is just a shortcut to refer to the |
|
repository that you originally cloned from. This information is |
|
stored in Git configuration variables, which you can see using |
|
linkgit:git-config[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git config -l |
|
core.repositoryformatversion=0 |
|
core.filemode=true |
|
core.logallrefupdates=true |
|
remote.origin.url=git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git |
|
remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* |
|
branch.master.remote=origin |
|
branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
If there are other repositories that you also use frequently, you can |
|
create similar configuration options to save typing; for example, |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git remote add example git://example.com/proj.git |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
adds the following to `.git/config`: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
[remote "example"] |
|
url = git://example.com/proj.git |
|
fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/example/* |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Also note that the above configuration can be performed by directly |
|
editing the file `.git/config` instead of using linkgit:git-remote[1]. |
|
|
|
After configuring the remote, the following three commands will do the |
|
same thing: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fetch git://example.com/proj.git +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/example/* |
|
$ git fetch example +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/example/* |
|
$ git fetch example |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
See linkgit:git-config[1] for more details on the configuration |
|
options mentioned above and linkgit:git-fetch[1] for more details on |
|
the refspec syntax. |
|
|
|
|
|
[[git-concepts]] |
|
Git concepts |
|
============ |
|
|
|
Git is built on a small number of simple but powerful ideas. While it |
|
is possible to get things done without understanding them, you will find |
|
Git much more intuitive if you do. |
|
|
|
We start with the most important, the <<def_object_database,object |
|
database>> and the <<def_index,index>>. |
|
|
|
[[the-object-database]] |
|
The Object Database |
|
------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
We already saw in <<understanding-commits>> that all commits are stored |
|
under a 40-digit "object name". In fact, all the information needed to |
|
represent the history of a project is stored in objects with such names. |
|
In each case the name is calculated by taking the SHA-1 hash of the |
|
contents of the object. The SHA-1 hash is a cryptographic hash function. |
|
What that means to us is that it is impossible to find two different |
|
objects with the same name. This has a number of advantages; among |
|
others: |
|
|
|
- Git can quickly determine whether two objects are identical or not, |
|
just by comparing names. |
|
- Since object names are computed the same way in every repository, the |
|
same content stored in two repositories will always be stored under |
|
the same name. |
|
- Git can detect errors when it reads an object, by checking that the |
|
object's name is still the SHA-1 hash of its contents. |
|
|
|
(See <<object-details>> for the details of the object formatting and |
|
SHA-1 calculation.) |
|
|
|
There are four different types of objects: "blob", "tree", "commit", and |
|
"tag". |
|
|
|
- A <<def_blob_object,"blob" object>> is used to store file data. |
|
- A <<def_tree_object,"tree" object>> ties one or more |
|
"blob" objects into a directory structure. In addition, a tree object |
|
can refer to other tree objects, thus creating a directory hierarchy. |
|
- A <<def_commit_object,"commit" object>> ties such directory hierarchies |
|
together into a <<def_DAG,directed acyclic graph>> of revisions--each |
|
commit contains the object name of exactly one tree designating the |
|
directory hierarchy at the time of the commit. In addition, a commit |
|
refers to "parent" commit objects that describe the history of how we |
|
arrived at that directory hierarchy. |
|
- A <<def_tag_object,"tag" object>> symbolically identifies and can be |
|
used to sign other objects. It contains the object name and type of |
|
another object, a symbolic name (of course!) and, optionally, a |
|
signature. |
|
|
|
The object types in some more detail: |
|
|
|
[[commit-object]] |
|
Commit Object |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
The "commit" object links a physical state of a tree with a description |
|
of how we got there and why. Use the `--pretty=raw` option to |
|
linkgit:git-show[1] or linkgit:git-log[1] to examine your favorite |
|
commit: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git show -s --pretty=raw 2be7fcb476 |
|
commit 2be7fcb4764f2dbcee52635b91fedb1b3dcf7ab4 |
|
tree fb3a8bdd0ceddd019615af4d57a53f43d8cee2bf |
|
parent 257a84d9d02e90447b149af58b271c19405edb6a |
|
author Dave Watson <dwatson@mimvista.com> 1187576872 -0400 |
|
committer Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> 1187591163 -0700 |
|
|
|
Fix misspelling of 'suppress' in docs |
|
|
|
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
As you can see, a commit is defined by: |
|
|
|
- a tree: The SHA-1 name of a tree object (as defined below), representing |
|
the contents of a directory at a certain point in time. |
|
- parent(s): The SHA-1 name(s) of some number of commits which represent the |
|
immediately previous step(s) in the history of the project. The |
|
example above has one parent; merge commits may have more than |
|
one. A commit with no parents is called a "root" commit, and |
|
represents the initial revision of a project. Each project must have |
|
at least one root. A project can also have multiple roots, though |
|
that isn't common (or necessarily a good idea). |
|
- an author: The name of the person responsible for this change, together |
|
with its date. |
|
- a committer: The name of the person who actually created the commit, |
|
with the date it was done. This may be different from the author, for |
|
example, if the author was someone who wrote a patch and emailed it |
|
to the person who used it to create the commit. |
|
- a comment describing this commit. |
|
|
|
Note that a commit does not itself contain any information about what |
|
actually changed; all changes are calculated by comparing the contents |
|
of the tree referred to by this commit with the trees associated with |
|
its parents. In particular, Git does not attempt to record file renames |
|
explicitly, though it can identify cases where the existence of the same |
|
file data at changing paths suggests a rename. (See, for example, the |
|
`-M` option to linkgit:git-diff[1]). |
|
|
|
A commit is usually created by linkgit:git-commit[1], which creates a |
|
commit whose parent is normally the current HEAD, and whose tree is |
|
taken from the content currently stored in the index. |
|
|
|
[[tree-object]] |
|
Tree Object |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
The ever-versatile linkgit:git-show[1] command can also be used to |
|
examine tree objects, but linkgit:git-ls-tree[1] will give you more |
|
details: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git ls-tree fb3a8bdd0ce |
|
100644 blob 63c918c667fa005ff12ad89437f2fdc80926e21c .gitignore |
|
100644 blob 5529b198e8d14decbe4ad99db3f7fb632de0439d .mailmap |
|
100644 blob 6ff87c4664981e4397625791c8ea3bbb5f2279a3 COPYING |
|
040000 tree 2fb783e477100ce076f6bf57e4a6f026013dc745 Documentation |
|
100755 blob 3c0032cec592a765692234f1cba47dfdcc3a9200 GIT-VERSION-GEN |
|
100644 blob 289b046a443c0647624607d471289b2c7dcd470b INSTALL |
|
100644 blob 4eb463797adc693dc168b926b6932ff53f17d0b1 Makefile |
|
100644 blob 548142c327a6790ff8821d67c2ee1eff7a656b52 README |
|
... |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
As you can see, a tree object contains a list of entries, each with a |
|
mode, object type, SHA-1 name, and name, sorted by name. It represents |
|
the contents of a single directory tree. |
|
|
|
The object type may be a blob, representing the contents of a file, or |
|
another tree, representing the contents of a subdirectory. Since trees |
|
and blobs, like all other objects, are named by the SHA-1 hash of their |
|
contents, two trees have the same SHA-1 name if and only if their |
|
contents (including, recursively, the contents of all subdirectories) |
|
are identical. This allows Git to quickly determine the differences |
|
between two related tree objects, since it can ignore any entries with |
|
identical object names. |
|
|
|
(Note: in the presence of submodules, trees may also have commits as |
|
entries. See <<submodules>> for documentation.) |
|
|
|
Note that the files all have mode 644 or 755: Git actually only pays |
|
attention to the executable bit. |
|
|
|
[[blob-object]] |
|
Blob Object |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
You can use linkgit:git-show[1] to examine the contents of a blob; take, |
|
for example, the blob in the entry for `COPYING` from the tree above: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git show 6ff87c4664 |
|
|
|
Note that the only valid version of the GPL as far as this project |
|
is concerned is _this_ particular version of the license (ie v2, not |
|
v2.2 or v3.x or whatever), unless explicitly otherwise stated. |
|
... |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
A "blob" object is nothing but a binary blob of data. It doesn't refer |
|
to anything else or have attributes of any kind. |
|
|
|
Since the blob is entirely defined by its data, if two files in a |
|
directory tree (or in multiple different versions of the repository) |
|
have the same contents, they will share the same blob object. The object |
|
is totally independent of its location in the directory tree, and |
|
renaming a file does not change the object that file is associated with. |
|
|
|
Note that any tree or blob object can be examined using |
|
linkgit:git-show[1] with the <revision>:<path> syntax. This can |
|
sometimes be useful for browsing the contents of a tree that is not |
|
currently checked out. |
|
|
|
[[trust]] |
|
Trust |
|
~~~~~ |
|
|
|
If you receive the SHA-1 name of a blob from one source, and its contents |
|
from another (possibly untrusted) source, you can still trust that those |
|
contents are correct as long as the SHA-1 name agrees. This is because |
|
the SHA-1 is designed so that it is infeasible to find different contents |
|
that produce the same hash. |
|
|
|
Similarly, you need only trust the SHA-1 name of a top-level tree object |
|
to trust the contents of the entire directory that it refers to, and if |
|
you receive the SHA-1 name of a commit from a trusted source, then you |
|
can easily verify the entire history of commits reachable through |
|
parents of that commit, and all of those contents of the trees referred |
|
to by those commits. |
|
|
|
So to introduce some real trust in the system, the only thing you need |
|
to do is to digitally sign just 'one' special note, which includes the |
|
name of a top-level commit. Your digital signature shows others |
|
that you trust that commit, and the immutability of the history of |
|
commits tells others that they can trust the whole history. |
|
|
|
In other words, you can easily validate a whole archive by just |
|
sending out a single email that tells the people the name (SHA-1 hash) |
|
of the top commit, and digitally sign that email using something |
|
like GPG/PGP. |
|
|
|
To assist in this, Git also provides the tag object... |
|
|
|
[[tag-object]] |
|
Tag Object |
|
~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
A tag object contains an object, object type, tag name, the name of the |
|
person ("tagger") who created the tag, and a message, which may contain |
|
a signature, as can be seen using linkgit:git-cat-file[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git cat-file tag v1.5.0 |
|
object 437b1b20df4b356c9342dac8d38849f24ef44f27 |
|
type commit |
|
tag v1.5.0 |
|
tagger Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 1171411200 +0000 |
|
|
|
GIT 1.5.0 |
|
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- |
|
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) |
|
|
|
iD8DBQBF0lGqwMbZpPMRm5oRAuRiAJ9ohBLd7s2kqjkKlq1qqC57SbnmzQCdG4ui |
|
nLE/L9aUXdWeTFPron96DLA= |
|
=2E+0 |
|
-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
See the linkgit:git-tag[1] command to learn how to create and verify tag |
|
objects. (Note that linkgit:git-tag[1] can also be used to create |
|
"lightweight tags", which are not tag objects at all, but just simple |
|
references whose names begin with `refs/tags/`). |
|
|
|
[[pack-files]] |
|
How Git stores objects efficiently: pack files |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
Newly created objects are initially created in a file named after the |
|
object's SHA-1 hash (stored in `.git/objects`). |
|
|
|
Unfortunately this system becomes inefficient once a project has a |
|
lot of objects. Try this on an old project: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git count-objects |
|
6930 objects, 47620 kilobytes |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
The first number is the number of objects which are kept in |
|
individual files. The second is the amount of space taken up by |
|
those "loose" objects. |
|
|
|
You can save space and make Git faster by moving these loose objects in |
|
to a "pack file", which stores a group of objects in an efficient |
|
compressed format; the details of how pack files are formatted can be |
|
found in link:technical/pack-format.html[pack format]. |
|
|
|
To put the loose objects into a pack, just run git repack: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git repack |
|
Counting objects: 6020, done. |
|
Delta compression using up to 4 threads. |
|
Compressing objects: 100% (6020/6020), done. |
|
Writing objects: 100% (6020/6020), done. |
|
Total 6020 (delta 4070), reused 0 (delta 0) |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
This creates a single "pack file" in .git/objects/pack/ |
|
containing all currently unpacked objects. You can then run |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git prune |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
to remove any of the "loose" objects that are now contained in the |
|
pack. This will also remove any unreferenced objects (which may be |
|
created when, for example, you use `git reset` to remove a commit). |
|
You can verify that the loose objects are gone by looking at the |
|
`.git/objects` directory or by running |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git count-objects |
|
0 objects, 0 kilobytes |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
Although the object files are gone, any commands that refer to those |
|
objects will work exactly as they did before. |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-gc[1] command performs packing, pruning, and more for |
|
you, so is normally the only high-level command you need. |
|
|
|
[[dangling-objects]] |
|
Dangling objects |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-fsck[1] command will sometimes complain about dangling |
|
objects. They are not a problem. |
|
|
|
The most common cause of dangling objects is that you've rebased a |
|
branch, or you have pulled from somebody else who rebased a branch--see |
|
<<cleaning-up-history>>. In that case, the old head of the original |
|
branch still exists, as does everything it pointed to. The branch |
|
pointer itself just doesn't, since you replaced it with another one. |
|
|
|
There are also other situations that cause dangling objects. For |
|
example, a "dangling blob" may arise because you did a `git add` of a |
|
file, but then, before you actually committed it and made it part of the |
|
bigger picture, you changed something else in that file and committed |
|
that *updated* thing--the old state that you added originally ends up |
|
not being pointed to by any commit or tree, so it's now a dangling blob |
|
object. |
|
|
|
Similarly, when the "recursive" merge strategy runs, and finds that |
|
there are criss-cross merges and thus more than one merge base (which is |
|
fairly unusual, but it does happen), it will generate one temporary |
|
midway tree (or possibly even more, if you had lots of criss-crossing |
|
merges and more than two merge bases) as a temporary internal merge |
|
base, and again, those are real objects, but the end result will not end |
|
up pointing to them, so they end up "dangling" in your repository. |
|
|
|
Generally, dangling objects aren't anything to worry about. They can |
|
even be very useful: if you screw something up, the dangling objects can |
|
be how you recover your old tree (say, you did a rebase, and realized |
|
that you really didn't want to--you can look at what dangling objects |
|
you have, and decide to reset your head to some old dangling state). |
|
|
|
For commits, you can just use: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ gitk <dangling-commit-sha-goes-here> --not --all |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
This asks for all the history reachable from the given commit but not |
|
from any branch, tag, or other reference. If you decide it's something |
|
you want, you can always create a new reference to it, e.g., |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git branch recovered-branch <dangling-commit-sha-goes-here> |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
For blobs and trees, you can't do the same, but you can still examine |
|
them. You can just do |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git show <dangling-blob/tree-sha-goes-here> |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
to show what the contents of the blob were (or, for a tree, basically |
|
what the `ls` for that directory was), and that may give you some idea |
|
of what the operation was that left that dangling object. |
|
|
|
Usually, dangling blobs and trees aren't very interesting. They're |
|
almost always the result of either being a half-way mergebase (the blob |
|
will often even have the conflict markers from a merge in it, if you |
|
have had conflicting merges that you fixed up by hand), or simply |
|
because you interrupted a `git fetch` with ^C or something like that, |
|
leaving _some_ of the new objects in the object database, but just |
|
dangling and useless. |
|
|
|
Anyway, once you are sure that you're not interested in any dangling |
|
state, you can just prune all unreachable objects: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git prune |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
and they'll be gone. (You should only run `git prune` on a quiescent |
|
repository--it's kind of like doing a filesystem fsck recovery: you |
|
don't want to do that while the filesystem is mounted. |
|
`git prune` is designed not to cause any harm in such cases of concurrent |
|
accesses to a repository but you might receive confusing or scary messages.) |
|
|
|
[[recovering-from-repository-corruption]] |
|
Recovering from repository corruption |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
By design, Git treats data trusted to it with caution. However, even in |
|
the absence of bugs in Git itself, it is still possible that hardware or |
|
operating system errors could corrupt data. |
|
|
|
The first defense against such problems is backups. You can back up a |
|
Git directory using clone, or just using cp, tar, or any other backup |
|
mechanism. |
|
|
|
As a last resort, you can search for the corrupted objects and attempt |
|
to replace them by hand. Back up your repository before attempting this |
|
in case you corrupt things even more in the process. |
|
|
|
We'll assume that the problem is a single missing or corrupted blob, |
|
which is sometimes a solvable problem. (Recovering missing trees and |
|
especially commits is *much* harder). |
|
|
|
Before starting, verify that there is corruption, and figure out where |
|
it is with linkgit:git-fsck[1]; this may be time-consuming. |
|
|
|
Assume the output looks like this: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git fsck --full --no-dangling |
|
broken link from tree 2d9263c6d23595e7cb2a21e5ebbb53655278dff8 |
|
to blob 4b9458b3786228369c63936db65827de3cc06200 |
|
missing blob 4b9458b3786228369c63936db65827de3cc06200 |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
Now you know that blob 4b9458b3 is missing, and that the tree 2d9263c6 |
|
points to it. If you could find just one copy of that missing blob |
|
object, possibly in some other repository, you could move it into |
|
`.git/objects/4b/9458b3...` and be done. Suppose you can't. You can |
|
still examine the tree that pointed to it with linkgit:git-ls-tree[1], |
|
which might output something like: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git ls-tree 2d9263c6d23595e7cb2a21e5ebbb53655278dff8 |
|
100644 blob 8d14531846b95bfa3564b58ccfb7913a034323b8 .gitignore |
|
100644 blob ebf9bf84da0aab5ed944264a5db2a65fe3a3e883 .mailmap |
|
100644 blob ca442d313d86dc67e0a2e5d584b465bd382cbf5c COPYING |
|
... |
|
100644 blob 4b9458b3786228369c63936db65827de3cc06200 myfile |
|
... |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
So now you know that the missing blob was the data for a file named |
|
`myfile`. And chances are you can also identify the directory--let's |
|
say it's in `somedirectory`. If you're lucky the missing copy might be |
|
the same as the copy you have checked out in your working tree at |
|
`somedirectory/myfile`; you can test whether that's right with |
|
linkgit:git-hash-object[1]: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git hash-object -w somedirectory/myfile |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
which will create and store a blob object with the contents of |
|
somedirectory/myfile, and output the SHA-1 of that object. if you're |
|
extremely lucky it might be 4b9458b3786228369c63936db65827de3cc06200, in |
|
which case you've guessed right, and the corruption is fixed! |
|
|
|
Otherwise, you need more information. How do you tell which version of |
|
the file has been lost? |
|
|
|
The easiest way to do this is with: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git log --raw --all --full-history -- somedirectory/myfile |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
Because you're asking for raw output, you'll now get something like |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
commit abc |
|
Author: |
|
Date: |
|
... |
|
:100644 100644 4b9458b... newsha... M somedirectory/myfile |
|
|
|
|
|
commit xyz |
|
Author: |
|
Date: |
|
|
|
... |
|
:100644 100644 oldsha... 4b9458b... M somedirectory/myfile |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
This tells you that the immediately following version of the file was |
|
"newsha", and that the immediately preceding version was "oldsha". |
|
You also know the commit messages that went with the change from oldsha |
|
to 4b9458b and with the change from 4b9458b to newsha. |
|
|
|
If you've been committing small enough changes, you may now have a good |
|
shot at reconstructing the contents of the in-between state 4b9458b. |
|
|
|
If you can do that, you can now recreate the missing object with |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git hash-object -w <recreated-file> |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
and your repository is good again! |
|
|
|
(Btw, you could have ignored the `fsck`, and started with doing a |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git log --raw --all |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
and just looked for the sha of the missing object (4b9458b..) in that |
|
whole thing. It's up to you--Git does *have* a lot of information, it is |
|
just missing one particular blob version. |
|
|
|
[[the-index]] |
|
The index |
|
--------- |
|
|
|
The index is a binary file (generally kept in `.git/index`) containing a |
|
sorted list of path names, each with permissions and the SHA-1 of a blob |
|
object; linkgit:git-ls-files[1] can show you the contents of the index: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git ls-files --stage |
|
100644 63c918c667fa005ff12ad89437f2fdc80926e21c 0 .gitignore |
|
100644 5529b198e8d14decbe4ad99db3f7fb632de0439d 0 .mailmap |
|
100644 6ff87c4664981e4397625791c8ea3bbb5f2279a3 0 COPYING |
|
100644 a37b2152bd26be2c2289e1f57a292534a51a93c7 0 Documentation/.gitignore |
|
100644 fbefe9a45b00a54b58d94d06eca48b03d40a50e0 0 Documentation/Makefile |
|
... |
|
100644 2511aef8d89ab52be5ec6a5e46236b4b6bcd07ea 0 xdiff/xtypes.h |
|
100644 2ade97b2574a9f77e7ae4002a4e07a6a38e46d07 0 xdiff/xutils.c |
|
100644 d5de8292e05e7c36c4b68857c1cf9855e3d2f70a 0 xdiff/xutils.h |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Note that in older documentation you may see the index called the |
|
"current directory cache" or just the "cache". It has three important |
|
properties: |
|
|
|
1. The index contains all the information necessary to generate a single |
|
(uniquely determined) tree object. |
|
+ |
|
For example, running linkgit:git-commit[1] generates this tree object |
|
from the index, stores it in the object database, and uses it as the |
|
tree object associated with the new commit. |
|
|
|
2. The index enables fast comparisons between the tree object it defines |
|
and the working tree. |
|
+ |
|
It does this by storing some additional data for each entry (such as |
|
the last modified time). This data is not displayed above, and is not |
|
stored in the created tree object, but it can be used to determine |
|
quickly which files in the working directory differ from what was |
|
stored in the index, and thus save Git from having to read all of the |
|
data from such files to look for changes. |
|
|
|
3. It can efficiently represent information about merge conflicts |
|
between different tree objects, allowing each pathname to be |
|
associated with sufficient information about the trees involved that |
|
you can create a three-way merge between them. |
|
+ |
|
We saw in <<conflict-resolution>> that during a merge the index can |
|
store multiple versions of a single file (called "stages"). The third |
|
column in the linkgit:git-ls-files[1] output above is the stage |
|
number, and will take on values other than 0 for files with merge |
|
conflicts. |
|
|
|
The index is thus a sort of temporary staging area, which is filled with |
|
a tree which you are in the process of working on. |
|
|
|
If you blow the index away entirely, you generally haven't lost any |
|
information as long as you have the name of the tree that it described. |
|
|
|
[[submodules]] |
|
Submodules |
|
========== |
|
|
|
Large projects are often composed of smaller, self-contained modules. For |
|
example, an embedded Linux distribution's source tree would include every |
|
piece of software in the distribution with some local modifications; a movie |
|
player might need to build against a specific, known-working version of a |
|
decompression library; several independent programs might all share the same |
|
build scripts. |
|
|
|
With centralized revision control systems this is often accomplished by |
|
including every module in one single repository. Developers can check out |
|
all modules or only the modules they need to work with. They can even modify |
|
files across several modules in a single commit while moving things around |
|
or updating APIs and translations. |
|
|
|
Git does not allow partial checkouts, so duplicating this approach in Git |
|
would force developers to keep a local copy of modules they are not |
|
interested in touching. Commits in an enormous checkout would be slower |
|
than you'd expect as Git would have to scan every directory for changes. |
|
If modules have a lot of local history, clones would take forever. |
|
|
|
On the plus side, distributed revision control systems can much better |
|
integrate with external sources. In a centralized model, a single arbitrary |
|
snapshot of the external project is exported from its own revision control |
|
and then imported into the local revision control on a vendor branch. All |
|
the history is hidden. With distributed revision control you can clone the |
|
entire external history and much more easily follow development and re-merge |
|
local changes. |
|
|
|
Git's submodule support allows a repository to contain, as a subdirectory, a |
|
checkout of an external project. Submodules maintain their own identity; |
|
the submodule support just stores the submodule repository location and |
|
commit ID, so other developers who clone the containing project |
|
("superproject") can easily clone all the submodules at the same revision. |
|
Partial checkouts of the superproject are possible: you can tell Git to |
|
clone none, some or all of the submodules. |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-submodule[1] command is available since Git 1.5.3. Users |
|
with Git 1.5.2 can look up the submodule commits in the repository and |
|
manually check them out; earlier versions won't recognize the submodules at |
|
all. |
|
|
|
To see how submodule support works, create four example |
|
repositories that can be used later as a submodule: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ mkdir ~/git |
|
$ cd ~/git |
|
$ for i in a b c d |
|
do |
|
mkdir $i |
|
cd $i |
|
git init |
|
echo "module $i" > $i.txt |
|
git add $i.txt |
|
git commit -m "Initial commit, submodule $i" |
|
cd .. |
|
done |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Now create the superproject and add all the submodules: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ mkdir super |
|
$ cd super |
|
$ git init |
|
$ for i in a b c d |
|
do |
|
git submodule add ~/git/$i $i |
|
done |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
NOTE: Do not use local URLs here if you plan to publish your superproject! |
|
|
|
See what files `git submodule` created: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ ls -a |
|
. .. .git .gitmodules a b c d |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
The `git submodule add <repo> <path>` command does a couple of things: |
|
|
|
- It clones the submodule from `<repo>` to the given `<path>` under the |
|
current directory and by default checks out the master branch. |
|
- It adds the submodule's clone path to the linkgit:gitmodules[5] file and |
|
adds this file to the index, ready to be committed. |
|
- It adds the submodule's current commit ID to the index, ready to be |
|
committed. |
|
|
|
Commit the superproject: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git commit -m "Add submodules a, b, c and d." |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Now clone the superproject: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ cd .. |
|
$ git clone super cloned |
|
$ cd cloned |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
The submodule directories are there, but they're empty: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ ls -a a |
|
. .. |
|
$ git submodule status |
|
-d266b9873ad50488163457f025db7cdd9683d88b a |
|
-e81d457da15309b4fef4249aba9b50187999670d b |
|
-c1536a972b9affea0f16e0680ba87332dc059146 c |
|
-d96249ff5d57de5de093e6baff9e0aafa5276a74 d |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
NOTE: The commit object names shown above would be different for you, but they |
|
should match the HEAD commit object names of your repositories. You can check |
|
it by running `git ls-remote ../a`. |
|
|
|
Pulling down the submodules is a two-step process. First run `git submodule |
|
init` to add the submodule repository URLs to `.git/config`: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git submodule init |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Now use `git submodule update` to clone the repositories and check out the |
|
commits specified in the superproject: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git submodule update |
|
$ cd a |
|
$ ls -a |
|
. .. .git a.txt |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
One major difference between `git submodule update` and `git submodule add` is |
|
that `git submodule update` checks out a specific commit, rather than the tip |
|
of a branch. It's like checking out a tag: the head is detached, so you're not |
|
working on a branch. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git branch |
|
* (detached from d266b98) |
|
master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
If you want to make a change within a submodule and you have a detached head, |
|
then you should create or checkout a branch, make your changes, publish the |
|
change within the submodule, and then update the superproject to reference the |
|
new commit: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout master |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
or |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout -b fix-up |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
then |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ echo "adding a line again" >> a.txt |
|
$ git commit -a -m "Updated the submodule from within the superproject." |
|
$ git push |
|
$ cd .. |
|
$ git diff |
|
diff --git a/a b/a |
|
index d266b98..261dfac 160000 |
|
--- a/a |
|
+++ b/a |
|
@@ -1 +1 @@ |
|
-Subproject commit d266b9873ad50488163457f025db7cdd9683d88b |
|
+Subproject commit 261dfac35cb99d380eb966e102c1197139f7fa24 |
|
$ git add a |
|
$ git commit -m "Updated submodule a." |
|
$ git push |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
You have to run `git submodule update` after `git pull` if you want to update |
|
submodules, too. |
|
|
|
Pitfalls with submodules |
|
------------------------ |
|
|
|
Always publish the submodule change before publishing the change to the |
|
superproject that references it. If you forget to publish the submodule change, |
|
others won't be able to clone the repository: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ cd ~/git/super/a |
|
$ echo i added another line to this file >> a.txt |
|
$ git commit -a -m "doing it wrong this time" |
|
$ cd .. |
|
$ git add a |
|
$ git commit -m "Updated submodule a again." |
|
$ git push |
|
$ cd ~/git/cloned |
|
$ git pull |
|
$ git submodule update |
|
error: pathspec '261dfac35cb99d380eb966e102c1197139f7fa24' did not match any file(s) known to git. |
|
Did you forget to 'git add'? |
|
Unable to checkout '261dfac35cb99d380eb966e102c1197139f7fa24' in submodule path 'a' |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
In older Git versions it could be easily forgotten to commit new or modified |
|
files in a submodule, which silently leads to similar problems as not pushing |
|
the submodule changes. Starting with Git 1.7.0 both `git status` and `git diff` |
|
in the superproject show submodules as modified when they contain new or |
|
modified files to protect against accidentally committing such a state. `git |
|
diff` will also add a `-dirty` to the work tree side when generating patch |
|
output or used with the `--submodule` option: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git diff |
|
diff --git a/sub b/sub |
|
--- a/sub |
|
+++ b/sub |
|
@@ -1 +1 @@ |
|
-Subproject commit 3f356705649b5d566d97ff843cf193359229a453 |
|
+Subproject commit 3f356705649b5d566d97ff843cf193359229a453-dirty |
|
$ git diff --submodule |
|
Submodule sub 3f35670..3f35670-dirty: |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
You also should not rewind branches in a submodule beyond commits that were |
|
ever recorded in any superproject. |
|
|
|
It's not safe to run `git submodule update` if you've made and committed |
|
changes within a submodule without checking out a branch first. They will be |
|
silently overwritten: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ cat a.txt |
|
module a |
|
$ echo line added from private2 >> a.txt |
|
$ git commit -a -m "line added inside private2" |
|
$ cd .. |
|
$ git submodule update |
|
Submodule path 'a': checked out 'd266b9873ad50488163457f025db7cdd9683d88b' |
|
$ cd a |
|
$ cat a.txt |
|
module a |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
NOTE: The changes are still visible in the submodule's reflog. |
|
|
|
If you have uncommitted changes in your submodule working tree, `git |
|
submodule update` will not overwrite them. Instead, you get the usual |
|
warning about not being able switch from a dirty branch. |
|
|
|
[[low-level-operations]] |
|
Low-level Git operations |
|
======================== |
|
|
|
Many of the higher-level commands were originally implemented as shell |
|
scripts using a smaller core of low-level Git commands. These can still |
|
be useful when doing unusual things with Git, or just as a way to |
|
understand its inner workings. |
|
|
|
[[object-manipulation]] |
|
Object access and manipulation |
|
------------------------------ |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-cat-file[1] command can show the contents of any object, |
|
though the higher-level linkgit:git-show[1] is usually more useful. |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-commit-tree[1] command allows constructing commits with |
|
arbitrary parents and trees. |
|
|
|
A tree can be created with linkgit:git-write-tree[1] and its data can be |
|
accessed by linkgit:git-ls-tree[1]. Two trees can be compared with |
|
linkgit:git-diff-tree[1]. |
|
|
|
A tag is created with linkgit:git-mktag[1], and the signature can be |
|
verified by linkgit:git-verify-tag[1], though it is normally simpler to |
|
use linkgit:git-tag[1] for both. |
|
|
|
[[the-workflow]] |
|
The Workflow |
|
------------ |
|
|
|
High-level operations such as linkgit:git-commit[1], |
|
linkgit:git-checkout[1] and linkgit:git-reset[1] work by moving data |
|
between the working tree, the index, and the object database. Git |
|
provides low-level operations which perform each of these steps |
|
individually. |
|
|
|
Generally, all Git operations work on the index file. Some operations |
|
work *purely* on the index file (showing the current state of the |
|
index), but most operations move data between the index file and either |
|
the database or the working directory. Thus there are four main |
|
combinations: |
|
|
|
[[working-directory-to-index]] |
|
working directory -> index |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
The linkgit:git-update-index[1] command updates the index with |
|
information from the working directory. You generally update the |
|
index information by just specifying the filename you want to update, |
|
like so: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git update-index filename |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
but to avoid common mistakes with filename globbing etc., the command |
|
will not normally add totally new entries or remove old entries, |
|
i.e. it will normally just update existing cache entries. |
|
|
|
To tell Git that yes, you really do realize that certain files no |
|
longer exist, or that new files should be added, you |
|
should use the `--remove` and `--add` flags respectively. |
|
|
|
NOTE! A `--remove` flag does 'not' mean that subsequent filenames will |
|
necessarily be removed: if the files still exist in your directory |
|
structure, the index will be updated with their new status, not |
|
removed. The only thing `--remove` means is that update-index will be |
|
considering a removed file to be a valid thing, and if the file really |
|
does not exist any more, it will update the index accordingly. |
|
|
|
As a special case, you can also do `git update-index --refresh`, which |
|
will refresh the "stat" information of each index to match the current |
|
stat information. It will 'not' update the object status itself, and |
|
it will only update the fields that are used to quickly test whether |
|
an object still matches its old backing store object. |
|
|
|
The previously introduced linkgit:git-add[1] is just a wrapper for |
|
linkgit:git-update-index[1]. |
|
|
|
[[index-to-object-database]] |
|
index -> object database |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
You write your current index file to a "tree" object with the program |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git write-tree |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
that doesn't come with any options--it will just write out the |
|
current index into the set of tree objects that describe that state, |
|
and it will return the name of the resulting top-level tree. You can |
|
use that tree to re-generate the index at any time by going in the |
|
other direction: |
|
|
|
[[object-database-to-index]] |
|
object database -> index |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
You read a "tree" file from the object database, and use that to |
|
populate (and overwrite--don't do this if your index contains any |
|
unsaved state that you might want to restore later!) your current |
|
index. Normal operation is just |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git read-tree <SHA-1 of tree> |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
and your index file will now be equivalent to the tree that you saved |
|
earlier. However, that is only your 'index' file: your working |
|
directory contents have not been modified. |
|
|
|
[[index-to-working-directory]] |
|
index -> working directory |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
You update your working directory from the index by "checking out" |
|
files. This is not a very common operation, since normally you'd just |
|
keep your files updated, and rather than write to your working |
|
directory, you'd tell the index files about the changes in your |
|
working directory (i.e. `git update-index`). |
|
|
|
However, if you decide to jump to a new version, or check out somebody |
|
else's version, or just restore a previous tree, you'd populate your |
|
index file with read-tree, and then you need to check out the result |
|
with |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout-index filename |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
or, if you want to check out all of the index, use `-a`. |
|
|
|
NOTE! `git checkout-index` normally refuses to overwrite old files, so |
|
if you have an old version of the tree already checked out, you will |
|
need to use the `-f` flag ('before' the `-a` flag or the filename) to |
|
'force' the checkout. |
|
|
|
|
|
Finally, there are a few odds and ends which are not purely moving |
|
from one representation to the other: |
|
|
|
[[tying-it-all-together]] |
|
Tying it all together |
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
To commit a tree you have instantiated with `git write-tree`, you'd |
|
create a "commit" object that refers to that tree and the history |
|
behind it--most notably the "parent" commits that preceded it in |
|
history. |
|
|
|
Normally a "commit" has one parent: the previous state of the tree |
|
before a certain change was made. However, sometimes it can have two |
|
or more parent commits, in which case we call it a "merge", due to the |
|
fact that such a commit brings together ("merges") two or more |
|
previous states represented by other commits. |
|
|
|
In other words, while a "tree" represents a particular directory state |
|
of a working directory, a "commit" represents that state in time, |
|
and explains how we got there. |
|
|
|
You create a commit object by giving it the tree that describes the |
|
state at the time of the commit, and a list of parents: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git commit-tree <tree> -p <parent> [(-p <parent2>)...] |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
and then giving the reason for the commit on stdin (either through |
|
redirection from a pipe or file, or by just typing it at the tty). |
|
|
|
`git commit-tree` will return the name of the object that represents |
|
that commit, and you should save it away for later use. Normally, |
|
you'd commit a new `HEAD` state, and while Git doesn't care where you |
|
save the note about that state, in practice we tend to just write the |
|
result to the file pointed at by `.git/HEAD`, so that we can always see |
|
what the last committed state was. |
|
|
|
Here is a picture that illustrates how various pieces fit together: |
|
|
|
------------ |
|
|
|
commit-tree |
|
commit obj |
|
+----+ |
|
| | |
|
| | |
|
V V |
|
+-----------+ |
|
| Object DB | |
|
| Backing | |
|
| Store | |
|
+-----------+ |
|
^ |
|
write-tree | | |
|
tree obj | | |
|
| | read-tree |
|
| | tree obj |
|
V |
|
+-----------+ |
|
| Index | |
|
| "cache" | |
|
+-----------+ |
|
update-index ^ |
|
blob obj | | |
|
| | |
|
checkout-index -u | | checkout-index |
|
stat | | blob obj |
|
V |
|
+-----------+ |
|
| Working | |
|
| Directory | |
|
+-----------+ |
|
|
|
------------ |
|
|
|
|
|
[[examining-the-data]] |
|
Examining the data |
|
------------------ |
|
|
|
You can examine the data represented in the object database and the |
|
index with various helper tools. For every object, you can use |
|
linkgit:git-cat-file[1] to examine details about the |
|
object: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git cat-file -t <objectname> |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
shows the type of the object, and once you have the type (which is |
|
usually implicit in where you find the object), you can use |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git cat-file blob|tree|commit|tag <objectname> |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
to show its contents. NOTE! Trees have binary content, and as a result |
|
there is a special helper for showing that content, called |
|
`git ls-tree`, which turns the binary content into a more easily |
|
readable form. |
|
|
|
It's especially instructive to look at "commit" objects, since those |
|
tend to be small and fairly self-explanatory. In particular, if you |
|
follow the convention of having the top commit name in `.git/HEAD`, |
|
you can do |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git cat-file commit HEAD |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
to see what the top commit was. |
|
|
|
[[merging-multiple-trees]] |
|
Merging multiple trees |
|
---------------------- |
|
|
|
Git can help you perform a three-way merge, which can in turn be |
|
used for a many-way merge by repeating the merge procedure several |
|
times. The usual situation is that you only do one three-way merge |
|
(reconciling two lines of history) and commit the result, but if |
|
you like to, you can merge several branches in one go. |
|
|
|
To perform a three-way merge, you start with the two commits you |
|
want to merge, find their closest common parent (a third commit), |
|
and compare the trees corresponding to these three commits. |
|
|
|
To get the "base" for the merge, look up the common parent of two |
|
commits: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git merge-base <commit1> <commit2> |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
This prints the name of a commit they are both based on. You should |
|
now look up the tree objects of those commits, which you can easily |
|
do with |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git cat-file commit <commitname> | head -1 |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
since the tree object information is always the first line in a commit |
|
object. |
|
|
|
Once you know the three trees you are going to merge (the one "original" |
|
tree, aka the common tree, and the two "result" trees, aka the branches |
|
you want to merge), you do a "merge" read into the index. This will |
|
complain if it has to throw away your old index contents, so you should |
|
make sure that you've committed those--in fact you would normally |
|
always do a merge against your last commit (which should thus match what |
|
you have in your current index anyway). |
|
|
|
To do the merge, do |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git read-tree -m -u <origtree> <yourtree> <targettree> |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
which will do all trivial merge operations for you directly in the |
|
index file, and you can just write the result out with |
|
`git write-tree`. |
|
|
|
|
|
[[merging-multiple-trees-2]] |
|
Merging multiple trees, continued |
|
--------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Sadly, many merges aren't trivial. If there are files that have |
|
been added, moved or removed, or if both branches have modified the |
|
same file, you will be left with an index tree that contains "merge |
|
entries" in it. Such an index tree can 'NOT' be written out to a tree |
|
object, and you will have to resolve any such merge clashes using |
|
other tools before you can write out the result. |
|
|
|
You can examine such index state with `git ls-files --unmerged` |
|
command. An example: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git read-tree -m $orig HEAD $target |
|
$ git ls-files --unmerged |
|
100644 263414f423d0e4d70dae8fe53fa34614ff3e2860 1 hello.c |
|
100644 06fa6a24256dc7e560efa5687fa84b51f0263c3a 2 hello.c |
|
100644 cc44c73eb783565da5831b4d820c962954019b69 3 hello.c |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
Each line of the `git ls-files --unmerged` output begins with |
|
the blob mode bits, blob SHA-1, 'stage number', and the |
|
filename. The 'stage number' is Git's way to say which tree it |
|
came from: stage 1 corresponds to the `$orig` tree, stage 2 to |
|
the `HEAD` tree, and stage 3 to the `$target` tree. |
|
|
|
Earlier we said that trivial merges are done inside |
|
`git read-tree -m`. For example, if the file did not change |
|
from `$orig` to `HEAD` or `$target`, or if the file changed |
|
from `$orig` to `HEAD` and `$orig` to `$target` the same way, |
|
obviously the final outcome is what is in `HEAD`. What the |
|
above example shows is that file `hello.c` was changed from |
|
`$orig` to `HEAD` and `$orig` to `$target` in a different way. |
|
You could resolve this by running your favorite 3-way merge |
|
program, e.g. `diff3`, `merge`, or Git's own merge-file, on |
|
the blob objects from these three stages yourself, like this: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ git cat-file blob 263414f... >hello.c~1 |
|
$ git cat-file blob 06fa6a2... >hello.c~2 |
|
$ git cat-file blob cc44c73... >hello.c~3 |
|
$ git merge-file hello.c~2 hello.c~1 hello.c~3 |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
This would leave the merge result in `hello.c~2` file, along |
|
with conflict markers if there are conflicts. After verifying |
|
the merge result makes sense, you can tell Git what the final |
|
merge result for this file is by: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ mv -f hello.c~2 hello.c |
|
$ git update-index hello.c |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
When a path is in the "unmerged" state, running `git update-index` for |
|
that path tells Git to mark the path resolved. |
|
|
|
The above is the description of a Git merge at the lowest level, |
|
to help you understand what conceptually happens under the hood. |
|
In practice, nobody, not even Git itself, runs `git cat-file` three times |
|
for this. There is a `git merge-index` program that extracts the |
|
stages to temporary files and calls a "merge" script on it: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git merge-index git-merge-one-file hello.c |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
and that is what higher level `git merge -s resolve` is implemented with. |
|
|
|
[[hacking-git]] |
|
Hacking Git |
|
=========== |
|
|
|
This chapter covers internal details of the Git implementation which |
|
probably only Git developers need to understand. |
|
|
|
[[object-details]] |
|
Object storage format |
|
--------------------- |
|
|
|
All objects have a statically determined "type" which identifies the |
|
format of the object (i.e. how it is used, and how it can refer to other |
|
objects). There are currently four different object types: "blob", |
|
"tree", "commit", and "tag". |
|
|
|
Regardless of object type, all objects share the following |
|
characteristics: they are all deflated with zlib, and have a header |
|
that not only specifies their type, but also provides size information |
|
about the data in the object. It's worth noting that the SHA-1 hash |
|
that is used to name the object is the hash of the original data |
|
plus this header, so `sha1sum` 'file' does not match the object name |
|
for 'file'. |
|
|
|
As a result, the general consistency of an object can always be tested |
|
independently of the contents or the type of the object: all objects can |
|
be validated by verifying that (a) their hashes match the content of the |
|
file and (b) the object successfully inflates to a stream of bytes that |
|
forms a sequence of |
|
`<ascii type without space> + <space> + <ascii decimal size> + |
|
<byte\0> + <binary object data>`. |
|
|
|
The structured objects can further have their structure and |
|
connectivity to other objects verified. This is generally done with |
|
the `git fsck` program, which generates a full dependency graph |
|
of all objects, and verifies their internal consistency (in addition |
|
to just verifying their superficial consistency through the hash). |
|
|
|
[[birdview-on-the-source-code]] |
|
A birds-eye view of Git's source code |
|
------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
It is not always easy for new developers to find their way through Git's |
|
source code. This section gives you a little guidance to show where to |
|
start. |
|
|
|
A good place to start is with the contents of the initial commit, with: |
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout e83c5163 |
|
---------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
The initial revision lays the foundation for almost everything Git has |
|
today, but is small enough to read in one sitting. |
|
|
|
Note that terminology has changed since that revision. For example, the |
|
README in that revision uses the word "changeset" to describe what we |
|
now call a <<def_commit_object,commit>>. |
|
|
|
Also, we do not call it "cache" any more, but rather "index"; however, the |
|
file is still called `cache.h`. Remark: Not much reason to change it now, |
|
especially since there is no good single name for it anyway, because it is |
|
basically _the_ header file which is included by _all_ of Git's C sources. |
|
|
|
If you grasp the ideas in that initial commit, you should check out a |
|
more recent version and skim `cache.h`, `object.h` and `commit.h`. |
|
|
|
In the early days, Git (in the tradition of UNIX) was a bunch of programs |
|
which were extremely simple, and which you used in scripts, piping the |
|
output of one into another. This turned out to be good for initial |
|
development, since it was easier to test new things. However, recently |
|
many of these parts have become builtins, and some of the core has been |
|
"libified", i.e. put into libgit.a for performance, portability reasons, |
|
and to avoid code duplication. |
|
|
|
By now, you know what the index is (and find the corresponding data |
|
structures in `cache.h`), and that there are just a couple of object types |
|
(blobs, trees, commits and tags) which inherit their common structure from |
|
`struct object`, which is their first member (and thus, you can cast e.g. |
|
`(struct object *)commit` to achieve the _same_ as `&commit->object`, i.e. |
|
get at the object name and flags). |
|
|
|
Now is a good point to take a break to let this information sink in. |
|
|
|
Next step: get familiar with the object naming. Read <<naming-commits>>. |
|
There are quite a few ways to name an object (and not only revisions!). |
|
All of these are handled in `sha1_name.c`. Just have a quick look at |
|
the function `get_sha1()`. A lot of the special handling is done by |
|
functions like `get_sha1_basic()` or the likes. |
|
|
|
This is just to get you into the groove for the most libified part of Git: |
|
the revision walker. |
|
|
|
Basically, the initial version of `git log` was a shell script: |
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git-rev-list --pretty $(git-rev-parse --default HEAD "$@") | \ |
|
LESS=-S ${PAGER:-less} |
|
---------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
What does this mean? |
|
|
|
`git rev-list` is the original version of the revision walker, which |
|
_always_ printed a list of revisions to stdout. It is still functional, |
|
and needs to, since most new Git commands start out as scripts using |
|
`git rev-list`. |
|
|
|
`git rev-parse` is not as important any more; it was only used to filter out |
|
options that were relevant for the different plumbing commands that were |
|
called by the script. |
|
|
|
Most of what `git rev-list` did is contained in `revision.c` and |
|
`revision.h`. It wraps the options in a struct named `rev_info`, which |
|
controls how and what revisions are walked, and more. |
|
|
|
The original job of `git rev-parse` is now taken by the function |
|
`setup_revisions()`, which parses the revisions and the common command-line |
|
options for the revision walker. This information is stored in the struct |
|
`rev_info` for later consumption. You can do your own command-line option |
|
parsing after calling `setup_revisions()`. After that, you have to call |
|
`prepare_revision_walk()` for initialization, and then you can get the |
|
commits one by one with the function `get_revision()`. |
|
|
|
If you are interested in more details of the revision walking process, |
|
just have a look at the first implementation of `cmd_log()`; call |
|
`git show v1.3.0~155^2~4` and scroll down to that function (note that you |
|
no longer need to call `setup_pager()` directly). |
|
|
|
Nowadays, `git log` is a builtin, which means that it is _contained_ in the |
|
command `git`. The source side of a builtin is |
|
|
|
- a function called `cmd_<bla>`, typically defined in `builtin/<bla.c>` |
|
(note that older versions of Git used to have it in `builtin-<bla>.c` |
|
instead), and declared in `builtin.h`. |
|
|
|
- an entry in the `commands[]` array in `git.c`, and |
|
|
|
- an entry in `BUILTIN_OBJECTS` in the `Makefile`. |
|
|
|
Sometimes, more than one builtin is contained in one source file. For |
|
example, `cmd_whatchanged()` and `cmd_log()` both reside in `builtin/log.c`, |
|
since they share quite a bit of code. In that case, the commands which are |
|
_not_ named like the `.c` file in which they live have to be listed in |
|
`BUILT_INS` in the `Makefile`. |
|
|
|
`git log` looks more complicated in C than it does in the original script, |
|
but that allows for a much greater flexibility and performance. |
|
|
|
Here again it is a good point to take a pause. |
|
|
|
Lesson three is: study the code. Really, it is the best way to learn about |
|
the organization of Git (after you know the basic concepts). |
|
|
|
So, think about something which you are interested in, say, "how can I |
|
access a blob just knowing the object name of it?". The first step is to |
|
find a Git command with which you can do it. In this example, it is either |
|
`git show` or `git cat-file`. |
|
|
|
For the sake of clarity, let's stay with `git cat-file`, because it |
|
|
|
- is plumbing, and |
|
|
|
- was around even in the initial commit (it literally went only through |
|
some 20 revisions as `cat-file.c`, was renamed to `builtin/cat-file.c` |
|
when made a builtin, and then saw less than 10 versions). |
|
|
|
So, look into `builtin/cat-file.c`, search for `cmd_cat_file()` and look what |
|
it does. |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|
git_config(git_default_config); |
|
if (argc != 3) |
|
usage("git cat-file [-t|-s|-e|-p|<type>] <sha1>"); |
|
if (get_sha1(argv[2], sha1)) |
|
die("Not a valid object name %s", argv[2]); |
|
------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
Let's skip over the obvious details; the only really interesting part |
|
here is the call to `get_sha1()`. It tries to interpret `argv[2]` as an |
|
object name, and if it refers to an object which is present in the current |
|
repository, it writes the resulting SHA-1 into the variable `sha1`. |
|
|
|
Two things are interesting here: |
|
|
|
- `get_sha1()` returns 0 on _success_. This might surprise some new |
|
Git hackers, but there is a long tradition in UNIX to return different |
|
negative numbers in case of different errors--and 0 on success. |
|
|
|
- the variable `sha1` in the function signature of `get_sha1()` is `unsigned |
|
char *`, but is actually expected to be a pointer to `unsigned |
|
char[20]`. This variable will contain the 160-bit SHA-1 of the given |
|
commit. Note that whenever a SHA-1 is passed as `unsigned char *`, it |
|
is the binary representation, as opposed to the ASCII representation in |
|
hex characters, which is passed as `char *`. |
|
|
|
You will see both of these things throughout the code. |
|
|
|
Now, for the meat: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
case 0: |
|
buf = read_object_with_reference(sha1, argv[1], &size, NULL); |
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
This is how you read a blob (actually, not only a blob, but any type of |
|
object). To know how the function `read_object_with_reference()` actually |
|
works, find the source code for it (something like `git grep |
|
read_object_with | grep ":[a-z]"` in the Git repository), and read |
|
the source. |
|
|
|
To find out how the result can be used, just read on in `cmd_cat_file()`: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------- |
|
write_or_die(1, buf, size); |
|
----------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Sometimes, you do not know where to look for a feature. In many such cases, |
|
it helps to search through the output of `git log`, and then `git show` the |
|
corresponding commit. |
|
|
|
Example: If you know that there was some test case for `git bundle`, but |
|
do not remember where it was (yes, you _could_ `git grep bundle t/`, but that |
|
does not illustrate the point!): |
|
|
|
------------------------ |
|
$ git log --no-merges t/ |
|
------------------------ |
|
|
|
In the pager (`less`), just search for "bundle", go a few lines back, |
|
and see that it is in commit 18449ab0... Now just copy this object name, |
|
and paste it into the command line |
|
|
|
------------------- |
|
$ git show 18449ab0 |
|
------------------- |
|
|
|
Voila. |
|
|
|
Another example: Find out what to do in order to make some script a |
|
builtin: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git log --no-merges --diff-filter=A builtin/*.c |
|
------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
You see, Git is actually the best tool to find out about the source of Git |
|
itself! |
|
|
|
[[glossary]] |
|
Git Glossary |
|
============ |
|
|
|
include::glossary-content.txt[] |
|
|
|
[[git-quick-start]] |
|
Appendix A: Git Quick Reference |
|
=============================== |
|
|
|
This is a quick summary of the major commands; the previous chapters |
|
explain how these work in more detail. |
|
|
|
[[quick-creating-a-new-repository]] |
|
Creating a new repository |
|
------------------------- |
|
|
|
From a tarball: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ tar xzf project.tar.gz |
|
$ cd project |
|
$ git init |
|
Initialized empty Git repository in .git/ |
|
$ git add . |
|
$ git commit |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
From a remote repository: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git clone git://example.com/pub/project.git |
|
$ cd project |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
[[managing-branches]] |
|
Managing branches |
|
----------------- |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git branch # list all local branches in this repo |
|
$ git checkout test # switch working directory to branch "test" |
|
$ git branch new # create branch "new" starting at current HEAD |
|
$ git branch -d new # delete branch "new" |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Instead of basing a new branch on current HEAD (the default), use: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git branch new test # branch named "test" |
|
$ git branch new v2.6.15 # tag named v2.6.15 |
|
$ git branch new HEAD^ # commit before the most recent |
|
$ git branch new HEAD^^ # commit before that |
|
$ git branch new test~10 # ten commits before tip of branch "test" |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Create and switch to a new branch at the same time: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git checkout -b new v2.6.15 |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Update and examine branches from the repository you cloned from: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fetch # update |
|
$ git branch -r # list |
|
origin/master |
|
origin/next |
|
... |
|
$ git checkout -b masterwork origin/master |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Fetch a branch from a different repository, and give it a new |
|
name in your repository: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fetch git://example.com/project.git theirbranch:mybranch |
|
$ git fetch git://example.com/project.git v2.6.15:mybranch |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Keep a list of repositories you work with regularly: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git remote add example git://example.com/project.git |
|
$ git remote # list remote repositories |
|
example |
|
origin |
|
$ git remote show example # get details |
|
* remote example |
|
URL: git://example.com/project.git |
|
Tracked remote branches |
|
master |
|
next |
|
... |
|
$ git fetch example # update branches from example |
|
$ git branch -r # list all remote branches |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
[[exploring-history]] |
|
Exploring history |
|
----------------- |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ gitk # visualize and browse history |
|
$ git log # list all commits |
|
$ git log src/ # ...modifying src/ |
|
$ git log v2.6.15..v2.6.16 # ...in v2.6.16, not in v2.6.15 |
|
$ git log master..test # ...in branch test, not in branch master |
|
$ git log test..master # ...in branch master, but not in test |
|
$ git log test...master # ...in one branch, not in both |
|
$ git log -S'foo()' # ...where difference contain "foo()" |
|
$ git log --since="2 weeks ago" |
|
$ git log -p # show patches as well |
|
$ git show # most recent commit |
|
$ git diff v2.6.15..v2.6.16 # diff between two tagged versions |
|
$ git diff v2.6.15..HEAD # diff with current head |
|
$ git grep "foo()" # search working directory for "foo()" |
|
$ git grep v2.6.15 "foo()" # search old tree for "foo()" |
|
$ git show v2.6.15:a.txt # look at old version of a.txt |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Search for regressions: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git bisect start |
|
$ git bisect bad # current version is bad |
|
$ git bisect good v2.6.13-rc2 # last known good revision |
|
Bisecting: 675 revisions left to test after this |
|
# test here, then: |
|
$ git bisect good # if this revision is good, or |
|
$ git bisect bad # if this revision is bad. |
|
# repeat until done. |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
[[making-changes]] |
|
Making changes |
|
-------------- |
|
|
|
Make sure Git knows who to blame: |
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
$ cat >>~/.gitconfig <<\EOF |
|
[user] |
|
name = Your Name Comes Here |
|
email = you@yourdomain.example.com |
|
EOF |
|
------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
|
Select file contents to include in the next commit, then make the |
|
commit: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git add a.txt # updated file |
|
$ git add b.txt # new file |
|
$ git rm c.txt # old file |
|
$ git commit |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Or, prepare and create the commit in one step: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git commit d.txt # use latest content only of d.txt |
|
$ git commit -a # use latest content of all tracked files |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
[[merging]] |
|
Merging |
|
------- |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git merge test # merge branch "test" into the current branch |
|
$ git pull git://example.com/project.git master |
|
# fetch and merge in remote branch |
|
$ git pull . test # equivalent to git merge test |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
[[sharing-your-changes]] |
|
Sharing your changes |
|
-------------------- |
|
|
|
Importing or exporting patches: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git format-patch origin..HEAD # format a patch for each commit |
|
# in HEAD but not in origin |
|
$ git am mbox # import patches from the mailbox "mbox" |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Fetch a branch in a different Git repository, then merge into the |
|
current branch: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git pull git://example.com/project.git theirbranch |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Store the fetched branch into a local branch before merging into the |
|
current branch: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git pull git://example.com/project.git theirbranch:mybranch |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
After creating commits on a local branch, update the remote |
|
branch with your commits: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git push ssh://example.com/project.git mybranch:theirbranch |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
When remote and local branch are both named "test": |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git push ssh://example.com/project.git test |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Shortcut version for a frequently used remote repository: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git remote add example ssh://example.com/project.git |
|
$ git push example test |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
[[repository-maintenance]] |
|
Repository maintenance |
|
---------------------- |
|
|
|
Check for corruption: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git fsck |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
Recompress, remove unused cruft: |
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
$ git gc |
|
----------------------------------------------- |
|
|
|
|
|
[[todo]] |
|
Appendix B: Notes and todo list for this manual |
|
=============================================== |
|
|
|
This is a work in progress. |
|
|
|
The basic requirements: |
|
|
|
- It must be readable in order, from beginning to end, by someone |
|
intelligent with a basic grasp of the UNIX command line, but without |
|
any special knowledge of Git. If necessary, any other prerequisites |
|
should be specifically mentioned as they arise. |
|
- Whenever possible, section headings should clearly describe the task |
|
they explain how to do, in language that requires no more knowledge |
|
than necessary: for example, "importing patches into a project" rather |
|
than "the `git am` command" |
|
|
|
Think about how to create a clear chapter dependency graph that will |
|
allow people to get to important topics without necessarily reading |
|
everything in between. |
|
|
|
Scan `Documentation/` for other stuff left out; in particular: |
|
|
|
- howto's |
|
- some of `technical/`? |
|
- hooks |
|
- list of commands in linkgit:git[1] |
|
|
|
Scan email archives for other stuff left out |
|
|
|
Scan man pages to see if any assume more background than this manual |
|
provides. |
|
|
|
Add more good examples. Entire sections of just cookbook examples |
|
might be a good idea; maybe make an "advanced examples" section a |
|
standard end-of-chapter section? |
|
|
|
Include cross-references to the glossary, where appropriate. |
|
|
|
Add a section on working with other version control systems, including |
|
CVS, Subversion, and just imports of series of release tarballs. |
|
|
|
Write a chapter on using plumbing and writing scripts. |
|
|
|
Alternates, clone -reference, etc. |
|
|
|
More on recovery from repository corruption. See: |
|
http://marc.info/?l=git&m=117263864820799&w=2 |
|
http://marc.info/?l=git&m=117147855503798&w=2
|
|
|