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199 lines
7.3 KiB
199 lines
7.3 KiB
gitcli(7) |
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========= |
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NAME |
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---- |
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gitcli - git command line interface and conventions |
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SYNOPSIS |
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-------- |
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gitcli |
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DESCRIPTION |
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----------- |
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This manual describes the convention used throughout git CLI. |
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Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes |
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"tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their |
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arguments. Here are the rules: |
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* Revisions come first and then paths. |
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E.g. in `git diff v1.0 v2.0 arch/x86 include/asm-x86`, |
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`v1.0` and `v2.0` are revisions and `arch/x86` and `include/asm-x86` |
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are paths. |
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* When an argument can be misunderstood as either a revision or a path, |
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they can be disambiguated by placing `--` between them. |
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E.g. `git diff -- HEAD` is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work |
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tree. Please show changes between the version I staged in the index |
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and what I have in the work tree for that file". not "show difference |
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between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say |
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`git diff HEAD --` to ask for the latter. |
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* Without disambiguating `--`, git makes a reasonable guess, but errors |
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out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a |
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file called HEAD in your work tree, `git diff HEAD` is ambiguous, and |
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you have to say either `git diff HEAD --` or `git diff -- HEAD` to |
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disambiguate. |
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+ |
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When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is |
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a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing |
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disambiguating `--` at appropriate places. |
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* Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect |
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them from getting globbed by the shell. These two mean different |
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things: |
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-------------------------------- |
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$ git checkout -- *.c |
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$ git checkout -- \*.c |
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-------------------------------- |
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+ |
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The former lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking |
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the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version |
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in the index. The latter passes the `*.c` to Git, and you are asking |
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the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to your |
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working tree. After running `git add hello.c; rm hello.c`, you will _not_ |
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see `hello.c` in your working tree with the former, but with the latter |
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you will. |
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Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are |
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scripting git: |
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* it's preferred to use the non dashed form of git commands, which means that |
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you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`. |
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* splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b` |
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to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work). |
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* when a command line option takes an argument, use the 'sticked' form. In |
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other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short |
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options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg` |
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for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be |
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written in the 'sticked' form. |
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* when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is |
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not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write |
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`git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work |
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if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree. |
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* many commands allow a long option "--option" to be abbreviated |
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only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option |
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whose name begins with "opt", you may be able to spell "--opt" to |
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invoke the "--option" flag), but you should fully spell them out |
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when writing your scripts; later versions of Git may introduce a |
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new option whose name shares the same prefix, e.g. "--optimize", |
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to make a short prefix that used to be unique no longer unique. |
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ENHANCED OPTION PARSER |
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---------------------- |
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From the git 1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not all of them at the |
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time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser. |
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Here is an exhaustive list of the facilities provided by this option parser. |
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Magic Options |
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a |
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couple of magic command line options: |
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-h:: |
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gives a pretty printed usage of the command. |
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+ |
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--------------------------------------------- |
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$ git describe -h |
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usage: git describe [options] <committish>* |
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--contains find the tag that comes after the commit |
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--debug debug search strategy on stderr |
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--all use any ref in .git/refs |
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--tags use any tag in .git/refs/tags |
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--abbrev [<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s |
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--candidates <n> consider <n> most recent tags (default: 10) |
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--------------------------------------------- |
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--help-all:: |
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Some git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that |
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are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This |
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option gives the full list of options. |
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Negating options |
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing `--no-`. For |
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example, `git branch` has the option `--track` which is 'on' by default. You |
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can use `--no-track` to override that behaviour. The same goes for `--color` |
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and `--no-color`. |
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Aggregating short options |
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short |
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options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or |
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`git clean -fdx`. |
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Separating argument from the option |
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate |
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word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work: |
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---------------------------- |
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$ git foo --long-opt=Arg |
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$ git foo --long-opt Arg |
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$ git foo -oArg |
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$ git foo -o Arg |
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---------------------------- |
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However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the |
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'sticked' form must be used: |
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---------------------------- |
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$ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct |
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$ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct |
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$ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT |
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---------------------------- |
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NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS |
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------------------------------------ |
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Many commands that can work on files in the working tree |
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and/or in the index can take `--cached` and/or `--index` |
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options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because |
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the index was originally called cache, these two are |
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synonyms. They are *not* -- these two options mean very |
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different things. |
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* The `--cached` option is used to ask a command that |
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usually works on files in the working tree to *only* work |
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with the index. For example, `git grep`, when used |
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without a commit to specify from which commit to look for |
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strings in, usually works on files in the working tree, |
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but with the `--cached` option, it looks for strings in |
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the index. |
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* The `--index` option is used to ask a command that |
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usually works on files in the working tree to *also* |
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affect the index. For example, `git stash apply` usually |
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merges changes recorded in a stash to the working tree, |
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but with the `--index` option, it also merges changes to |
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the index as well. |
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`git apply` command can be used with `--cached` and |
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`--index` (but not at the same time). Usually the command |
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only affects the files in the working tree, but with |
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`--index`, it patches both the files and their index |
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entries, and with `--cached`, it modifies only the index |
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entries. |
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See also http://marc.info/?l=git&m=116563135620359 and |
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http://marc.info/?l=git&m=119150393620273 for further |
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information. |
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GIT |
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--- |
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Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite
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