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736 <div id="header">
737 <h1>
738 gitcli(7) Manual Page
739 </h1>
740 <h2>NAME</h2>
741 <div class="sectionbody">
742 <p>gitcli -
743 Git command-line interface and conventions
744 </p>
745 </div>
746 </div>
747 <div id="content">
748 <div class="sect1">
749 <h2 id="_synopsis">SYNOPSIS</h2>
750 <div class="sectionbody">
751 <div class="paragraph"><p>gitcli</p></div>
752 </div>
753 </div>
754 <div class="sect1">
755 <h2 id="_description">DESCRIPTION</h2>
756 <div class="sectionbody">
757 <div class="paragraph"><p>This manual describes the convention used throughout Git CLI.</p></div>
758 <div class="paragraph"><p>Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes
759 "tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their
760 arguments. Here are the rules:</p></div>
761 <div class="ulist"><ul>
762 <li>
764 Options come first and then args.
765 A subcommand may take dashed options (which may take their own
766 arguments, e.g. "--max-parents 2") and arguments. You SHOULD
767 give dashed options first and then arguments. Some commands may
768 accept dashed options after you have already given non-option
769 arguments (which may make the command ambiguous), but you should
770 not rely on it (because eventually we may find a way to fix
771 these ambiguities by enforcing the "options then args" rule).
772 </p>
773 </li>
774 <li>
776 Revisions come first and then paths.
777 E.g. in <code>git diff v1.0 v2.0 arch/x86 include/asm-x86</code>,
778 <code>v1.0</code> and <code>v2.0</code> are revisions and <code>arch/x86</code> and <code>include/asm-x86</code>
779 are paths.
780 </p>
781 </li>
782 <li>
784 When an argument can be misunderstood as either a revision or a path,
785 they can be disambiguated by placing <code>--</code> between them.
786 E.g. <code>git diff -- HEAD</code> is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work
787 tree. Please show changes between the version I staged in the index
788 and what I have in the work tree for that file", not "show the difference
789 between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say
790 <code>git diff HEAD --</code> to ask for the latter.
791 </p>
792 </li>
793 <li>
795 Without disambiguating <code>--</code>, Git makes a reasonable guess, but errors
796 out and asks you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a
797 file called HEAD in your work tree, <code>git diff HEAD</code> is ambiguous, and
798 you have to say either <code>git diff HEAD --</code> or <code>git diff -- HEAD</code> to
799 disambiguate.
800 </p>
801 </li>
802 <li>
804 Because <code>--</code> disambiguates revisions and paths in some commands, it
805 cannot be used for those commands to separate options and revisions.
806 You can use <code>--end-of-options</code> for this (it also works for commands
807 that do not distinguish between revisions in paths, in which case it
808 is simply an alias for <code>--</code>).
809 </p>
810 <div class="paragraph"><p>When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is
811 a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing
812 disambiguating <code>--</code> at appropriate places.</p></div>
813 </li>
814 <li>
816 Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect
817 them from getting globbed by the shell. These two mean different
818 things:
819 </p>
820 <div class="listingblock">
821 <div class="content">
822 <pre><code>$ git restore *.c
823 $ git restore \*.c</code></pre>
824 </div></div>
825 <div class="paragraph"><p>The former lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking
826 the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version
827 in the index. The latter passes the <code>*.c</code> to Git, and you are asking
828 the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to your
829 working tree. After running <code>git add hello.c; rm hello.c</code>, you will <em>not</em>
830 see <code>hello.c</code> in your working tree with the former, but with the latter
831 you will.</p></div>
832 </li>
833 <li>
835 Just as the filesystem <em>.</em> (period) refers to the current directory,
836 using a <em>.</em> as a repository name in Git (a dot-repository) is a relative
837 path and means your current repository.
838 </p>
839 </li>
840 </ul></div>
841 <div class="paragraph"><p>Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are
842 scripting Git:</p></div>
843 <div class="ulist"><ul>
844 <li>
846 Splitting short options to separate words (prefer <code>git foo -a -b</code>
847 to <code>git foo -ab</code>, the latter may not even work).
848 </p>
849 </li>
850 <li>
852 When a command-line option takes an argument, use the <em>stuck</em> form. In
853 other words, write <code>git foo -oArg</code> instead of <code>git foo -o Arg</code> for short
854 options, and <code>git foo --long-opt=Arg</code> instead of <code>git foo --long-opt Arg</code>
855 for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be
856 written in the <em>stuck</em> form.
857 </p>
858 </li>
859 <li>
861 When you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is
862 not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write
863 <code>git log -1 HEAD</code> but write <code>git log -1 HEAD --</code>; the former will not work
864 if you happen to have a file called <code>HEAD</code> in the work tree.
865 </p>
866 </li>
867 <li>
869 Many commands allow a long option <code>--option</code> to be abbreviated
870 only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option
871 whose name begins with <code>opt</code>, you may be able to spell <code>--opt</code> to
872 invoke the <code>--option</code> flag), but you should fully spell them out
873 when writing your scripts; later versions of Git may introduce a
874 new option whose name shares the same prefix, e.g. <code>--optimize</code>,
875 to make a short prefix that used to be unique no longer unique.
876 </p>
877 </li>
878 </ul></div>
879 </div>
880 </div>
881 <div class="sect1">
882 <h2 id="_enhanced_option_parser">ENHANCED OPTION PARSER</h2>
883 <div class="sectionbody">
884 <div class="paragraph"><p>From the Git 1.5.4 series and further, many Git commands (not all of them at the
885 time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser.</p></div>
886 <div class="paragraph"><p>Here is a list of the facilities provided by this option parser.</p></div>
887 <div class="sect2">
888 <h3 id="_magic_options">Magic Options</h3>
889 <div class="paragraph"><p>Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a
890 couple of magic command-line options:</p></div>
891 <div class="dlist"><dl>
892 <dt class="hdlist1">
894 </dt>
895 <dd>
897 gives a pretty printed usage of the command.
898 </p>
899 <div class="listingblock">
900 <div class="content">
901 <pre><code>$ git describe -h
902 usage: git describe [&lt;options&gt;] &lt;commit-ish&gt;*
903 or: git describe [&lt;options&gt;] --dirty
905 --contains find the tag that comes after the commit
906 --debug debug search strategy on stderr
907 --all use any ref
908 --tags use any tag, even unannotated
909 --long always use long format
910 --abbrev[=&lt;n&gt;] use &lt;n&gt; digits to display SHA-1s</code></pre>
911 </div></div>
912 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that some subcommand (e.g. <code>git grep</code>) may behave differently
913 when there are things on the command line other than <code>-h</code>, but <code>git
914 subcmd -h</code> without anything else on the command line is meant to
915 consistently give the usage.</p></div>
916 </dd>
917 <dt class="hdlist1">
918 --help-all
919 </dt>
920 <dd>
922 Some Git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that
923 are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This
924 option gives the full list of options.
925 </p>
926 </dd>
927 </dl></div>
928 </div>
929 <div class="sect2">
930 <h3 id="_negating_options">Negating options</h3>
931 <div class="paragraph"><p>Options with long option names can be negated by prefixing <code>--no-</code>. For
932 example, <code>git branch</code> has the option <code>--track</code> which is <em>on</em> by default. You
933 can use <code>--no-track</code> to override that behaviour. The same goes for <code>--color</code>
934 and <code>--no-color</code>.</p></div>
935 </div>
936 <div class="sect2">
937 <h3 id="_aggregating_short_options">Aggregating short options</h3>
938 <div class="paragraph"><p>Commands that support the enhanced option parser allow you to aggregate short
939 options. This means that you can for example use <code>git rm -rf</code> or
940 <code>git clean -fdx</code>.</p></div>
941 </div>
942 <div class="sect2">
943 <h3 id="_abbreviating_long_options">Abbreviating long options</h3>
944 <div class="paragraph"><p>Commands that support the enhanced option parser accepts unique
945 prefix of a long option as if it is fully spelled out, but use this
946 with a caution. For example, <code>git commit --amen</code> behaves as if you
947 typed <code>git commit --amend</code>, but that is true only until a later version
948 of Git introduces another option that shares the same prefix,
949 e.g. <code>git commit --amenity</code> option.</p></div>
950 </div>
951 <div class="sect2">
952 <h3 id="_separating_argument_from_the_option">Separating argument from the option</h3>
953 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate
954 word on the command line. That means that all the following uses work:</p></div>
955 <div class="listingblock">
956 <div class="content">
957 <pre><code>$ git foo --long-opt=Arg
958 $ git foo --long-opt Arg
959 $ git foo -oArg
960 $ git foo -o Arg</code></pre>
961 </div></div>
962 <div class="paragraph"><p>However, this is <strong>NOT</strong> allowed for switches with an optional value, where the
963 <em>stuck</em> form must be used:</p></div>
964 <div class="listingblock">
965 <div class="content">
966 <pre><code>$ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct
967 $ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct
968 $ git describe --abbrev 10 HEAD # NOT WHAT YOU MEANT</code></pre>
969 </div></div>
970 </div>
971 </div>
972 </div>
973 <div class="sect1">
974 <h2 id="_notes_on_frequently_confused_options">NOTES ON FREQUENTLY CONFUSED OPTIONS</h2>
975 <div class="sectionbody">
976 <div class="paragraph"><p>Many commands that can work on files in the working tree
977 and/or in the index can take <code>--cached</code> and/or <code>--index</code>
978 options. Sometimes people incorrectly think that, because
979 the index was originally called cache, these two are
980 synonyms. They are <strong>not</strong>&#8201;&#8212;&#8201;these two options mean very
981 different things.</p></div>
982 <div class="ulist"><ul>
983 <li>
985 The <code>--cached</code> option is used to ask a command that
986 usually works on files in the working tree to <strong>only</strong> work
987 with the index. For example, <code>git grep</code>, when used
988 without a commit to specify from which commit to look for
989 strings in, usually works on files in the working tree,
990 but with the <code>--cached</code> option, it looks for strings in
991 the index.
992 </p>
993 </li>
994 <li>
996 The <code>--index</code> option is used to ask a command that
997 usually works on files in the working tree to <strong>also</strong>
998 affect the index. For example, <code>git stash apply</code> usually
999 merges changes recorded in a stash entry to the working tree,
1000 but with the <code>--index</code> option, it also merges changes to
1001 the index as well.
1002 </p>
1003 </li>
1004 </ul></div>
1005 <div class="paragraph"><p><code>git apply</code> command can be used with <code>--cached</code> and
1006 <code>--index</code> (but not at the same time). Usually the command
1007 only affects the files in the working tree, but with
1008 <code>--index</code>, it patches both the files and their index
1009 entries, and with <code>--cached</code>, it modifies only the index
1010 entries.</p></div>
1011 <div class="paragraph"><p>See also <a href="https://lore.kernel.org/git/7v64clg5u9.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net/">https://lore.kernel.org/git/7v64clg5u9.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net/</a> and
1012 <a href="https://lore.kernel.org/git/7vy7ej9g38.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org/">https://lore.kernel.org/git/7vy7ej9g38.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org/</a> for further
1013 information.</p></div>
1014 <div class="paragraph"><p>Some other commands that also work on files in the working tree and/or
1015 in the index can take <code>--staged</code> and/or <code>--worktree</code>.</p></div>
1016 <div class="ulist"><ul>
1017 <li>
1019 <code>--staged</code> is exactly like <code>--cached</code>, which is used to ask a
1020 command to only work on the index, not the working tree.
1021 </p>
1022 </li>
1023 <li>
1025 <code>--worktree</code> is the opposite, to ask a command to work on the
1026 working tree only, not the index.
1027 </p>
1028 </li>
1029 <li>
1031 The two options can be specified together to ask a command to work
1032 on both the index and the working tree.
1033 </p>
1034 </li>
1035 </ul></div>
1036 </div>
1037 </div>
1038 <div class="sect1">
1039 <h2 id="_git">GIT</h2>
1040 <div class="sectionbody">
1041 <div class="paragraph"><p>Part of the <a href="git.html">git(1)</a> suite</p></div>
1042 </div>
1043 </div>
1044 </div>
1045 <div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>
1046 <div id="footer">
1047 <div id="footer-text">
1048 Last updated
1049 2024-03-11 15:39:49 PDT
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