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diff --git a/Documentation/git-describe.txt b/Documentation/git-describe.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..44b166888a --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/git-describe.txt @@ -0,0 +1,148 @@ +git-describe(1) +=============== + +NAME +---- +git-describe - Show the most recent tag that is reachable from a commit + + +SYNOPSIS +-------- +'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] <committish>... + +DESCRIPTION +----------- +The command finds the most recent tag that is reachable from a +commit. If the tag points to the commit, then only the tag is +shown. Otherwise, it suffixes the tag name with the number of +additional commits on top of the tagged object and the +abbreviated object name of the most recent commit. + + +OPTIONS +------- +<committish>:: + The object name of the committish. + +--all:: + Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any ref + found in `.git/refs/`. + +--tags:: + Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any tag + found in `.git/refs/tags`. + +--contains:: + Instead of finding the tag that predates the commit, find + the tag that comes after the commit, and thus contains it. + Automatically implies --tags. + +--abbrev=<n>:: + Instead of using the default 8 hexadecimal digits as the + abbreviated object name, use <n> digits. + +--candidates=<n>:: + Instead of considering only the 10 most recent tags as + candidates to describe the input committish consider + up to <n> candidates. Increasing <n> above 10 will take + slightly longer but may produce a more accurate result. + An <n> of 0 will cause only exact matches to be output. + +--exact-match:: + Only output exact matches (a tag directly references the + supplied commit). This is a synonym for --candidates=0. + +--debug:: + Verbosely display information about the searching strategy + being employed to standard error. The tag name will still + be printed to standard out. + +--long:: + Always output the long format (the tag, the number of commits + and the abbreviated commit name) even when it matches a tag. + This is useful when you want to see parts of the commit object name + in "describe" output, even when the commit in question happens to be + a tagged version. Instead of just emitting the tag name, it will + describe such a commit as v1.2-0-deadbeef (0th commit since tag v1.2 + that points at object deadbeef....). + +--match <pattern>:: + Only consider tags matching the given pattern (can be used to avoid + leaking private tags made from the repository). + +--always:: + Show uniquely abbreviated commit object as fallback. + +EXAMPLES +-------- + +With something like git.git current tree, I get: + + [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe parent + v1.0.4-14-g2414721 + +i.e. the current head of my "parent" branch is based on v1.0.4, +but since it has a handful commits on top of that, +describe has added the number of additional commits ("14") and +an abbreviated object name for the commit itself ("2414721") +at the end. + +The number of additional commits is the number +of commits which would be displayed by "git log v1.0.4..parent". +The hash suffix is "-g" + 7-char abbreviation for the tip commit +of parent (which was `2414721b194453f058079d897d13c4e377f92dc6`). + +Doing a 'git-describe' on a tag-name will just show the tag name: + + [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe v1.0.4 + v1.0.4 + +With --all, the command can use branch heads as references, so +the output shows the reference path as well: + + [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 v1.0.5^2 + tags/v1.0.0-21-g975b + + [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all HEAD^ + heads/lt/describe-7-g975b + +With --abbrev set to 0, the command can be used to find the +closest tagname without any suffix: + + [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --abbrev=0 v1.0.5^2 + tags/v1.0.0 + +SEARCH STRATEGY +--------------- + +For each committish supplied, 'git-describe' will first look for +a tag which tags exactly that commit. Annotated tags will always +be preferred over lightweight tags, and tags with newer dates will +always be preferred over tags with older dates. If an exact match +is found, its name will be output and searching will stop. + +If an exact match was not found, 'git-describe' will walk back +through the commit history to locate an ancestor commit which +has been tagged. The ancestor's tag will be output along with an +abbreviation of the input committish's SHA1. + +If multiple tags were found during the walk then the tag which +has the fewest commits different from the input committish will be +selected and output. Here fewest commits different is defined as +the number of commits which would be shown by `git log tag..input` +will be the smallest number of commits possible. + + +Author +------ +Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>, but somewhat +butchered by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>. Later significantly +updated by Shawn Pearce <spearce@spearce.org>. + +Documentation +-------------- +Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. + +GIT +--- +Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |