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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/gitcli.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/gitcli.txt | 88 |
1 files changed, 64 insertions, 24 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/gitcli.txt b/Documentation/gitcli.txt index f734f97b8e..dfe7d83727 100644 --- a/Documentation/gitcli.txt +++ b/Documentation/gitcli.txt @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ gitcli(7) NAME ---- -gitcli - git command line interface and conventions +gitcli - Git command-line interface and conventions SYNOPSIS -------- @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ gitcli DESCRIPTION ----------- -This manual describes the convention used throughout git CLI. +This manual describes the convention used throughout Git CLI. Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes "tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their @@ -25,74 +25,104 @@ arguments. Here are the rules: are paths. * When an argument can be misunderstood as either a revision or a path, - they can be disambiguated by placing `\--` between them. - E.g. `git diff \-- HEAD` is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work + they can be disambiguated by placing `--` between them. + E.g. `git diff -- HEAD` is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work tree. Please show changes between the version I staged in the index - and what I have in the work tree for that file". not "show difference + and what I have in the work tree for that file", not "show difference between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say - `git diff HEAD \--` to ask for the latter. + `git diff HEAD --` to ask for the latter. - * Without disambiguating `\--`, git makes a reasonable guess, but errors + * Without disambiguating `--`, Git makes a reasonable guess, but errors out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a file called HEAD in your work tree, `git diff HEAD` is ambiguous, and - you have to say either `git diff HEAD \--` or `git diff \-- HEAD` to + you have to say either `git diff HEAD --` or `git diff -- HEAD` to disambiguate. - ++ When writing a script that is expected to handle random user-input, it is a good practice to make it explicit which arguments are which by placing -disambiguating `\--` at appropriate places. +disambiguating `--` at appropriate places. + + * Many commands allow wildcards in paths, but you need to protect + them from getting globbed by the shell. These two mean different + things: ++ +-------------------------------- +$ git checkout -- *.c +$ git checkout -- \*.c +-------------------------------- ++ +The former lets your shell expand the fileglob, and you are asking +the dot-C files in your working tree to be overwritten with the version +in the index. The latter passes the `*.c` to Git, and you are asking +the paths in the index that match the pattern to be checked out to your +working tree. After running `git add hello.c; rm hello.c`, you will _not_ +see `hello.c` in your working tree with the former, but with the latter +you will. + + * Just as the filesystem '.' (period) refers to the current directory, + using a '.' as a repository name in Git (a dot-repository) is a relative + path and means your current repository. Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are -scripting git: +scripting Git: - * it's preferred to use the non dashed form of git commands, which means that + * it's preferred to use the non-dashed form of Git commands, which means that you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`. * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b` to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work). - * when a command line option takes an argument, use the 'sticked' form. In + * when a command-line option takes an argument, use the 'stuck' form. In other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg` for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be - written in the 'sticked' form. + written in the 'stuck' form. * when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write `git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree. + * many commands allow a long option `--option` to be abbreviated + only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option + whose name begins with `opt`, you may be able to spell `--opt` to + invoke the `--option` flag), but you should fully spell them out + when writing your scripts; later versions of Git may introduce a + new option whose name shares the same prefix, e.g. `--optimize`, + to make a short prefix that used to be unique no longer unique. + ENHANCED OPTION PARSER ---------------------- -From the git 1.5.4 series and further, many git commands (not all of them at the +From the Git 1.5.4 series and further, many Git commands (not all of them at the time of the writing though) come with an enhanced option parser. -Here is an exhaustive list of the facilities provided by this option parser. +Here is a list of the facilities provided by this option parser. Magic Options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Commands which have the enhanced option parser activated all understand a -couple of magic command line options: +couple of magic command-line options: -h:: gives a pretty printed usage of the command. + --------------------------------------------- $ git describe -h -usage: git describe [options] <committish>* +usage: git describe [options] <commit-ish>* + or: git describe [options] --dirty --contains find the tag that comes after the commit --debug debug search strategy on stderr - --all use any ref in .git/refs - --tags use any tag in .git/refs/tags - --abbrev [<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s - --candidates <n> consider <n> most recent tags (default: 10) + --all use any ref + --tags use any tag, even unannotated + --long always use long format + --abbrev[=<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s --------------------------------------------- --help-all:: - Some git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that + Some Git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that are deprecated, and such options are hidden from the default usage. This option gives the full list of options. @@ -112,6 +142,16 @@ options. This means that you can for example use `git rm -rf` or `git clean -fdx`. +Abbreviating long options +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Commands that support the enhanced option parser accepts unique +prefix of a long option as if it is fully spelled out, but use this +with a caution. For example, `git commit --amen` behaves as if you +typed `git commit --amend`, but that is true only until a later version +of Git introduces another option that shares the same prefix, +e.g. `git commit --amenity` option. + + Separating argument from the option ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can write the mandatory option parameter to an option as a separate @@ -125,7 +165,7 @@ $ git foo -o Arg ---------------------------- However, this is *NOT* allowed for switches with an optional value, where the -'sticked' form must be used: +'stuck' form must be used: ---------------------------- $ git describe --abbrev HEAD # correct $ git describe --abbrev=10 HEAD # correct |