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diff --git a/Documentation/revisions.txt b/Documentation/revisions.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..07961185fe --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/revisions.txt @@ -0,0 +1,289 @@ +SPECIFYING REVISIONS +-------------------- + +A revision parameter '<rev>' typically, but not necessarily, names a +commit object. It uses what is called an 'extended SHA-1' +syntax. Here are various ways to spell object names. The +ones listed near the end of this list name trees and +blobs contained in a commit. + +'<sha1>', e.g. 'dae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735', 'dae86e':: + The full SHA-1 object name (40-byte hexadecimal string), or + a leading substring that is unique within the repository. + E.g. dae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735 and dae86e both + name the same commit object if there is no other object in + your repository whose object name starts with dae86e. + +'<describeOutput>', e.g. 'v1.7.4.2-679-g3bee7fb':: + Output from `git describe`; i.e. a closest tag, optionally + followed by a dash and a number of commits, followed by a dash, a + 'g', and an abbreviated object name. + +'<refname>', e.g. 'master', 'heads/master', 'refs/heads/master':: + A symbolic ref name. E.g. 'master' typically means the commit + object referenced by 'refs/heads/master'. If you + happen to have both 'heads/master' and 'tags/master', you can + explicitly say 'heads/master' to tell Git which one you mean. + When ambiguous, a '<refname>' is disambiguated by taking the + first match in the following rules: + + . If '$GIT_DIR/<refname>' exists, that is what you mean (this is usually + useful only for 'HEAD', 'FETCH_HEAD', 'ORIG_HEAD', 'MERGE_HEAD' + and 'CHERRY_PICK_HEAD'); + + . otherwise, 'refs/<refname>' if it exists; + + . otherwise, 'refs/tags/<refname>' if it exists; + + . otherwise, 'refs/heads/<refname>' if it exists; + + . otherwise, 'refs/remotes/<refname>' if it exists; + + . otherwise, 'refs/remotes/<refname>/HEAD' if it exists. ++ +'HEAD' names the commit on which you based the changes in the working tree. +'FETCH_HEAD' records the branch which you fetched from a remote repository +with your last `git fetch` invocation. +'ORIG_HEAD' is created by commands that move your 'HEAD' in a drastic +way, to record the position of the 'HEAD' before their operation, so that +you can easily change the tip of the branch back to the state before you ran +them. +'MERGE_HEAD' records the commit(s) which you are merging into your branch +when you run `git merge`. +'CHERRY_PICK_HEAD' records the commit which you are cherry-picking +when you run `git cherry-pick`. ++ +Note that any of the 'refs/*' cases above may come either from +the '$GIT_DIR/refs' directory or from the '$GIT_DIR/packed-refs' file. +While the ref name encoding is unspecified, UTF-8 is preferred as +some output processing may assume ref names in UTF-8. + +'@':: + '@' alone is a shortcut for 'HEAD'. + +'<refname>@\{<date>\}', e.g. 'master@\{yesterday\}', 'HEAD@\{5 minutes ago\}':: + A ref followed by the suffix '@' with a date specification + enclosed in a brace + pair (e.g. '\{yesterday\}', '\{1 month 2 weeks 3 days 1 hour 1 + second ago\}' or '\{1979-02-26 18:30:00\}') specifies the value + of the ref at a prior point in time. This suffix may only be + used immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an + existing log ('$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>'). Note that this looks up the state + of your *local* ref at a given time; e.g., what was in your local + 'master' branch last week. If you want to look at commits made during + certain times, see '--since' and '--until'. + +'<refname>@\{<n>\}', e.g. 'master@\{1\}':: + A ref followed by the suffix '@' with an ordinal specification + enclosed in a brace pair (e.g. '\{1\}', '\{15\}') specifies + the n-th prior value of that ref. For example 'master@\{1\}' + is the immediate prior value of 'master' while 'master@\{5\}' + is the 5th prior value of 'master'. This suffix may only be used + immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an existing + log ('$GIT_DIR/logs/<refname>'). + +'@\{<n>\}', e.g. '@\{1\}':: + You can use the '@' construct with an empty ref part to get at a + reflog entry of the current branch. For example, if you are on + branch 'blabla' then '@\{1\}' means the same as 'blabla@\{1\}'. + +'@\{-<n>\}', e.g. '@\{-1\}':: + The construct '@\{-<n>\}' means the <n>th branch/commit checked out + before the current one. + +'<branchname>@\{upstream\}', e.g. 'master@\{upstream\}', '@\{u\}':: + The suffix '@\{upstream\}' to a branchname (short form '<branchname>@\{u\}') + refers to the branch that the branch specified by branchname is set to build on + top of (configured with `branch.<name>.remote` and + `branch.<name>.merge`). A missing branchname defaults to the + current one. + +'<rev>{caret}', e.g. 'HEAD{caret}, v1.5.1{caret}0':: + A suffix '{caret}' to a revision parameter means the first parent of + that commit object. '{caret}<n>' means the <n>th parent (i.e. + '<rev>{caret}' + is equivalent to '<rev>{caret}1'). As a special rule, + '<rev>{caret}0' means the commit itself and is used when '<rev>' is the + object name of a tag object that refers to a commit object. + +'<rev>{tilde}<n>', e.g. 'master{tilde}3':: + A suffix '{tilde}<n>' to a revision parameter means the commit + object that is the <n>th generation ancestor of the named + commit object, following only the first parents. I.e. '<rev>{tilde}3' is + equivalent to '<rev>{caret}{caret}{caret}' which is equivalent to + '<rev>{caret}1{caret}1{caret}1'. See below for an illustration of + the usage of this form. + +'<rev>{caret}\{<type>\}', e.g. 'v0.99.8{caret}\{commit\}':: + A suffix '{caret}' followed by an object type name enclosed in + brace pair means dereference the object at '<rev>' recursively until + an object of type '<type>' is found or the object cannot be + dereferenced anymore (in which case, barf). + For example, if '<rev>' is a commit-ish, '<rev>{caret}\{commit\}' + describes the corresponding commit object. + Similarly, if '<rev>' is a tree-ish, '<rev>{caret}\{tree\}' + describes the corresponding tree object. + '<rev>{caret}0' + is a short-hand for '<rev>{caret}\{commit\}'. ++ +'rev{caret}\{object\}' can be used to make sure 'rev' names an +object that exists, without requiring 'rev' to be a tag, and +without dereferencing 'rev'; because a tag is already an object, +it does not have to be dereferenced even once to get to an object. ++ +'rev{caret}\{tag\}' can be used to ensure that 'rev' identifies an +existing tag object. + +'<rev>{caret}\{\}', e.g. 'v0.99.8{caret}\{\}':: + A suffix '{caret}' followed by an empty brace pair + means the object could be a tag, + and dereference the tag recursively until a non-tag object is + found. + +'<rev>{caret}\{/<text>\}', e.g. 'HEAD^{/fix nasty bug}':: + A suffix '{caret}' to a revision parameter, followed by a brace + pair that contains a text led by a slash, + is the same as the ':/fix nasty bug' syntax below except that + it returns the youngest matching commit which is reachable from + the '<rev>' before '{caret}'. + +':/<text>', e.g. ':/fix nasty bug':: + A colon, followed by a slash, followed by a text, names + a commit whose commit message matches the specified regular expression. + This name returns the youngest matching commit which is + reachable from any ref. If the commit message starts with a + '!' you have to repeat that; the special sequence ':/!', + followed by something else than '!', is reserved for now. + The regular expression can match any part of the commit message. To + match messages starting with a string, one can use e.g. ':/^foo'. + +'<rev>:<path>', e.g. 'HEAD:README', ':README', 'master:./README':: + A suffix ':' followed by a path names the blob or tree + at the given path in the tree-ish object named by the part + before the colon. + ':path' (with an empty part before the colon) + is a special case of the syntax described next: content + recorded in the index at the given path. + A path starting with './' or '../' is relative to the current working directory. + The given path will be converted to be relative to the working tree's root directory. + This is most useful to address a blob or tree from a commit or tree that has + the same tree structure as the working tree. + +':<n>:<path>', e.g. ':0:README', ':README':: + A colon, optionally followed by a stage number (0 to 3) and a + colon, followed by a path, names a blob object in the + index at the given path. A missing stage number (and the colon + that follows it) names a stage 0 entry. During a merge, stage + 1 is the common ancestor, stage 2 is the target branch's version + (typically the current branch), and stage 3 is the version from + the branch which is being merged. + +Here is an illustration, by Jon Loeliger. Both commit nodes B +and C are parents of commit node A. Parent commits are ordered +left-to-right. + +........................................ +G H I J + \ / \ / + D E F + \ | / \ + \ | / | + \|/ | + B C + \ / + \ / + A +........................................ + + A = = A^0 + B = A^ = A^1 = A~1 + C = A^2 = A^2 + D = A^^ = A^1^1 = A~2 + E = B^2 = A^^2 + F = B^3 = A^^3 + G = A^^^ = A^1^1^1 = A~3 + H = D^2 = B^^2 = A^^^2 = A~2^2 + I = F^ = B^3^ = A^^3^ + J = F^2 = B^3^2 = A^^3^2 + + +SPECIFYING RANGES +----------------- + +History traversing commands such as `git log` operate on a set +of commits, not just a single commit. To these commands, +specifying a single revision with the notation described in the +previous section means the set of commits reachable from that +commit, following the commit ancestry chain. + +To exclude commits reachable from a commit, a prefix '{caret}' +notation is used. E.g. '{caret}r1 r2' means commits reachable +from 'r2' but exclude the ones reachable from 'r1'. + +This set operation appears so often that there is a shorthand +for it. When you have two commits 'r1' and 'r2' (named according +to the syntax explained in SPECIFYING REVISIONS above), you can ask +for commits that are reachable from r2 excluding those that are reachable +from r1 by '{caret}r1 r2' and it can be written as 'r1..r2'. + +A similar notation 'r1\...r2' is called symmetric difference +of 'r1' and 'r2' and is defined as +'r1 r2 --not $(git merge-base --all r1 r2)'. +It is the set of commits that are reachable from either one of +'r1' or 'r2' but not from both. + +In these two shorthands, you can omit one end and let it default to HEAD. +For example, 'origin..' is a shorthand for 'origin..HEAD' and asks "What +did I do since I forked from the origin branch?" Similarly, '..origin' +is a shorthand for 'HEAD..origin' and asks "What did the origin do since +I forked from them?" Note that '..' would mean 'HEAD..HEAD' which is an +empty range that is both reachable and unreachable from HEAD. + +Two other shorthands for naming a set that is formed by a commit +and its parent commits exist. The 'r1{caret}@' notation means all +parents of 'r1'. 'r1{caret}!' includes commit 'r1' but excludes +all of its parents. + +To summarize: + +'<rev>':: + Include commits that are reachable from (i.e. ancestors of) + <rev>. + +'{caret}<rev>':: + Exclude commits that are reachable from (i.e. ancestors of) + <rev>. + +'<rev1>..<rev2>':: + Include commits that are reachable from <rev2> but exclude + those that are reachable from <rev1>. When either <rev1> or + <rev2> is omitted, it defaults to 'HEAD'. + +'<rev1>\...<rev2>':: + Include commits that are reachable from either <rev1> or + <rev2> but exclude those that are reachable from both. When + either <rev1> or <rev2> is omitted, it defaults to 'HEAD'. + +'<rev>{caret}@', e.g. 'HEAD{caret}@':: + A suffix '{caret}' followed by an at sign is the same as listing + all parents of '<rev>' (meaning, include anything reachable from + its parents, but not the commit itself). + +'<rev>{caret}!', e.g. 'HEAD{caret}!':: + A suffix '{caret}' followed by an exclamation mark is the same + as giving commit '<rev>' and then all its parents prefixed with + '{caret}' to exclude them (and their ancestors). + +Here are a handful of examples: + + D G H D + D F G H I J D F + ^G D H D + ^D B E I J F B + B..C C + B...C G H D E B C + ^D B C E I J F B C + C I J F C + C^@ I J F + C^! C + F^! D G H D F |