English ▾ Topics ▾ Version 2.33.1 ▾ git last updated in 2.52.0

NAME

git - the stupid content tracker

SYNOPSIS

git [--version] [--help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
    [--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
    [-p|--paginate|-P|--no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--bare]
    [--git-dir=<path>] [--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>]
    [--super-prefix=<path>] [--config-env=<name>=<envvar>]
    <command> [<args>]

DESCRIPTION

Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and full access to internals.

See gittutorial[7] to get started, then see giteveryday[7] for a useful minimum set of commands. The Git User’s Manual has a more in-depth introduction.

After you mastered the basic concepts, you can come back to this page to learn what commands Git offers. You can learn more about individual Git commands with "git help command". gitcli[7] manual page gives you an overview of the command-line command syntax.

A formatted and hyperlinked copy of the latest Git documentation can be viewed at https://git.github.io/htmldocs/git.html or https://git-scm.com/docs.

OPTIONS

--version

Prints the Git suite version that the git program came from.

This option is internaly converted to git version ... and accepts the same options as the git-version[1] command. If --help is also given, it takes precedence over --version.

--help

Prints the synopsis and a list of the most commonly used commands. If the option --all or -a is given then all available commands are printed. If a Git command is named this option will bring up the manual page for that command.

Other options are available to control how the manual page is displayed. See git-help[1] for more information, because git --help ... is converted internally into git help ....

-C <path>

Run as if git was started in <path> instead of the current working directory. When multiple -C options are given, each subsequent non-absolute -C <path> is interpreted relative to the preceding -C <path>. If <path> is present but empty, e.g. -C "", then the current working directory is left unchanged.

This option affects options that expect path name like --git-dir and --work-tree in that their interpretations of the path names would be made relative to the working directory caused by the -C option. For example the following invocations are equivalent:

git --git-dir=a.git --work-tree=b -C c status
git --git-dir=c/a.git --work-tree=c/b status
-c <name>=<value>

Pass a configuration parameter to the command. The value given will override values from configuration files. The <name> is expected in the same format as listed by git config (subkeys separated by dots).

Note that omitting the = in git -c foo.bar ... is allowed and sets foo.bar to the boolean true value (just like [foo]bar would in a config file). Including the equals but with an empty value (like git -c foo.bar= ...) sets foo.bar to the empty string which git config --type=bool will convert to false.

--config-env=<name>=<envvar>

Like -c <name>=<value>, give configuration variable <name> a value, where <envvar> is the name of an environment variable from which to retrieve the value. Unlike -c there is no shortcut for directly setting the value to an empty string, instead the environment variable itself must be set to the empty string. It is an error if the <envvar> does not exist in the environment. <envvar> may not contain an equals sign to avoid ambiguity with <name> containing one.

This is useful for cases where you want to pass transitory configuration options to git, but are doing so on OS’s where other processes might be able to read your cmdline (e.g. /proc/self/cmdline), but not your environ (e.g. /proc/self/environ). That behavior is the default on Linux, but may not be on your system.

Note that this might add security for variables such as http.extraHeader where the sensitive information is part of the value, but not e.g. url.<base>.insteadOf where the sensitive information can be part of the key.

--exec-path[=<path>]

Path to wherever your core Git programs are installed. This can also be controlled by setting the GIT_EXEC_PATH environment variable. If no path is given, git will print the current setting and then exit.

--html-path

Print the path, without trailing slash, where Git’s HTML documentation is installed and exit.

--man-path

Print the manpath (see man(1)) for the man pages for this version of Git and exit.

--info-path

Print the path where the Info files documenting this version of Git are installed and exit.

-p
--paginate

Pipe all output into less (or if set, $PAGER) if standard output is a terminal. This overrides the pager.<cmd> configuration options (see the "Configuration Mechanism" section below).

-P
--no-pager

Do not pipe Git output into a pager.

--git-dir=<path>

Set the path to the repository (".git" directory). This can also be controlled by setting the GIT_DIR environment variable. It can be an absolute path or relative path to current working directory.

Specifying the location of the ".git" directory using this option (or GIT_DIR environment variable) turns off the repository discovery that tries to find a directory with ".git" subdirectory (which is how the repository and the top-level of the working tree are discovered), and tells Git that you are at the top level of the working tree. If you are not at the top-level directory of the working tree, you should tell Git where the top-level of the working tree is, with the --work-tree=<path> option (or GIT_WORK_TREE environment variable)

If you just want to run git as if it was started in <path> then use git -C <path>.

--work-tree=<path>

Set the path to the working tree. It can be an absolute path or a path relative to the current working directory. This can also be controlled by setting the GIT_WORK_TREE environment variable and the core.worktree configuration variable (see core.worktree in git-config[1] for a more detailed discussion).

--namespace=<path>

Set the Git namespace. See gitnamespaces[7] for more details. Equivalent to setting the GIT_NAMESPACE environment variable.

--super-prefix=<path>

Currently for internal use only. Set a prefix which gives a path from above a repository down to its root. One use is to give submodules context about the superproject that invoked it.

--bare

Treat the repository as a bare repository. If GIT_DIR environment is not set, it is set to the current working directory.

--no-replace-objects

Do not use replacement refs to replace Git objects. See git-replace[1] for more information.

--literal-pathspecs

Treat pathspecs literally (i.e. no globbing, no pathspec magic). This is equivalent to setting the GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1.

--glob-pathspecs

Add "glob" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting the GIT_GLOB_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1. Disabling globbing on individual pathspecs can be done using pathspec magic ":(literal)"

--noglob-pathspecs

Add "literal" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting the GIT_NOGLOB_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1. Enabling globbing on individual pathspecs can be done using pathspec magic ":(glob)"

--icase-pathspecs

Add "icase" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting the GIT_ICASE_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1.

--no-optional-locks

Do not perform optional operations that require locks. This is equivalent to setting the GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS to 0.

--list-cmds=group[,group…​]

List commands by group. This is an internal/experimental option and may change or be removed in the future. Supported groups are: builtins, parseopt (builtin commands that use parse-options), main (all commands in libexec directory), others (all other commands in $PATH that have git- prefix), list-<category> (see categories in command-list.txt), nohelpers (exclude helper commands), alias and config (retrieve command list from config variable completion.commands)

GIT COMMANDS

We divide Git into high level ("porcelain") commands and low level ("plumbing") commands.

High-level commands (porcelain)

We separate the porcelain commands into the main commands and some ancillary user utilities.

Main porcelain commands

git-add[1]

Add file contents to the index

git-am[1]

Apply a series of patches from a mailbox

git-archive[1]

Create an archive of files from a named tree

git-bisect[1]

Use binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug

git-branch[1]

List, create, or delete branches

git-bundle[1]

Move objects and refs by archive

git-checkout[1]

Switch branches or restore working tree files

git-cherry-pick[1]

Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits

git-citool[1]

Graphical alternative to git-commit

git-clean[1]

Remove untracked files from the working tree

git-clone[1]

Clone a repository into a new directory

git-commit[1]

Record changes to the repository

git-describe[1]

Give an object a human readable name based on an available ref

git-diff[1]

Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc

git-fetch[1]

Download objects and refs from another repository

git-format-patch[1]

Prepare patches for e-mail submission

git-gc[1]

Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository

git-grep[1]

Print lines matching a pattern

git-gui[1]

A portable graphical interface to Git

git-init[1]

Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one

gitk[1]

The Git repository browser

git-log[1]

Show commit logs

git-maintenance[1]

Run tasks to optimize Git repository data

git-merge[1]

Join two or more development histories together

git-mv[1]

Move or rename a file, a directory, or a symlink

git-notes[1]

Add or inspect object notes

git-pull[1]

Fetch from and integrate with another repository or a local branch

git-push[1]

Update remote refs along with associated objects

git-range-diff[1]

Compare two commit ranges (e.g. two versions of a branch)

git-rebase[1]

Reapply commits on top of another base tip

git-reset[1]

Reset current HEAD to the specified state

git-restore[1]

Restore working tree files

git-revert[1]

Revert some existing commits

git-rm[1]

Remove files from the working tree and from the index

git-shortlog[1]

Summarize git log output

git-show[1]

Show various types of objects

git-sparse-checkout[1]

Initialize and modify the sparse-checkout

git-stash[1]

Stash the changes in a dirty working directory away

git-status[1]

Show the working tree status

git-submodule[1]

Initialize, update or inspect submodules

git-switch[1]

Switch branches

git-tag[1]

Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG

git-worktree[1]

Manage multiple working trees

Ancillary Commands

Manipulators:

git-config[1]

Get and set repository or global options

git-fast-export[1]

Git data exporter

git-fast-import[1]

Backend for fast Git data importers

git-filter-branch[1]

Rewrite branches

git-mergetool[1]

Run merge conflict resolution tools to resolve merge conflicts

git-pack-refs[1]

Pack heads and tags for efficient repository access

git-prune[1]

Prune all unreachable objects from the object database

git-reflog[1]

Manage reflog information

git-remote[1]

Manage set of tracked repositories

git-repack[1]

Pack unpacked objects in a repository

git-replace[1]

Create, list, delete refs to replace objects

Interrogators:

git-annotate[1]

Annotate file lines with commit information

git-blame[1]

Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file

git-bugreport[1]

Collect information for user to file a bug report

git-count-objects[1]

Count unpacked number of objects and their disk consumption

git-difftool[1]

Show changes using common diff tools

git-fsck[1]

Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database

git-help[1]

Display help information about Git

git-instaweb[1]

Instantly browse your working repository in gitweb

git-merge-tree[1]

Show three-way merge without touching index

git-rerere[1]

Reuse recorded resolution of conflicted merges

git-show-branch[1]

Show branches and their commits

git-verify-commit[1]

Check the GPG signature of commits

git-verify-tag[1]

Check the GPG signature of tags

gitweb[1]

Git web interface (web frontend to Git repositories)

git-whatchanged[1]

Show logs with difference each commit introduces

Interacting with Others

These commands are to interact with foreign SCM and with other people via patch over e-mail.

git-archimport[1]

Import a GNU Arch repository into Git

git-cvsexportcommit[1]

Export a single commit to a CVS checkout

git-cvsimport[1]

Salvage your data out of another SCM people love to hate

git-cvsserver[1]

A CVS server emulator for Git

git-imap-send[1]

Send a collection of patches from stdin to an IMAP folder

git-p4[1]

Import from and submit to Perforce repositories