Git - git Documentation

git last updated in 2.52.0

NAME

git - the stupid content tracker

SYNOPSIS

git [-v | --version] [-h | --help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
    [--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
    [-p | --paginate | -P | --no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--no-lazy-fetch]
    [--no-optional-locks] [--no-advice] [--bare] [--git-dir=<path>]
    [--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>] [--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

-v

--version

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

This option is internally 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.

-h

--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 operating systems where other processes might be able to read your command line (e.g. /proc/self/cmdline), but not your environment (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.

--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. This is equivalent to exporting the GIT_NO_REPLACE_OBJECTS environment variable with any value. See git-replace[1] for more information.

--no-lazy-fetch

Do not fetch missing objects from the promisor remote on demand. Useful together with git cat-file -e <object> to see if the object is locally available. This is equivalent to setting the GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH 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.

--no-advice

Disable all advice hints from being printed.

--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.

--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)

--attr-source=<tree-ish>

Read gitattributes from <tree-ish> instead of the worktree. See gitattributes[5]. This is equivalent to setting the GIT_ATTR_SOURCE environment variable.

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
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]: Reduce your working tree to a subset of tracked files
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
gitk[1]: The Git repository browser
scalar[1]: A tool for managing large Git repositories

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-refs[1]: Low-level access to refs
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-diagnose[1]: Generate a zip archive of diagnostic information
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]: Perform merge without touching index or working tree
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
git-version[1]: Display version information about Git
git-whatchanged[1]: Show logs with differences each commit introduces
gitweb[1]: Git web interface (web frontend to Git repositories)

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
git-quiltimport[1]: Applies a quilt patchset onto the current branch
git-request-pull[1]: Generates a summary of pending changes
git-send-email[1]: Send a collection of patches as emails
git-svn[1]: Bidirectional operation between a Subversion repository and Git

Reset, restore and revert

There are three commands with similar names: git reset, git restore and git revert.

git-revert[1] is about making a new commit that reverts the changes made by other commits.
git-restore[1] is about restoring files in the working tree from either the index or another commit. This command does not update your branch. The command can also be used to restore files in the index from another commit.
git-reset[1] is about updating your branch, moving the tip in order to add or remove commits from the branch. This operation changes the commit history.

git reset can also be used to restore the index, overlapping with git restore.

Low-level commands (plumbing)

Although Git includes its own porcelain layer, its low-level commands are sufficient to support development of alternative porcelains. Developers of such porcelains might start by reading about git-update-index[1] and git-read-tree[1].

The interface (input, output, set of options and the semantics) to these low-level commands are meant to be a lot more stable than Porcelain level commands, because these commands are primarily for scripted use. The interface to Porcelain commands on the other hand are subject to change in order to improve the end user experience.

The following description divides the low-level commands into commands that manipulate objects (in the repository, index, and working tree), commands that interrogate and compare objects, and commands that move objects and references between repositories.

Manipulation commands

git-apply[1]: Apply a patch to files and/or to the index
git-checkout-index[1]: Copy files from the index to the working tree
git-commit-graph[1]: Write and verify Git commit-graph files
git-commit-tree[1]: Create a new commit object
git-hash-object[1]: Compute object ID and optionally create an object from a file
git-index-pack[1]: Build pack index file for an existing packed archive
git-merge-file[1]: Run a three-way file merge
git-merge-index[1]: Run a merge for files needing merging
git-mktag[1]: Creates a tag object with extra validation
git-mktree[1]: Build a tree-object from ls-tree formatted text
git-multi-pack-index[1]: Write and verify multi-pack-indexes
git-pack-objects[1]: Create a packed archive of objects
git-prune-packed[1]: Remove extra objects that are already in pack files
git-read-tree[1]: Reads tree information into the index
git-replay[1]: EXPERIMENTAL: Replay commits on a new base, works with bare repos too
git-symbolic-ref[1]: Read, modify and delete symbolic refs
git-unpack-objects[1]: Unpack objects from a packed archive
git-update-index[1]: Register file contents in the working tree to the index
git-update-ref[1]: Update the object name stored in a ref safely
git-write-tree[1]: Create a tree object from the current index

Interrogation commands

git-cat-file[1]: Provide contents or details of repository objects
git-cherry[1]: Find commits yet to be applied to upstream
git-diff-files[1]: Compares files in the working tree and the index
git-diff-index[1]: Compare a tree to the working tree or index
git-diff-tree[1]: Compares the content and mode of blobs found via two tree objects
git-for-each-ref[1]: Output information on each ref
git-for-each-repo[1]: Run a Git command on a list of repositories
git-get-tar-commit-id[1]: Extract commit ID from an archive created using git-archive
git-ls-files[1]: Show information about files in the index and the working tree
git-ls-remote[1]: List references in a remote repository
git-ls-tree[1]: List the contents of a tree object
git-merge-base[1]: Find as good common ancestors as possible for a merge
git-name-rev[1]: Find symbolic names for given revs
git-pack-redundant[1]: Find redundant pack files
git-rev-list[1]: Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order
git-rev-parse[1]: Pick out and massage parameters
git-show-index[1]: Show packed archive index
git-show-ref[1]: List references in a local repository
git-unpack-file[1]: Creates a temporary file with a blob’s contents
git-var[1]: Show a Git logical variable
git-verify-pack[1]: Validate packed Git archive files

In general, the interrogate commands do not touch the files in the working tree.

Syncing repositories

git-daemon[1]: A really simple server for Git repositories
git-fetch-pack[1]: Receive missing objects from another repository
git-http-backend[1]: Server side implementation of Git over HTTP
git-send-pack[1]: Push objects over Git protocol to another repository
git-update-server-info[1]: Update auxiliary info file to help dumb servers

The following are helper commands used by the above; end users typically do not use them directly.

git-http-fetch[1]: Download from a remote Git repository via HTTP
git-http-push[1]: Push objects over HTTP/DAV to another repository
git-receive-pack[1]: Receive what is pushed into the repository
git-shell[1]: Restricted login shell for Git-only SSH access
git-upload-archive[1]: Send archive back to git-archive
git-upload-pack[1]: Send objects packed back to git-fetch-pack

Internal helper commands

These are internal helper commands used by other commands; end users typically do not use them directly.

git-check-attr[1]: Display gitattributes information
git-check-ignore[1]: Debug gitignore / exclude files

Setup and Config

Getting and Creating Projects

Basic Snapshotting

Branching and Merging

Sharing and Updating Projects

Inspection and Comparison

Patching

Debugging

Email

External Systems

Server Admin

Guides

Administration

Plumbing Commands