7 git - the stupid content tracker
12 'git-<command>' <args>
17 This is reference information for the core git commands.
19 Before reading this cover to cover, you may want to take a look
20 at the link:tutorial.html[tutorial] document.
22 The Discussion section below contains much useful definition and
23 clarification info - read that first. And of the commands, I suggest
24 reading link:git-update-cache.html[git-update-cache] and
25 link:git-read-tree.html[git-read-tree] first - I wish I had!
27 David Greaves <david@dgreaves.com>
30 Updated by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> on 2005-05-05 to
31 reflect recent changes.
35 The git commands can helpfully be split into those that manipulate
36 the repository, the cache and the working fileset, those that
37 interrogate and compare them, and those that moves objects and
38 references between repositories.
40 In addition, git itself comes with a spartan set of porcelain
41 commands. They are usable but are not meant to compete with real
44 There are also some ancillary programs that can be viewed as useful
45 aids for using the core commands but which are unlikely to be used by
46 SCMs layered over git.
50 link:git-checkout-cache.html[git-checkout-cache]::
51 Copy files from the cache to the working directory
53 link:git-commit-tree.html[git-commit-tree]::
54 Creates a new commit object
56 link:git-init-db.html[git-init-db]::
57 Creates an empty git object database
59 link:git-merge-base.html[git-merge-base]::
60 Finds as good a common ancestor as possible for a merge
62 link:git-mktag.html[git-mktag]::
65 link:git-read-tree.html[git-read-tree]::
66 Reads tree information into the directory cache
68 link:git-update-cache.html[git-update-cache]::
69 Modifies the index or directory cache
71 link:git-hash-object.html[git-hash-object]::
72 Computes the object ID from a file.
74 link:git-write-tree.html[git-write-tree]::
75 Creates a tree from the current cache
77 link:git-pack-objects.html[git-pack-objects]::
78 Creates a packed archive of objects.
80 link:git-unpack-objects.html[git-unpack-objects]::
81 Unpacks objects out of a packed archive.
83 link:git-prune-packed.html[git-prune-packed]::
84 Remove extra objects that are already in pack files.
86 link:git-apply.html[git-apply]::
87 Reads a "diff -up1" or git generated patch file and
88 applies it to the working tree.
91 Interrogation commands
92 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
93 link:git-cat-file.html[git-cat-file]::
94 Provide content or type information for repository objects
96 link:git-diff-cache.html[git-diff-cache]::
97 Compares content and mode of blobs between the cache and repository
99 link:git-diff-files.html[git-diff-files]::
100 Compares files in the working tree and the cache
102 link:git-diff-tree.html[git-diff-tree]::
103 Compares the content and mode of blobs found via two tree objects
105 link:git-diff-stages.html[git-diff-stages]::
106 Compares two "merge stages" in the index file.
108 link:git-export.html[git-export]::
109 Exports each commit and a diff against each of its parents
111 link:git-fsck-cache.html[git-fsck-cache]::
112 Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database
114 link:git-ls-files.html[git-ls-files]::
115 Information about files in the cache/working directory
117 link:git-ls-tree.html[git-ls-tree]::
118 Displays a tree object in human readable form
120 link:git-merge-cache.html[git-merge-cache]::
121 Runs a merge for files needing merging
123 link:git-rev-list.html[git-rev-list]::
124 Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order
126 link:git-rev-tree.html[git-rev-tree]::
127 Provides the revision tree for one or more commits
129 link:git-tar-tree.html[git-tar-tree]::
130 Creates a tar archive of the files in the named tree
132 link:git-unpack-file.html[git-unpack-file]::
133 Creates a temporary file with a blob's contents
135 link:git-var.html[git-var]::
136 Displays a git logical variable
138 link:git-show-index.html[git-show-index]::
139 Displays contents of a pack idx file.
141 link:git-verify-pack.html[git-verify-pack]::
142 Validates packed GIT archive files
144 The interrogate commands may create files - and you can force them to
145 touch the working file set - but in general they don't
148 Synching repositories
149 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
151 link:git-clone-script.html[git-clone-script]::
152 Clones a repository into the current repository (user interface)
154 link:git-clone-pack.html[git-clone-pack]::
155 Clones a repository into the current repository (engine
156 for ssh and local transport)
158 link:git-http-pull.html[git-http-pull]::
159 Downloads a remote GIT repository via HTTP
161 link:git-local-pull.html[git-local-pull]::
162 Duplicates another GIT repository on a local system
164 link:git-ssh-pull.html[git-ssh-pull]::
165 Pulls from a remote repository over ssh connection
167 link:git-send-pack.html[git-send-pack]::
168 Pushes to a remote repository, intelligently.
170 link:git-receive-pack.html[git-receive-pack]::
171 Invoked by 'git-send-pack' to receive what is pushed to it.
173 link:git-clone-pack.html[git-clone-pack]::
174 Clones from a remote repository.
176 link:git-fetch-pack.html[git-fetch-pack]::
177 Updates from a remote repository.
179 link:git-peek-remote.html[git-peek-remote]::
180 Lists references on a remote repository using upload-pack protocol.
182 link:git-upload-pack.html[git-upload-pack]::
183 Invoked by 'git-clone-pack' and 'git-fetch-pack' to push
186 link:git-update-server-info.html[git-update-server-info]::
187 Updates auxiliary information on a dumb server to help
188 clients discover references and packs on it.
191 Porcelain-ish Commands
192 ----------------------
193 link:git-whatchanged.html[git-whatchanged]::
194 Shows commit logs and differences they introduce.
196 link:git-log-script.html[git-log-script]::
199 link:git-shortlog.html[git-shortlog]::
200 Summarizes 'git log' output.
202 link:git-status-script.html[git-status-script]::
203 Shows the working tree status.
205 link:git-fetch-script.html[git-fetch-script]::
206 Download from a remote repository via various protocols.
208 link:git-pull-script.html[git-pull-script]::
209 Fetch from and merge with a remote repository.
211 ulink:git-commit-script.html[git-commit-script]::
212 Record changes to the repository.
214 link:git-show-branch.html[git-show-branch]::
215 Show branches and their commits.
217 link:git-repack-script.html[git-repack-script]::
218 Pack unpacked objects in a repository.
220 link:git-rename-script.html[git-rename]::
221 Rename files and directories.
223 link:git-ls-remote-script.html[git-ls-remote-script]::
224 Shows references in a remote or local repository.
231 link:git-apply-patch-script.html[git-apply-patch-script]::
232 Sample script to apply the diffs from git-diff-*
234 link:git-convert-cache.html[git-convert-cache]::
235 Converts old-style GIT repository
237 link:git-merge-one-file-script.html[git-merge-one-file-script]::
238 The standard helper program to use with "git-merge-cache"
240 link:git-prune-script.html[git-prune-script]::
241 Prunes all unreachable objects from the object database
243 link:git-resolve-script.html[git-resolve-script]::
244 Script used to merge two trees
246 link:git-tag-script.html[git-tag-script]::
247 An example script to create a tag object signed with GPG
249 link:git-cvsimport-script.html[git-cvsimport-script]::
250 Salvage your data out of another SCM people love to hate.
255 link:git-diff-helper.html[git-diff-helper]::
256 Generates patch format output for git-diff-*
258 link:git-ssh-push.html[git-ssh-push]::
259 Helper "server-side" program used by git-ssh-pull
261 link:git-send-email-script.html[git-send-email]::
262 Send patch e-mails out of "format-patch --mbox" output.
265 Commands not yet documented
266 ---------------------------
268 link:git-applymbox.html[git-applymbox]::
271 link:git-applypatch.html[git-applypatch]::
274 link:git-mailinfo.html[git-mailinfo]::
277 link:git-mailsplit.html[git-mailsplit]::
280 link:git-add-script.html[git-add-script]::
283 link:git-bisect-script.html[git-bisect-script]::
286 link:git-branch-script.html[git-branch-script]::
289 link:git-build-rev-cache.html[git-build-rev-cache]::
292 link:git-checkout-script.html[git-checkout-script]::
295 link:git-cherry.html[git-cherry]::
298 link:git-clone-dumb-http.html[git-clone-dumb-http]::
301 link:git-count-objects-script.html[git-count-objects-script]::
302 git-count-objects-script.
304 link:git-daemon.html[git-daemon]::
307 link:git-diff-script.html[git-diff-script]::
310 link:git-format-patch-script.html[git-format-patch-script]::
311 git-format-patch-script.
313 link:git-get-tar-commit-id.html[git-get-tar-commit-id]::
314 git-get-tar-commit-id.
316 link:git-patch-id.html[git-patch-id]::
319 link:git-push-script.html[git-push-script]::
322 link:git-rebase-script.html[git-rebase-script]::
325 link:git-relink-script.html[git-relink-script]::
328 link:git-request-pull-script.html[git-request-pull-script]::
329 git-request-pull-script.
331 link:git-reset-script.html[git-reset-script]::
334 link:git-rev-parse.html[git-rev-parse]::
337 link:git-revert-script.html[git-revert-script]::
340 link:git-sh-setup-script.html[git-sh-setup-script]::
343 link:git-show-rev-cache.html[git-show-rev-cache]::
346 link:git-stripspace.html[git-stripspace]::
349 link:git-verify-tag-script.html[git-verify-tag-script]::
350 git-verify-tag-script.
352 link:gitk.html[gitk]::
356 Identifier Terminology
357 ----------------------
359 Indicates the sha1 identifier for any type of object
362 Indicates a blob object sha1 identifier
365 Indicates a tree object sha1 identifier
368 Indicates a commit object sha1 identifier
371 Indicates a tree, commit or tag object sha1 identifier. A
372 command that takes a <tree-ish> argument ultimately wants to
373 operate on a <tree> object but automatically dereferences
374 <commit> and <tag> objects that point at a <tree>.
377 Indicates that an object type is required.
378 Currently one of: blob/tree/commit/tag
381 Indicates a filename - always relative to the root of
382 the tree structure GIT_INDEX_FILE describes.
386 Any git command accepting any <object> can also use the following
390 indicates the head of the repository (ie the contents of
394 (ie the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags/<tag>`)
397 (ie the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/<head>`)
399 a valid snapshot 'name'+
400 (ie the contents of `$GIT_DIR/refs/snap/<snap>`)
403 File/Directory Structure
404 ------------------------
405 The git-core manipulates the following areas in the directory:
407 .git/ The base (overridden with $GIT_DIR)
408 objects/ The object base (overridden with $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY)
409 ??/ 'First 2 chars of object' directories.
410 pack/ Packed archives.
412 refs/ Directories containing symbolic names for objects
413 (each file contains the hex SHA1 + newline)
414 heads/ Commits which are heads of various sorts
415 tags/ Tags, by the tag name (or some local renaming of it)
416 */ Any other subdirectory of refs/ can be used to store
417 files similar to what are under refs/heads/.
418 HEAD Symlink to refs/heads/<current-branch-name>
420 Higher level SCMs may provide and manage additional information in the
425 Please see link:glossary.html[glossary] document.
428 Environment Variables
429 ---------------------
430 Various git commands use the following environment variables:
434 These environment variables apply to 'all' core git commands. Nb: it
435 is worth noting that they may be used/overridden by SCMS sitting above
436 git so take care if using Cogito etc
439 This environment allows the specification of an alternate
440 cache/index file. If not specified, the default of
441 `$GIT_DIR/index` is used.
443 'GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY'::
444 If the object storage directory is specified via this
445 environment variable then the sha1 directories are created
446 underneath - otherwise the default `$GIT_DIR/objects`
449 'GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES'::
450 Due to the immutable nature of git objects, old objects can be
451 archived into shared, read-only directories. This variable
452 specifies a ":" separated list of git object directories which
453 can be used to search for git objects. New objects will not be
454 written to these directories.
457 If the 'GIT_DIR' environment variable is set then it specifies
458 a path to use instead of `./.git` for the base of the
466 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'::
467 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL'::
468 see link:git-commit-tree.html[git-commit-tree]
473 'GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF'::
474 see the "generating patches" section in :
475 link:git-diff-cache.html[git-diff-cache];
476 link:git-diff-files.html[git-diff-files];
477 link:git-diff-tree.html[git-diff-tree]
485 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
489 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
493 Part of the link:git.html[git] suite