1GIT(1) Git Manual GIT(1)
2
6 git - the stupid content tracker
7
9 git [--version] [--help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
10 [--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
11 [-p|--paginate|-P|--no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--bare]
12 [--git-dir=<path>] [--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>]
13 [--super-prefix=<path>]
14 <command> [<args>]
15
18 Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an
19 unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and
20 full access to internals.
21 See gittutorial(7) to get started, then see giteveryday(7) for a useful
23 minimum set of commands. The Git User’s Manual[1] has a more in-depth
24 introduction.
25 After you mastered the basic concepts, you can come back to this page
27 to learn what commands Git offers. You can learn more about individual
28 Git commands with "git help command". gitcli(7) manual page gives you
29 an overview of the command-line command syntax.
30 A formatted and hyperlinked copy of the latest Git documentation can be
32 viewed at https://git.github.io/htmldocs/git.html.
33
35 --version
36 Prints the Git suite version that the git program came from.
37 --help
39 Prints the synopsis and a list of the most commonly used commands.
40 If the option --all or -a is given then all available commands are
41 printed. If a Git command is named this option will bring up the
42 manual page for that command.
43 Other options are available to control how the manual page is
45 displayed. See git-help(1) for more information, because git --help
46 ... is converted internally into git help ....
47 -C <path>
49 Run as if git was started in <path> instead of the current working
50 directory. When multiple -C options are given, each subsequent
51 non-absolute -C <path> is interpreted relative to the preceding -C
52 <path>.
53 This option affects options that expect path name like --git-dir
55 and --work-tree in that their interpretations of the path names
56 would be made relative to the working directory caused by the -C
57 option. For example the following invocations are equivalent:
58 git --git-dir=a.git --work-tree=b -C c status
60 git --git-dir=c/a.git --work-tree=c/b status
61 -c <name>=<value>
63 Pass a configuration parameter to the command. The value given will
64 override values from configuration files. The <name> is expected in
65 the same format as listed by git config (subkeys separated by
66 dots).
67 Note that omitting the = in git -c foo.bar ... is allowed and sets
69 foo.bar to the boolean true value (just like [foo]bar would in a
70 config file). Including the equals but with an empty value (like
71 git -c foo.bar= ...) sets foo.bar to the empty string which git
72 config --bool will convert to false.
73 --exec-path[=<path>]
75 Path to wherever your core Git programs are installed. This can
76 also be controlled by setting the GIT_EXEC_PATH environment
77 variable. If no path is given, git will print the current setting
78 and then exit.
79 --html-path
81 Print the path, without trailing slash, where Git’s HTML
82 documentation is installed and exit.
83 --man-path
85 Print the manpath (see man(1)) for the man pages for this version
86 of Git and exit.
87 --info-path
89 Print the path where the Info files documenting this version of Git
90 are installed and exit.
91 -p, --paginate
93 Pipe all output into less (or if set, $PAGER) if standard output is
94 a terminal. This overrides the pager.<cmd> configuration options
95 (see the "Configuration Mechanism" section below).
96 -P, --no-pager
98 Do not pipe Git output into a pager.
99 --git-dir=<path>
101 Set the path to the repository. This can also be controlled by
102 setting the GIT_DIR environment variable. It can be an absolute
103 path or relative path to current working directory.
104 --work-tree=<path>
106 Set the path to the working tree. It can be an absolute path or a
107 path relative to the current working directory. This can also be
108 controlled by setting the GIT_WORK_TREE environment variable and
109 the core.worktree configuration variable (see core.worktree in git-
110 config(1) for a more detailed discussion).
111 --namespace=<path>
113 Set the Git namespace. See gitnamespaces(7) for more details.
114 Equivalent to setting the GIT_NAMESPACE environment variable.
115 --super-prefix=<path>
117 Currently for internal use only. Set a prefix which gives a path
118 from above a repository down to its root. One use is to give
119 submodules context about the superproject that invoked it.
120 --bare
122 Treat the repository as a bare repository. If GIT_DIR environment
123 is not set, it is set to the current working directory.
124 --no-replace-objects
126 Do not use replacement refs to replace Git objects. See git-
127 replace(1) for more information.
128 --literal-pathspecs
130 Treat pathspecs literally (i.e. no globbing, no pathspec magic).
131 This is equivalent to setting the GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS environment
132 variable to 1.
133 --glob-pathspecs
135 Add "glob" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting the
136 GIT_GLOB_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1. Disabling globbing on
137 individual pathspecs can be done using pathspec magic ":(literal)"
138 --noglob-pathspecs
140 Add "literal" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting
141 the GIT_NOGLOB_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1. Enabling
142 globbing on individual pathspecs can be done using pathspec magic
143 ":(glob)"
144 --icase-pathspecs
146 Add "icase" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting
147 the GIT_ICASE_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1.
148 --no-optional-locks
150 Do not perform optional operations that require locks. This is
151 equivalent to setting the GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS to 0.
152 --list-cmds=group[,group...]
154 List commands by group. This is an internal/experimental option and
155 may change or be removed in the future. Supported groups are:
156 builtins, parseopt (builtin commands that use parse-options), main
157 (all commands in libexec directory), others (all other commands in
158 $PATH that have git- prefix), list-<category> (see categories in
159 command-list.txt), nohelpers (exclude helper commands), alias and
160 config (retrieve command list from config variable
161 completion.commands)
162
164 We divide Git into high level ("porcelain") commands and low level
165 ("plumbing") commands.
166
168 We separate the porcelain commands into the main commands and some
169 ancillary user utilities.
170 Main porcelain commands
172 git-add(1)
173 Add file contents to the index.
174 git-am(1)
176 Apply a series of patches from a mailbox.
177 git-archive(1)
179 Create an archive of files from a named tree.
180 git-bisect(1)
182 Use binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug.
183 git-branch(1)
185 List, create, or delete branches.
186 git-bundle(1)
188 Move objects and refs by archive.
189 git-checkout(1)
191 Switch branches or restore working tree files.
192 git-cherry-pick(1)
194 Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits.
195 git-citool(1)
197 Graphical alternative to git-commit.
198 git-clean(1)
200 Remove untracked files from the working tree.
201 git-clone(1)
203 Clone a repository into a new directory.
204 git-commit(1)
206 Record changes to the repository.
207 git-describe(1)
209 Give an object a human readable name based on an available ref.
210 git-diff(1)
212 Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc.
213 git-fetch(1)
215 Download objects and refs from another repository.
216 git-format-patch(1)
218 Prepare patches for e-mail submission.
219 git-gc(1)
221 Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository.
222 git-grep(1)
224 Print lines matching a pattern.
225 git-gui(1)
227 A portable graphical interface to Git.
228 git-init(1)
230 Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one.
231 git-log(1)
233 Show commit logs.
234 git-merge(1)
236 Join two or more development histories together.
237 git-mv(1)
239 Move or rename a file, a directory, or a symlink.
240 git-notes(1)
242 Add or inspect object notes.
243 git-pull(1)
245 Fetch from and integrate with another repository or a local branch.
246 git-push(1)
248 Update remote refs along with associated objects.
249 git-rebase(1)
251 Reapply commits on top of another base tip.
252 git-reset(1)
254 Reset current HEAD to the specified state.
255 git-revert(1)
257 Revert some existing commits.
258 git-rm(1)
260 Remove files from the working tree and from the index.
261 git-shortlog(1)
263 Summarize git log output.
264 git-show(1)
266 Show various types of objects.
267 git-stash(1)
269 Stash the changes in a dirty working directory away.
270 git-status(1)
272 Show the working tree status.
273 git-submodule(1)
275 Initialize, update or inspect submodules.
276 git-tag(1)
278 Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG.
279 git-worktree(1)
281 Manage multiple working trees.
282 gitk(1)
284 The Git repository browser.
285 Ancillary Commands
287 Manipulators:
288 git-config(1)
290 Get and set repository or global options.
291 git-fast-export(1)
293 Git data exporter.
294 git-fast-import(1)
296 Backend for fast Git data importers.
297 git-filter-branch(1)
299 Rewrite branches.
300 git-mergetool(1)
302 Run merge conflict resolution tools to resolve merge conflicts.
303 git-pack-refs(1)
305 Pack heads and tags for efficient repository access.
306 git-prune(1)
308 Prune all unreachable objects from the object database.
309 git-reflog(1)
311 Manage reflog information.
312 git-remote(1)
314 Manage set of tracked repositories.
315 git-repack(1)
317 Pack unpacked objects in a repository.
318 git-replace(1)
320 Create, list, delete refs to replace objects.
321 Interrogators:
323 git-annotate(1)
325 Annotate file lines with commit information.
326 git-blame(1)
328 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file.
329 git-cherry(1)
331 Find commits yet to be applied to upstream.
332 git-count-objects(1)
334 Count unpacked number of objects and their disk consumption.
335 git-difftool(1)
337 Show changes using common diff tools.
338 git-fsck(1)
340 Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the
341 database.
342 git-get-tar-commit-id(1)
344 Extract commit ID from an archive created using git-archive.
345 git-help(1)
347 Display help information about Git.
348 git-instaweb(1)
350 Instantly browse your working repository in gitweb.
351 git-merge-tree(1)
353 Show three-way merge without touching index.
354 git-rerere(1)
356 Reuse recorded resolution of conflicted merges.
357 git-rev-parse(1)
359 Pick out and massage parameters.
360 git-show-branch(1)
362 Show branches and their commits.
363 git-verify-commit(1)
365 Check the GPG signature of commits.
366 git-verify-tag(1)
368 Check the GPG signature of tags.
369 git-whatchanged(1)
371 Show logs with difference each commit introduces.
372 gitweb(1)
374 Git web interface (web frontend to Git repositories).
375 Interacting with Others
377 These commands are to interact with foreign SCM and with other people
378 via patch over e-mail.
379 git-imap-send(1)
381 Send a collection of patches from stdin to an IMAP folder.
382 git-quiltimport(1)
384 Applies a quilt patchset onto the current branch.
385 git-request-pull(1)
387 Generates a summary of pending changes.
388 git-send-email(1)
390 Send a collection of patches as emails.
391 git-svn(1)
393 Bidirectional operation between a Subversion repository and Git.
394
396 Although Git includes its own porcelain layer, its low-level commands
397 are sufficient to support development of alternative porcelains.
398 Developers of such porcelains might start by reading about git-update-
399 index(1) and git-read-tree(1).
400 The interface (input, output, set of options and the semantics) to
402 these low-level commands are meant to be a lot more stable than
403 Porcelain level commands, because these commands are primarily for
404 scripted use. The interface to Porcelain commands on the other hand are
405 subject to change in order to improve the end user experience.
406 The following description divides the low-level commands into commands
408 that manipulate objects (in the repository, index, and working tree),
409 commands that interrogate and compare objects, and commands that move
410 objects and references between repositories.
411 Manipulation commands
413 git-apply(1)
414 Apply a patch to files and/or to the index.
415 git-checkout-index(1)
417 Copy files from the index to the working tree.
418 git-commit-graph(1)
420 Write and verify Git commit graph files.
421 git-commit-tree(1)
423 Create a new commit object.
424 git-hash-object(1)
426 Compute object ID and optionally creates a blob from a file.
427 git-index-pack(1)
429 Build pack index file for an existing packed archive.
430 git-merge-file(1)
432 Run a three-way file merge.
433 git-merge-index(1)
435 Run a merge for files needing merging.
436 git-mktag(1)
438 Creates a tag object.
439 git-mktree(1)
441 Build a tree-object from ls-tree formatted text.
442 git-pack-objects(1)
444 Create a packed archive of objects.
445 git-prune-packed(1)
447 Remove extra objects that are already in pack files.
448 git-read-tree(1)
450 Reads tree information into the index.
451 git-symbolic-ref(1)
453 Read, modify and delete symbolic refs.
454 git-unpack-objects(1)
456 Unpack objects from a packed archive.
457 git-update-index(1)
459 Register file contents in the working tree to the index.
460 git-update-ref(1)
462 Update the object name stored in a ref safely.
463 git-write-tree(1)
465 Create a tree object from the current index.
466 Interrogation commands
468 git-cat-file(1)
469 Provide content or type and size information for repository
470 objects.
471 git-diff-files(1)
473 Compares files in the working tree and the index.
474 git-diff-index(1)
476 Compare a tree to the working tree or index.
477 git-diff-tree(1)
479 Compares the content and mode of blobs found via two tree objects.
480 git-for-each-ref(1)
482 Output information on each ref.
483 git-ls-files(1)
485 Show information about files in the index and the working tree.
486 git-ls-remote(1)
488 List references in a remote repository.
489 git-ls-tree(1)
491 List the contents of a tree object.
492 git-merge-base(1)
494 Find as good common ancestors as possible for a merge.
495 git-name-rev(1)
497 Find symbolic names for given revs.
498 git-pack-redundant(1)
500 Find redundant pack files.
501 git-rev-list(1)
503 Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order.
504 git-show-index(1)
506 Show packed archive index.
507 git-show-ref(1)
509 List references in a local repository.
510 git-unpack-file(1)
512 Creates a temporary file with a blob’s contents.
513 git-var(1)
515 Show a Git logical variable.
516 git-verify-pack(1)
518 Validate packed Git archive files.
519 In general, the interrogate commands do not touch the files in the
521 working tree.
522 Synching repositories
524 git-daemon(1)
525 A really simple server for Git repositories.
526 git-fetch-pack(1)
528 Receive missing objects from another repository.
529 git-http-backend(1)
531 Server side implementation of Git over HTTP.
532 git-send-pack(1)
534 Push objects over Git protocol to another repository.
535 git-update-server-info(1)
537 Update auxiliary info file to help dumb servers.
538 The following are helper commands used by the above; end users
540 typically do not use them directly.
541 git-http-fetch(1)
543 Download from a remote Git repository via HTTP.
544 git-http-push(1)
546 Push objects over HTTP/DAV to another repository.
547 git-parse-remote(1)
549 Routines to help parsing remote repository access parameters.
550 git-receive-pack(1)
552 Receive what is pushed into the repository.
553 git-shell(1)
555 Restricted login shell for Git-only SSH access.
556 git-upload-archive(1)
558 Send archive back to git-archive.
559 git-upload-pack(1)
561 Send objects packed back to git-fetch-pack.
562 Internal helper commands
564 These are internal helper commands used by other commands; end users
565 typically do not use them directly.
566 git-check-attr(1)
568 Display gitattributes information.
569 git-check-ignore(1)
571 Debug gitignore / exclude files.
572 git-check-mailmap(1)
574 Show canonical names and email addresses of contacts.
575 git-check-ref-format(1)
577 Ensures that a reference name is well formed.
578 git-column(1)
580 Display data in columns.
581 git-credential(1)
583 Retrieve and store user credentials.
584 git-credential-cache(1)
586 Helper to temporarily store passwords in memory.
587 git-credential-store(1)
589 Helper to store credentials on disk.
590 git-fmt-merge-msg(1)
592 Produce a merge commit message.
593 git-interpret-trailers(1)
595 add or parse structured information in commit messages.
596 git-mailinfo(1)
598 Extracts patch and authorship from a single e-mail message.
599 git-mailsplit(1)
601 Simple UNIX mbox splitter program.
602 git-merge-one-file(1)
604 The standard helper program to use with git-merge-index.
605 git-patch-id(1)
607 Compute unique ID for a patch.
608 git-sh-i18n(1)
610 Git’s i18n setup code for shell scripts.
611 git-sh-setup(1)
613 Common Git shell script setup code.
614 git-stripspace(1)
616 Remove unnecessary whitespace.
617
619 Git uses a simple text format to store customizations that are per
620 repository and are per user. Such a configuration file may look like
621 this:
622 #
624 # A '#' or ';' character indicates a comment.
625 #
626 ; core variables
628 [core]
629 ; Don't trust file modes
630 filemode = false
631 ; user identity
633 [user]
634 name = "Junio C Hamano"
635 email = "gitster@pobox.com"
636 Various commands read from the configuration file and adjust their
639 operation accordingly. See git-config(1) for a list and more details
640 about the configuration mechanism.
641
643 <object>
644 Indicates the object name for any type of object.
645 <blob>
647 Indicates a blob object name.
648 <tree>
650 Indicates a tree object name.
651 <commit>
653 Indicates a commit object name.
654 <tree-ish>
656 Indicates a tree, commit or tag object name. A command that takes a
657 <tree-ish> argument ultimately wants to operate on a <tree> object
658 but automatically dereferences <commit> and <tag> objects that
659 point at a <tree>.
660 <commit-ish>
662 Indicates a commit or tag object name. A command that takes a
663 <commit-ish> argument ultimately wants to operate on a <commit>
664 object but automatically dereferences <tag> objects that point at a
665 <commit>.
666 <type>
668 Indicates that an object type is required. Currently one of: blob,
669 tree, commit, or tag.
670 <file>
672 Indicates a filename - almost always relative to the root of the
673 tree structure GIT_INDEX_FILE describes.
674
676 Any Git command accepting any <object> can also use the following
677 symbolic notation:
678 HEAD
680 indicates the head of the current branch.
681 <tag>
683 a valid tag name (i.e. a refs/tags/<tag> reference).
684 <head>
686 a valid head name (i.e. a refs/heads/<head> reference).
687 For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see "SPECIFYING
689 REVISIONS" section in gitrevisions(7).
690
692 Please see the gitrepository-layout(5) document.
693 Read githooks(5) for more details about each hook.
695 Higher level SCMs may provide and manage additional information in the
697 $GIT_DIR.
698
700 Please see gitglossary(7).
701
703 Various Git commands use the following environment variables:
704 The Git Repository
706 These environment variables apply to all core Git commands. Nb: it is
707 worth noting that they may be used/overridden by SCMS sitting above Git
708 so take care if using a foreign front-end.
709 GIT_INDEX_FILE
711 This environment allows the specification of an alternate index
712 file. If not specified, the default of $GIT_DIR/index is used.
713 GIT_INDEX_VERSION
715 This environment variable allows the specification of an index
716 version for new repositories. It won’t affect existing index files.
717 By default index file version 2 or 3 is used. See git-update-
718 index(1) for more information.
719 GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
721 If the object storage directory is specified via this environment
722 variable then the sha1 directories are created underneath -
723 otherwise the default $GIT_DIR/objects directory is used.
724 GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
726 Due to the immutable nature of Git objects, old objects can be
727 archived into shared, read-only directories. This variable
728 specifies a ":" separated (on Windows ";" separated) list of Git
729 object directories which can be used to search for Git objects. New
730 objects will not be written to these directories.
731 Entries that begin with `"` (double-quote) will be interpreted
733 as C-style quoted paths, removing leading and trailing
734 double-quotes and respecting backslash escapes. E.g., the value
735 `"path-with-\"-and-:-in-it":vanilla-path` has two paths:
736 `path-with-"-and-:-in-it` and `vanilla-path`.
737 GIT_DIR
739 If the GIT_DIR environment variable is set then it specifies a path
740 to use instead of the default .git for the base of the repository.
741 The --git-dir command-line option also sets this value.
742 GIT_WORK_TREE
744 Set the path to the root of the working tree. This can also be
745 controlled by the --work-tree command-line option and the
746 core.worktree configuration variable.
747 GIT_NAMESPACE
749 Set the Git namespace; see gitnamespaces(7) for details. The
750 --namespace command-line option also sets this value.
751 GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES
753 This should be a colon-separated list of absolute paths. If set, it
754 is a list of directories that Git should not chdir up into while
755 looking for a repository directory (useful for excluding
756 slow-loading network directories). It will not exclude the current
757 working directory or a GIT_DIR set on the command line or in the
758 environment. Normally, Git has to read the entries in this list and
759 resolve any symlink that might be present in order to compare them
760 with the current directory. However, if even this access is slow,
761 you can add an empty entry to the list to tell Git that the
762 subsequent entries are not symlinks and needn’t be resolved; e.g.,
763 GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES=/maybe/symlink::/very/slow/non/symlink.
764 GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM
766 When run in a directory that does not have ".git" repository
767 directory, Git tries to find such a directory in the parent
768 directories to find the top of the working tree, but by default it
769 does not cross filesystem boundaries. This environment variable can
770 be set to true to tell Git not to stop at filesystem boundaries.
771 Like GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES, this will not affect an explicit
772 repository directory set via GIT_DIR or on the command line.
773 GIT_COMMON_DIR
775 If this variable is set to a path, non-worktree files that are
776 normally in $GIT_DIR will be taken from this path instead.
777 Worktree-specific files such as HEAD or index are taken from
778 $GIT_DIR. See gitrepository-layout(5) and git-worktree(1) for
779 details. This variable has lower precedence than other path
780 variables such as GIT_INDEX_FILE, GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY...
781 Git Commits
783 GIT_AUTHOR_NAME, GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL, GIT_AUTHOR_DATE, GIT_COMMITTER_NAME,
784 GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL, GIT_COMMITTER_DATE, EMAIL
785 see git-commit-tree(1)
786 Git Diffs
788 GIT_DIFF_OPTS
789 Only valid setting is "--unified=??" or "-u??" to set the number of
790 context lines shown when a unified diff is created. This takes
791 precedence over any "-U" or "--unified" option value passed on the
792 Git diff command line.
793 GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF
795 When the environment variable GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is set, the program
796 named by it is called, instead of the diff invocation described
797 above. For a path that is added, removed, or modified,
798 GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is called with 7 parameters:
799 path old-file old-hex old-mode new-file new-hex new-mode
801 where:
803 <old|new>-file
805 are files GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF can use to read the contents of
806 <old|new>,
807 <old|new>-hex
809 are the 40-hexdigit SHA-1 hashes,
810 <old|new>-mode
812 are the octal representation of the file modes.
813 The file parameters can point at the user’s working file (e.g.
815 new-file in "git-diff-files"), /dev/null (e.g. old-file when a new
816 file is added), or a temporary file (e.g. old-file in the index).
817 GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF should not worry about unlinking the temporary
818 file --- it is removed when GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF exits.
819 For a path that is unmerged, GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is called with 1
821 parameter, <path>.
822 For each path GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is called, two environment
824 variables, GIT_DIFF_PATH_COUNTER and GIT_DIFF_PATH_TOTAL are set.
825 GIT_DIFF_PATH_COUNTER
827 A 1-based counter incremented by one for every path.
828 GIT_DIFF_PATH_TOTAL
830 The total number of paths.
831 other
833 GIT_MERGE_VERBOSITY
834 A number controlling the amount of output shown by the recursive
835 merge strategy. Overrides merge.verbosity. See git-merge(1)
836 GIT_PAGER
838 This environment variable overrides $PAGER. If it is set to an
839 empty string or to the value "cat", Git will not launch a pager.
840 See also the core.pager option in git-config(1).
841 GIT_EDITOR
843 This environment variable overrides $EDITOR and $VISUAL. It is used
844 by several Git commands when, on interactive mode, an editor is to
845 be launched. See also git-var(1) and the core.editor option in git-
846 config(1).
847 GIT_SSH, GIT_SSH_COMMAND
849 If either of these environment variables is set then git fetch and
850 git push will use the specified command instead of ssh when they
851 need to connect to a remote system. The command-line parameters
852 passed to the configured command are determined by the ssh variant.
853 See ssh.variant option in git-config(1) for details.
854 + $GIT_SSH_COMMAND takes precedence over $GIT_SSH, and is interpreted
856 by the shell, which allows additional arguments to be included.
857 $GIT_SSH on the other hand must be just the path to a program (which
858 can be a wrapper shell script, if additional arguments are needed).
859 + Usually it is easier to configure any desired options through your
861 personal .ssh/config file. Please consult your ssh documentation for
862 further details.
863 GIT_SSH_VARIANT
865 If this environment variable is set, it overrides Git’s
866 autodetection whether GIT_SSH/GIT_SSH_COMMAND/core.sshCommand refer
867 to OpenSSH, plink or tortoiseplink. This variable overrides the
868 config setting ssh.variant that serves the same purpose.
869 GIT_ASKPASS
871 If this environment variable is set, then Git commands which need
872 to acquire passwords or passphrases (e.g. for HTTP or IMAP
873 authentication) will call this program with a suitable prompt as
874 command-line argument and read the password from its STDOUT. See
875 also the core.askPass option in git-config(1).
876 GIT_TERMINAL_PROMPT
878 If this environment variable is set to 0, git will not prompt on
879 the terminal (e.g., when asking for HTTP authentication).
880 GIT_CONFIG_NOSYSTEM
882 Whether to skip reading settings from the system-wide
883 $(prefix)/etc/gitconfig file. This environment variable can be used
884 along with $HOME and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME to create a predictable
885 environment for a picky script, or you can set it temporarily to
886 avoid using a buggy /etc/gitconfig file while waiting for someone
887 with sufficient permissions to fix it.
888 GIT_FLUSH
890 If this environment variable is set to "1", then commands such as
891 git blame (in incremental mode), git rev-list, git log, git
892 check-attr and git check-ignore will force a flush of the output
893 stream after each record have been flushed. If this variable is set
894 to "0", the output of these commands will be done using completely
895 buffered I/O. If this environment variable is not set, Git will
896 choose buffered or record-oriented flushing based on whether stdout
897 appears to be redirected to a file or not.
898 GIT_TRACE
900 Enables general trace messages, e.g. alias expansion, built-in
901 command execution and external command execution.
902 If this variable is set to "1", "2" or "true" (comparison is case
904 insensitive), trace messages will be printed to stderr.
905 If the variable is set to an integer value greater than 2 and lower
907 than 10 (strictly) then Git will interpret this value as an open
908 file descriptor and will try to write the trace messages into this
909 file descriptor.
910 Alternatively, if the variable is set to an absolute path (starting
912 with a / character), Git will interpret this as a file path and
913 will try to write the trace messages into it.
914 Unsetting the variable, or setting it to empty, "0" or "false"
916 (case insensitive) disables trace messages.
917 GIT_TRACE_FSMONITOR
919 Enables trace messages for the filesystem monitor extension. See
920 GIT_TRACE for available trace output options.
921 GIT_TRACE_PACK_ACCESS
923 Enables trace messages for all accesses to any packs. For each
924 access, the pack file name and an offset in the pack is recorded.
925 This may be helpful for troubleshooting some pack-related
926 performance problems. See GIT_TRACE for available trace output
927 options.
928 GIT_TRACE_PACKET
930 Enables trace messages for all packets coming in or out of a given
931 program. This can help with debugging object negotiation or other
932 protocol issues. Tracing is turned off at a packet starting with
933 "PACK" (but see GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE below). See GIT_TRACE for
934 available trace output options.
935 GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE
937 Enables tracing of packfiles sent or received by a given program.
938 Unlike other trace output, this trace is verbatim: no headers, and
939 no quoting of binary data. You almost certainly want to direct into
940 a file (e.g., GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE=/tmp/my.pack) rather than
941 displaying it on the terminal or mixing it with other trace output.
942 Note that this is currently only implemented for the client side of
944 clones and fetches.
945 GIT_TRACE_PERFORMANCE
947 Enables performance related trace messages, e.g. total execution
948 time of each Git command. See GIT_TRACE for available trace output
949 options.
950 GIT_TRACE_SETUP
952 Enables trace messages printing the .git, working tree and current
953 working directory after Git has completed its setup phase. See
954 GIT_TRACE for available trace output options.
955 GIT_TRACE_SHALLOW
957 Enables trace messages that can help debugging fetching / cloning
958 of shallow repositories. See GIT_TRACE for available trace output
959 options.
960 GIT_TRACE_CURL
962 Enables a curl full trace dump of all incoming and outgoing data,
963 including descriptive information, of the git transport protocol.
964 This is similar to doing curl --trace-ascii on the command line.
965 This option overrides setting the GIT_CURL_VERBOSE environment
966 variable. See GIT_TRACE for available trace output options.
967 GIT_TRACE_CURL_NO_DATA
969 When a curl trace is enabled (see GIT_TRACE_CURL above), do not
970 dump data (that is, only dump info lines and headers).
971 GIT_REDACT_COOKIES
973 This can be set to a comma-separated list of strings. When a curl
974 trace is enabled (see GIT_TRACE_CURL above), whenever a "Cookies:"
975 header sent by the client is dumped, values of cookies whose key is
976 in that list (case-sensitive) are redacted.
977 GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS
979 Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs
980 literally, rather than as glob patterns. For example, running
981 GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS=1 git log -- '*.c' will search for commits
982 that touch the path *.c, not any paths that the glob *.c matches.
983 You might want this if you are feeding literal paths to Git (e.g.,
984 paths previously given to you by git ls-tree, --raw diff output,
985 etc).
986 GIT_GLOB_PATHSPECS
988 Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs as
989 glob patterns (aka "glob" magic).
990 GIT_NOGLOB_PATHSPECS
992 Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs as
993 literal (aka "literal" magic).
994 GIT_ICASE_PATHSPECS
996 Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs as
997 case-insensitive.
998 GIT_REFLOG_ACTION
1000 When a ref is updated, reflog entries are created to keep track of
1001 the reason why the ref was updated (which is typically the name of
1002 the high-level command that updated the ref), in addition to the
1003 old and new values of the ref. A scripted Porcelain command can use
1004 set_reflog_action helper function in git-sh-setup to set its name
1005 to this variable when it is invoked as the top level command by the
1006 end user, to be recorded in the body of the reflog.
1007 GIT_REF_PARANOIA
1009 If set to 1, include broken or badly named refs when iterating over
1010 lists of refs. In a normal, non-corrupted repository, this does
1011 nothing. However, enabling it may help git to detect and abort some
1012 operations in the presence of broken refs. Git sets this variable
1013 automatically when performing destructive operations like git-
1014 prune(1). You should not need to set it yourself unless you want to
1015 be paranoid about making sure an operation has touched every ref
1016 (e.g., because you are cloning a repository to make a backup).
1017 GIT_ALLOW_PROTOCOL
1019 If set to a colon-separated list of protocols, behave as if
1020 protocol.allow is set to never, and each of the listed protocols
1021 has protocol.<name>.allow set to always (overriding any existing
1022 configuration). In other words, any protocol not mentioned will be
1023 disallowed (i.e., this is a whitelist, not a blacklist). See the
1024 description of protocol.allow in git-config(1) for more details.
1025 GIT_PROTOCOL_FROM_USER
1027 Set to 0 to prevent protocols used by fetch/push/clone which are
1028 configured to the user state. This is useful to restrict recursive
1029 submodule initialization from an untrusted repository or for
1030 programs which feed potentially-untrusted URLS to git commands. See
1031 git-config(1) for more details.
1032 GIT_PROTOCOL
1034 For internal use only. Used in handshaking the wire protocol.
1035 Contains a colon : separated list of keys with optional values
1036 key[=value]. Presence of unknown keys and values must be ignored.
1037 GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS
1039 If set to 0, Git will complete any requested operation without
1040 performing any optional sub-operations that require taking a lock.
1041 For example, this will prevent git status from refreshing the index
1042 as a side effect. This is useful for processes running in the
1043 background which do not want to cause lock contention with other
1044 operations on the repository. Defaults to 1.
1045 GIT_REDIRECT_STDIN, GIT_REDIRECT_STDOUT, GIT_REDIRECT_STDERR
1047 Windows-only: allow redirecting the standard input/output/error
1048 handles to paths specified by the environment variables. This is
1049 particularly useful in multi-threaded applications where the
1050 canonical way to pass standard handles via CreateProcess() is not
1051 an option because it would require the handles to be marked
1052 inheritable (and consequently every spawned process would inherit
1053 them, possibly blocking regular Git operations). The primary
1054 intended use case is to use named pipes for communication (e.g.
1055 \\.\pipe\my-git-stdin-123).
1056 Two special values are supported: off will simply close the
1058 corresponding standard handle, and if GIT_REDIRECT_STDERR is 2>&1,
1059 standard error will be redirected to the same handle as standard
1060 output.
1061 GIT_PRINT_SHA1_ELLIPSIS (deprecated)
1063 If set to yes, print an ellipsis following an (abbreviated) SHA-1
1064 value. This affects indications of detached HEADs (git-checkout(1))
1065 and the raw diff output (git-diff(1)). Printing an ellipsis in the
1066 cases mentioned is no longer considered adequate and support for it
1067 is likely to be removed in the foreseeable future (along with the
1068 variable).
1069
1071 More detail on the following is available from the Git concepts chapter
1072 of the user-manual[2] and gitcore-tutorial(7).
1073 A Git project normally consists of a working directory with a ".git"
1075 subdirectory at the top level. The .git directory contains, among other
1076 things, a compressed object database representing the complete history
1077 of the project, an "index" file which links that history to the current
1078 contents of the working tree, and named pointers into that history such
1079 as tags and branch heads.
1080 The object database contains objects of three main types: blobs, which
1082 hold file data; trees, which point to blobs and other trees to build up
1083 directory hierarchies; and commits, which each reference a single tree
1084 and some number of parent commits.
1085 The commit, equivalent to what other systems call a "changeset" or
1087 "version", represents a step in the project’s history, and each parent
1088 represents an immediately preceding step. Commits with more than one
1089 parent represent merges of independent lines of development.
1090 All objects are named by the SHA-1 hash of their contents, normally
1092 written as a string of 40 hex digits. Such names are globally unique.
1093 The entire history leading up to a commit can be vouched for by signing
1094 just that commit. A fourth object type, the tag, is provided for this
1095 purpose.
1096 When first created, objects are stored in individual files, but for
1098 efficiency may later be compressed together into "pack files".
1099 Named pointers called refs mark interesting points in history. A ref
1101 may contain the SHA-1 name of an object or the name of another ref.
1102 Refs with names beginning ref/head/ contain the SHA-1 name of the most
1103 recent commit (or "head") of a branch under development. SHA-1 names of
1104 tags of interest are stored under ref/tags/. A special ref named HEAD
1105 contains the name of the currently checked-out branch.
1106 The index file is initialized with a list of all paths and, for each
1108 path, a blob object and a set of attributes. The blob object represents
1109 the contents of the file as of the head of the current branch. The
1110 attributes (last modified time, size, etc.) are taken from the
1111 corresponding file in the working tree. Subsequent changes to the
1112 working tree can be found by comparing these attributes. The index may
1113 be updated with new content, and new commits may be created from the
1114 content stored in the index.
1115 The index is also capable of storing multiple entries (called "stages")
1117 for a given pathname. These stages are used to hold the various
1118 unmerged version of a file when a merge is in progress.
1119
1121 See the references in the "description" section to get started using
1122 Git. The following is probably more detail than necessary for a
1123 first-time user.
1124 The Git concepts chapter of the user-manual[2] and gitcore-tutorial(7)
1126 both provide introductions to the underlying Git architecture.
1127 See gitworkflows(7) for an overview of recommended workflows.
1129 See also the howto[3] documents for some useful examples.
1131 The internals are documented in the Git API documentation[4].
1133 Users migrating from CVS may also want to read gitcvs-migration(7).
1135
1137 Git was started by Linus Torvalds, and is currently maintained by Junio
1138 C Hamano. Numerous contributions have come from the Git mailing list
1139 <git@vger.kernel.org[5]>.
1140 http://www.openhub.net/p/git/contributors/summary gives you a more
1141 complete list of contributors.
1142 If you have a clone of git.git itself, the output of git-shortlog(1)
1144 and git-blame(1) can show you the authors for specific parts of the
1145 project.
1146
1148 Report bugs to the Git mailing list <git@vger.kernel.org[5]> where the
1149 development and maintenance is primarily done. You do not have to be
1150 subscribed to the list to send a message there.
1151 Issues which are security relevant should be disclosed privately to the
1153 Git Security mailing list <git-security@googlegroups.com[6]>.
1154
1156 gittutorial(7), gittutorial-2(7), giteveryday(7), gitcvs-migration(7),
1157 gitglossary(7), gitcore-tutorial(7), gitcli(7), The Git User’s
1158 Manual[1], gitworkflows(7)
1159
1161 Part of the git(1) suite
1162
1164 1. Git User’s Manual
1165 file:///usr/share/doc/git/user-manual.html
1166 2. Git concepts chapter of the user-manual
1168 file:///usr/share/doc/git/user-manual.html#git-concepts
1169 3. howto
1171 file:///usr/share/doc/git/howto-index.html
1172 4. Git API documentation
1174 file:///usr/share/doc/git/technical/api-index.html
1175 5. git@vger.kernel.org
1177 mailto:git@vger.kernel.org
1178 6. git-security@googlegroups.com
1180 mailto:git-security@googlegroups.com
1181Git 2.18.1 05/14/2019 GIT(1)