1GITREVISIONS(7) Git Manual GITREVISIONS(7)
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6 gitrevisions - Specifying revisions and ranges for Git
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9 gitrevisions
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12 Many Git commands take revision parameters as arguments. Depending on
13 the command, they denote a specific commit or, for commands which walk
14 the revision graph (such as git-log(1)), all commits which are
15 reachable from that commit. For commands that walk the revision graph
16 one can also specify a range of revisions explicitly.
17 In addition, some Git commands (such as git-show(1) and git-push(1))
19 can also take revision parameters which denote other objects than
20 commits, e.g. blobs ("files") or trees ("directories of files").
21
23 A revision parameter <rev> typically, but not necessarily, names a
24 commit object. It uses what is called an extended SHA-1 syntax. Here
25 are various ways to spell object names. The ones listed near the end of
26 this list name trees and blobs contained in a commit.
27 Note
29 This document shows the "raw" syntax as seen by git. The shell and
30 other UIs might require additional quoting to protect special
31 characters and to avoid word splitting.
32 <sha1>, e.g. dae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735, dae86e
34 The full SHA-1 object name (40-byte hexadecimal string), or a
35 leading substring that is unique within the repository. E.g.
36 dae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735 and dae86e both name the
37 same commit object if there is no other object in your repository
38 whose object name starts with dae86e.
39 <describeOutput>, e.g. v1.7.4.2-679-g3bee7fb
41 Output from git describe; i.e. a closest tag, optionally followed
42 by a dash and a number of commits, followed by a dash, a g, and an
43 abbreviated object name.
44 <refname>, e.g. master, heads/master, refs/heads/master
46 A symbolic ref name. E.g. master typically means the commit object
47 referenced by refs/heads/master. If you happen to have both
48 heads/master and tags/master, you can explicitly say heads/master
49 to tell Git which one you mean. When ambiguous, a <refname> is
50 disambiguated by taking the first match in the following rules:
51 1. If $GIT_DIR/<refname> exists, that is what you mean (this is
53 usually useful only for HEAD, FETCH_HEAD, ORIG_HEAD, MERGE_HEAD
54 and CHERRY_PICK_HEAD);
55 2. otherwise, refs/<refname> if it exists;
57 3. otherwise, refs/tags/<refname> if it exists;
59 4. otherwise, refs/heads/<refname> if it exists;
61 5. otherwise, refs/remotes/<refname> if it exists;
63 6. otherwise, refs/remotes/<refname>/HEAD if it exists.
65 HEAD names the commit on which you based the changes in the
67 working tree. FETCH_HEAD records the branch which you fetched
68 from a remote repository with your last git fetch invocation.
69 ORIG_HEAD is created by commands that move your HEAD in a
70 drastic way, to record the position of the HEAD before their
71 operation, so that you can easily change the tip of the branch
72 back to the state before you ran them. MERGE_HEAD records the
73 commit(s) which you are merging into your branch when you run
74 git merge. CHERRY_PICK_HEAD records the commit which you are
75 cherry-picking when you run git cherry-pick.
76 Note that any of the refs/* cases above may come either from
78 the $GIT_DIR/refs directory or from the $GIT_DIR/packed-refs
79 file. While the ref name encoding is unspecified, UTF-8 is
80 preferred as some output processing may assume ref names in
81 UTF-8.
82 @
84 @ alone is a shortcut for HEAD.
85 <refname>@{<date>}, e.g. master@{yesterday}, HEAD@{5 minutes ago}
87 A ref followed by the suffix @ with a date specification enclosed
88 in a brace pair (e.g. {yesterday}, {1 month 2 weeks 3 days 1 hour
89 1 second ago} or {1979-02-26 18:30:00}) specifies the value of the
90 ref at a prior point in time. This suffix may only be used
91 immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an existing
92 log ($GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>). Note that this looks up the state of
93 your local ref at a given time; e.g., what was in your local master
94 branch last week. If you want to look at commits made during
95 certain times, see --since and --until.
96 <refname>@{<n>}, e.g. master@{1}
98 A ref followed by the suffix @ with an ordinal specification
99 enclosed in a brace pair (e.g. {1}, {15}) specifies the n-th prior
100 value of that ref. For example master@{1} is the immediate prior
101 value of master while master@{5} is the 5th prior value of master.
102 This suffix may only be used immediately following a ref name and
103 the ref must have an existing log ($GIT_DIR/logs/<refname>).
104 @{<n>}, e.g. @{1}
106 You can use the @ construct with an empty ref part to get at a
107 reflog entry of the current branch. For example, if you are on
108 branch blabla then @{1} means the same as blabla@{1}.
109 @{-<n>}, e.g. @{-1}
111 The construct @{-<n>} means the <n>th branch/commit checked out
112 before the current one.
113 <branchname>@{upstream}, e.g. master@{upstream}, @{u}
115 The suffix @{upstream} to a branchname (short form
116 <branchname>@{u}) refers to the branch that the branch specified by
117 branchname is set to build on top of (configured with
118 branch.<name>.remote and branch.<name>.merge). A missing branchname
119 defaults to the current one. These suffixes are also accepted when
120 spelled in uppercase, and they mean the same thing no matter the
121 case.
122 <branchname>@{push}, e.g. master@{push}, @{push}
124 The suffix @{push} reports the branch "where we would push to" if
125 git push were run while branchname was checked out (or the current
126 HEAD if no branchname is specified). Since our push destination is
127 in a remote repository, of course, we report the local tracking
128 branch that corresponds to that branch (i.e., something in
129 refs/remotes/).
130 Here’s an example to make it more clear:
132 $ git config push.default current
134 $ git config remote.pushdefault myfork
135 $ git checkout -b mybranch origin/master
136 $ git rev-parse --symbolic-full-name @{upstream}
138 refs/remotes/origin/master
139 $ git rev-parse --symbolic-full-name @{push}
141 refs/remotes/myfork/mybranch
142 Note in the example that we set up a triangular workflow, where we
144 pull from one location and push to another. In a non-triangular
145 workflow, @{push} is the same as @{upstream}, and there is no need
146 for it.
147 This suffix is also accepted when spelled in uppercase, and means
149 the same thing no matter the case.
150 <rev>^, e.g. HEAD^, v1.5.1^0
152 A suffix ^ to a revision parameter means the first parent of that
153 commit object. ^<n> means the <n>th parent (i.e. <rev>^ is
154 equivalent to <rev>^1). As a special rule, <rev>^0 means the commit
155 itself and is used when <rev> is the object name of a tag object
156 that refers to a commit object.
157 <rev>~<n>, e.g. master~3
159 A suffix ~<n> to a revision parameter means the commit object that
160 is the <n>th generation ancestor of the named commit object,
161 following only the first parents. I.e. <rev>~3 is equivalent to
162 <rev>^^^ which is equivalent to <rev>^1^1^1. See below for an
163 illustration of the usage of this form.
164 <rev>^{<type>}, e.g. v0.99.8^{commit}
166 A suffix ^ followed by an object type name enclosed in brace pair
167 means dereference the object at <rev> recursively until an object
168 of type <type> is found or the object cannot be dereferenced
169 anymore (in which case, barf). For example, if <rev> is a
170 commit-ish, <rev>^{commit} describes the corresponding commit
171 object. Similarly, if <rev> is a tree-ish, <rev>^{tree} describes
172 the corresponding tree object. <rev>^0 is a short-hand for
173 <rev>^{commit}.
174 rev^{object} can be used to make sure rev names an object that
176 exists, without requiring rev to be a tag, and without
177 dereferencing rev; because a tag is already an object, it does not
178 have to be dereferenced even once to get to an object.
179 rev^{tag} can be used to ensure that rev identifies an existing tag
181 object.
182 <rev>^{}, e.g. v0.99.8^{}
184 A suffix ^ followed by an empty brace pair means the object could
185 be a tag, and dereference the tag recursively until a non-tag
186 object is found.
187 <rev>^{/<text>}, e.g. HEAD^{/fix nasty bug}
189 A suffix ^ to a revision parameter, followed by a brace pair that
190 contains a text led by a slash, is the same as the :/fix nasty bug
191 syntax below except that it returns the youngest matching commit
192 which is reachable from the <rev> before ^.
193 :/<text>, e.g. :/fix nasty bug
195 A colon, followed by a slash, followed by a text, names a commit
196 whose commit message matches the specified regular expression. This
197 name returns the youngest matching commit which is reachable from
198 any ref, including HEAD. The regular expression can match any part
199 of the commit message. To match messages starting with a string,
200 one can use e.g. :/^foo. The special sequence :/! is reserved for
201 modifiers to what is matched. :/!-foo performs a negative match,
202 while :/!!foo matches a literal ! character, followed by foo. Any
203 other sequence beginning with :/! is reserved for now. Depending
204 on the given text, the shell’s word splitting rules might require
205 additional quoting.
206 <rev>:<path>, e.g. HEAD:README, :README, master:./README
208 A suffix : followed by a path names the blob or tree at the given
209 path in the tree-ish object named by the part before the colon.
210 :path (with an empty part before the colon) is a special case of
211 the syntax described next: content recorded in the index at the
212 given path. A path starting with ./ or ../ is relative to the
213 current working directory. The given path will be converted to be
214 relative to the working tree’s root directory. This is most useful
215 to address a blob or tree from a commit or tree that has the same
216 tree structure as the working tree.
217 :<n>:<path>, e.g. :0:README, :README
219 A colon, optionally followed by a stage number (0 to 3) and a
220 colon, followed by a path, names a blob object in the index at the
221 given path. A missing stage number (and the colon that follows it)
222 names a stage 0 entry. During a merge, stage 1 is the common
223 ancestor, stage 2 is the target branch’s version (typically the
224 current branch), and stage 3 is the version from the branch which
225 is being merged.
226 Here is an illustration, by Jon Loeliger. Both commit nodes B and C are
228 parents of commit node A. Parent commits are ordered left-to-right.
229 G H I J
231 \ / \ /
232 D E F
233 \ | / \
234 \ | / |
235 \|/ |
236 B C
237 \ /
238 \ /
239 A
240 A = = A^0
242 B = A^ = A^1 = A~1
243 C = A^2 = A^2
244 D = A^^ = A^1^1 = A~2
245 E = B^2 = A^^2
246 F = B^3 = A^^3
247 G = A^^^ = A^1^1^1 = A~3
248 H = D^2 = B^^2 = A^^^2 = A~2^2
249 I = F^ = B^3^ = A^^3^
250 J = F^2 = B^3^2 = A^^3^2
251
253 History traversing commands such as git log operate on a set of
254 commits, not just a single commit.
255 For these commands, specifying a single revision, using the notation
257 described in the previous section, means the set of commits reachable
258 from the given commit.
259 A commit’s reachable set is the commit itself and the commits in its
261 ancestry chain.
262 Commit Exclusions
264 ^<rev> (caret) Notation
265 To exclude commits reachable from a commit, a prefix ^ notation is
266 used. E.g. ^r1 r2 means commits reachable from r2 but exclude the
267 ones reachable from r1 (i.e. r1 and its ancestors).
268 Dotted Range Notations
270 The .. (two-dot) Range Notation
271 The ^r1 r2 set operation appears so often that there is a shorthand
272 for it. When you have two commits r1 and r2 (named according to the
273 syntax explained in SPECIFYING REVISIONS above), you can ask for
274 commits that are reachable from r2 excluding those that are
275 reachable from r1 by ^r1 r2 and it can be written as r1..r2.
276 The ... (three-dot) Symmetric Difference Notation
278 A similar notation r1...r2 is called symmetric difference of r1 and
279 r2 and is defined as r1 r2 --not $(git merge-base --all r1 r2). It
280 is the set of commits that are reachable from either one of r1
281 (left side) or r2 (right side) but not from both.
282 In these two shorthand notations, you can omit one end and let it
284 default to HEAD. For example, origin.. is a shorthand for origin..HEAD
285 and asks "What did I do since I forked from the origin branch?"
286 Similarly, ..origin is a shorthand for HEAD..origin and asks "What did
287 the origin do since I forked from them?" Note that .. would mean
288 HEAD..HEAD which is an empty range that is both reachable and
289 unreachable from HEAD.
290 Other <rev>^ Parent Shorthand Notations
292 Three other shorthands exist, particularly useful for merge commits,
293 for naming a set that is formed by a commit and its parent commits.
294 The r1^@ notation means all parents of r1.
296 The r1^! notation includes commit r1 but excludes all of its parents.
298 By itself, this notation denotes the single commit r1.
299 The <rev>^-<n> notation includes <rev> but excludes the <n>th parent
301 (i.e. a shorthand for <rev>^<n>..<rev>), with <n> = 1 if not given.
302 This is typically useful for merge commits where you can just pass
303 <commit>^- to get all the commits in the branch that was merged in
304 merge commit <commit> (including <commit> itself).
305 While <rev>^<n> was about specifying a single commit parent, these
307 three notations also consider its parents. For example you can say
308 HEAD^2^@, however you cannot say HEAD^@^2.
309
311 <rev>
312 Include commits that are reachable from <rev> (i.e. <rev> and its
313 ancestors).
314 ^<rev>
316 Exclude commits that are reachable from <rev> (i.e. <rev> and its
317 ancestors).
318 <rev1>..<rev2>
320 Include commits that are reachable from <rev2> but exclude those
321 that are reachable from <rev1>. When either <rev1> or <rev2> is
322 omitted, it defaults to HEAD.
323 <rev1>...<rev2>
325 Include commits that are reachable from either <rev1> or <rev2> but
326 exclude those that are reachable from both. When either <rev1> or
327 <rev2> is omitted, it defaults to HEAD.
328 <rev>^@, e.g. HEAD^@
330 A suffix ^ followed by an at sign is the same as listing all
331 parents of <rev> (meaning, include anything reachable from its
332 parents, but not the commit itself).
333 <rev>^!, e.g. HEAD^!
335 A suffix ^ followed by an exclamation mark is the same as giving
336 commit <rev> and then all its parents prefixed with ^ to exclude
337 them (and their ancestors).
338 <rev>^-<n>, e.g. HEAD^-, HEAD^-2
340 Equivalent to <rev>^<n>..<rev>, with <n> = 1 if not given.
341 Here are a handful of examples using the Loeliger illustration above,
343 with each step in the notation’s expansion and selection carefully
344 spelt out:
345 Args Expanded arguments Selected commits
347 D G H D
348 D F G H I J D F
349 ^G D H D
350 ^D B E I J F B
351 ^D B C E I J F B C
352 C I J F C
353 B..C = ^B C C
354 B...C = B ^F C G H D E B C
355 B^- = B^..B
356 = ^B^1 B E I J F B
357 C^@ = C^1
358 = F I J F
359 B^@ = B^1 B^2 B^3
360 = D E F D G H E F I J
361 C^! = C ^C^@
362 = C ^C^1
363 = C ^F C
364 B^! = B ^B^@
365 = B ^B^1 ^B^2 ^B^3
366 = B ^D ^E ^F B
367 F^! D = F ^I ^J D G H D F
368
370 git-rev-parse(1)
371
373 Part of the git(1) suite
374Git 2.21.0 02/24/2019 GITREVISIONS(7)