1GIT-HELP(1) Git Manual GIT-HELP(1)
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6 git-help - Display help information about Git
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9 git help [-a|--all] [--[no-]verbose] [--[no-]external-commands] [--[no-]aliases]
10 git help [[-i|--info] [-m|--man] [-w|--web]] [<command>|<doc>]
11 git help [-g|--guides]
12 git help [-c|--config]
13 git help [--user-interfaces]
14 git help [--developer-interfaces]
15
17 With no options and no <command> or <doc> given, the synopsis of the
18 git command and a list of the most commonly used Git commands are
19 printed on the standard output.
20 If the option --all or -a is given, all available commands are printed
22 on the standard output.
23 If the option --guides or -g is given, a list of the Git concept guides
25 is also printed on the standard output.
26 If a command or other documentation is given, the relevant manual page
28 will be brought up. The man program is used by default for this
29 purpose, but this can be overridden by other options or configuration
30 variables.
31 If an alias is given, git shows the definition of the alias on standard
33 output. To get the manual page for the aliased command, use git
34 <command> --help.
35 Note that git --help ... is identical to git help ... because the
37 former is internally converted into the latter.
38 To display the git(1) man page, use git help git.
40 This page can be displayed with git help help or git help --help.
42
44 -a, --all
45 Print all the available commands on the standard output.
46 --no-external-commands
48 When used with --all, exclude the listing of external "git-*"
49 commands found in the $PATH.
50 --no-aliases
52 When used with --all, exclude the listing of configured aliases.
53 --verbose
55 When used with --all, print description for all recognized
56 commands. This is the default.
57 -c, --config
59 List all available configuration variables. This is a short summary
60 of the list in git-config(1).
61 -g, --guides
63 Print a list of the Git concept guides on the standard output.
64 --user-interfaces
66 Print a list of the repository, command and file interfaces
67 documentation on the standard output.
68 In-repository file interfaces such as .git/info/exclude are
70 documented here (see gitrepository-layout(5)), as well as in-tree
71 configuration such as .mailmap (see gitmailmap(5)).
72 This section of the documentation also covers general or widespread
74 user-interface conventions (e.g. gitcli(7)), and
75 pseudo-configuration such as the file-based .git/hooks/* interface
76 described in githooks(5).
77 --developer-interfaces
79 Print a list of file formats, protocols and other developer
80 interfaces documentation on the standard output.
81 -i, --info
83 Display manual page for the command in the info format. The info
84 program will be used for that purpose.
85 -m, --man
87 Display manual page for the command in the man format. This option
88 may be used to override a value set in the help.format
89 configuration variable.
90 By default the man program will be used to display the manual page,
92 but the man.viewer configuration variable may be used to choose
93 other display programs (see below).
94 -w, --web
96 Display manual page for the command in the web (HTML) format. A web
97 browser will be used for that purpose.
98 The web browser can be specified using the configuration variable
100 help.browser, or web.browser if the former is not set. If neither
101 of these config variables is set, the git web--browse helper script
102 (called by git help) will pick a suitable default. See git-
103 web--browse(1) for more information about this.
104
106 help.format
107 If no command-line option is passed, the help.format configuration
108 variable will be checked. The following values are supported for this
109 variable; they make git help behave as their corresponding command-
110 line option:
111 • "man" corresponds to -m|--man,
113 • "info" corresponds to -i|--info,
115 • "web" or "html" correspond to -w|--web.
117 help.browser, web.browser, and browser.<tool>.path
119 The help.browser, web.browser and browser.<tool>.path will also be
120 checked if the web format is chosen (either by command-line option or
121 configuration variable). See -w|--web in the OPTIONS section above and
122 git-web--browse(1).
123 man.viewer
125 The man.viewer configuration variable will be checked if the man format
126 is chosen. The following values are currently supported:
127 • "man": use the man program as usual,
129 • "woman": use emacsclient to launch the "woman" mode in emacs (this
131 only works starting with emacsclient versions 22),
132 • "konqueror": use kfmclient to open the man page in a new konqueror
134 tab (see Note about konqueror below).
135 Values for other tools can be used if there is a corresponding
137 man.<tool>.cmd configuration entry (see below).
138 Multiple values may be given to the man.viewer configuration variable.
140 Their corresponding programs will be tried in the order listed in the
141 configuration file.
142 For example, this configuration:
144 [man]
146 viewer = konqueror
147 viewer = woman
148 will try to use konqueror first. But this may fail (for example, if
150 DISPLAY is not set) and in that case emacs' woman mode will be tried.
151 If everything fails, or if no viewer is configured, the viewer
153 specified in the GIT_MAN_VIEWER environment variable will be tried. If
154 that fails too, the man program will be tried anyway.
155 man.<tool>.path
157 You can explicitly provide a full path to your preferred man viewer by
158 setting the configuration variable man.<tool>.path. For example, you
159 can configure the absolute path to konqueror by setting
160 man.konqueror.path. Otherwise, git help assumes the tool is available
161 in PATH.
162 man.<tool>.cmd
164 When the man viewer, specified by the man.viewer configuration
165 variables, is not among the supported ones, then the corresponding
166 man.<tool>.cmd configuration variable will be looked up. If this
167 variable exists then the specified tool will be treated as a custom
168 command and a shell eval will be used to run the command with the man
169 page passed as arguments.
170 Note about konqueror
172 When konqueror is specified in the man.viewer configuration variable,
173 we launch kfmclient to try to open the man page on an already opened
174 konqueror in a new tab if possible.
175 For consistency, we also try such a trick if man.konqueror.path is set
177 to something like A_PATH_TO/konqueror. That means we will try to launch
178 A_PATH_TO/kfmclient instead.
179 If you really want to use konqueror, then you can use something like
181 the following:
182 [man]
184 viewer = konq
185 [man "konq"]
187 cmd = A_PATH_TO/konqueror
188 Note about git config --global
190 Note that all these configuration variables should probably be set
191 using the --global flag, for example like this:
192 $ git config --global help.format web
194 $ git config --global web.browser firefox
195 as they are probably more user specific than repository specific. See
197 git-config(1) for more information about this.
198
200 Part of the git(1) suite
201Git 2.43.0 11/20/2023 GIT-HELP(1)