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,
54 MERGE_HEAD, REBASE_HEAD, REVERT_HEAD, CHERRY_PICK_HEAD,
55 BISECT_HEAD and AUTO_MERGE);
56 2. otherwise, refs/<refname> if it exists;
58 3. otherwise, refs/tags/<refname> if it exists;
60 4. otherwise, refs/heads/<refname> if it exists;
62 5. otherwise, refs/remotes/<refname> if it exists;
64 6. otherwise, refs/remotes/<refname>/HEAD if it exists.
66 HEAD
68 names the commit on which you based the changes in the
69 working tree.
70 FETCH_HEAD
72 records the branch which you fetched from a remote
73 repository with your last git fetch invocation.
74 ORIG_HEAD
76 is created by commands that move your HEAD in a drastic way
77 (git am, git merge, git rebase, git reset), to record the
78 position of the HEAD before their operation, so that you
79 can easily change the tip of the branch back to the state
80 before you ran them.
81 MERGE_HEAD
83 records the commit(s) which you are merging into your
84 branch when you run git merge.
85 REBASE_HEAD
87 during a rebase, records the commit at which the operation
88 is currently stopped, either because of conflicts or an
89 edit command in an interactive rebase.
90 REVERT_HEAD
92 records the commit which you are reverting when you run git
93 revert.
94 CHERRY_PICK_HEAD
96 records the commit which you are cherry-picking when you
97 run git cherry-pick.
98 BISECT_HEAD
100 records the current commit to be tested when you run git
101 bisect --no-checkout.
102 AUTO_MERGE
104 records a tree object corresponding to the state the ort
105 merge strategy wrote to the working tree when a merge
106 operation resulted in conflicts.
107 Note that any of the refs/* cases above may come either from the
109 $GIT_DIR/refs directory or from the $GIT_DIR/packed-refs file.
110 While the ref name encoding is unspecified, UTF-8 is preferred as
111 some output processing may assume ref names in UTF-8.
112 @
114 @ alone is a shortcut for HEAD.
115 [<refname>]@{<date>}, e.g. master@{yesterday}, HEAD@{5 minutes ago}
117 A ref followed by the suffix @ with a date specification enclosed
118 in a brace pair (e.g. {yesterday}, {1 month 2 weeks 3 days 1 hour
119 1 second ago} or {1979-02-26 18:30:00}) specifies the value of the
120 ref at a prior point in time. This suffix may only be used
121 immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an existing
122 log ($GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>). Note that this looks up the state of
123 your local ref at a given time; e.g., what was in your local master
124 branch last week. If you want to look at commits made during
125 certain times, see --since and --until.
126 <refname>@{<n>}, e.g. master@{1}
128 A ref followed by the suffix @ with an ordinal specification
129 enclosed in a brace pair (e.g. {1}, {15}) specifies the n-th prior
130 value of that ref. For example master@{1} is the immediate prior
131 value of master while master@{5} is the 5th prior value of master.
132 This suffix may only be used immediately following a ref name and
133 the ref must have an existing log ($GIT_DIR/logs/<refname>).
134 @{<n>}, e.g. @{1}
136 You can use the @ construct with an empty ref part to get at a
137 reflog entry of the current branch. For example, if you are on
138 branch blabla then @{1} means the same as blabla@{1}.
139 @{-<n>}, e.g. @{-1}
141 The construct @{-<n>} means the <n>th branch/commit checked out
142 before the current one.
143 [<branchname>]@{upstream}, e.g. master@{upstream}, @{u}
145 A branch B may be set up to build on top of a branch X (configured
146 with branch.<name>.merge) at a remote R (configured with
147 branch.<name>.remote). B@{u} refers to the remote-tracking branch
148 for the branch X taken from remote R, typically found at
149 refs/remotes/R/X.
150 [<branchname>]@{push}, e.g. master@{push}, @{push}
152 The suffix @{push} reports the branch "where we would push to" if
153 git push were run while branchname was checked out (or the current
154 HEAD if no branchname is specified). Like for @{upstream}, we
155 report the remote-tracking branch that corresponds to that branch
156 at the remote.
157 Here’s an example to make it more clear:
159 $ git config push.default current
161 $ git config remote.pushdefault myfork
162 $ git switch -c mybranch origin/master
163 $ git rev-parse --symbolic-full-name @{upstream}
165 refs/remotes/origin/master
166 $ git rev-parse --symbolic-full-name @{push}
168 refs/remotes/myfork/mybranch
169 Note in the example that we set up a triangular workflow, where we
171 pull from one location and push to another. In a non-triangular
172 workflow, @{push} is the same as @{upstream}, and there is no need
173 for it.
174 This suffix is also accepted when spelled in uppercase, and means
176 the same thing no matter the case.
177 <rev>^[<n>], e.g. HEAD^, v1.5.1^0
179 A suffix ^ to a revision parameter means the first parent of that
180 commit object. ^<n> means the <n>th parent (i.e. <rev>^ is
181 equivalent to <rev>^1). As a special rule, <rev>^0 means the commit
182 itself and is used when <rev> is the object name of a tag object
183 that refers to a commit object.
184 <rev>~[<n>], e.g. HEAD~, master~3
186 A suffix ~ to a revision parameter means the first parent of that
187 commit object. A suffix ~<n> to a revision parameter means the
188 commit object that is the <n>th generation ancestor of the named
189 commit object, following only the first parents. I.e. <rev>~3 is
190 equivalent to <rev>^^^ which is equivalent to <rev>^1^1^1. See
191 below for an illustration of the usage of this form.
192 <rev>^{<type>}, e.g. v0.99.8^{commit}
194 A suffix ^ followed by an object type name enclosed in brace pair
195 means dereference the object at <rev> recursively until an object
196 of type <type> is found or the object cannot be dereferenced
197 anymore (in which case, barf). For example, if <rev> is a
198 commit-ish, <rev>^{commit} describes the corresponding commit
199 object. Similarly, if <rev> is a tree-ish, <rev>^{tree} describes
200 the corresponding tree object. <rev>^0 is a short-hand for
201 <rev>^{commit}.
202 <rev>^{object} can be used to make sure <rev> names an object that
204 exists, without requiring <rev> to be a tag, and without
205 dereferencing <rev>; because a tag is already an object, it does
206 not have to be dereferenced even once to get to an object.
207 <rev>^{tag} can be used to ensure that <rev> identifies an existing
209 tag object.
210 <rev>^{}, e.g. v0.99.8^{}
212 A suffix ^ followed by an empty brace pair means the object could
213 be a tag, and dereference the tag recursively until a non-tag
214 object is found.
215 <rev>^{/<text>}, e.g. HEAD^{/fix nasty bug}
217 A suffix ^ to a revision parameter, followed by a brace pair that
218 contains a text led by a slash, is the same as the :/fix nasty bug
219 syntax below except that it returns the youngest matching commit
220 which is reachable from the <rev> before ^.
221 :/<text>, e.g. :/fix nasty bug
223 A colon, followed by a slash, followed by a text, names a commit
224 whose commit message matches the specified regular expression. This
225 name returns the youngest matching commit which is reachable from
226 any ref, including HEAD. The regular expression can match any part
227 of the commit message. To match messages starting with a string,
228 one can use e.g. :/^foo. The special sequence :/! is reserved for
229 modifiers to what is matched. :/!-foo performs a negative match,
230 while :/!!foo matches a literal ! character, followed by foo. Any
231 other sequence beginning with :/! is reserved for now. Depending
232 on the given text, the shell’s word splitting rules might require
233 additional quoting.
234 <rev>:<path>, e.g. HEAD:README, master:./README
236 A suffix : followed by a path names the blob or tree at the given
237 path in the tree-ish object named by the part before the colon. A
238 path starting with ./ or ../ is relative to the current working
239 directory. The given path will be converted to be relative to the
240 working tree’s root directory. This is most useful to address a
241 blob or tree from a commit or tree that has the same tree structure
242 as the working tree.
243 :[<n>:]<path>, e.g. :0:README, :README
245 A colon, optionally followed by a stage number (0 to 3) and a
246 colon, followed by a path, names a blob object in the index at the
247 given path. A missing stage number (and the colon that follows it)
248 names a stage 0 entry. During a merge, stage 1 is the common
249 ancestor, stage 2 is the target branch’s version (typically the
250 current branch), and stage 3 is the version from the branch which
251 is being merged.
252 Here is an illustration, by Jon Loeliger. Both commit nodes B and C are
254 parents of commit node A. Parent commits are ordered left-to-right.
255 G H I J
257 \ / \ /
258 D E F
259 \ | / \
260 \ | / |
261 \|/ |
262 B C
263 \ /
264 \ /
265 A
266 A = = A^0
268 B = A^ = A^1 = A~1
269 C = = A^2
270 D = A^^ = A^1^1 = A~2
271 E = B^2 = A^^2
272 F = B^3 = A^^3
273 G = A^^^ = A^1^1^1 = A~3
274 H = D^2 = B^^2 = A^^^2 = A~2^2
275 I = F^ = B^3^ = A^^3^
276 J = F^2 = B^3^2 = A^^3^2
277
279 History traversing commands such as git log operate on a set of
280 commits, not just a single commit.
281 For these commands, specifying a single revision, using the notation
283 described in the previous section, means the set of commits reachable
284 from the given commit.
285 Specifying several revisions means the set of commits reachable from
287 any of the given commits.
288 A commit’s reachable set is the commit itself and the commits in its
290 ancestry chain.
291 There are several notations to specify a set of connected commits
293 (called a "revision range"), illustrated below.
294 Commit Exclusions
296 ^<rev> (caret) Notation
297 To exclude commits reachable from a commit, a prefix ^ notation is
298 used. E.g. ^r1 r2 means commits reachable from r2 but exclude the
299 ones reachable from r1 (i.e. r1 and its ancestors).
300 Dotted Range Notations
302 The .. (two-dot) Range Notation
303 The ^r1 r2 set operation appears so often that there is a shorthand
304 for it. When you have two commits r1 and r2 (named according to the
305 syntax explained in SPECIFYING REVISIONS above), you can ask for
306 commits that are reachable from r2 excluding those that are
307 reachable from r1 by ^r1 r2 and it can be written as r1..r2.
308 The ... (three-dot) Symmetric Difference Notation
310 A similar notation r1...r2 is called symmetric difference of r1 and
311 r2 and is defined as r1 r2 --not $(git merge-base --all r1 r2). It
312 is the set of commits that are reachable from either one of r1
313 (left side) or r2 (right side) but not from both.
314 In these two shorthand notations, you can omit one end and let it
316 default to HEAD. For example, origin.. is a shorthand for origin..HEAD
317 and asks "What did I do since I forked from the origin branch?"
318 Similarly, ..origin is a shorthand for HEAD..origin and asks "What did
319 the origin do since I forked from them?" Note that .. would mean
320 HEAD..HEAD which is an empty range that is both reachable and
321 unreachable from HEAD.
322 Commands that are specifically designed to take two distinct ranges
324 (e.g. "git range-diff R1 R2" to compare two ranges) do exist, but they
325 are exceptions. Unless otherwise noted, all "git" commands that operate
326 on a set of commits work on a single revision range. In other words,
327 writing two "two-dot range notation" next to each other, e.g.
328 $ git log A..B C..D
330 does not specify two revision ranges for most commands. Instead it will
332 name a single connected set of commits, i.e. those that are reachable
333 from either B or D but are reachable from neither A or C. In a linear
334 history like this:
335 ---A---B---o---o---C---D
337 because A and B are reachable from C, the revision range specified by
339 these two dotted ranges is a single commit D.
340 Other <rev>^ Parent Shorthand Notations
342 Three other shorthands exist, particularly useful for merge commits,
343 for naming a set that is formed by a commit and its parent commits.
344 The r1^@ notation means all parents of r1.
346 The r1^! notation includes commit r1 but excludes all of its parents.
348 By itself, this notation denotes the single commit r1.
349 The <rev>^-[<n>] notation includes <rev> but excludes the <n>th parent
351 (i.e. a shorthand for <rev>^<n>..<rev>), with <n> = 1 if not given.
352 This is typically useful for merge commits where you can just pass
353 <commit>^- to get all the commits in the branch that was merged in
354 merge commit <commit> (including <commit> itself).
355 While <rev>^<n> was about specifying a single commit parent, these
357 three notations also consider its parents. For example you can say
358 HEAD^2^@, however you cannot say HEAD^@^2.
359
361 <rev>
362 Include commits that are reachable from <rev> (i.e. <rev> and its
363 ancestors).
364 ^<rev>
366 Exclude commits that are reachable from <rev> (i.e. <rev> and its
367 ancestors).
368 <rev1>..<rev2>
370 Include commits that are reachable from <rev2> but exclude those
371 that are reachable from <rev1>. When either <rev1> or <rev2> is
372 omitted, it defaults to HEAD.
373 <rev1>...<rev2>
375 Include commits that are reachable from either <rev1> or <rev2> but
376 exclude those that are reachable from both. When either <rev1> or
377 <rev2> is omitted, it defaults to HEAD.
378 <rev>^@, e.g. HEAD^@
380 A suffix ^ followed by an at sign is the same as listing all
381 parents of <rev> (meaning, include anything reachable from its
382 parents, but not the commit itself).
383 <rev>^!, e.g. HEAD^!
385 A suffix ^ followed by an exclamation mark is the same as giving
386 commit <rev> and all its parents prefixed with ^ to exclude them
387 (and their ancestors).
388 <rev>^-<n>, e.g. HEAD^-, HEAD^-2
390 Equivalent to <rev>^<n>..<rev>, with <n> = 1 if not given.
391 Here are a handful of examples using the Loeliger illustration above,
393 with each step in the notation’s expansion and selection carefully
394 spelt out:
395 Args Expanded arguments Selected commits
397 D G H D
398 D F G H I J D F
399 ^G D H D
400 ^D B E I J F B
401 ^D B C E I J F B C
402 C I J F C
403 B..C = ^B C C
404 B...C = B ^F C G H D E B C
405 B^- = B^..B
406 = ^B^1 B E I J F B
407 C^@ = C^1
408 = F I J F
409 B^@ = B^1 B^2 B^3
410 = D E F D G H E F I J
411 C^! = C ^C^@
412 = C ^C^1
413 = C ^F C
414 B^! = B ^B^@
415 = B ^B^1 ^B^2 ^B^3
416 = B ^D ^E ^F B
417 F^! D = F ^I ^J D G H D F
418
420 git-rev-parse(1)
421
423 Part of the git(1) suite
424Git 2.43.0 11/20/2023 GITREVISIONS(7)