sxlijin
commented
7 years ago This is all well documented in the man pages. If you have issues with any of the actual documentation, please reach out to the community.
Closed andrewzhaosc closed 7 years ago
sxlijin
commented
7 years ago This is all well documented in the man pages. If you have issues with any of the actual documentation, please reach out to the community.
andrewzhaosc
commented
7 years ago where is it then?
I tried searching for return codes but I'm here because I couldn't find it in the man page
Here's the man page. Why don't you point it out to me.
GIT(1) Git Manual GIT(1)
NAME
git - the stupid content tracker
SYNOPSIS
git [--version] [--help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
[--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
[-p|--paginate|--no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--bare]
[--git-dir=<path>] [--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>]
<command> [<args>]
DESCRIPTION
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an
unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and
full access to internals.
See gittutorial(7) to get started, then see giteveryday(7) for a useful
minimum set of commands. The Git User's Manual[1] has a more in-depth
introduction.
After you mastered the basic concepts, you can come back to this page
to learn what commands Git offers. You can learn more about individual
Git commands with "git help command". gitcli(7) manual page gives you
an overview of the command-line command syntax.
Formatted and hyperlinked version of the latest Git documentation can
be viewed at http://git-htmldocs.googlecode.com/git/git.html.
OPTIONS
--version
Prints the Git suite version that the git program came from.
--help
Prints the synopsis and a list of the most commonly used commands.
If the option --all or -a is given then all available commands are
printed. If a Git command is named this option will bring up the
manual page for that command.
Other options are available to control how the manual page is
displayed. See git-help(1) for more information, because git --help
... is converted internally into git help ....
-C <path>
Run as if git was started in <path> instead of the current working
directory. When multiple -C options are given, each subsequent
non-absolute -C <path> is interpreted relative to the preceding -C
<path>.
This option affects options that expect path name like --git-dir
and --work-tree in that their interpretations of the path names
would be made relative to the working directory caused by the -C
option. For example the following invocations are equivalent:
git --git-dir=a.git --work-tree=b -C c status
git --git-dir=c/a.git --work-tree=c/b status
-c <name>=<value>
Pass a configuration parameter to the command. The value given will
override values from configuration files. The <name> is expected in
the same format as listed by git config (subkeys separated by
dots).
Note that omitting the = in git -c foo.bar ... is allowed and sets
foo.bar to the boolean true value (just like [foo]bar would in a
config file). Including the equals but with an empty value (like
git -c foo.bar= ...) sets foo.bar to the empty string.
--exec-path[=<path>]
Path to wherever your core Git programs are installed. This can
also be controlled by setting the GIT_EXEC_PATH environment
variable. If no path is given, git will print the current setting
and then exit.
--html-path
Print the path, without trailing slash, where Git's HTML
documentation is installed and exit.
--man-path
Print the manpath (see man(1)) for the man pages for this version
of Git and exit.
--info-path
Print the path where the Info files documenting this version of Git
are installed and exit.
-p, --paginate
Pipe all output into less (or if set, $PAGER) if standard output is
a terminal. This overrides the pager.<cmd> configuration options
(see the "Configuration Mechanism" section below).
--no-pager
Do not pipe Git output into a pager.
--git-dir=<path>
Set the path to the repository. This can also be controlled by
setting the GIT_DIR environment variable. It can be an absolute
path or relative path to current working directory.
--work-tree=<path>
Set the path to the working tree. It can be an absolute path or a
path relative to the current working directory. This can also be
controlled by setting the GIT_WORK_TREE environment variable and
the core.worktree configuration variable (see core.worktree in git-
config(1) for a more detailed discussion).
--namespace=<path>
Set the Git namespace. See gitnamespaces(7) for more details.
Equivalent to setting the GIT_NAMESPACE environment variable.
--bare
Treat the repository as a bare repository. If GIT_DIR environment
is not set, it is set to the current working directory.
--no-replace-objects
Do not use replacement refs to replace Git objects. See git-
replace(1) for more information.
--literal-pathspecs
Treat pathspecs literally (i.e. no globbing, no pathspec magic).
This is equivalent to setting the GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS environment
variable to 1.
--glob-pathspecs
Add "glob" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting the
GIT_GLOB_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1. Disabling globbing on
individual pathspecs can be done using pathspec magic ":(literal)"
--noglob-pathspecs
Add "literal" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting
the GIT_NOGLOB_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1. Enabling
globbing on individual pathspecs can be done using pathspec magic
":(glob)"
--icase-pathspecs
Add "icase" magic to all pathspec. This is equivalent to setting
the GIT_ICASE_PATHSPECS environment variable to 1.
GIT COMMANDS
We divide Git into high level ("porcelain") commands and low level
("plumbing") commands.
HIGH-LEVEL COMMANDS (PORCELAIN)
We separate the porcelain commands into the main commands and some
ancillary user utilities.
Main porcelain commands
git-add(1)
Add file contents to the index.
git-am(1)
Apply a series of patches from a mailbox.
git-archive(1)
Create an archive of files from a named tree.
git-bisect(1)
Use binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug.
git-branch(1)
List, create, or delete branches.
git-bundle(1)
Move objects and refs by archive.
git-checkout(1)
Switch branches or restore working tree files.
git-cherry-pick(1)
Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits.
git-citool(1)
Graphical alternative to git-commit.
git-clean(1)
Remove untracked files from the working tree.
git-clone(1)
Clone a repository into a new directory.
git-commit(1)
Record changes to the repository.
git-describe(1)
Describe a commit using the most recent tag reachable from it.
git-diff(1)
Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc.
git-fetch(1)
Download objects and refs from another repository.
git-format-patch(1)
Prepare patches for e-mail submission.
git-gc(1)
Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository.
git-grep(1)
Print lines matching a pattern.
git-gui(1)
A portable graphical interface to Git.
git-init(1)
Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one.
git-log(1)
Show commit logs.
git-merge(1)
Join two or more development histories together.
git-mv(1)
Move or rename a file, a directory, or a symlink.
git-notes(1)
Add or inspect object notes.
git-pull(1)
Fetch from and integrate with another repository or a local branch.
git-push(1)
Update remote refs along with associated objects.
git-rebase(1)
Forward-port local commits to the updated upstream head.
git-reset(1)
Reset current HEAD to the specified state.
git-revert(1)
Revert some existing commits.
git-rm(1)
Remove files from the working tree and from the index.
git-shortlog(1)
Summarize git log output.
git-show(1)
Show various types of objects.
git-stash(1)
Stash the changes in a dirty working directory away.
git-status(1)
Show the working tree status.
git-submodule(1)
Initialize, update or inspect submodules.
git-tag(1)
Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG.
git-worktree(1)
Manage multiple working trees.
gitk(1)
The Git repository browser.
Ancillary Commands
Manipulators:
git-config(1)
Get and set repository or global options.
git-fast-export(1)
Git data exporter.
git-fast-import(1)
Backend for fast Git data importers.
git-filter-branch(1)
Rewrite branches.
git-mergetool(1)
Run merge conflict resolution tools to resolve merge conflicts.
git-pack-refs(1)
Pack heads and tags for efficient repository access.
git-prune(1)
Prune all unreachable objects from the object database.
git-reflog(1)
Manage reflog information.
git-relink(1)
Hardlink common objects in local repositories.
git-remote(1)
Manage set of tracked repositories.
git-repack(1)
Pack unpacked objects in a repository.
git-replace(1)
Create, list, delete refs to replace objects.
Interrogators:
git-annotate(1)
Annotate file lines with commit information.
git-blame(1)
Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file.
git-cherry(1)
Find commits yet to be applied to upstream.
git-count-objects(1)
Count unpacked number of objects and their disk consumption.
git-difftool(1)
Show changes using common diff tools.
git-fsck(1)
Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the
database.
git-get-tar-commit-id(1)
Extract commit ID from an archive created using git-archive.
git-help(1)
Display help information about Git.
git-instaweb(1)
Instantly browse your working repository in gitweb.
git-merge-tree(1)
Show three-way merge without touching index.
git-rerere(1)
Reuse recorded resolution of conflicted merges.
git-rev-parse(1)
Pick out and massage parameters.
git-show-branch(1)
Show branches and their commits.
git-verify-commit(1)
Check the GPG signature of commits.
git-verify-tag(1)
Check the GPG signature of tags.
git-whatchanged(1)
Show logs with difference each commit introduces.
gitweb(1)
Git web interface (web frontend to Git repositories).
Interacting with Others
These commands are to interact with foreign SCM and with other people
via patch over e-mail.
git-archimport(1)
Import an Arch repository into Git.
git-cvsexportcommit(1)
Export a single commit to a CVS checkout.
git-cvsimport(1)
Salvage your data out of another SCM people love to hate.
git-cvsserver(1)
A CVS server emulator for Git.
git-imap-send(1)
Send a collection of patches from stdin to an IMAP folder.
git-p4(1)
Import from and submit to Perforce repositories.
git-quiltimport(1)
Applies a quilt patchset onto the current branch.
git-request-pull(1)
Generates a summary of pending changes.
git-send-email(1)
Send a collection of patches as emails.
git-svn(1)
Bidirectional operation between a Subversion repository and Git.
LOW-LEVEL COMMANDS (PLUMBING)
Although Git includes its own porcelain layer, its low-level commands
are sufficient to support development of alternative porcelains.
Developers of such porcelains might start by reading about git-update-
index(1) and git-read-tree(1).
The interface (input, output, set of options and the semantics) to
these low-level commands are meant to be a lot more stable than
Porcelain level commands, because these commands are primarily for
scripted use. The interface to Porcelain commands on the other hand are
subject to change in order to improve the end user experience.
The following description divides the low-level commands into commands
that manipulate objects (in the repository, index, and working tree),
commands that interrogate and compare objects, and commands that move
objects and references between repositories.
Manipulation commands
git-apply(1)
Apply a patch to files and/or to the index.
git-checkout-index(1)
Copy files from the index to the working tree.
git-commit-tree(1)
Create a new commit object.
git-hash-object(1)
Compute object ID and optionally creates a blob from a file.
git-index-pack(1)
Build pack index file for an existing packed archive.
git-merge-file(1)
Run a three-way file merge.
git-merge-index(1)
Run a merge for files needing merging.
git-mktag(1)
Creates a tag object.
git-mktree(1)
Build a tree-object from ls-tree formatted text.
git-pack-objects(1)
Create a packed archive of objects.
git-prune-packed(1)
Remove extra objects that are already in pack files.
git-read-tree(1)
Reads tree information into the index.
git-symbolic-ref(1)
Read, modify and delete symbolic refs.
git-unpack-objects(1)
Unpack objects from a packed archive.
git-update-index(1)
Register file contents in the working tree to the index.
git-update-ref(1)
Update the object name stored in a ref safely.
git-write-tree(1)
Create a tree object from the current index.
Interrogation commands
git-cat-file(1)
Provide content or type and size information for repository
objects.
git-diff-files(1)
Compares files in the working tree and the index.
git-diff-index(1)
Compare a tree to the working tree or index.
git-diff-tree(1)
Compares the content and mode of blobs found via two tree objects.
git-for-each-ref(1)
Output information on each ref.
git-ls-files(1)
Show information about files in the index and the working tree.
git-ls-remote(1)
List references in a remote repository.
git-ls-tree(1)
List the contents of a tree object.
git-merge-base(1)
Find as good common ancestors as possible for a merge.
git-name-rev(1)
Find symbolic names for given revs.
git-pack-redundant(1)
Find redundant pack files.
git-rev-list(1)
Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order.
git-show-index(1)
Show packed archive index.
git-show-ref(1)
List references in a local repository.
git-unpack-file(1)
Creates a temporary file with a blob's contents.
git-var(1)
Show a Git logical variable.
git-verify-pack(1)
Validate packed Git archive files.
In general, the interrogate commands do not touch the files in the
working tree.
Synching repositories
git-daemon(1)
A really simple server for Git repositories.
git-fetch-pack(1)
Receive missing objects from another repository.
git-http-backend(1)
Server side implementation of Git over HTTP.
git-send-pack(1)
Push objects over Git protocol to another repository.
git-update-server-info(1)
Update auxiliary info file to help dumb servers.
The following are helper commands used by the above; end users
typically do not use them directly.
git-http-fetch(1)
Download from a remote Git repository via HTTP.
git-http-push(1)
Push objects over HTTP/DAV to another repository.
git-parse-remote(1)
Routines to help parsing remote repository access parameters.
git-receive-pack(1)
Receive what is pushed into the repository.
git-shell(1)
Restricted login shell for Git-only SSH access.
git-upload-archive(1)
Send archive back to git-archive.
git-upload-pack(1)
Send objects packed back to git-fetch-pack.
Internal helper commands
These are internal helper commands used by other commands; end users
typically do not use them directly.
git-check-attr(1)
Display gitattributes information.
git-check-ignore(1)
Debug gitignore / exclude files.
git-check-mailmap(1)
Show canonical names and email addresses of contacts.
git-check-ref-format(1)
Ensures that a reference name is well formed.
git-column(1)
Display data in columns.
git-credential(1)
Retrieve and store user credentials.
git-credential-cache(1)
Helper to temporarily store passwords in memory.
git-credential-store(1)
Helper to store credentials on disk.
git-fmt-merge-msg(1)
Produce a merge commit message.
git-interpret-trailers(1)
help add structured information into commit messages.
git-mailinfo(1)
Extracts patch and authorship from a single e-mail message.
git-mailsplit(1)
Simple UNIX mbox splitter program.
git-merge-one-file(1)
The standard helper program to use with git-merge-index.
git-patch-id(1)
Compute unique ID for a patch.
git-sh-i18n(1)
Git's i18n setup code for shell scripts.
git-sh-setup(1)
Common Git shell script setup code.
git-stripspace(1)
Remove unnecessary whitespace.
CONFIGURATION MECHANISM
Git uses a simple text format to store customizations that are per
repository and are per user. Such a configuration file may look like
this:
#
# A '#' or ';' character indicates a comment.
#
; core variables
[core]
; Don't trust file modes
filemode = false
; user identity
[user]
name = "Junio C Hamano"
email = "gitster@pobox.com"
Various commands read from the configuration file and adjust their
operation accordingly. See git-config(1) for a list and more details
about the configuration mechanism.
IDENTIFIER TERMINOLOGY
<object>
Indicates the object name for any type of object.
<blob>
Indicates a blob object name.
<tree>
Indicates a tree object name.
<commit>
Indicates a commit object name.
<tree-ish>
Indicates a tree, commit or tag object name. A command that takes a
<tree-ish> argument ultimately wants to operate on a <tree> object
but automatically dereferences <commit> and <tag> objects that
point at a <tree>.
<commit-ish>
Indicates a commit or tag object name. A command that takes a
<commit-ish> argument ultimately wants to operate on a <commit>
object but automatically dereferences <tag> objects that point at a
<commit>.
<type>
Indicates that an object type is required. Currently one of: blob,
tree, commit, or tag.
<file>
Indicates a filename - almost always relative to the root of the
tree structure GIT_INDEX_FILE describes.
SYMBOLIC IDENTIFIERS
Any Git command accepting any <object> can also use the following
symbolic notation:
HEAD
indicates the head of the current branch.
<tag>
a valid tag name (i.e. a refs/tags/<tag> reference).
<head>
a valid head name (i.e. a refs/heads/<head> reference).
For a more complete list of ways to spell object names, see "SPECIFYING
REVISIONS" section in gitrevisions(7).
FILE/DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
Please see the gitrepository-layout(5) document.
Read githooks(5) for more details about each hook.
Higher level SCMs may provide and manage additional information in the
$GIT_DIR.
TERMINOLOGY
Please see gitglossary(7).
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
Various Git commands use the following environment variables:
The Git Repository
These environment variables apply to all core Git commands. Nb: it is
worth noting that they may be used/overridden by SCMS sitting above Git
so take care if using a foreign front-end.
GIT_INDEX_FILE
This environment allows the specification of an alternate index
file. If not specified, the default of $GIT_DIR/index is used.
GIT_INDEX_VERSION
This environment variable allows the specification of an index
version for new repositories. It won't affect existing index files.
By default index file version 2 or 3 is used. See git-update-
index(1) for more information.
GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
If the object storage directory is specified via this environment
variable then the sha1 directories are created underneath -
otherwise the default $GIT_DIR/objects directory is used.
GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
Due to the immutable nature of Git objects, old objects can be
archived into shared, read-only directories. This variable
specifies a ":" separated (on Windows ";" separated) list of Git
object directories which can be used to search for Git objects. New
objects will not be written to these directories.
GIT_DIR
If the GIT_DIR environment variable is set then it specifies a path
to use instead of the default .git for the base of the repository.
The --git-dir command-line option also sets this value.
GIT_WORK_TREE
Set the path to the root of the working tree. This can also be
controlled by the --work-tree command-line option and the
core.worktree configuration variable.
GIT_NAMESPACE
Set the Git namespace; see gitnamespaces(7) for details. The
--namespace command-line option also sets this value.
GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES
This should be a colon-separated list of absolute paths. If set, it
is a list of directories that Git should not chdir up into while
looking for a repository directory (useful for excluding
slow-loading network directories). It will not exclude the current
working directory or a GIT_DIR set on the command line or in the
environment. Normally, Git has to read the entries in this list and
resolve any symlink that might be present in order to compare them
with the current directory. However, if even this access is slow,
you can add an empty entry to the list to tell Git that the
subsequent entries are not symlinks and needn't be resolved; e.g.,
GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES=/maybe/symlink::/very/slow/non/symlink.
GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM
When run in a directory that does not have ".git" repository
directory, Git tries to find such a directory in the parent
directories to find the top of the working tree, but by default it
does not cross filesystem boundaries. This environment variable can
be set to true to tell Git not to stop at filesystem boundaries.
Like GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES, this will not affect an explicit
repository directory set via GIT_DIR or on the command line.
GIT_COMMON_DIR
If this variable is set to a path, non-worktree files that are
normally in $GIT_DIR will be taken from this path instead.
Worktree-specific files such as HEAD or index are taken from
$GIT_DIR. See gitrepository-layout(5) and git-worktree(1) for
details. This variable has lower precedence than other path
variables such as GIT_INDEX_FILE, GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY...
Git Commits
GIT_AUTHOR_NAME, GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL, GIT_AUTHOR_DATE, GIT_COMMITTER_NAME,
GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL, GIT_COMMITTER_DATE, EMAIL
see git-commit-tree(1)
Git Diffs
GIT_DIFF_OPTS
Only valid setting is "--unified=??" or "-u??" to set the number of
context lines shown when a unified diff is created. This takes
precedence over any "-U" or "--unified" option value passed on the
Git diff command line.
GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF
When the environment variable GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is set, the program
named by it is called, instead of the diff invocation described
above. For a path that is added, removed, or modified,
GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is called with 7 parameters:
path old-file old-hex old-mode new-file new-hex new-mode
where:
<old|new>-file
are files GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF can use to read the contents of
<old|new>,
<old|new>-hex
are the 40-hexdigit SHA-1 hashes,
<old|new>-mode
are the octal representation of the file modes.
The file parameters can point at the user's working file (e.g.
new-file in "git-diff-files"), /dev/null (e.g. old-file when a new
file is added), or a temporary file (e.g. old-file in the index).
GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF should not worry about unlinking the temporary
file --- it is removed when GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF exits.
For a path that is unmerged, GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is called with 1
parameter, <path>.
For each path GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is called, two environment
variables, GIT_DIFF_PATH_COUNTER and GIT_DIFF_PATH_TOTAL are set.
GIT_DIFF_PATH_COUNTER
A 1-based counter incremented by one for every path.
GIT_DIFF_PATH_TOTAL
The total number of paths.
other
GIT_MERGE_VERBOSITY
A number controlling the amount of output shown by the recursive
merge strategy. Overrides merge.verbosity. See git-merge(1)
GIT_PAGER
This environment variable overrides $PAGER. If it is set to an
empty string or to the value "cat", Git will not launch a pager.
See also the core.pager option in git-config(1).
GIT_EDITOR
This environment variable overrides $EDITOR and $VISUAL. It is used
by several Git commands when, on interactive mode, an editor is to
be launched. See also git-var(1) and the core.editor option in git-
config(1).
GIT_SSH, GIT_SSH_COMMAND
If either of these environment variables is set then git fetch and
git push will use the specified command instead of ssh when they
need to connect to a remote system. The command will be given
exactly two or four arguments: the username@host (or just host)
from the URL and the shell command to execute on that remote
system, optionally preceded by -p (literally) and the port from the
URL when it specifies something other than the default SSH port.
$GIT_SSH_COMMAND takes precedence over $GIT_SSH, and is interpreted
by the shell, which allows additional arguments to be included.
$GIT_SSH on the other hand must be just the path to a program
(which can be a wrapper shell script, if additional arguments are
needed).
Usually it is easier to configure any desired options through your
personal .ssh/config file. Please consult your ssh documentation
for further details.
GIT_ASKPASS
If this environment variable is set, then Git commands which need
to acquire passwords or passphrases (e.g. for HTTP or IMAP
authentication) will call this program with a suitable prompt as
command-line argument and read the password from its STDOUT. See
also the core.askPass option in git-config(1).
GIT_TERMINAL_PROMPT
If this environment variable is set to 0, git will not prompt on
the terminal (e.g., when asking for HTTP authentication).
GIT_CONFIG_NOSYSTEM
Whether to skip reading settings from the system-wide
$(prefix)/etc/gitconfig file. This environment variable can be used
along with $HOME and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME to create a predictable
environment for a picky script, or you can set it temporarily to
avoid using a buggy /etc/gitconfig file while waiting for someone
with sufficient permissions to fix it.
GIT_FLUSH
If this environment variable is set to "1", then commands such as
git blame (in incremental mode), git rev-list, git log, git
check-attr and git check-ignore will force a flush of the output
stream after each record have been flushed. If this variable is set
to "0", the output of these commands will be done using completely
buffered I/O. If this environment variable is not set, Git will
choose buffered or record-oriented flushing based on whether stdout
appears to be redirected to a file or not.
GIT_TRACE
Enables general trace messages, e.g. alias expansion, built-in
command execution and external command execution.
If this variable is set to "1", "2" or "true" (comparison is case
insensitive), trace messages will be printed to stderr.
If the variable is set to an integer value greater than 2 and lower
than 10 (strictly) then Git will interpret this value as an open
file descriptor and will try to write the trace messages into this
file descriptor.
Alternatively, if the variable is set to an absolute path (starting
with a / character), Git will interpret this as a file path and
will try to write the trace messages into it.
Unsetting the variable, or setting it to empty, "0" or "false"
(case insensitive) disables trace messages.
GIT_TRACE_PACK_ACCESS
Enables trace messages for all accesses to any packs. For each
access, the pack file name and an offset in the pack is recorded.
This may be helpful for troubleshooting some pack-related
performance problems. See GIT_TRACE for available trace output
options.
GIT_TRACE_PACKET
Enables trace messages for all packets coming in or out of a given
program. This can help with debugging object negotiation or other
protocol issues. Tracing is turned off at a packet starting with
"PACK" (but see GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE below). See GIT_TRACE for
available trace output options.
GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE
Enables tracing of packfiles sent or received by a given program.
Unlike other trace output, this trace is verbatim: no headers, and
no quoting of binary data. You almost certainly want to direct into
a file (e.g., GIT_TRACE_PACKFILE=/tmp/my.pack) rather than
displaying it on the terminal or mixing it with other trace output.
Note that this is currently only implemented for the client side of
clones and fetches.
GIT_TRACE_PERFORMANCE
Enables performance related trace messages, e.g. total execution
time of each Git command. See GIT_TRACE for available trace output
options.
GIT_TRACE_SETUP
Enables trace messages printing the .git, working tree and current
working directory after Git has completed its setup phase. See
GIT_TRACE for available trace output options.
GIT_TRACE_SHALLOW
Enables trace messages that can help debugging fetching / cloning
of shallow repositories. See GIT_TRACE for available trace output
options.
GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS
Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs
literally, rather than as glob patterns. For example, running
GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS=1 git log -- '*.c' will search for commits
that touch the path *.c, not any paths that the glob *.c matches.
You might want this if you are feeding literal paths to Git (e.g.,
paths previously given to you by git ls-tree, --raw diff output,
etc).
GIT_GLOB_PATHSPECS
Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs as
glob patterns (aka "glob" magic).
GIT_NOGLOB_PATHSPECS
Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs as
literal (aka "literal" magic).
GIT_ICASE_PATHSPECS
Setting this variable to 1 will cause Git to treat all pathspecs as
case-insensitive.
GIT_REFLOG_ACTION
When a ref is updated, reflog entries are created to keep track of
the reason why the ref was updated (which is typically the name of
the high-level command that updated the ref), in addition to the
old and new values of the ref. A scripted Porcelain command can use
set_reflog_action helper function in git-sh-setup to set its name
to this variable when it is invoked as the top level command by the
end user, to be recorded in the body of the reflog.
GIT_REF_PARANOIA
If set to 1, include broken or badly named refs when iterating over
lists of refs. In a normal, non-corrupted repository, this does
nothing. However, enabling it may help git to detect and abort some
operations in the presence of broken refs. Git sets this variable
automatically when performing destructive operations like git-
prune(1). You should not need to set it yourself unless you want to
be paranoid about making sure an operation has touched every ref
(e.g., because you are cloning a repository to make a backup).
GIT_ALLOW_PROTOCOL
If set, provide a colon-separated list of protocols which are
allowed to be used with fetch/push/clone. This is useful to
restrict recursive submodule initialization from an untrusted
repository. Any protocol not mentioned will be disallowed (i.e.,
this is a whitelist, not a blacklist). If the variable is not set
at all, all protocols are enabled. The protocol names currently
used by git are:
o file: any local file-based path (including file:// URLs, or
local paths)
o git: the anonymous git protocol over a direct TCP connection
(or proxy, if configured)
o ssh: git over ssh (including host:path syntax, git+ssh://,
etc).
o rsync: git over rsync
o http: git over http, both "smart http" and "dumb http". Note
that this does not include https; if you want both, you should
specify both as http:https.
o any external helpers are named by their protocol (e.g., use hg
to allow the git-remote-hg helper)
DISCUSSION
More detail on the following is available from the Git concepts chapter
of the user-manual[2] and gitcore-tutorial(7).
A Git project normally consists of a working directory with a ".git"
subdirectory at the top level. The .git directory contains, among other
things, a compressed object database representing the complete history
of the project, an "index" file which links that history to the current
contents of the working tree, and named pointers into that history such
as tags and branch heads.
The object database contains objects of three main types: blobs, which
hold file data; trees, which point to blobs and other trees to build up
directory hierarchies; and commits, which each reference a single tree
and some number of parent commits.
The commit, equivalent to what other systems call a "changeset" or
"version", represents a step in the project's history, and each parent
represents an immediately preceding step. Commits with more than one
parent represent merges of independent lines of development.
All objects are named by the SHA-1 hash of their contents, normally
written as a string of 40 hex digits. Such names are globally unique.
The entire history leading up to a commit can be vouched for by signing
just that commit. A fourth object type, the tag, is provided for this
purpose.
When first created, objects are stored in individual files, but for
efficiency may later be compressed together into "pack files".
Named pointers called refs mark interesting points in history. A ref
may contain the SHA-1 name of an object or the name of another ref.
Refs with names beginning ref/head/ contain the SHA-1 name of the most
recent commit (or "head") of a branch under development. SHA-1 names of
tags of interest are stored under ref/tags/. A special ref named HEAD
contains the name of the currently checked-out branch.
The index file is initialized with a list of all paths and, for each
path, a blob object and a set of attributes. The blob object represents
the contents of the file as of the head of the current branch. The
attributes (last modified time, size, etc.) are taken from the
corresponding file in the working tree. Subsequent changes to the
working tree can be found by comparing these attributes. The index may
be updated with new content, and new commits may be created from the
content stored in the index.
The index is also capable of storing multiple entries (called "stages")
for a given pathname. These stages are used to hold the various
unmerged version of a file when a merge is in progress.
FURTHER DOCUMENTATION
See the references in the "description" section to get started using
Git. The following is probably more detail than necessary for a
first-time user.
The Git concepts chapter of the user-manual[2] and gitcore-tutorial(7)
both provide introductions to the underlying Git architecture.
See gitworkflows(7) for an overview of recommended workflows.
See also the howto[3] documents for some useful examples.
The internals are documented in the Git API documentation[4].
Users migrating from CVS may also want to read gitcvs-migration(7).
AUTHORS
Git was started by Linus Torvalds, and is currently maintained by Junio
C Hamano. Numerous contributions have come from the Git mailing list
<git@vger.kernel.org[5]>.
http://www.openhub.net/p/git/contributors/summary gives you a more
complete list of contributors.
If you have a clone of git.git itself, the output of git-shortlog(1)
and git-blame(1) can show you the authors for specific parts of the
project.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to the Git mailing list <git@vger.kernel.org[5]> where the
development and maintenance is primarily done. You do not have to be
subscribed to the list to send a message there.
SEE ALSO
gittutorial(7), gittutorial-2(7), giteveryday(7), gitcvs-migration(7),
gitglossary(7), gitcore-tutorial(7), gitcli(7), The Git User's
Manual[1], gitworkflows(7)
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
NOTES
1. Git User's Manual
git-htmldocs/user-manual.html
2. Git concepts chapter of the user-manual
git-htmldocs/user-manual.html#git-concepts
3. howto
git-htmldocs/howto-index.html
4. Git API documentation
git-htmldocs/technical/api-index.html
5. git@vger.kernel.org
mailto:git@vger.kernel.org
Git 2.7.0 01/04/2016 GIT(1)
GIT-CLONE(1) Git Manual GIT-CLONE(1)
NAME
git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory
SYNOPSIS
git clone [--template=<template_directory>]
[-l] [-s] [--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [--mirror]
[-o <name>] [-b <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>]
[--dissociate] [--separate-git-dir <git dir>]
[--depth <depth>] [--[no-]single-branch]
[--recursive | --recurse-submodules] [--] <repository>
[<directory>]
DESCRIPTION
Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates
remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository
(visible using git branch -r), and creates and checks out an initial
branch that is forked from the cloned repository's currently active
branch.
After the clone, a plain git fetch without arguments will update all
the remote-tracking branches, and a git pull without arguments will in
addition merge the remote master branch into the current master branch,
if any (this is untrue when "--single-branch" is given; see below).
This default configuration is achieved by creating references to the
remote branch heads under refs/remotes/origin and by initializing
remote.origin.url and remote.origin.fetch configuration variables.
OPTIONS
--local, -l
When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, this flag
bypasses the normal "Git aware" transport mechanism and clones the
repository by making a copy of HEAD and everything under objects
and refs directories. The files under .git/objects/ directory are
hardlinked to save space when possible.
If the repository is specified as a local path (e.g.,
/path/to/repo), this is the default, and --local is essentially a
no-op. If the repository is specified as a URL, then this flag is
ignored (and we never use the local optimizations). Specifying
--no-local will override the default when /path/to/repo is given,
using the regular Git transport instead.
--no-hardlinks
Force the cloning process from a repository on a local filesystem
to copy the files under the .git/objects directory instead of using
hardlinks. This may be desirable if you are trying to make a
back-up of your repository.
--shared, -s
When the repository to clone is on the local machine, instead of
using hard links, automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates
to share the objects with the source repository. The resulting
repository starts out without any object of its own.
NOTE: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do not use it unless
you understand what it does. If you clone your repository using
this option and then delete branches (or use any other Git command
that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the source
repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling).
These objects may be removed by normal Git operations (such as git
commit) which automatically call git gc --auto. (See git-gc(1).) If
these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned
repository, then the cloned repository will become corrupt.
Note that running git repack without the -l option in a repository
cloned with -s will copy objects from the source repository into a
pack in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of
clone -s. It is safe, however, to run git gc, which uses the -l
option by default.
If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with -s
on its source repository, you can simply run git repack -a to copy
all objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned
repository.
--reference <repository>
If the reference repository is on the local machine, automatically
setup .git/objects/info/alternates to obtain objects from the
reference repository. Using an already existing repository as an
alternate will require fewer objects to be copied from the
repository being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs.
NOTE: see the NOTE for the --shared option, and also the
--dissociate option.
--dissociate
Borrow the objects from reference repositories specified with the
--reference options only to reduce network transfer, and stop
borrowing from them after a clone is made by making necessary local
copies of borrowed objects. This option can also be used when
cloning locally from a repository that already borrows objects from
another repository--the new repository will borrow objects from the
same repository, and this option can be used to stop the borrowing.
--quiet, -q
Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard error
stream. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' command when given.
--verbose, -v
Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status to
the standard error stream.
--progress
Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default
when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q is specified. This
flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream is
not directed to a terminal.
--no-checkout, -n
No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.
--bare
Make a bare Git repository. That is, instead of creating
<directory> and placing the administrative files in
<directory>/.git, make the <directory> itself the $GIT_DIR. This
obviously implies the -n because there is nowhere to check out the
working tree. Also the branch heads at the remote are copied
directly to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping them
to refs/remotes/origin/. When this option is used, neither
remote-tracking branches nor the related configuration variables
are created.
--mirror
Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies --bare.
Compared to --bare, --mirror not only maps local branches of the
source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including
remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec
configuration such that all these refs are overwritten by a git
remote update in the target repository.
--origin <name>, -o <name>
Instead of using the remote name origin to keep track of the
upstream repository, use <name>.
--branch <name>, -b <name>
Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed to
by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to <name> branch instead. In
a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will be checked out.
--branch can also take tags and detaches the HEAD at that commit in
the resulting repository.
--upload-pack <upload-pack>, -u <upload-pack>
When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed via ssh,
this specifies a non-default path for the command run on the other
end.
--template=<template_directory>
Specify the directory from which templates will be used; (See the
"TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of git-init(1).)
--config <key>=<value>, -c <key>=<value>
Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository; this
takes effect immediately after the repository is initialized, but
before the remote history is fetched or any files checked out. The
key is in the same format as expected by git-config(1) (e.g.,
core.eol=true). If multiple values are given for the same key, each
value will be written to the config file. This makes it safe, for
example, to add additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote.
--depth <depth>
Create a shallow clone with a history truncated to the specified
number of revisions.
--[no-]single-branch
Clone only the history leading to the tip of a single branch,
either specified by the --branch option or the primary branch
remote's HEAD points at. When creating a shallow clone with the
--depth option, this is the default, unless --no-single-branch is
given to fetch the histories near the tips of all branches. Further
fetches into the resulting repository will only update the
remote-tracking branch for the branch this option was used for the
initial cloning. If the HEAD at the remote did not point at any
branch when --single-branch clone was made, no remote-tracking
branch is created.
--recursive, --recurse-submodules
After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, using
their default settings. This is equivalent to running git submodule
update --init --recursive immediately after the clone is finished.
This option is ignored if the cloned repository does not have a
worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of --no-checkout/-n, --bare, or
--mirror is given)
--separate-git-dir=<git dir>
Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed to
be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory, then
make a filesystem-agnostic Git symbolic link to there. The result
is Git repository can be separated from working tree.
<repository>
The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the URLS
section below for more information on specifying repositories.
<directory>
The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" part of
the source repository is used if no directory is explicitly given
(repo for /path/to/repo.git and foo for host.xz:foo/.git). Cloning
into an existing directory is only allowed if the directory is
empty.
GIT URLS
In general, URLs contain information about the transport protocol, the
address of the remote server, and the path to the repository. Depending
on the transport protocol, some of this information may be absent.
Git supports ssh, git, http, and https protocols (in addition, ftp, and
ftps can be used for fetching and rsync can be used for fetching and
pushing, but these are inefficient and deprecated; do not use them).
The native transport (i.e. git:// URL) does no authentication and
should be used with caution on unsecured networks.
The following syntaxes may be used with them:
o ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
o git://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
o http[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
o ftp[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
o rsync://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh protocol:
o [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git/
This syntax is only recognized if there are no slashes before the first
colon. This helps differentiate a local path that contains a colon. For
example the local path foo:bar could be specified as an absolute path
or ./foo:bar to avoid being misinterpreted as an ssh url.
The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~username expansion:
o ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
o git://host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
o [user@]host.xz:/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
For local repositories, also supported by Git natively, the following
syntaxes may be used:
o /path/to/repo.git/
o file:///path/to/repo.git/
These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except the former implies
--local option.
When Git doesn't know how to handle a certain transport protocol, it
attempts to use the remote-<transport> remote helper, if one exists. To
explicitly request a remote helper, the following syntax may be used:
o <transport>::<address>
where <address> may be a path, a server and path, or an arbitrary
URL-like string recognized by the specific remote helper being invoked.
See gitremote-helpers(1) for details.
If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories and
you want to use a different format for them (such that the URLs you use
will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can create a configuration
section of the form:
[url "<actual url base>"]
insteadOf = <other url base>
For example, with this:
[url "git://git.host.xz/"]
insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
insteadOf = work:
a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will be
rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be
"git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a
configuration section of the form:
[url "<actual url base>"]
pushInsteadOf = <other url base>
For example, with this:
[url "ssh://example.org/"]
pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten to
"ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for pushes, but pulls will still
use the original URL.
EXAMPLES
o Clone from upstream:
$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git my-linux
$ cd my-linux
$ make
o Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without
checking things out:
$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
$ cd ../copy
$ git show-branch
o Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local
directory:
$ git clone --reference /git/linux.git \
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git \
my-linux
$ cd my-linux
o Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:
$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 2.7.0 01/04/2016 GIT-CLONE(1)
peff
commented
7 years ago Individual exit codes and behaviors are documented in the various sub-commands, not in git(1). The usual convention of "exit 0 for success, non-zero for error" is assumed, and probably not explicitly laid out.
Error behavior and side effects should likewise be discussed in pages for individual sub-commands. So without a specific example of what you're looking for, it's hard to say whether it's there or not (and I can well believe there are a lot of cases that aren't documented well).
All that said, this is the issue tracker for the git-scm.com website, not git itself. While it does mirror the git manpages, you'd want to take specific questions upstream (to one of the venues at https://git-scm.com/community).
sxlijin
commented
7 years ago As @peff pointed out, there are individual man pages for Git, in large part due to the fact that (1) the git command itself is meaningless without a specific sub-command and (2) it's pretty much impossible to document everything in a single man page (nor would you want to!).
An excerpt from the man page for git fetch (also accessible at git-fetch):
OUTPUT
The output of "git fetch" depends on the transport method used; this section
describes the output when fetching over the Git protocol (either locally or via ssh)
and Smart HTTP protocol.
The status of the fetch is output in tabular form, with each line representing the
status of a single ref. Each line is of the form:
<flag> <summary> <from> -> <to> [<reason>]
The status of up-to-date refs is shown only if the --verbose option is used.
In compact output mode, specified with configuration variable fetch.output, if either
entire <from> or <to> is found in the other string, it will be substituted with * in
the other string. For example, master -> origin/master becomes master -> origin/*.
flag
A single character indicating the status of the ref:
(space)
for a successfully fetched fast-forward;
+
for a successful forced update;
-
for a successfully pruned ref;
t
for a successful tag update;
*
for a successfully fetched new ref;
!
for a ref that was rejected or failed to update; and
=
for a ref that was up to date and did not need fetching.
summary
For a successfully fetched ref, the summary shows the old and new values of the
ref in a form suitable for using as an argument to git log (this is <old>..<new>
in most cases, and <old>...<new> for forced non-fast-forward updates).
from
The name of the remote ref being fetched from, minus its refs/<type>/ prefix. In
the case of deletion, the name of the remote ref is "(none)".
to
The name of the local ref being updated, minus its refs/<type>/ prefix.
reason
A human-readable explanation. In the case of successfully fetched refs, no
explanation is needed. For a failed ref, the reason for failure is described.ok, but the man page you just posted doesn't mention anything about what happens in a network error. That's a big deal. What about a filesystem error. What if the git data is corrupt?
I don't just like the idea of "if something goes wrong, we'll tell you." This is especially shitty when scripting a git call, since a human readable explanation is totally useless.
In my previous comment I also included the man page for git clone tho, which doesn't even have an "output" section.
Sicaine
commented
7 years ago @andrewzhaosc Your 'wish' is not very specific. If you have specific stuff which is missing and you have a good proposal, that would be nice. If you do not want to do a lot of work upfront without knowing if it will get merged, you can do a small example and ask in a PR.
But personally, i do not document what happens in case of network issues, when the disk is full, hard drive issues and so on. For specific errors about git, which you can't find in the man pages, you might talk to the git guys. They have a mailing list git@vger.kernel.org
sxlijin
commented
7 years ago Moreover, those failure cases aren't Git's responsibility. It's not the 80's anymore: filesystems and networks are generally pretty decently reliable, and it would be absurd to handle those failure cases individually at the Git layer. In any case, if you really think this is important enough to be documented, you can chime in on the mailing list as linked above and talk to the core maintainers there.
for example, network errors, permissions errors, etc.
what are the outputs, return codes, side effects?