git(1) Git Manual git(1)
NAME
git - the stupid content tracker
SYNOPSIS
git [-v | --version] [-h | --help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
[--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
[-p | --paginate | -P | --no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--no-lazy-fetch]
[--no-optional-locks] [--no-advice] [--bare] [--git-dir=<path>]
[--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>] [--config-env=<name>=<envvar>]
<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. See gitdatamodel(7) if you want to learn about the data
model and important terminology.
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.
A formatted and hyperlinked copy of the latest Git documentation can be
viewed at https://git.github.io/htmldocs/git.html or
https://git-scm.com/docs.
OPTIONS
-v, --version
Prints the Git suite version that the git program came from.
This option is internally converted to git version ... and accepts
the same options as the git-version(1) command. If --help is also
given, it takes precedence over --version.
-h, --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>. If <path> is present but empty, e.g. -C "", then the current
working directory is left unchanged.
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 which git config
--type=bool will convert to false.
--config-env=<name>=<envvar>
Like -c <name>=<value>, give configuration variable <name> a value,
where <envvar> is the name of an environment variable from which to
retrieve the value. Unlike -c there is no shortcut for directly
setting the value to an empty string, instead the environment
variable itself must be set to the empty string. It is an error if
the <envvar> does not exist in the environment. <envvar> may not
contain an equals sign to avoid ambiguity with <name> containing one.
This is useful for cases where you want to pass transitory
configuration options to git, but are doing so on operating systems
where other processes might be able to read your command line (e.g.
/proc/self/cmdline), but not your environment (e.g.
/proc/self/environ). That behavior is the default on Linux, but may
not be on your system.
Note that this might add security for variables such as
http.extraHeader where the sensitive information is part of the
value, but not e.g. url.<base>.insteadOf where the sensitive
information can be part of the key.
--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).
-P, --no-pager
Do not pipe Git output into a pager.
--git-dir=<path>
Set the path to the repository (".git" directory). 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.
Specifying the location of the ".git" directory using this option (or
GIT_DIR environment variable) turns off the repository discovery that
tries to find a directory with ".git" subdirectory (which is how the
repository and the top-level of the working tree are discovered), and
tells Git that you are at the top level of the working tree. If you
are not at the top-level directory of the working tree, you should
tell Git where the top-level of the working tree is, with the
--work-tree=<path> option (or GIT_WORK_TREE environment variable)
If you just want to run git as if it was started in <path> then use
git -C <path>.
--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. This is
equivalent to exporting the GIT_NO_REPLACE_OBJECTS environment
variable with any value. See git-replace(1) for more information.
--no-lazy-fetch
Do not fetch missing objects from the promisor remote on demand.
Useful together with git cat-file -e <object> to see if the object is
locally available. This is equivalent to setting the
GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH environment variable to 1.
--no-optional-locks
Do not perform optional operations that require locks. This is
equivalent to setting the GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS to 0.
--no-advice
Disable all advice hints from being printed.
--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.
--list-cmds=<group>[,<group>...]
List commands by group. This is an internal/experimental option and
may change or be removed in the future. Supported groups are:
builtins, parseopt (builtin commands that use parse-options),
deprecated (deprecated builtins), main (all commands in libexec
directory), others (all other commands in $PATH that have git-
prefix), list-<category> (see categories in command-list.txt),
nohelpers (exclude helper commands), alias and config (retrieve
command list from config variable completion.commands)
--attr-source=<tree-ish>
Read gitattributes from <tree-ish> instead of the worktree. See
gitattributes(5). This is equivalent to setting the GIT_ATTR_SOURCE
environment variable.
GIT COMMANDS
We divide Git into high level ("porcelain") commands and low level
("plumbing") commands. For defining command aliases, see git-config(1)
and look for descriptions of alias.*. For installing custom "git"
subcommands, see the description for the PATH environment variable in
this manual.
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-backfill(1)
Download missing objects in a partial clone.
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)
Give an object a human readable name based on an available ref.
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-history(1)
EXPERIMENTAL: Rewrite history.
git-init(1)
Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one.
git-log(1)
Show commit logs.
git-maintenance(1)
Run tasks to optimize Git repository data.
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-range-diff(1)
Compare two commit ranges (e.g. two versions of a branch).
git-rebase(1)
Reapply commits on top of another base tip.
git-reset(1)
Set HEAD or the index to a known state.
git-restore(1)
Restore working tree files.
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-sparse-checkout(1)
Reduce your working tree to a subset of tracked files.
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-switch(1)
Switch branches.
git-tag(1)
Create, list, delete or verify tags.
git-worktree(1)
Manage multiple working trees.
gitk(1)
The Git repository browser.
scalar(1)
A tool for managing large Git repositories.
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-refs(1)
Low-level access to refs.
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-bugreport(1)
Collect information for user to file a bug report.
git-count-objects(1)
Count unpacked number of objects and their disk consumption.
git-diagnose(1)
Generate a zip archive of diagnostic information.
git-difftool(1)
Show changes using common diff tools.
git-fsck(1)
Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the
database.
git-help(1)
Display help information about Git.
git-instaweb(1)
Instantly browse your working repository in gitweb.
git-merge-tree(1)
Perform merge without touching index or working tree.
git-rerere(1)
Reuse recorded resolution of conflicted merges.
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-version(1)
Display version information about Git.
git-whatchanged(1)
Show logs with differences 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 a GNU 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.
Reset, restore and revert
There are three commands with similar names: git reset, git restore and
git revert.
o git-revert(1) is about making a new commit that reverts the changes
made by other commits.
o git-restore(1) is about restoring files in the working tree from
either the index or another commit. This command does not update your
branch. The command can also be used to restore files in the index
from another commit.
o git-reset(1) is about updating your branch, moving the tip in order
to add or remove commits from the branch. This operation changes the
commit history.
git reset can also be used to restore the index, overlapping with git
restore.
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-graph(1)
Write and verify Git commit-graph files.
git-commit-tree(1)
Create a new commit object.
git-hash-object(1)
Compute object ID and optionally create an object 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 with extra validation.
git-mktree(1)
Build a tree-object from ls-tree formatted text.
git-multi-pack-index(1)
Write and verify multi-pack-indexes.
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-replay(1)
EXPERIMENTAL: Replay commits on a new base, works with bare repos
too.
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 contents or details of repository objects.
git-cherry(1)
Find commits yet to be applied to upstream.
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-pairs(1)
Compare the content and mode of provided blob pairs.
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-for-each-repo(1)
Run a Git command on a list of repositories.
git-format-rev(1)
EXPERIMENTAL: Pretty format revisions on demand.
git-get-tar-commit-id(1)
Extract commit ID from an archive created using git-archive.
git-last-modified(1)
EXPERIMENTAL: Show when files were last modified.
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-repo(1)
Retrieve information about the repository.
git-rev-list(1)
Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order.
git-rev-parse(1)
Pick out and massage parameters.
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.
Syncing 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-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-hook(1)
Run Git hooks.
git-interpret-trailers(1)
Add or parse metadata in 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 IDs for patches.
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.
git-url-parse(1)
Parse and extract git URL components.
GUIDES
The following documentation pages are guides about Git concepts.
gitcore-tutorial(7)
A Git core tutorial for developers.
gitcredentials(7)
Providing usernames and passwords to Git.
gitcvs-migration(7)
Git for CVS users.
gitdatamodel(7)
Git's core data model.
gitdiffcore(7)
Tweaking diff output.
giteveryday(7)
A useful minimum set of commands for Everyday Git.
gitfaq(7)
Frequently asked questions about using Git.
gitglossary(7)
A Git Glossary.
gitnamespaces(7)
Git namespaces.
gitremote-helpers(7)
Helper programs to interact with remote repositories.
gitsubmodules(7)
Mounting one repository inside another.
gittutorial(7)
A tutorial introduction to Git.
gittutorial-2(7)
A tutorial introduction to Git: part two.
gitworkflows(7)
An overview of recommended workflows with Git.
REPOSITORY, COMMAND AND FILE INTERFACES
This documentation discusses repository and command interfaces which
users are expected to interact with directly. See --user-formats in git-
help(1) for more details on the criteria.
gitattributes(5)
Defining attributes per path.
gitcli(7)
Git command-line interface and conventions.
githooks(5)
Hooks used by Git.
gitignore(5)
Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore.
gitmailmap(5)
Map author/committer names and/or E-Mail addresses.
gitmodules(5)
Defining submodule properties.
gitrepository-layout(5)
Git Repository Layout.
gitrevisions(7)
Specifying revisions and ranges for Git.
FILE FORMATS, PROTOCOLS AND OTHER DEVELOPER INTERFACES
This documentation discusses file formats, over-the-wire protocols and
other git developer interfaces. See --developer-interfaces in git-
help(1).
gitformat-bundle(5)
The bundle file format.
gitformat-chunk(5)
Chunk-based file formats.
gitformat-commit-graph(5)
Git commit-graph format.
gitformat-index(5)
Git index format.
gitformat-pack(5)
Git pack format.
gitformat-signature(5)
Git cryptographic signature formats.
gitprotocol-capabilities(5)
Protocol v0 and v1 capabilities.
gitprotocol-common(5)
Things common to various protocols.
gitprotocol-http(5)
Git HTTP-based protocols.
gitprotocol-pack(5)
How packs are transferred over-the-wire.
gitprotocol-v2(5)
Git Wire Protocol, Version 2.
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). See gitdatamodel(7) for a discussion of the
core data model, which includes important terminology used throughout the
documentation.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
Various Git commands pay attention to environment variables and change
their behavior. The environment variables marked as "Boolean" take their
values the same way as Boolean valued configuration variables, i.e.,
"true", "yes", "on" and positive numbers are taken as "yes", while
"false", "no", "off", and "0" are taken as "no".
Here are the variables:
System
HOME
Specifies the path to the user's home directory. On Windows, if
unset, Git will set a process environment variable equal to:
$HOMEDRIVE$HOMEPATH if both $HOMEDRIVE and $HOMEPATH exist; otherwise
$USERPROFILE if $USERPROFILE exists.
PATH
When a user runs git <command> that is not part of the core Git
programs (installed in GIT_EXEC_PATH), git-<command> that is runnable
by the user in a directory on $PATH is invoked. Argument passed after
the command name are passed as-is to the program. To execute git
<foo>, git finds command <foo> (either a core Git program found in
GIT_EXEC_PATH, or a custom one in a directory on PATH), before trying
foo as an alias.
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 variable specifies an alternate index file. If not
specified, the default of $GIT_DIR/index is used.
GIT_INDEX_VERSION
This environment variable specifies what index version is used when
writing the index file out. 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.
Entries that begin with " (double-quote) will be interpreted as
C-style quoted paths, removing leading and trailing double-quotes and
respecting backslash escapes. E.g., the value
"path-with-\"-and-:-in-it":vanilla-path has two paths:
path-with-"-and-:-in-it and vanilla-path.
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 Boolean 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_DEFAULT_HASH
If this variable is set, the default hash algorithm for new
repositories will be set to this value. This value is ignored when
cloning and the setting of the remote repository is always used. The
default is "sha1". See --object-format in git-init(1).
GIT_DEFAULT_REF_FORMAT
If this variable is set, the default reference backend format for new
repositories will be set to this value. The default is "files". See
--ref-format in git-init(1).
GIT_REFERENCE_BACKEND
Specify which reference backend to be used along with its URI. See
extensions.refStorage option in git-config(1) for more details.
Overrides the config variable when used.
Git Commits
GIT_AUTHOR_NAME
The human-readable name used in the author identity when creating
commit or tag objects, or when writing reflogs. Overrides the
user.name and author.name configuration settings.
GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL
The email address used in the author identity when creating commit or
tag objects, or when writing reflogs. Overrides the user.email and
author.email configuration settings.
GIT_AUTHOR_DATE
The date used for the author identity when creating commit or tag
objects, or when writing reflogs. See git-commit(1) for valid
formats.
GIT_COMMITTER_NAME
The human-readable name used in the committer identity when creating
commit or tag objects, or when writing reflogs. Overrides the
user.name and committer.name configuration settings.
GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL
The email address used in the author identity when creating commit or
tag objects, or when writing reflogs. Overrides the user.email and
committer.email configuration settings.
GIT_COMMITTER_DATE
The date used for the committer identity when creating commit or tag
objects, or when writing reflogs. See git-commit(1) for valid
formats.
EMAIL
The email address used in the author and committer identities if no
other relevant environment variable or configuration setting has been
set.
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 to generate diffs, and Git does not use its
builtin diff machinery. 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_EXTERNAL_DIFF_TRUST_EXIT_CODE
If this Boolean environment variable is set to true then the
GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF command is expected to return exit code 0 if it
considers the input files to be equal or 1 if it considers them to be
different, like diff(1). If it is set to false, which is the default,
then the command is expected to return exit code 0 regardless of
equality. Any other exit code causes Git to report a fatal error.
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_PROGRESS_DELAY
A number controlling how many seconds to delay before showing
optional progress indicators. Defaults to 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_SEQUENCE_EDITOR
This environment variable overrides the configured Git editor when
editing the todo list of an interactive rebase. See also git-
rebase(1) and the sequence.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-line parameters passed to
the configured command are determined by the ssh variant. See
ssh.variant option in git-config(1) for details.
$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_SSH_VARIANT
If this environment variable is set, it overrides Git's autodetection
whether GIT_SSH/GIT_SSH_COMMAND/core.sshCommand refer to OpenSSH,
plink or tortoiseplink. This variable overrides the config setting
ssh.variant that serves the same purpose.
GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY
Setting and exporting this environment variable to any value tells
Git not to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing over
HTTPS.
GIT_ATTR_SOURCE
Sets the treeish that gitattributes will be read from.
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 Boolean environment variable is set to false, git will not
prompt on the terminal (e.g., when asking for HTTP authentication).
GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL, GIT_CONFIG_SYSTEM
Take the configuration from the given files instead from global or
system-level configuration files. If GIT_CONFIG_SYSTEM is set, the
system config file defined at build time (usually /etc/gitconfig)
will not be read. Likewise, if GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL is set, neither
$HOME/.gitconfig nor $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/config will be read. Can be
set to /dev/null to skip reading configuration files of the
respective level.
GIT_CONFIG_NOSYSTEM
Whether to skip reading settings from the system-wide
$(prefix)/etc/gitconfig file. This Boolean 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 to true to
temporarily avoid using a buggy /etc/gitconfig file while waiting for
someone with sufficient permissions to fix it.
GIT_FLUSH
If this Boolean environment variable is set to true, 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 false, 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 append the trace messages to it.
Unsetting the variable, or setting it to empty, "0" or "false" (case
insensitive) disables trace messages.
GIT_TRACE_FSMONITOR
Enables trace messages for the filesystem monitor extension. See
GIT_TRACE for available trace output options.
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_REFS
Enables trace messages for operations on the ref database. 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_TRACE_CURL
Enables a curl full trace dump of all incoming and outgoing data,
including descriptive information, of the git transport protocol.
This is similar to doing curl --trace-ascii on the command line. See
GIT_TRACE for available trace output options.
GIT_TRACE_CURL_NO_DATA
When a curl trace is enabled (see GIT_TRACE_CURL above), do not dump
data (that is, only dump info lines and headers).
GIT_TRACE2
Enables more detailed trace messages from the "trace2" library.
Output from GIT_TRACE2 is a simple text-based format for human
readability.
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 append the trace messages to it. If the path already exists
and is a directory, the trace messages will be written to files (one
per process) in that directory, named according to the last component
of the SID and an optional counter (to avoid filename collisions).
In addition, if the variable is set to
af_unix:[<socket-type>:]<absolute-pathname>, Git will try to open the
path as a Unix Domain Socket. The socket type can be either stream or
dgram.
Unsetting the variable, or setting it to empty, "0" or "false" (case
insensitive) disables trace messages.
See Trace2 documentation[2] for full details.
GIT_TRACE2_EVENT
This setting writes a JSON-based format that is suited for machine
interpretation. See GIT_TRACE2 for available trace output options and
Trace2 documentation[2] for full details.
GIT_TRACE2_PERF
In addition to the text-based messages available in GIT_TRACE2, this
setting writes a column-based format for understanding nesting
regions. See GIT_TRACE2 for available trace output options and Trace2
documentation[2] for full details.
GIT_TRACE_REDACT
By default, when tracing is activated, Git redacts the values of
cookies, the "Authorization:" header, the "Proxy-Authorization:"
header and packfile URIs. Set this Boolean environment variable to
false to prevent this redaction.
GIT_NO_REPLACE_OBJECTS
Setting and exporting this environment variable tells Git to ignore
replacement refs and do not replace Git objects.
GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS
Setting this Boolean environment variable to true 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 Boolean environment variable to true will cause Git to
treat all pathspecs as glob patterns (aka "glob" magic).
GIT_NOGLOB_PATHSPECS
Setting this Boolean environment variable to true will cause Git to
treat all pathspecs as literal (aka "literal" magic).
GIT_ICASE_PATHSPECS
Setting this Boolean environment variable to true will cause Git to
treat all pathspecs as case-insensitive.
GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH
Setting this Boolean environment variable to true tells Git not to
lazily fetch missing objects from the promisor remote on demand.
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 this Boolean environment variable is set to false, ignore broken
or badly named refs when iterating over lists of refs. Normally Git
will try to include any such refs, which may cause some operations to
fail. This is usually preferable, as potentially destructive
operations (e.g., git-prune(1)) are better off aborting rather than
ignoring broken refs (and thus considering the history they point to
as not worth saving). The default value is 1 (i.e., be paranoid about
detecting and aborting all operations). You should not normally need
to set this to 0, but it may be useful when trying to salvage data
from a corrupted repository.
GIT_COMMIT_GRAPH_PARANOIA
When loading a commit object from the commit-graph, Git performs an
existence check on the object in the object database. This is done to
avoid issues with stale commit-graphs that contain references to
already-deleted commits, but comes with a performance penalty.
The default is "false", which disables the aforementioned behavior.
Setting this to "true" enables the existence check so that stale
commits will never be returned from the commit-graph at the cost of
performance.
GIT_ALLOW_PROTOCOL
If set to a colon-separated list of protocols, behave as if
protocol.allow is set to never, and each of the listed protocols has
protocol.<name>.allow set to always (overriding any existing
configuration). See the description of protocol.allow in git-
config(1) for more details.
GIT_PROTOCOL_FROM_USER
Set this Boolean environment variable to false to prevent protocols
used by fetch/push/clone which are configured to the user state. This
is useful to restrict recursive submodule initialization from an
untrusted repository or for programs which feed potentially-untrusted
URLS to git commands. See git-config(1) for more details.
GIT_PROTOCOL
For internal use only. Used in handshaking the wire protocol.
Contains a colon : separated list of keys with optional values
<key>[=<value>]. Presence of unknown keys and values must be ignored.
Note that servers may need to be configured to allow this variable to
pass over some transports. It will be propagated automatically when
accessing local repositories (i.e., file:// or a filesystem path), as
well as over the git:// protocol. For git-over-http, it should work
automatically in most configurations, but see the discussion in git-
http-backend(1). For git-over-ssh, the ssh server may need to be
configured to allow clients to pass this variable (e.g., by using
AcceptEnv GIT_PROTOCOL with OpenSSH).
This configuration is optional. If the variable is not propagated,
then clients will fall back to the original "v0" protocol (but may
miss out on some performance improvements or features). This variable
currently only affects clones and fetches; it is not yet used for
pushes (but may be in the future).
GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS
If this Boolean environment variable is set to false, Git will
complete any requested operation without performing any optional
sub-operations that require taking a lock. For example, this will
prevent git status from refreshing the index as a side effect. This
is useful for processes running in the background which do not want
to cause lock contention with other operations on the repository.
Defaults to 1.
GIT_REDIRECT_STDIN, GIT_REDIRECT_STDOUT, GIT_REDIRECT_STDERR
Windows-only: allow redirecting the standard input/output/error
handles to paths specified by the environment variables. This is
particularly useful in multi-threaded applications where the
canonical way to pass standard handles via CreateProcess() is not an
option because it would require the handles to be marked inheritable
(and consequently every spawned process would inherit them, possibly
blocking regular Git operations). The primary intended use case is to
use named pipes for communication (e.g. \\.\pipe\my-git-stdin-123).
Two special values are supported: off will simply close the
corresponding standard handle, and if GIT_REDIRECT_STDERR is 2>&1,
standard error will be redirected to the same handle as standard
output.
GIT_PRINT_SHA1_ELLIPSIS (deprecated)
If set to yes, print an ellipsis following an (abbreviated) SHA-1
value. This affects indications of detached HEADs (git-checkout(1))
and the raw diff output (git-diff(1)). Printing an ellipsis in the
cases mentioned is no longer considered adequate and support for it
is likely to be removed in the foreseeable future (along with the
variable).
GIT_ADVICE
If set to 0, then disable all advice messages. These messages are
intended to provide hints to human users that may help them get out
of problematic situations or take advantage of new features. Users
can disable individual messages using the advice.* config keys. These
messages may be disruptive to tools that execute Git processes, so
this variable is available to disable the messages. (The --no-advice
global option is also available, but old Git versions may fail when
this option is not understood. The environment variable will be
ignored by Git versions that do not understand it.)
DISCUSSION
More detail on the following is available from the Git concepts chapter
of the user-manual[3] 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 (the
latter is called a "symbolic ref"). Refs with names beginning refs/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
refs/tags/. A symbolic 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.
SECURITY
Some configuration options and hook files may cause Git to run arbitrary
shell commands. Because configuration and hooks are not copied using git
clone, it is generally safe to clone remote repositories with untrusted
content, inspect them with git log, and so on.
However, it is not safe to run Git commands in a .git directory (or the
working tree that surrounds it) when that .git directory itself comes
from an untrusted source. The commands in its config and hooks are
executed in the usual way.
By default, Git will refuse to run when the repository is owned by
someone other than the user running the command. See the entry for
safe.directory in git-config(1). While this can help protect you in a
multi-user environment, note that you can also acquire untrusted
repositories that are owned by you (for example, if you extract a zip
file or tarball from an untrusted source). In such cases, you'd need to
"sanitize" the untrusted repository first.
If you have an untrusted .git directory, you should first clone it with
git clone --no-local to obtain a clean copy. Git does restrict the set of
options and hooks that will be run by upload-pack, which handles the
server side of a clone or fetch, but beware that the surface area for
attack against upload-pack is large, so this does carry some risk. The
safest thing is to serve the repository as an unprivileged user (either
via git-daemon(1), ssh, or using other tools to change user ids). See the
discussion in the SECURITY section of git-upload-pack(1).
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[3] 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[4] documents for some useful examples.
The internals are documented in the Git API documentation[5].
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[6]>. https://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[6]> where the
development and maintenance is primarily done. You do not have to be
subscribed to the list to send a message there. See the list archive at
https://lore.kernel.org/git for previous bug reports and other
discussions.
Issues which are security relevant should be disclosed privately to the
Git Security mailing list <git-security@googlegroups.com[7]>.
SEE ALSO
gittutorial(7), gittutorial-2(7), giteveryday(7), gitcvs-migration(7),
gitglossary(7), gitdatamodel(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. Trace2 documentation
git-htmldocs/technical/api-trace2.html
3. Git concepts chapter of the user-manual
git-htmldocs/user-manual.html#git-concepts
4. howto
git-htmldocs/howto-index.html
5. Git API documentation
git-htmldocs/technical/api-index.html
6. git@vger.kernel.org
mailto:git@vger.kernel.org
7. git-security@googlegroups.com
mailto:git-security@googlegroups.com
Git 2.56.0 2026-09-27 git(1)
git 2.56.0 - Generated Thu Oct 1 18:51:34 CDT 2026