NAME
git-rev-parse - Pick out and massage parametersSYNOPSIS
git rev-parse [<options>] <args>...
DESCRIPTION
Many Git porcelainish commands take mixture of flags (i.e. parameters that begin with a dash -) and parameters meant for the underlying git rev-list command they use internally and flags and parameters for the other commands they use downstream of git rev-list. This command is used to distinguish between them.OPTIONS
Operation Modes
Each of these options must appear first on the command line. --parseoptUse git rev-parse in option parsing
mode (see PARSEOPT section below).
--sq-quote
Use git rev-parse in shell quoting mode
(see SQ-QUOTE section below). In contrast to the --sq option below,
this mode does only quoting. Nothing else is done to command input.
Options for --parseopt
--keep-dashdashOnly meaningful in --parseopt mode.
Tells the option parser to echo out the first -- met instead of
skipping it.
--stop-at-non-option
Only meaningful in --parseopt mode.
Lets the option parser stop at the first non-option argument. This can be used
to parse sub-commands that take options themselves.
--stuck-long
Only meaningful in --parseopt mode.
Output the options in their long form if available, and with their arguments
stuck.
Options for Filtering
--revs-onlyDo not output flags and parameters not meant
for git rev-list command.
--no-revs
Do not output flags and parameters meant for
git rev-list command.
--flags
Do not output non-flag parameters.
--no-flags
Do not output flag parameters.
Options for Output
--default <arg>If there is no parameter given by the user,
use <arg> instead.
--prefix <arg>
Behave as if git rev-parse was invoked
from the <arg> subdirectory of the working tree. Any relative
filenames are resolved as if they are prefixed by <arg> and will
be printed in that form.
This can be used to convert arguments to a command run in a subdirectory so that
they can still be used after moving to the top-level of the repository. For
example:
--verify
prefix=$(git rev-parse --show-prefix) cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)" # rev-parse provides the -- needed for 'set' eval "set $(git rev-parse --sq --prefix "$prefix" -- "$@")"
Verify that exactly one parameter is provided,
and that it can be turned into a raw 20-byte SHA-1 that can be used to access
the object database. If so, emit it to the standard output; otherwise, error
out.
If you want to make sure that the output actually names an object in your object
database and/or can be used as a specific type of object you require, you can
add the ^{type} peeling operator to the parameter. For example, git
rev-parse "$VAR^{commit}" will make sure $VAR names an
existing object that is a commit-ish (i.e. a commit, or an annotated tag that
points at a commit). To make sure that $VAR names an existing object of
any type, git rev-parse "$VAR^{object}" can be used.
Note that if you are verifying a name from an untrusted source, it is wise to
use --end-of-options so that the name argument is not mistaken for
another option.
-q, --quiet
Only meaningful in --verify mode. Do
not output an error message if the first argument is not a valid object name;
instead exit with non-zero status silently. SHA-1s for valid object names are
printed to stdout on success.
--sq
Usually the output is made one line per flag
and parameter. This option makes output a single line, properly quoted for
consumption by shell. Useful when you expect your parameter to contain
whitespaces and newlines (e.g. when using pickaxe -S with git
diff-*). In contrast to the --sq-quote option, the command input is
still interpreted as usual.
--short[=length]
Same as --verify but shortens the
object name to a unique prefix with at least length characters. The
minimum length is 4, the default is the effective value of the
core.abbrev configuration variable (see git-config(1)).
--not
When showing object names, prefix them with
^ and strip ^ prefix from the object names that already have
one.
--abbrev-ref[=(strict|loose)]
A non-ambiguous short name of the objects
name. The option core.warnAmbiguousRefs is used to select the strict
abbreviation mode.
--symbolic
Usually the object names are output in SHA-1
form (with possible ^ prefix); this option makes them output in a form
as close to the original input as possible.
--symbolic-full-name
This is similar to --symbolic, but it omits
input that are not refs (i.e. branch or tag names; or more explicitly
disambiguating "heads/master" form, when you want to name the
"master" branch when there is an unfortunately named tag
"master"), and show them as full refnames (e.g.
"refs/heads/master").
Options for Objects
--allShow all refs found in refs/.
--branches[=pattern], --tags[=pattern], --remotes[=pattern]
Show all branches, tags, or remote-tracking
branches, respectively (i.e., refs found in refs/heads,
refs/tags, or refs/remotes, respectively).
If a pattern is given, only refs matching the given shell glob are shown.
If the pattern does not contain a globbing character ( ?, *, or
[), it is turned into a prefix match by appending /*.
--glob=pattern
Show all refs matching the shell glob pattern
pattern. If the pattern does not start with refs/, this is
automatically prepended. If the pattern does not contain a globbing character
( ?, *, or [), it is turned into a prefix match by
appending /*.
--exclude=<glob-pattern>
Do not include refs matching
<glob-pattern> that the next --all, --branches,
--tags, --remotes, or --glob would otherwise consider.
Repetitions of this option accumulate exclusion patterns up to the next
--all, --branches, --tags, --remotes, or
--glob option (other options or arguments do not clear accumulated
patterns).
The patterns given should not begin with refs/heads, refs/tags, or
refs/remotes when applied to --branches, --tags, or
--remotes, respectively, and they must begin with refs/ when
applied to --glob or --all. If a trailing /* is intended,
it must be given explicitly.
--exclude-hidden=[receive|uploadpack]
Do not include refs that would be hidden by
git-receive-pack or git-upload-pack by consulting the
appropriate receive.hideRefs or uploadpack.hideRefs
configuration along with transfer.hideRefs (see git-config(1)).
This option affects the next pseudo-ref option --all or --glob
and is cleared after processing them.
--disambiguate=<prefix>
Show every object whose name begins with the
given prefix. The <prefix> must be at least 4 hexadecimal digits long to
avoid listing each and every object in the repository by mistake.
Options for Files
--local-env-varsList the GIT_* environment variables that are
local to the repository (e.g. GIT_DIR or GIT_WORK_TREE, but not GIT_EDITOR).
Only the names of the variables are listed, not their value, even if they are
set.
--path-format=(absolute|relative)
Controls the behavior of certain other
options. If specified as absolute, the paths printed by those options will be
absolute and canonical. If specified as relative, the paths will be relative
to the current working directory if that is possible. The default is option
specific.
This option may be specified multiple times and affects only the arguments that
follow it on the command line, either to the end of the command line or the
next instance of this option.
Show $GIT_DIR if defined. Otherwise
show the path to the .git directory. The path shown, when relative, is
relative to the current working directory.
If $GIT_DIR is not defined and the current directory is not detected to
lie in a Git repository or work tree print a message to stderr and exit with
nonzero status.
--git-common-dir
Show $GIT_COMMON_DIR if defined, else
$GIT_DIR.
--resolve-git-dir <path>
Check if <path> is a valid repository or
a gitfile that points at a valid repository, and print the location of the
repository. If <path> is a gitfile then the resolved path to the real
repository is printed.
--git-path <path>
Resolve "$GIT_DIR/<path>" and
takes other path relocation variables such as $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY,
$GIT_INDEX_FILE... into account. For example, if $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY is set
to /foo/bar then "git rev-parse --git-path objects/abc" returns
/foo/bar/abc.
--show-toplevel
Show the (by default, absolute) path of the
top-level directory of the working tree. If there is no working tree, report
an error.
--show-superproject-working-tree
Show the absolute path of the root of the
superproject’s working tree (if exists) that uses the current
repository as its submodule. Outputs nothing if the current repository is not
used as a submodule by any project.
--shared-index-path
Show the path to the shared index file in
split index mode, or empty if not in split-index mode.
Like --git-dir, but its output is
always the canonicalized absolute path.
--is-inside-git-dir
When the current working directory is below
the repository directory print "true", otherwise
"false".
--is-inside-work-tree
When the current working directory is inside
the work tree of the repository print "true", otherwise
"false".
--is-bare-repository
When the repository is bare print
"true", otherwise "false".
--is-shallow-repository
When the repository is shallow print
"true", otherwise "false".
--show-cdup
When the command is invoked from a
subdirectory, show the path of the top-level directory relative to the current
directory (typically a sequence of "../", or an empty string).
--show-prefix
When the command is invoked from a
subdirectory, show the path of the current directory relative to the top-level
directory.
--show-object-format[=(storage|input|output)]
Show the object format (hash algorithm) used
for the repository for storage inside the .git directory, input, or
output. For input, multiple algorithms may be printed, space-separated. If not
specified, the default is "storage".
Other Options
--since=datestring, --after=datestringParse the date string, and output the
corresponding --max-age= parameter for git rev-list.
--until=datestring, --before=datestring
Parse the date string, and output the
corresponding --min-age= parameter for git rev-list.
<args>...
Flags and parameters to be parsed.
SPECIFYING REVISIONS
A revision parameter <rev> typically, but not necessarily, names a commit object. It uses what is called an extended SHA-1 syntax. Here are various ways to spell object names. The ones listed near the end of this list name trees and blobs contained in a commit.The full SHA-1 object name (40-byte
hexadecimal string), or a leading substring that is unique within the
repository. E.g. dae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735 and dae86e both name
the same commit object if there is no other object in your repository whose
object name starts with dae86e.
<describeOutput>, e.g. v1.7.4.2-679-g3bee7fb
Output from git describe; i.e. a
closest tag, optionally followed by a dash and a number of commits, followed
by a dash, a g, and an abbreviated object name.
<refname>, e.g. master, heads/master,
refs/heads/master
A symbolic ref name. E.g. master
typically means the commit object referenced by refs/heads/master. If
you happen to have both heads/master and tags/master, you can
explicitly say heads/master to tell Git which one you mean. When
ambiguous, a <refname> is disambiguated by taking the first match
in the following rules:
@
1.If $GIT_DIR/<refname> exists,
that is what you mean (this is usually useful only for HEAD,
FETCH_HEAD, ORIG_HEAD, MERGE_HEAD and
CHERRY_PICK_HEAD);
2.otherwise, refs/<refname> if
it exists;
3.otherwise, refs/tags/<refname>
if it exists;
4.otherwise,
refs/heads/<refname> if it exists;
5.otherwise,
refs/remotes/<refname> if it exists;
6.otherwise,
refs/remotes/<refname>/HEAD if it exists.
HEAD names the commit on which you based the changes in the working tree.
FETCH_HEAD records the branch which you fetched from a remote
repository with your last git fetch invocation. ORIG_HEAD is
created by commands that move your HEAD in a drastic way, to record the
position of the HEAD before their operation, so that you can easily
change the tip of the branch back to the state before you ran them.
MERGE_HEAD records the commit(s) which you are merging into your branch
when you run git merge. CHERRY_PICK_HEAD records the commit
which you are cherry-picking when you run git cherry-pick.
Note that any of the refs/* cases above may come either from the
$GIT_DIR/refs directory or from the $GIT_DIR/packed-refs file.
While the ref name encoding is unspecified, UTF-8 is preferred as some output
processing may assume ref names in UTF-8.
@ alone is a shortcut for
HEAD.
[<refname>]@{<date>}, e.g. master@{yesterday},
HEAD@{5 minutes ago}
A ref followed by the suffix @ with a
date specification enclosed in a brace pair (e.g. {yesterday}, {1
month 2 weeks 3 days 1 hour 1 second ago} or {1979-02-26 18:30:00})
specifies the value of the ref at a prior point in time. This suffix may only
be used immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an existing log
( $GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>). Note that this looks up the state of your
local ref at a given time; e.g., what was in your local master
branch last week. If you want to look at commits made during certain times,
see --since and --until.
<refname>@{<n>}, e.g. master@{1}
A ref followed by the suffix @ with an
ordinal specification enclosed in a brace pair (e.g. {1}, {15})
specifies the n-th prior value of that ref. For example master@{1} is
the immediate prior value of master while master@{5} is the 5th
prior value of master. This suffix may only be used immediately
following a ref name and the ref must have an existing log (
$GIT_DIR/logs/<refname>).
@{<n>}, e.g. @{1}
You can use the @ construct with an
empty ref part to get at a reflog entry of the current branch. For example, if
you are on branch blabla then @{1} means the same as
blabla@{1}.
@{-<n>}, e.g. @{-1}
The construct @{-<n>} means the
<n>th branch/commit checked out before the current one.
[<branchname>]@{upstream}, e.g. master@{upstream},
@{u}
A branch B may be set up to build on top of a
branch X (configured with branch.<name>.merge) at a remote R
(configured with the branch X taken from remote R, typically found at
refs/remotes/R/X.
[<branchname>]@{push}, e.g. master@{push}, @{push}
The suffix @{push} reports the branch
"where we would push to" if git push were run while
branchname was checked out (or the current HEAD if no branchname
is specified). Like for @{upstream}, we report the remote-tracking
branch that corresponds to that branch at the remote.
Here’s an example to make it more clear:
Note in the example that we set up a triangular workflow, where we pull from one
location and push to another. In a non-triangular workflow, @{push} is
the same as @{upstream}, and there is no need for it.
This suffix is also accepted when spelled in uppercase, and means the same thing
no matter the case.
<rev>^[<n>], e.g. HEAD^, v1.5.1^0
$ git config push.default current $ git config remote.pushdefault myfork $ git switch -c mybranch origin/master $ git rev-parse --symbolic-full-name @{upstream} refs/remotes/origin/master $ git rev-parse --symbolic-full-name @{push} refs/remotes/myfork/mybranch
A suffix ^ to a revision parameter
means the first parent of that commit object. ^<n> means the
<n>th parent (i.e. <rev>^ is equivalent to
<rev>^1). As a special rule, <rev>^0 means the
commit itself and is used when <rev> is the object name of a tag
object that refers to a commit object.
<rev>~[<n>], e.g. HEAD~, master~3
A suffix ~ to a revision parameter
means the first parent of that commit object. A suffix ~<n> to a
revision parameter means the commit object that is the <n>th generation
ancestor of the named commit object, following only the first parents. I.e.
<rev>~3 is equivalent to <rev>^^^ which is
equivalent to <rev>^1^1^1. See below for an illustration of the
usage of this form.
<rev>^{<type>}, e.g. v0.99.8^{commit}
A suffix ^ followed by an object type
name enclosed in brace pair means dereference the object at <rev>
recursively until an object of type <type> is found or the object
cannot be dereferenced anymore (in which case, barf). For example, if
<rev> is a commit-ish, <rev>^{commit} describes the
corresponding commit object. Similarly, if <rev> is a tree-ish,
<rev>^{tree} describes the corresponding tree object.
<rev>^0 is a short-hand for <rev>^{commit}.
<rev>^{object} can be used to make sure <rev> names an
object that exists, without requiring <rev> to be a tag, and
without dereferencing <rev>; because a tag is already an object,
it does not have to be dereferenced even once to get to an object.
<rev>^{tag} can be used to ensure that <rev>
identifies an existing tag object.
<rev>^{}, e.g. v0.99.8^{}
A suffix ^ followed by an empty brace
pair means the object could be a tag, and dereference the tag recursively
until a non-tag object is found.
<rev>^{/<text>}, e.g. HEAD^{/fix nasty bug}
A suffix ^ to a revision parameter,
followed by a brace pair that contains a text led by a slash, is the same as
the :/fix nasty bug syntax below except that it returns the youngest
matching commit which is reachable from the <rev> before
^.
:/<text>, e.g. :/fix nasty bug
A colon, followed by a slash, followed by a
text, names a commit whose commit message matches the specified regular
expression. This name returns the youngest matching commit which is reachable
from any ref, including HEAD. The regular expression can match any part of the
commit message. To match messages starting with a string, one can use e.g.
:/^foo. The special sequence :/! is reserved for modifiers to
what is matched. :/!-foo performs a negative match, while
:/!!foo matches a literal ! character, followed by foo.
Any other sequence beginning with :/! is reserved for now. Depending on
the given text, the shell’s word splitting rules might require
additional quoting.
<rev>:<path>, e.g. HEAD:README, master:./README
A suffix : followed by a path names the
blob or tree at the given path in the tree-ish object named by the part before
the colon. A path starting with ./ or ../ is relative to the
current working directory. The given path will be converted to be relative to
the working tree’s root directory. This is most useful to address a
blob or tree from a commit or tree that has the same tree structure as the
working tree.
:[<n>:]<path>, e.g. :0:README, :README
A colon, optionally followed by a stage number
(0 to 3) and a colon, followed by a path, names a blob object in the index at
the given path. A missing stage number (and the colon that follows it) names a
stage 0 entry. During a merge, stage 1 is the common ancestor, stage 2 is the
target branch’s version (typically the current branch), and stage 3 is
the version from the branch which is being merged.
G H I J \ / \ / D E F \ | / \ \ | / | \|/ | B C \ / \ / A
A = = A^0 B = A^ = A^1 = A~1 C = = A^2 D = A^^ = A^1^1 = A~2 E = B^2 = A^^2 F = B^3 = A^^3 G = A^^^ = A^1^1^1 = A~3 H = D^2 = B^^2 = A^^^2 = A~2^2 I = F^ = B^3^ = A^^3^ J = F^2 = B^3^2 = A^^3^2
SPECIFYING RANGES
History traversing commands such as git log operate on a set of commits, not just a single commit.Commit Exclusions
^<rev> (caret) NotationTo exclude commits reachable from a commit, a
prefix ^ notation is used. E.g. ^r1 r2 means commits reachable
from r2 but exclude the ones reachable from r1 (i.e. r1
and its ancestors).
Dotted Range Notations
The .. (two-dot) Range NotationThe ^r1 r2 set operation appears so
often that there is a shorthand for it. When you have two commits r1
and r2 (named according to the syntax explained in SPECIFYING REVISIONS
above), you can ask for commits that are reachable from r2 excluding those
that are reachable from r1 by ^r1 r2 and it can be written as
r1..r2.
The ... (three-dot) Symmetric Difference Notation
A similar notation r1...r2 is called
symmetric difference of r1 and r2 and is defined as r1 r2
--not $(git merge-base --all r1 r2). It is the set of commits that are
reachable from either one of r1 (left side) or r2 (right side)
but not from both.
$ git log A..B C..D
---A---B---o---o---C---D
Other <rev>^ Parent Shorthand Notations
Three other shorthands exist, particularly useful for merge commits, for naming a set that is formed by a commit and its parent commits.REVISION RANGE SUMMARY
<rev>Include commits that are reachable from
<rev> (i.e. <rev> and its ancestors).
^<rev>
Exclude commits that are reachable from
<rev> (i.e. <rev> and its ancestors).
<rev1>..<rev2>
Include commits that are reachable from
<rev2> but exclude those that are reachable from <rev1>. When
either <rev1> or <rev2> is omitted, it defaults to
HEAD.
<rev1>...<rev2>
Include commits that are reachable from either
<rev1> or <rev2> but exclude those that are reachable from both.
When either <rev1> or <rev2> is omitted, it defaults to
HEAD.
<rev>^@, e.g. HEAD^@
A suffix ^ followed by an at sign is
the same as listing all parents of <rev> (meaning, include
anything reachable from its parents, but not the commit itself).
<rev>^!, e.g. HEAD^!
A suffix ^ followed by an exclamation
mark is the same as giving commit <rev> and all its parents
prefixed with ^ to exclude them (and their ancestors).
<rev>^-<n>, e.g. HEAD^-, HEAD^-2
Equivalent to
<rev>^<n>..<rev>, with <n> = 1 if not
given.
Args Expanded arguments Selected commits D G H D D F G H I J D F ^G D H D ^D B E I J F B ^D B C E I J F B C C I J F C B..C = ^B C C B...C = B ^F C G H D E B C B^- = B^..B = ^B^1 B E I J F B C^@ = C^1 = F I J F B^@ = B^1 B^2 B^3 = D E F D G H E F I J C^! = C ^C^@ = C ^C^1 = C ^F C B^! = B ^B^@ = B ^B^1 ^B^2 ^B^3 = B ^D ^E ^F B F^! D = F ^I ^J D G H D F
PARSEOPT
In --parseopt mode, git rev-parse helps massaging options to bring to shell scripts the same facilities C builtins have. It works as an option normalizer (e.g. splits single switches aggregate values), a bit like getopt(1) does.Input Format
git rev-parse --parseopt input format is fully text based. It has two parts, separated by a line that contains only --. The lines before the separator (should be one or more) are used for the usage. The lines after the separator describe the options.<opt-spec><flags>*<arg-hint>? SP+ help LF
its format is the short option character, then
the long option name separated by a comma. Both parts are not required, though
at least one is necessary. May not contain any of the <flags>
characters. h,help, dry-run and f are examples of correct
<opt-spec>.
<flags>
<flags> are of *,
=, ? or !.
<arg-hint>
•Use = if the option takes an
argument.
•Use ? to mean that the option
takes an optional argument. You probably want to use the --stuck-long
mode to be able to unambiguously parse the optional argument.
•Use * to mean that this option
should not be listed in the usage generated for the -h argument.
It’s shown for --help-all as documented in
gitcli(7).
•Use ! to not make the
corresponding negated long option available.
<arg-hint>, if specified, is used
as a name of the argument in the help output, for options that take arguments.
<arg-hint> is terminated by the first whitespace. It is customary
to use a dash to separate words in a multi-word argument hint.
Example
OPTS_SPEC="\ some-command [<options>] <args>... some-command does foo and bar! -- h,help show the help foo some nifty option --foo bar= some cool option --bar with an argument baz=arg another cool option --baz with a named argument qux?path qux may take a path argument but has meaning by itself An option group Header C? option C with an optional argument" eval "$(echo "$OPTS_SPEC" | git rev-parse --parseopt -- "$@" || echo exit $?)"
Usage text
When "$@" is -h or --help in the above example, the following usage text would be shown:usage: some-command [<options>] <args>... some-command does foo and bar! -h, --help show the help --foo some nifty option --foo --bar ... some cool option --bar with an argument --baz <arg> another cool option --baz with a named argument --qux[=<path>] qux may take a path argument but has meaning by itself An option group Header -C[...] option C with an optional argument
SQ-QUOTE
In --sq-quote mode, git rev-parse echoes on the standard output a single line suitable for sh(1) eval. This line is made by normalizing the arguments following --sq-quote. Nothing other than quoting the arguments is done.Example
$ cat >your-git-script.sh <<\EOF #!/bin/sh args=$(git rev-parse --sq-quote "$@") # quote user-supplied arguments command="git frotz -n24 $args" # and use it inside a handcrafted # command line eval "$command" EOF $ sh your-git-script.sh "a b'c"
EXAMPLES
•Print the object name of the current
commit:
$ git rev-parse --verify HEAD
•Print the commit object name from the
revision in the $REV shell variable:
This will error out if $REV is empty or not a valid revision.
$ git rev-parse --verify --end-of-options $REV^{commit}
•Similar to above:
but if $REV is empty, the commit object name from master will be printed.
$ git rev-parse --default master --verify --end-of-options $REV
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite02/28/2023 | Git 2.39.2 |