| 1 | git-help(1) |
| 2 | =========== |
| 3 | |
| 4 | NAME |
| 5 | ---- |
| 6 | git-help - Display help information about Git |
| 7 | |
| 8 | SYNOPSIS |
| 9 | -------- |
| 10 | [verse] |
| 11 | 'git help' [-a|--all] [--[no-]verbose] [--[no-]external-commands] [--[no-]aliases] |
| 12 | 'git help' [[-i|--info] [-m|--man] [-w|--web]] [<command>|<doc>] |
| 13 | 'git help' [-g|--guides] |
| 14 | 'git help' [-c|--config] |
| 15 | 'git help' [--user-interfaces] |
| 16 | 'git help' [--developer-interfaces] |
| 17 | |
| 18 | DESCRIPTION |
| 19 | ----------- |
| 20 | |
| 21 | With no options and no '<command>' or '<doc>' given, the synopsis of the 'git' |
| 22 | command and a list of the most commonly used Git commands are printed |
| 23 | on the standard output. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | If the option `--all` or `-a` is given, all available commands are |
| 26 | printed on the standard output. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | If the option `--guides` or `-g` is given, a list of the |
| 29 | Git concept guides is also printed on the standard output. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | If a command or other documentation is given, the relevant manual page |
| 32 | will be brought up. The 'man' program is used by default for this |
| 33 | purpose, but this can be overridden by other options or configuration |
| 34 | variables. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | If an alias is given, git shows the definition of the alias on |
| 37 | standard output. To get the manual page for the aliased command, use |
| 38 | `git <command> --help`. |
| 39 | |
| 40 | Note that `git --help ...` is identical to `git help ...` because the |
| 41 | former is internally converted into the latter. |
| 42 | |
| 43 | To display the linkgit:git[1] man page, use `git help git`. |
| 44 | |
| 45 | This page can be displayed with 'git help help' or `git help --help`. |
| 46 | |
| 47 | OPTIONS |
| 48 | ------- |
| 49 | -a:: |
| 50 | --all:: |
| 51 | Print all the available commands on the standard output. |
| 52 | |
| 53 | --no-external-commands:: |
| 54 | When used with `--all`, exclude the listing of external "git-*" |
| 55 | commands found in the `$PATH`. |
| 56 | |
| 57 | --no-aliases:: |
| 58 | When used with `--all`, exclude the listing of configured |
| 59 | aliases. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | --verbose:: |
| 62 | When used with `--all`, print description for all recognized |
| 63 | commands. This is the default. |
| 64 | |
| 65 | -c:: |
| 66 | --config:: |
| 67 | List all available configuration variables. This is a short |
| 68 | summary of the list in linkgit:git-config[1]. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | -g:: |
| 71 | --guides:: |
| 72 | Print a list of the Git concept guides on the standard output. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | --user-interfaces:: |
| 75 | Print a list of the repository, command and file interfaces |
| 76 | documentation on the standard output. |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | In-repository file interfaces such as `.git/info/exclude` are |
| 79 | documented here (see linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5]), as well as |
| 80 | in-tree configuration such as `.mailmap` (see linkgit:gitmailmap[5]). |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | This section of the documentation also covers general or widespread |
| 83 | user-interface conventions (e.g. linkgit:gitcli[7]), and |
| 84 | pseudo-configuration such as the file-based `.git/hooks/*` interface |
| 85 | described in linkgit:githooks[5]. |
| 86 | |
| 87 | --developer-interfaces:: |
| 88 | Print a list of file formats, protocols and other developer |
| 89 | interfaces documentation on the standard output. |
| 90 | |
| 91 | -i:: |
| 92 | --info:: |
| 93 | Display manual page for the command in the 'info' format. The |
| 94 | 'info' program will be used for that purpose. |
| 95 | |
| 96 | -m:: |
| 97 | --man:: |
| 98 | Display manual page for the command in the 'man' format. This |
| 99 | option may be used to override a value set in the |
| 100 | `help.format` configuration variable. |
| 101 | + |
| 102 | By default the 'man' program will be used to display the manual page, |
| 103 | but the `man.viewer` configuration variable may be used to choose |
| 104 | other display programs (see below). |
| 105 | |
| 106 | -w:: |
| 107 | --web:: |
| 108 | Display manual page for the command in the 'web' (HTML) |
| 109 | format. A web browser will be used for that purpose. |
| 110 | + |
| 111 | The web browser can be specified using the configuration variable |
| 112 | `help.browser`, or `web.browser` if the former is not set. If neither of |
| 113 | these config variables is set, the 'git web{litdd}browse' helper script |
| 114 | (called by 'git help') will pick a suitable default. See |
| 115 | linkgit:git-web{litdd}browse[1] for more information about this. |
| 116 | |
| 117 | CONFIGURATION VARIABLES |
| 118 | ----------------------- |
| 119 | |
| 120 | help.format |
| 121 | ~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 122 | |
| 123 | If no command-line option is passed, the `help.format` configuration |
| 124 | variable will be checked. The following values are supported for this |
| 125 | variable; they make 'git help' behave as their corresponding command- |
| 126 | line option: |
| 127 | |
| 128 | * "man" corresponds to '-m|--man', |
| 129 | * "info" corresponds to '-i|--info', |
| 130 | * "web" or "html" correspond to '-w|--web'. |
| 131 | |
| 132 | help.browser, web.browser, and browser.<tool>.path |
| 133 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 134 | |
| 135 | The `help.browser`, `web.browser` and `browser.<tool>.path` will also |
| 136 | be checked if the 'web' format is chosen (either by command-line |
| 137 | option or configuration variable). See '-w|--web' in the OPTIONS |
| 138 | section above and linkgit:git-web{litdd}browse[1]. |
| 139 | |
| 140 | man.viewer |
| 141 | ~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 142 | |
| 143 | The `man.viewer` configuration variable will be checked if the 'man' |
| 144 | format is chosen. The following values are currently supported: |
| 145 | |
| 146 | * "man": use the 'man' program as usual, |
| 147 | * "woman": use 'emacsclient' to launch the "woman" mode in emacs |
| 148 | (this only works starting with emacsclient versions 22), |
| 149 | * "konqueror": use 'kfmclient' to open the man page in a new konqueror |
| 150 | tab (see 'Note about konqueror' below). |
| 151 | |
| 152 | Values for other tools can be used if there is a corresponding |
| 153 | `man.<tool>.cmd` configuration entry (see below). |
| 154 | |
| 155 | Multiple values may be given to the `man.viewer` configuration |
| 156 | variable. Their corresponding programs will be tried in the order |
| 157 | listed in the configuration file. |
| 158 | |
| 159 | For example, this configuration: |
| 160 | |
| 161 | ------------------------------------------------ |
| 162 | [man] |
| 163 | viewer = konqueror |
| 164 | viewer = woman |
| 165 | ------------------------------------------------ |
| 166 | |
| 167 | will try to use konqueror first. But this may fail (for example, if |
| 168 | DISPLAY is not set) and in that case emacs' woman mode will be tried. |
| 169 | |
| 170 | If everything fails, or if no viewer is configured, the viewer specified |
| 171 | in the `GIT_MAN_VIEWER` environment variable will be tried. If that |
| 172 | fails too, the 'man' program will be tried anyway. |
| 173 | |
| 174 | man.<tool>.path |
| 175 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 176 | |
| 177 | You can explicitly provide a full path to your preferred man viewer by |
| 178 | setting the configuration variable `man.<tool>.path`. For example, you |
| 179 | can configure the absolute path to konqueror by setting |
| 180 | 'man.konqueror.path'. Otherwise, 'git help' assumes the tool is |
| 181 | available in PATH. |
| 182 | |
| 183 | man.<tool>.cmd |
| 184 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 185 | |
| 186 | When the man viewer, specified by the `man.viewer` configuration |
| 187 | variables, is not among the supported ones, then the corresponding |
| 188 | `man.<tool>.cmd` configuration variable will be looked up. If this |
| 189 | variable exists then the specified tool will be treated as a custom |
| 190 | command and a shell eval will be used to run the command with the man |
| 191 | page passed as arguments. |
| 192 | |
| 193 | Note about konqueror |
| 194 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 195 | |
| 196 | When 'konqueror' is specified in the `man.viewer` configuration |
| 197 | variable, we launch 'kfmclient' to try to open the man page on an |
| 198 | already opened konqueror in a new tab if possible. |
| 199 | |
| 200 | For consistency, we also try such a trick if 'man.konqueror.path' is |
| 201 | set to something like `A_PATH_TO/konqueror`. That means we will try to |
| 202 | launch `A_PATH_TO/kfmclient` instead. |
| 203 | |
| 204 | If you really want to use 'konqueror', then you can use something like |
| 205 | the following: |
| 206 | |
| 207 | ------------------------------------------------ |
| 208 | [man] |
| 209 | viewer = konq |
| 210 | |
| 211 | [man "konq"] |
| 212 | cmd = A_PATH_TO/konqueror |
| 213 | ------------------------------------------------ |
| 214 | |
| 215 | Note about git config --global |
| 216 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 217 | |
| 218 | Note that all these configuration variables should probably be set |
| 219 | using the `--global` flag, for example like this: |
| 220 | |
| 221 | ------------------------------------------------ |
| 222 | $ git config --global help.format web |
| 223 | $ git config --global web.browser firefox |
| 224 | ------------------------------------------------ |
| 225 | |
| 226 | as they are probably more user specific than repository specific. |
| 227 | See linkgit:git-config[1] for more information about this. |
| 228 | |
| 229 | GIT |
| 230 | --- |
| 231 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |