Git Help
Git Help
If you are having trouble remembering commands or options for commands, you can use Git help.
There are a couple of different ways you can use the help command in command line:
git command -help- See all the available options for the specific commandgit help --all- See all possible commands
Let's go over the different commands.
Git -help See Options for a Specific Command
Any time you need some help a remembering the specific option for a command, you can use git command -help:
Example
git commit -help
usage: git commit [<options>] [--] <pathspec>...
-q, --quiet suppress summary after successful commit
-v, --verbose show diff in commit message template
Commit message options
-F, --file <file> read message from file
--author <author> override author for commit
--date <date> override date for commit
-m, --message <message>
commit message
-c, --reedit-message <commit>
reuse and edit message from specified commit
-C, --reuse-message <commit>
reuse message from specified commit
--fixup <commit> use autosquash formatted message to fixup specified commit
--squash <commit> use autosquash formatted message to squash specified commit
--reset-author the commit is authored by me now (used with -C/-c/--amend)
-s, --signoff add a Signed-off-by trailer
-t, --template <file>
use specified template file
-e, --edit force edit of commit
--cleanup <mode> how to strip spaces and #comments from message
--status include status in commit message template
-S, --gpg-sign[=<key-id>]
GPG sign commit
Commit contents options
-a, --all commit all changed files
-i, --include add specified files to index for commit
--interactive interactively add files
-p, --patch interactively add changes
-o, --only commit only specified files
-n, --no-verify bypass pre-commit and commit-msg hooks
--dry-run show what would be committed
--short show status concisely
--branch show branch information
--ahead-behind compute full ahead/behind values
--porcelain machine-readable output
--long show status in long format (default)
-z, --null terminate entries with NUL
--amend amend previous commit
--no-post-rewrite bypass post-rewrite hook
-u, --untracked-files[=<mode>]
show untracked files, optional modes: all, normal, no. (Default: all)
--pathspec-from-file <file>
read pathspec from file
--pathspec-file-nul with --pathspec-from-file, pathspec elements are separated with NUL characterNote: You can also use --help instead of -help to open the relevant Git manual page.
Git help --all See All Possible Commands
To list all possible commands, use the help --all command:
Warning: This will display a very long list of commands
Example
$ git help --all
See 'git help <command>' to read about a specific subcommand
Main Porcelain Commands
add Add file contents to the index
am Apply a series of patches from a mailbox
archive Create an archive of files from a named tree
bisect Use binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug
branch List, create, or delete branches
bundle Move objects and refs by archive
checkout Switch branches or restore working tree files
cherry-pick Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits
citool Graphical alternative to git-commit
clean Remove untracked files from the working tree
clone Clone a repository into a new directory
commit Record changes to the repository
describe Give an object a human readable name based on an available ref
diff Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
fetch Download objects and refs from another repository
format-patch Prepare patches for e-mail submission
gc Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository
gitk The Git repository browser
grep Print lines matching a pattern
gui A portable graphical interface to Git
init Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one
log Show commit logs
maintenance Run tasks to optimize Git repository data
merge Join two or more development histories together
mv Move or rename a file, a directory, or a symlink
notes Add or inspect object notes
pull Fetch from and integrate with another repository or a local branch
push Update remote refs along with associated objects
range-diff Compare two commit ranges (e.g. two versions of a branch)
rebase Reapply commits on top of another base tip
reset Reset current HEAD to the specified state
restore Restore working tree files
revert Revert some existing commits
rm Remove files from the working tree and from the index
shortlog Summarize 'git log' output
show Show various types of objects
sparse-checkout Initialize and modify the sparse-checkout
stash Stash the changes in a dirty working directory away
status Show the working tree status
submodule Initialize, update or inspect submodules
switch Switch branches
tag Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG
worktree Manage multiple working trees
Ancillary Commands / Manipulators
config Get and set repository or global options
fast-export Git data exporter
fast-import Backend for fast Git data importers
filter-branch Rewrite branches
mergetool Run merge conflict resolution tools to resolve merge conflicts
pack-refs Pack heads and tags for efficient repository access
prune Prune all unreachable objects from the object database
reflog Manage reflog information
remote Manage set of tracked repositories
repack Pack unpacked objects in a repository
replace Create, list, delete refs to replace objects
Ancillary Commands / Interrogators
annotate Annotate file lines with commit information
blame Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file
bugreport Collect information for user to file a bug report
count-objects Count unpacked number of objects and their disk consumption
difftool Show changes using common diff tools
fsck Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database
gitweb Git web interface (web frontend to Git repositories)
help Display help information about Git
instaweb Instantly browse your working repository in gitweb
merge-tree Show three-way merge without touching index
rerere Reuse recorded resolution of conflicted merges
show-branch Show branches and their commits
verify-commit Check the GPG signature of commits
verify-tag Check the GPG signature of tags
whatchanged Show logs with difference each commit introduces
Interacting with Others
archimport Import a GNU Arch repository into Git
cvsexportcommit Export a single commit to a CVS checkout
cvsimport Salvage your data out of another SCM people love to hate
cvsserver A CVS server emulator for Git
imap-send Send a collection of patches from stdin to an IMAP folder
p4 Import from and submit to Perforce repositories
quiltimport Applies a quilt patchset onto the current branch
request-pull Generates a summary of pending changes
send-email Send a collection of patches as emails
svn Bidirectional operation between a Subversion repository and Git
Low-level Commands / Manipulators
apply Apply a patch to files and/or to the index
checkout-index Copy files from the index to the working tree
commit-graph Write and verify Git commit-graph files
commit-tree Create a new commit object
hash-object Compute object ID and optionally creates a blob from a file
index-pack Build pack index file for an existing packed archive
merge-file Run a three-way file merge
merge-index Run a merge for files needing merging
mktag Creates a tag object
mktree Build a tree-object from ls-tree formatted text
multi-pack-index Write and verify multi-pack-indexes
pack-objects Create a packed archive of objects
prune-packed Remove extra objects that are already in pack files
read-tree Reads tree information into the index
symbolic-ref Read, modify and delete symbolic refs
unpack-objects Unpack objects from a packed archive
update-index Register file contents in the working tree to the index
update-ref Update the object name stored in a ref safely
write-tree Create a tree object from the current index
Low-level Commands / Interrogators
cat-file Provide content or type and size information for repository objects
cherry Find commits yet to be applied to upstream
diff-files Compares files in the working tree and the index
diff-index Compare a tree to the working tree or index
diff-tree Compares the content and mode of blobs found via two tree objects
for-each-ref Output information on each ref
for-each-repo Run a Git command on a list of repositories
get-tar-commit-id Extract commit ID from an archive created using git-archive
ls-files Show information about files in the index and the working tree
ls-remote List references in a remote repository
ls-tree List the contents of a tree object
merge-base Find as good common ancestors as possible for a merge
name-rev Find symbolic names for given revs
pack-redundant Find redundant pack files
rev-list Lists commit objects in reverse chronological order
rev-parse Pick out and massage parameters
show-index Show packed archive index
show-ref List references in a local repository
unpack-file Creates a temporary file with a blob's contents
var Show a Git logical variable
verify-pack Validate packed Git archive files
Low-level Commands / Syncing Repositories
daemon A really simple server for Git repositories
fetch-pack Receive missing objects from another repository
http-backend Server side implementation of Git over HTTP
send-pack Push objects over Git protocol to another repository
update-server-info Update auxiliary info file to help dumb servers
Low-level Commands / Internal Helpers
check-attr Display gitattributes information
check-ignore Debug gitignore / exclude files
check-mailmap Show canonical names and email addresses of contacts
check-ref-format Ensures that a reference name is well formed
column Display data in columns
credential Retrieve and store user credentials
credential-cache Helper to temporarily store passwords in memory
credential-store Helper to store credentials on disk
fmt-merge-msg Produce a merge commit message
interpret-trailers Add or parse structured information in commit messages
mailinfo Extracts patch and authorship from a single e-mail message
mailsplit Simple UNIX mbox splitter program
merge-one-file The standard helper program to use with git-merge-index
patch-id Compute unique ID for a patch
sh-i18n Git's i18n setup code for shell scripts
sh-setup Common Git shell script setup code
stripspace Remove unnecessary whitespace
External commands
askyesno
credential-helper-selector
flow
lfsNote: If you find yourself stuck in the list view, SHIFT + G to jump the end of the list, then q to exit the view.
