Provided by:
git-core_1.5.2.5-2build1_i386 
NAME
git-rev-parse - Pick out and massage parameters
SYNOPSIS
git-rev-parse [ --option ] <args>...
DESCRIPTION
Many git porcelainish commands take mixture of flags (i.e. parameters
that begin with a dash -) and parameters meant for underlying
git-rev-list command they use internally and flags and parameters for
other commands they use as the downstream of git-rev-list. This command
is used to distinguish between them.
OPTIONS
--revs-only
Do 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.
--default <arg>
If there is no parameter given by the user, use <arg> instead.
--verify
The parameter given must be usable as a single, valid object name.
Otherwise barf and abort.
--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-*).
--not
When showing object names, prefix them with ^ and strip ^ prefix
from the object names that already have one.
--symbolic
Usually the object names are output in SHA1 form (with possible ^
prefix); this option makes them output in a form as close to the
original input as possible.
--all
Show all refs found in $GIT_DIR/refs.
--branches
Show branch refs found in $GIT_DIR/refs/heads.
--tags
Show tag refs found in $GIT_DIR/refs/tags.
--remotes
Show tag refs found in $GIT_DIR/refs/remotes.
--show-prefix
When the command is invoked from a subdirectory, show the path of
the current directory relative to the top-level directory.
--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).
--git-dir
Show $GIT_DIR if defined else show the path to the .git directory.
--short, --short=number
Instead of outputting the full SHA1 values of object names try to
abbreviate them to a shorter unique name. When no length is
specified 7 is used. The minimum length is 4.
--since=datestring, --after=datestring
Parses the date string, and outputs corresponding --max-age=
parameter for git-rev-list command.
--until=datestring, --before=datestring
Parses the date string, and outputs corresponding --min-age=
parameter for git-rev-list command.
<args>...
Flags and parameters to be parsed.
A revision parameter typically, but not necessarily, names a commit
object. They use what is called an extended SHA1 syntax. Here are
various ways to spell object names. The ones listed near the end of
this list are to name trees and blobs contained in a commit.
· The full SHA1 object name (40-byte hexadecimal string), or a
substring of such that is unique within the repository. E.g.
dae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735 and dae86e both name the
same commit object if there are no other object in your repository
whose object name starts with dae86e.
· An output from git-describe; i.e. a closest tag, followed by a
dash, a g, and an abbreviated object name.
· A symbolic ref name. E.g. master typically means the commit object
referenced by $GIT_DIR/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
<name> is disambiguated by taking the first match in the following
rules:
1. if $GIT_DIR/<name> exists, that is what you mean (this is
usually useful only for HEAD, FETCH_HEAD and MERGE_HEAD);
2. otherwise, $GIT_DIR/refs/<name> if exists;
3. otherwise, $GIT_DIR/refs/tags/<name> if exists;
4. otherwise, $GIT_DIR/refs/heads/<name> if exists;
5. otherwise, $GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/<name> if exists;
6. otherwise, $GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD if exists.
· A ref followed by the suffix @ with a date specification enclosed
in a brace pair (e.g. {yesterday}, {1 month 2 weeks 3 days 1 hour 1
second ago} or {1979-02-26 18:30:00}) to specify the value of the
ref at a prior point in time. This suffix may only be used
immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an existing
log ($GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>).
· A ref followed by the suffix @ with an ordinal specification
enclosed in a brace pair (e.g. {1}, {15}) to specify 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/<ref>).
· You can use the @ construct with an empty ref part to get at a
reflog of the current branch. For example, if you are on the branch
blabla, then @{1} means the same as blabla@{1}.
· 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.
· A suffix ~<n> to a revision parameter means the commit object that
is the <n>th generation grand-parent of the named commit object,
following only the first parent. I.e. rev~3 is equivalent to rev^^^
which is equivalent to rev^1^1^1. See below for a illustration of
the usage of this form.
· A suffix ^ followed by an object type name enclosed in brace pair
(e.g. v0.99.8^{commit}) means the object could be a tag, and
dereference the tag recursively until an object of that type is
found or the object cannot be dereferenced anymore (in which case,
barf). rev^0 introduced earlier is a short-hand for rev^{commit}.
· A suffix ^ followed by an empty brace pair (e.g. v0.99.8^{}) means
the object could be a tag, and dereference the tag recursively
until a non-tag object is found.
· A colon, followed by a slash, followed by a text: this names a
commit whose commit message starts with the specified text. This
name returns the youngest matching commit which is reachable from
any ref. If the commit message starts with a !, you have to repeat
that; the special sequence :/!, followed by something else than !
is reserved for now.
· A suffix : followed by a path; this names the blob or tree at the
given path in the tree-ish object named by the part before the
colon.
· A colon, optionally followed by a stage number (0 to 3) and a
colon, followed by a path; this names a blob object in the index at
the given path. Missing stage number (and the colon that follows
it) names an stage 0 entry.
Here is an illustration, by Jon Loeliger. Both node B and C are a
commit parents of commit node A. Parent commits are ordered
left-to-right.
G H I J
\ / \ /
D E F
\ | / \
\ | / |
\|/ |
B C
\ /
\ /
A
A = = A^0
B = A^ = A^1 = A~1
C = A^2 = 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
History traversing commands such as git-log operate on a set of
commits, not just a single commit. To these commands, specifying a
single revision with the notation described in the previous section
means the set of commits reachable from that commit, following the
commit ancestry chain.
To 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.
This set operation appears so often that there is a shorthand for it.
"r1..r2" is equivalent to "^r1 r2". It is the difference of two sets
(subtract the set of commits reachable from r1 from the set of commits
reachable from r2).
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 or r2 but
not from both.
Two other shorthands for naming a set that is formed by a commit and
its parent commits exists. r1^@ notation means all parents of r1. r1^!
includes commit r1 but excludes its all parents.
Here are a handful examples:
D G H D
D F G H I J D F
^G D H D
^D B E I J F B
B...C G H D E B C
^D B C E I J F B C
C^@ I J F
F^! D G H D F
AUTHOR
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> and Junio C Hamano
<junkio@cox.net>
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT
Part of the git(7) suite