2 .\" Title: gitrevisions
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10 .TH "GITREVISIONS" "7" "2024-10-04" "Git 2\&.47\&.0\&.rc1\&.33\&.g9" "Git Manual"
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31 gitrevisions \- Specifying revisions and ranges for Git
37 Many Git commands take revision parameters as arguments\&. Depending on the command, they denote a specific commit or, for commands which walk the revision graph (such as \fBgit-log\fR(1)), all commits which are reachable from that commit\&. For commands that walk the revision graph one can also specify a range of revisions explicitly\&.
39 In addition, some Git commands (such as \fBgit-show\fR(1) and \fBgit-push\fR(1)) can also take revision parameters which denote other objects than commits, e\&.g\&. blobs ("files") or trees ("directories of files")\&.
40 .SH "SPECIFYING REVISIONS"
42 A revision parameter \fI<rev>\fR typically, but not necessarily, names a commit object\&. It uses what is called an \fIextended SHA\-1\fR 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\&.
48 .nr an-no-space-flag 1
56 This document shows the "raw" syntax as seen by git\&. The shell and other UIs might require additional quoting to protect special characters and to avoid word splitting\&.
60 \fI<sha1>\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIdae86e1950b1277e545cee180551750029cfe735\fR, \fIdae86e\fR
62 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\&.
65 \fI<describeOutput>\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIv1\&.7\&.4\&.2\-679\-g3bee7fb\fR
68 \fBgit describe\fR; i\&.e\&. a closest tag, optionally followed by a dash and a number of commits, followed by a dash, a
69 \fIg\fR, and an abbreviated object name\&.
72 \fI<refname>\fR, e\&.g\&. \fImaster\fR, \fIheads/master\fR, \fIrefs/heads/master\fR
74 A symbolic ref name\&. E\&.g\&.
76 typically means the commit object referenced by
77 \fIrefs/heads/master\fR\&. If you happen to have both
80 \fItags/master\fR, you can explicitly say
82 to tell Git which one you mean\&. When ambiguous, a
84 is disambiguated by taking the first match in the following rules:
95 \fI$GIT_DIR/<refname>\fR
96 exists, that is what you mean (this is usually useful only for
103 \fBCHERRY_PICK_HEAD\fR,
131 \fIrefs/tags/<refname>\fR
144 \fIrefs/heads/<refname>\fR
157 \fIrefs/remotes/<refname>\fR
170 \fIrefs/remotes/<refname>/HEAD\fR
175 names the commit on which you based the changes in the working tree\&.
180 records the branch which you fetched from a remote repository with your last
187 is created by commands that move your
189 in a drastic way (\fBgit am\fR,
192 \fBgit reset\fR), to record the position of the
194 before their operation, so that you can easily change the tip of the branch back to the state before you ran them\&.
199 records the commit(s) which you are merging into your branch when you run
205 during a rebase, records the commit at which the operation is currently stopped, either because of conflicts or an
207 command in an interactive rebase\&.
212 records the commit which you are reverting when you run
216 \fBCHERRY_PICK_HEAD\fR
218 records the commit which you are cherry\-picking when you run
219 \fBgit cherry\-pick\fR\&.
224 records the current commit to be tested when you run
225 \fBgit bisect \-\-no\-checkout\fR\&.
230 records a tree object corresponding to the state the
232 merge strategy wrote to the working tree when a merge operation resulted in conflicts\&.
238 cases above may come either from the
240 directory or from the
241 \fB$GIT_DIR/packed\-refs\fR
242 file\&. While the ref name encoding is unspecified, UTF\-8 is preferred as some output processing may assume ref names in UTF\-8\&.
248 alone is a shortcut for
252 \fI[<refname>]@{<date>}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fImaster@{yesterday}\fR, \fIHEAD@{5 minutes ago}\fR
254 A ref followed by the suffix
256 with a date specification enclosed in a brace pair (e\&.g\&.
258 \fI{1 month 2 weeks 3 days 1 hour 1 second ago}\fR
260 \fI{1979\-02\-26 18:30:00}\fR) 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 (\fI$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>\fR)\&. Note that this looks up the state of your
262 ref at a given time; e\&.g\&., what was in your local
264 branch last week\&. If you want to look at commits made during certain times, see
270 \fI<refname>@{<n>}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fImaster@{1}\fR
272 A ref followed by the suffix
274 with an ordinal specification enclosed in a brace pair (e\&.g\&.
276 \fI{15}\fR) specifies the n\-th prior value of that ref\&. For example
278 is the immediate prior value of
282 is the 5th prior value of
283 \fImaster\fR\&. This suffix may only be used immediately following a ref name and the ref must have an existing log (\fI$GIT_DIR/logs/<refname>\fR)\&.
286 \fI@{<n>}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fI@{1}\fR
290 construct with an empty ref part to get at a reflog entry of the current branch\&. For example, if you are on branch
298 \fI@{\-<n>}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fI@{\-1}\fR
302 means the <n>th branch/commit checked out before the current one\&.
305 \fI[<branchname>]@{upstream}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fImaster@{upstream}\fR, \fI@{u}\fR
307 A branch B may be set up to build on top of a branch X (configured with
308 \fBbranch\&.<name>\&.merge\fR) at a remote R (configured with
309 \fBbranch\&.<name>\&.remote\fR)\&. B@{u} refers to the remote\-tracking branch for the branch X taken from remote R, typically found at
310 \fBrefs/remotes/R/X\fR\&.
313 \fI[<branchname>]@{push}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fImaster@{push}\fR, \fI@{push}\fR
317 reports the branch "where we would push to" if
321 was checked out (or the current
323 if no branchname is specified)\&. Like for
324 \fI@{upstream}\fR, we report the remote\-tracking branch that corresponds to that branch at the remote\&.
326 Here\(cqs an example to make it more clear:
332 $ git config push\&.default current
333 $ git config remote\&.pushdefault myfork
334 $ git switch \-c mybranch origin/master
336 $ git rev\-parse \-\-symbolic\-full\-name @{upstream}
337 refs/remotes/origin/master
339 $ git rev\-parse \-\-symbolic\-full\-name @{push}
340 refs/remotes/myfork/mybranch
346 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,
349 \fI@{upstream}\fR, and there is no need for it\&.
351 This suffix is also accepted when spelled in uppercase, and means the same thing no matter the case\&.
354 \fI<rev>^[<n>]\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD^, v1\&.5\&.1^0\fR
358 to a revision parameter means the first parent of that commit object\&.
360 means the <n>th parent (i\&.e\&.
363 \fI<rev>^1\fR)\&. As a special rule,
365 means the commit itself and is used when
367 is the object name of a tag object that refers to a commit object\&.
370 \fI<rev>~[<n>]\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD~, master~3\fR
374 to a revision parameter means the first parent of that commit object\&. A suffix
376 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\&.
380 which is equivalent to
381 \fI<rev>^1^1^1\fR\&. See below for an illustration of the usage of this form\&.
384 \fI<rev>^{<type>}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIv0\&.99\&.8^{commit}\fR
388 followed by an object type name enclosed in brace pair means dereference the object at
390 recursively until an object of type
392 is found or the object cannot be dereferenced anymore (in which case, barf)\&. For example, if
396 describes the corresponding commit object\&. Similarly, if
400 describes the corresponding tree object\&.
403 \fI<rev>^{commit}\fR\&.
406 can be used to make sure
408 names an object that exists, without requiring
410 to be a tag, and without dereferencing
411 \fI<rev>\fR; because a tag is already an object, it does not have to be dereferenced even once to get to an object\&.
414 can be used to ensure that
416 identifies an existing tag object\&.
419 \fI<rev>^{}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIv0\&.99\&.8^{}\fR
423 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\&.
426 \fI<rev>^{/<text>}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD^{/fix nasty bug}\fR
430 to a revision parameter, followed by a brace pair that contains a text led by a slash, is the same as the
431 \fI:/fix nasty bug\fR
432 syntax below except that it returns the youngest matching commit which is reachable from the
438 \fI:/<text>\fR, e\&.g\&. \fI:/fix nasty bug\fR
440 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\&.
441 \fI:/^foo\fR\&. The special sequence
443 is reserved for modifiers to what is matched\&.
445 performs a negative match, while
449 character, followed by
450 \fIfoo\fR\&. Any other sequence beginning with
452 is reserved for now\&. Depending on the given text, the shell\(cqs word splitting rules might require additional quoting\&.
455 \fI<rev>:<path>\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD:README\fR, \fImaster:\&./README\fR
459 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
463 is relative to the current working directory\&. The given path will be converted to be relative to the working tree\(cqs 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\&.
466 \fI:[<n>:]<path>\fR, e\&.g\&. \fI:0:README\fR, \fI:README\fR
468 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\(cqs version (typically the current branch), and stage 3 is the version from the branch which is being merged\&.
471 Here is an illustration, by Jon Loeliger\&. Both commit nodes B and C are parents of commit node A\&. Parent commits are ordered left\-to\-right\&.
499 D = A^^ = A^1^1 = A~2
502 G = A^^^ = A^1^1^1 = A~3
503 H = D^2 = B^^2 = A^^^2 = A~2^2
504 I = F^ = B^3^ = A^^3^
505 J = F^2 = B^3^2 = A^^3^2
510 .SH "SPECIFYING RANGES"
512 History traversing commands such as \fBgit log\fR operate on a set of commits, not just a single commit\&.
514 For these commands, specifying a single revision, using the notation described in the previous section, means the set of commits \fBreachable\fR from the given commit\&.
516 Specifying several revisions means the set of commits reachable from any of the given commits\&.
518 A commit\(cqs reachable set is the commit itself and the commits in its ancestry chain\&.
520 There are several notations to specify a set of connected commits (called a "revision range"), illustrated below\&.
521 .SS "Commit Exclusions"
523 \fI^<rev>\fR (caret) Notation
525 To exclude commits reachable from a commit, a prefix
527 notation is used\&. E\&.g\&.
529 means commits reachable from
531 but exclude the ones reachable from
535 and its ancestors)\&.
537 .SS "Dotted Range Notations"
539 The \fI\&.\&.\fR (two\-dot) Range Notation
543 set operation appears so often that there is a shorthand for it\&. When you have two commits
547 (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
549 and it can be written as
553 The \fI\&.\&.\&.\fR (three\-dot) Symmetric Difference Notation
557 is called symmetric difference of
562 \fIr1 r2 \-\-not $(git merge\-base \-\-all r1 r2)\fR\&. It is the set of commits that are reachable from either one of
566 (right side) but not from both\&.
569 In these two shorthand notations, you can omit one end and let it default to HEAD\&. For example, \fIorigin\&.\&.\fR is a shorthand for \fIorigin\&.\&.HEAD\fR and asks "What did I do since I forked from the origin branch?" Similarly, \fI\&.\&.origin\fR is a shorthand for \fIHEAD\&.\&.origin\fR and asks "What did the origin do since I forked from them?" Note that \fI\&.\&.\fR would mean \fIHEAD\&.\&.HEAD\fR which is an empty range that is both reachable and unreachable from HEAD\&.
571 Commands that are specifically designed to take two distinct ranges (e\&.g\&. "git range\-diff R1 R2" to compare two ranges) do exist, but they are exceptions\&. Unless otherwise noted, all "git" commands that operate on a set of commits work on a single revision range\&. In other words, writing two "two\-dot range notation" next to each other, e\&.g\&.
577 $ git log A\&.\&.B C\&.\&.D
583 does \fBnot\fR specify two revision ranges for most commands\&. Instead it will name a single connected set of commits, i\&.e\&. those that are reachable from either B or D but are reachable from neither A or C\&. In a linear history like this:
589 \-\-\-A\-\-\-B\-\-\-o\-\-\-o\-\-\-C\-\-\-D
595 because A and B are reachable from C, the revision range specified by these two dotted ranges is a single commit D\&.
596 .SS "Other <rev>^ Parent Shorthand Notations"
598 Three other shorthands exist, particularly useful for merge commits, for naming a set that is formed by a commit and its parent commits\&.
600 The \fIr1^@\fR notation means all parents of \fIr1\fR\&.
602 The \fIr1^!\fR notation includes commit \fIr1\fR but excludes all of its parents\&. By itself, this notation denotes the single commit \fIr1\fR\&.
604 The \fI<rev>^\-[<n>]\fR notation includes \fI<rev>\fR but excludes the <n>th parent (i\&.e\&. a shorthand for \fI<rev>^<n>\&.\&.<rev>\fR), with \fI<n>\fR = 1 if not given\&. This is typically useful for merge commits where you can just pass \fI<commit>^\-\fR to get all the commits in the branch that was merged in merge commit \fI<commit>\fR (including \fI<commit>\fR itself)\&.
606 While \fI<rev>^<n>\fR was about specifying a single commit parent, these three notations also consider its parents\&. For example you can say \fIHEAD^2^@\fR, however you cannot say \fIHEAD^@^2\fR\&.
607 .SH "REVISION RANGE SUMMARY"
611 Include commits that are reachable from <rev> (i\&.e\&. <rev> and its ancestors)\&.
616 Exclude commits that are reachable from <rev> (i\&.e\&. <rev> and its ancestors)\&.
619 \fI<rev1>\&.\&.<rev2>\fR
621 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
625 \fI<rev1>\&.\&.\&.<rev2>\fR
627 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
631 \fI<rev>^@\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD^@\fR
635 followed by an at sign is the same as listing all parents of
637 (meaning, include anything reachable from its parents, but not the commit itself)\&.
640 \fI<rev>^!\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD^!\fR
644 followed by an exclamation mark is the same as giving commit
646 and all its parents prefixed with
648 to exclude them (and their ancestors)\&.
651 \fI<rev>^\-<n>\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD^\-, HEAD^\-2\fR
654 \fI<rev>^<n>\&.\&.<rev>\fR, with
659 Here are a handful of examples using the Loeliger illustration above, with each step in the notation\(cqs expansion and selection carefully spelt out:
665 Args Expanded arguments Selected commits
673 B\&.\&.\&.C = B ^F C G H D E B C
679 = D E F D G H E F I J
686 F^! D = F ^I ^J D G H D F
693 \fBgit-rev-parse\fR(1)
696 Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite