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1 '\" t
2 .\" Title: git-help
3 .\" Author: [FIXME: author] [see http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/author]
4 .\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets vsnapshot <http://docbook.sf.net/>
5 .\" Date: 2023-10-20
6 .\" Manual: Git Manual
7 .\" Source: Git 2.42.0.424.gceadf0f3cf
8 .\" Language: English
9 .\"
10 .TH "GIT\-HELP" "1" "2023\-10\-20" "Git 2\&.42\&.0\&.424\&.gceadf0" "Git Manual"
11 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
12 .\" * Define some portability stuff
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14 .\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15 .\" http://bugs.debian.org/507673
16 .\" http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2009-02/msg00013.html
17 .\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
18 .ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
19 .el .ds Aq '
20 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
21 .\" * set default formatting
22 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
23 .\" disable hyphenation
24 .nh
25 .\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
26 .ad l
27 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
28 .\" * MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE *
29 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
30 .SH "NAME"
31 git-help \- Display help information about Git
32 .SH "SYNOPSIS"
33 .sp
34 .nf
35 \fIgit help\fR [\-a|\-\-all] [\-\-[no\-]verbose] [\-\-[no\-]external\-commands] [\-\-[no\-]aliases]
36 \fIgit help\fR [[\-i|\-\-info] [\-m|\-\-man] [\-w|\-\-web]] [<command>|<doc>]
37 \fIgit help\fR [\-g|\-\-guides]
38 \fIgit help\fR [\-c|\-\-config]
39 \fIgit help\fR [\-\-user\-interfaces]
40 \fIgit help\fR [\-\-developer\-interfaces]
41 .fi
42 .sp
43 .SH "DESCRIPTION"
44 .sp
45 With no options and no \fI<command>\fR or \fI<doc>\fR given, the synopsis of the \fIgit\fR command and a list of the most commonly used Git commands are printed on the standard output\&.
46 .sp
47 If the option \fB\-\-all\fR or \fB\-a\fR is given, all available commands are printed on the standard output\&.
48 .sp
49 If the option \fB\-\-guides\fR or \fB\-g\fR is given, a list of the Git concept guides is also printed on the standard output\&.
50 .sp
51 If a command or other documentation is given, the relevant manual page will be brought up\&. The \fIman\fR program is used by default for this purpose, but this can be overridden by other options or configuration variables\&.
52 .sp
53 If an alias is given, git shows the definition of the alias on standard output\&. To get the manual page for the aliased command, use \fBgit <command> \-\-help\fR\&.
54 .sp
55 Note that \fBgit \-\-help \&.\&.\&.\fR is identical to \fBgit help \&.\&.\&.\fR because the former is internally converted into the latter\&.
56 .sp
57 To display the \fBgit\fR(1) man page, use \fBgit help git\fR\&.
58 .sp
59 This page can be displayed with \fIgit help help\fR or \fBgit help \-\-help\fR
60 .SH "OPTIONS"
61 .PP
62 \-a, \-\-all
63 .RS 4
64 Prints all the available commands on the standard output\&.
65 .RE
66 .PP
67 \-\-no\-external\-commands
68 .RS 4
69 When used with
70 \fB\-\-all\fR, exclude the listing of external "git\-*" commands found in the
71 \fB$PATH\fR\&.
72 .RE
73 .PP
74 \-\-no\-aliases
75 .RS 4
76 When used with
77 \fB\-\-all\fR, exclude the listing of configured aliases\&.
78 .RE
79 .PP
80 \-\-verbose
81 .RS 4
82 When used with
83 \fB\-\-all\fR
84 print description for all recognized commands\&. This is the default\&.
85 .RE
86 .PP
87 \-c, \-\-config
88 .RS 4
89 List all available configuration variables\&. This is a short summary of the list in
90 \fBgit-config\fR(1)\&.
91 .RE
92 .PP
93 \-g, \-\-guides
94 .RS 4
95 Prints a list of the Git concept guides on the standard output\&.
96 .RE
97 .PP
98 \-\-user\-interfaces
99 .RS 4
100 Prints a list of the repository, command and file interfaces documentation on the standard output\&.
101 .sp
102 In\-repository file interfaces such as
103 \fB\&.git/info/exclude\fR
104 are documented here (see
105 \fBgitrepository-layout\fR(5)), as well as in\-tree configuration such as
106 \fB\&.mailmap\fR
107 (see
108 \fBgitmailmap\fR(5))\&.
109 .sp
110 This section of the documentation also covers general or widespread user\-interface conventions (e\&.g\&.
111 \fBgitcli\fR(7)), and pseudo\-configuration such as the file\-based
112 \fB\&.git/hooks/*\fR
113 interface described in
114 \fBgithooks\fR(5)\&.
115 .RE
116 .PP
117 \-\-developer\-interfaces
118 .RS 4
119 Print list of file formats, protocols and other developer interfaces documentation on the standard output\&.
120 .RE
121 .PP
122 \-i, \-\-info
123 .RS 4
124 Display manual page for the command in the
125 \fIinfo\fR
126 format\&. The
127 \fIinfo\fR
128 program will be used for that purpose\&.
129 .RE
130 .PP
131 \-m, \-\-man
132 .RS 4
133 Display manual page for the command in the
134 \fIman\fR
135 format\&. This option may be used to override a value set in the
136 \fBhelp\&.format\fR
137 configuration variable\&.
138 .sp
139 By default the
140 \fIman\fR
141 program will be used to display the manual page, but the
142 \fBman\&.viewer\fR
143 configuration variable may be used to choose other display programs (see below)\&.
144 .RE
145 .PP
146 \-w, \-\-web
147 .RS 4
148 Display manual page for the command in the
149 \fIweb\fR
150 (HTML) format\&. A web browser will be used for that purpose\&.
151 .sp
152 The web browser can be specified using the configuration variable
153 \fBhelp\&.browser\fR, or
154 \fBweb\&.browser\fR
155 if the former is not set\&. If none of these config variables is set, the
156 \fIgit web\-\-browse\fR
157 helper script (called by
158 \fIgit help\fR) will pick a suitable default\&. See
159 \fBgit-web--browse\fR(1)
160 for more information about this\&.
161 .RE
162 .SH "CONFIGURATION VARIABLES"
163 .SS "help\&.format"
164 .sp
165 If no command\-line option is passed, the \fBhelp\&.format\fR configuration variable will be checked\&. The following values are supported for this variable; they make \fIgit help\fR behave as their corresponding command\- line option:
166 .sp
167 .RS 4
168 .ie n \{\
169 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
170 .\}
171 .el \{\
172 .sp -1
173 .IP \(bu 2.3
174 .\}
175 "man" corresponds to
176 \fI\-m|\-\-man\fR,
177 .RE
178 .sp
179 .RS 4
180 .ie n \{\
181 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
182 .\}
183 .el \{\
184 .sp -1
185 .IP \(bu 2.3
186 .\}
187 "info" corresponds to
188 \fI\-i|\-\-info\fR,
189 .RE
190 .sp
191 .RS 4
192 .ie n \{\
193 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
194 .\}
195 .el \{\
196 .sp -1
197 .IP \(bu 2.3
198 .\}
199 "web" or "html" correspond to
200 \fI\-w|\-\-web\fR\&.
201 .RE
202 .SS "help\&.browser, web\&.browser and browser\&.<tool>\&.path"
203 .sp
204 The \fBhelp\&.browser\fR, \fBweb\&.browser\fR and \fBbrowser\&.<tool>\&.path\fR will also be checked if the \fIweb\fR format is chosen (either by command\-line option or configuration variable)\&. See \fI\-w|\-\-web\fR in the OPTIONS section above and \fBgit-web--browse\fR(1)\&.
205 .SS "man\&.viewer"
206 .sp
207 The \fBman\&.viewer\fR configuration variable will be checked if the \fIman\fR format is chosen\&. The following values are currently supported:
208 .sp
209 .RS 4
210 .ie n \{\
211 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
212 .\}
213 .el \{\
214 .sp -1
215 .IP \(bu 2.3
216 .\}
217 "man": use the
218 \fIman\fR
219 program as usual,
220 .RE
221 .sp
222 .RS 4
223 .ie n \{\
224 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
225 .\}
226 .el \{\
227 .sp -1
228 .IP \(bu 2.3
229 .\}
230 "woman": use
231 \fIemacsclient\fR
232 to launch the "woman" mode in emacs (this only works starting with emacsclient versions 22),
233 .RE
234 .sp
235 .RS 4
236 .ie n \{\
237 \h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
238 .\}
239 .el \{\
240 .sp -1
241 .IP \(bu 2.3
242 .\}
243 "konqueror": use
244 \fIkfmclient\fR
245 to open the man page in a new konqueror tab (see
246 \fINote about konqueror\fR
247 below)\&.
248 .RE
249 .sp
250 Values for other tools can be used if there is a corresponding \fBman\&.<tool>\&.cmd\fR configuration entry (see below)\&.
251 .sp
252 Multiple values may be given to the \fBman\&.viewer\fR configuration variable\&. Their corresponding programs will be tried in the order listed in the configuration file\&.
253 .sp
254 For example, this configuration:
255 .sp
256 .if n \{\
257 .RS 4
258 .\}
259 .nf
260 [man]
261 viewer = konqueror
262 viewer = woman
263 .fi
264 .if n \{\
265 .RE
266 .\}
267 .sp
268 .sp
269 will try to use konqueror first\&. But this may fail (for example, if DISPLAY is not set) and in that case emacs\*(Aq woman mode will be tried\&.
270 .sp
271 If everything fails, or if no viewer is configured, the viewer specified in the \fBGIT_MAN_VIEWER\fR environment variable will be tried\&. If that fails too, the \fIman\fR program will be tried anyway\&.
272 .SS "man\&.<tool>\&.path"
273 .sp
274 You can explicitly provide a full path to your preferred man viewer by setting the configuration variable \fBman\&.<tool>\&.path\fR\&. For example, you can configure the absolute path to konqueror by setting \fIman\&.konqueror\&.path\fR\&. Otherwise, \fIgit help\fR assumes the tool is available in PATH\&.
275 .SS "man\&.<tool>\&.cmd"
276 .sp
277 When the man viewer, specified by the \fBman\&.viewer\fR configuration variables, is not among the supported ones, then the corresponding \fBman\&.<tool>\&.cmd\fR configuration variable will be looked up\&. If this variable exists then the specified tool will be treated as a custom command and a shell eval will be used to run the command with the man page passed as arguments\&.
278 .SS "Note about konqueror"
279 .sp
280 When \fIkonqueror\fR is specified in the \fBman\&.viewer\fR configuration variable, we launch \fIkfmclient\fR to try to open the man page on an already opened konqueror in a new tab if possible\&.
281 .sp
282 For consistency, we also try such a trick if \fIman\&.konqueror\&.path\fR is set to something like \fBA_PATH_TO/konqueror\fR\&. That means we will try to launch \fBA_PATH_TO/kfmclient\fR instead\&.
283 .sp
284 If you really want to use \fIkonqueror\fR, then you can use something like the following:
285 .sp
286 .if n \{\
287 .RS 4
288 .\}
289 .nf
290 [man]
291 viewer = konq
293 [man "konq"]
294 cmd = A_PATH_TO/konqueror
295 .fi
296 .if n \{\
297 .RE
298 .\}
299 .sp
300 .SS "Note about git config \-\-global"
301 .sp
302 Note that all these configuration variables should probably be set using the \fB\-\-global\fR flag, for example like this:
303 .sp
304 .if n \{\
305 .RS 4
306 .\}
307 .nf
308 $ git config \-\-global help\&.format web
309 $ git config \-\-global web\&.browser firefox
310 .fi
311 .if n \{\
312 .RE
313 .\}
314 .sp
315 .sp
316 as they are probably more user specific than repository specific\&. See \fBgit-config\fR(1) for more information about this\&.
317 .SH "GIT"
318 .sp
319 Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite