2 .\" Title: gitrevisions
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7 .\" Source: Git 2.45.2.457.g8d94cfb545
10 .TH "GITREVISIONS" "7" "2024\-06\-10" "Git 2\&.45\&.2\&.457\&.g8d94cf" "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$GIT_DIR/<refname>\fR
96 exists, that is what you mean (this is usually useful only for
103 \fBCHERRY_PICK_HEAD\fR,
131 \fIrefs/tags/<refname>\fR
144 \fIrefs/heads/<refname>\fR
157 \fIrefs/remotes/<refname>\fR
170 \fIrefs/remotes/<refname>/HEAD\fR
176 names the commit on which you based the changes in the working tree\&.
181 records the branch which you fetched from a remote repository with your last
188 is created by commands that move your
190 in a drastic way (\fBgit am\fR,
193 \fBgit reset\fR), to record the position of the
195 before their operation, so that you can easily change the tip of the branch back to the state before you ran them\&.
200 records the commit(s) which you are merging into your branch when you run
206 during a rebase, records the commit at which the operation is currently stopped, either because of conflicts or an
208 command in an interactive rebase\&.
213 records the commit which you are reverting when you run
217 \fBCHERRY_PICK_HEAD\fR
219 records the commit which you are cherry\-picking when you run
220 \fBgit cherry\-pick\fR\&.
225 records the current commit to be tested when you run
226 \fBgit bisect \-\-no\-checkout\fR\&.
231 records a tree object corresponding to the state the
233 merge strategy wrote to the working tree when a merge operation resulted in conflicts\&.
238 cases above may come either from the
240 directory or from the
241 \fB$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 the branch X taken from remote R, typically found at
309 \fBrefs/remotes/R/X\fR\&.
312 \fI[<branchname>]@{push}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fImaster@{push}\fR, \fI@{push}\fR
316 reports the branch "where we would push to" if
320 was checked out (or the current
322 if no branchname is specified)\&. Like for
323 \fI@{upstream}\fR, we report the remote\-tracking branch that corresponds to that branch at the remote\&.
325 Here\(cqs an example to make it more clear:
331 $ git config push\&.default current
332 $ git config remote\&.pushdefault myfork
333 $ git switch \-c mybranch origin/master
335 $ git rev\-parse \-\-symbolic\-full\-name @{upstream}
336 refs/remotes/origin/master
338 $ git rev\-parse \-\-symbolic\-full\-name @{push}
339 refs/remotes/myfork/mybranch
345 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,
348 \fI@{upstream}\fR, and there is no need for it\&.
350 This suffix is also accepted when spelled in uppercase, and means the same thing no matter the case\&.
353 \fI<rev>^[<n>]\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD^, v1\&.5\&.1^0\fR
357 to a revision parameter means the first parent of that commit object\&.
359 means the <n>th parent (i\&.e\&.
362 \fI<rev>^1\fR)\&. As a special rule,
364 means the commit itself and is used when
366 is the object name of a tag object that refers to a commit object\&.
369 \fI<rev>~[<n>]\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD~, master~3\fR
373 to a revision parameter means the first parent of that commit object\&. A suffix
375 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\&.
379 which is equivalent to
380 \fI<rev>^1^1^1\fR\&. See below for an illustration of the usage of this form\&.
383 \fI<rev>^{<type>}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIv0\&.99\&.8^{commit}\fR
387 followed by an object type name enclosed in brace pair means dereference the object at
389 recursively until an object of type
391 is found or the object cannot be dereferenced anymore (in which case, barf)\&. For example, if
395 describes the corresponding commit object\&. Similarly, if
399 describes the corresponding tree object\&.
402 \fI<rev>^{commit}\fR\&.
405 can be used to make sure
407 names an object that exists, without requiring
409 to be a tag, and without dereferencing
410 \fI<rev>\fR; because a tag is already an object, it does not have to be dereferenced even once to get to an object\&.
413 can be used to ensure that
415 identifies an existing tag object\&.
418 \fI<rev>^{}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIv0\&.99\&.8^{}\fR
422 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\&.
425 \fI<rev>^{/<text>}\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD^{/fix nasty bug}\fR
429 to a revision parameter, followed by a brace pair that contains a text led by a slash, is the same as the
430 \fI:/fix nasty bug\fR
431 syntax below except that it returns the youngest matching commit which is reachable from the
437 \fI:/<text>\fR, e\&.g\&. \fI:/fix nasty bug\fR
439 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\&.
440 \fI:/^foo\fR\&. The special sequence
442 is reserved for modifiers to what is matched\&.
444 performs a negative match, while
448 character, followed by
449 \fIfoo\fR\&. Any other sequence beginning with
451 is reserved for now\&. Depending on the given text, the shell\(cqs word splitting rules might require additional quoting\&.
454 \fI<rev>:<path>\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD:README\fR, \fImaster:\&./README\fR
458 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
462 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\&.
465 \fI:[<n>:]<path>\fR, e\&.g\&. \fI:0:README\fR, \fI:README\fR
467 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\&.
470 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\&.
498 D = A^^ = A^1^1 = A~2
501 G = A^^^ = A^1^1^1 = A~3
502 H = D^2 = B^^2 = A^^^2 = A~2^2
503 I = F^ = B^3^ = A^^3^
504 J = F^2 = B^3^2 = A^^3^2
509 .SH "SPECIFYING RANGES"
511 History traversing commands such as \fBgit log\fR operate on a set of commits, not just a single commit\&.
513 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\&.
515 Specifying several revisions means the set of commits reachable from any of the given commits\&.
517 A commit\(cqs reachable set is the commit itself and the commits in its ancestry chain\&.
519 There are several notations to specify a set of connected commits (called a "revision range"), illustrated below\&.
520 .SS "Commit Exclusions"
522 \fI^<rev>\fR (caret) Notation
524 To exclude commits reachable from a commit, a prefix
526 notation is used\&. E\&.g\&.
528 means commits reachable from
530 but exclude the ones reachable from
534 and its ancestors)\&.
536 .SS "Dotted Range Notations"
538 The \fI\&.\&.\fR (two\-dot) Range Notation
542 set operation appears so often that there is a shorthand for it\&. When you have two commits
546 (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
548 and it can be written as
552 The \fI\&.\&.\&.\fR (three\-dot) Symmetric Difference Notation
556 is called symmetric difference of
561 \fIr1 r2 \-\-not $(git merge\-base \-\-all r1 r2)\fR\&. It is the set of commits that are reachable from either one of
565 (right side) but not from both\&.
568 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\&.
570 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\&.
576 $ git log A\&.\&.B C\&.\&.D
582 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:
588 \-\-\-A\-\-\-B\-\-\-o\-\-\-o\-\-\-C\-\-\-D
594 because A and B are reachable from C, the revision range specified by these two dotted ranges is a single commit D\&.
595 .SS "Other <rev>^ Parent Shorthand Notations"
597 Three other shorthands exist, particularly useful for merge commits, for naming a set that is formed by a commit and its parent commits\&.
599 The \fIr1^@\fR notation means all parents of \fIr1\fR\&.
601 The \fIr1^!\fR notation includes commit \fIr1\fR but excludes all of its parents\&. By itself, this notation denotes the single commit \fIr1\fR\&.
603 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)\&.
605 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\&.
606 .SH "REVISION RANGE SUMMARY"
610 Include commits that are reachable from <rev> (i\&.e\&. <rev> and its ancestors)\&.
615 Exclude commits that are reachable from <rev> (i\&.e\&. <rev> and its ancestors)\&.
618 \fI<rev1>\&.\&.<rev2>\fR
620 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
624 \fI<rev1>\&.\&.\&.<rev2>\fR
626 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
630 \fI<rev>^@\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD^@\fR
634 followed by an at sign is the same as listing all parents of
636 (meaning, include anything reachable from its parents, but not the commit itself)\&.
639 \fI<rev>^!\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD^!\fR
643 followed by an exclamation mark is the same as giving commit
645 and all its parents prefixed with
647 to exclude them (and their ancestors)\&.
650 \fI<rev>^\-<n>\fR, e\&.g\&. \fIHEAD^\-, HEAD^\-2\fR
653 \fI<rev>^<n>\&.\&.<rev>\fR, with
658 Here are a handful of examples using the Loeliger illustration above, with each step in the notation\(cqs expansion and selection carefully spelt out:
664 Args Expanded arguments Selected commits
672 B\&.\&.\&.C = B ^F C G H D E B C
678 = D E F D G H E F I J
685 F^! D = F ^I ^J D G H D F
692 \fBgit-rev-parse\fR(1)
695 Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite