summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/git-help.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to '')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/git-help.txt231
1 files changed, 231 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/git-help.txt b/Documentation/git-help.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b0b5e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/git-help.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,231 @@
+git-help(1)
+===========
+
+NAME
+----
+git-help - Display help information about Git
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+[verse]
+'git help' [-a|--all] [--[no-]verbose] [--[no-]external-commands] [--[no-]aliases]
+'git help' [[-i|--info] [-m|--man] [-w|--web]] [<command>|<doc>]
+'git help' [-g|--guides]
+'git help' [-c|--config]
+'git help' [--user-interfaces]
+'git help' [--developer-interfaces]
+
+DESCRIPTION
+-----------
+
+With no options and no '<command>' or '<doc>' given, the synopsis of the 'git'
+command and a list of the most commonly used Git commands are printed
+on the standard output.
+
+If the option `--all` or `-a` is given, all available commands are
+printed on the standard output.
+
+If the option `--guides` or `-g` is given, a list of the
+Git concept guides is also printed on the standard output.
+
+If a command or other documentation is given, the relevant manual page
+will be brought up. The 'man' program is used by default for this
+purpose, but this can be overridden by other options or configuration
+variables.
+
+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
+`git <command> --help`.
+
+Note that `git --help ...` is identical to `git help ...` because the
+former is internally converted into the latter.
+
+To display the linkgit:git[1] man page, use `git help git`.
+
+This page can be displayed with 'git help help' or `git help --help`
+
+OPTIONS
+-------
+-a::
+--all::
+ Prints all the available commands on the standard output.
+
+--no-external-commands::
+ When used with `--all`, exclude the listing of external "git-*"
+ commands found in the `$PATH`.
+
+--no-aliases::
+ When used with `--all`, exclude the listing of configured
+ aliases.
+
+--verbose::
+ When used with `--all` print description for all recognized
+ commands. This is the default.
+
+-c::
+--config::
+ List all available configuration variables. This is a short
+ summary of the list in linkgit:git-config[1].
+
+-g::
+--guides::
+ Prints a list of the Git concept guides on the standard output.
+
+--user-interfaces::
+ Prints a list of the repository, command and file interfaces
+ documentation on the standard output.
++
+In-repository file interfaces such as `.git/info/exclude` are
+documented here (see linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5]), as well as
+in-tree configuration such as `.mailmap` (see linkgit:gitmailmap[5]).
++
+This section of the documentation also covers general or widespread
+user-interface conventions (e.g. linkgit:gitcli[7]), and
+pseudo-configuration such as the file-based `.git/hooks/*` interface
+described in linkgit:githooks[5].
+
+--developer-interfaces::
+ Print list of file formats, protocols and other developer
+ interfaces documentation on the standard output.
+
+-i::
+--info::
+ Display manual page for the command in the 'info' format. The
+ 'info' program will be used for that purpose.
+
+-m::
+--man::
+ Display manual page for the command in the 'man' format. This
+ option may be used to override a value set in the
+ `help.format` configuration variable.
++
+By default the 'man' program will be used to display the manual page,
+but the `man.viewer` configuration variable may be used to choose
+other display programs (see below).
+
+-w::
+--web::
+ Display manual page for the command in the 'web' (HTML)
+ format. A web browser will be used for that purpose.
++
+The web browser can be specified using the configuration variable
+`help.browser`, or `web.browser` if the former is not set. If none of
+these config variables is set, the 'git web{litdd}browse' helper script
+(called by 'git help') will pick a suitable default. See
+linkgit:git-web{litdd}browse[1] for more information about this.
+
+CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
+-----------------------
+
+help.format
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+If no command-line option is passed, the `help.format` configuration
+variable will be checked. The following values are supported for this
+variable; they make 'git help' behave as their corresponding command-
+line option:
+
+* "man" corresponds to '-m|--man',
+* "info" corresponds to '-i|--info',
+* "web" or "html" correspond to '-w|--web'.
+
+help.browser, web.browser and browser.<tool>.path
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The `help.browser`, `web.browser` and `browser.<tool>.path` will also
+be checked if the 'web' format is chosen (either by command-line
+option or configuration variable). See '-w|--web' in the OPTIONS
+section above and linkgit:git-web{litdd}browse[1].
+
+man.viewer
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The `man.viewer` configuration variable will be checked if the 'man'
+format is chosen. The following values are currently supported:
+
+* "man": use the 'man' program as usual,
+* "woman": use 'emacsclient' to launch the "woman" mode in emacs
+ (this only works starting with emacsclient versions 22),
+* "konqueror": use 'kfmclient' to open the man page in a new konqueror
+ tab (see 'Note about konqueror' below).
+
+Values for other tools can be used if there is a corresponding
+`man.<tool>.cmd` configuration entry (see below).
+
+Multiple values may be given to the `man.viewer` configuration
+variable. Their corresponding programs will be tried in the order
+listed in the configuration file.
+
+For example, this configuration:
+
+------------------------------------------------
+ [man]
+ viewer = konqueror
+ viewer = woman
+------------------------------------------------
+
+will try to use konqueror first. But this may fail (for example, if
+DISPLAY is not set) and in that case emacs' woman mode will be tried.
+
+If everything fails, or if no viewer is configured, the viewer specified
+in the `GIT_MAN_VIEWER` environment variable will be tried. If that
+fails too, the 'man' program will be tried anyway.
+
+man.<tool>.path
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+You can explicitly provide a full path to your preferred man viewer by
+setting the configuration variable `man.<tool>.path`. For example, you
+can configure the absolute path to konqueror by setting
+'man.konqueror.path'. Otherwise, 'git help' assumes the tool is
+available in PATH.
+
+man.<tool>.cmd
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+When the man viewer, specified by the `man.viewer` configuration
+variables, is not among the supported ones, then the corresponding
+`man.<tool>.cmd` 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.
+
+Note about konqueror
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+When 'konqueror' is specified in the `man.viewer` configuration
+variable, we launch 'kfmclient' to try to open the man page on an
+already opened konqueror in a new tab if possible.
+
+For consistency, we also try such a trick if 'man.konqueror.path' is
+set to something like `A_PATH_TO/konqueror`. That means we will try to
+launch `A_PATH_TO/kfmclient` instead.
+
+If you really want to use 'konqueror', then you can use something like
+the following:
+
+------------------------------------------------
+ [man]
+ viewer = konq
+
+ [man "konq"]
+ cmd = A_PATH_TO/konqueror
+------------------------------------------------
+
+Note about git config --global
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Note that all these configuration variables should probably be set
+using the `--global` flag, for example like this:
+
+------------------------------------------------
+$ git config --global help.format web
+$ git config --global web.browser firefox
+------------------------------------------------
+
+as they are probably more user specific than repository specific.
+See linkgit:git-config[1] for more information about this.
+
+GIT
+---
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite