Add "Hash" key name mapped to "#"; Don't use ";" as a comment character
[tig] / manual.txt
CommitLineData
d839253b
JF
1The tig Manual
2==============
3Jonas Fonseca <fonseca@diku.dk>
4
5This is the manual for tig, the ncurses-based text-mode interface for git.
6Tig allows you to browse changes in a git repository and can additionally act
7as a pager for output of various git commands. When used as a pager, it will
8display input from stdin and colorize it.
9
10When browsing repositories, tig uses the underlying git commands to present
11the user with various views, such as summarized commit log and showing the
12commit with the log message, diffstat, and the diff.
13
9783cb12
JF
14ifndef::backend-docbook[]
15include::manual.toc[]
16endif::backend-docbook[]
17
18[[calling-conventions]]
d839253b
JF
19Calling Conventions
20-------------------
21
9783cb12 22[[pager-mode]]
d839253b
JF
23Pager Mode
24~~~~~~~~~~
25
26If stdin is a pipe, any log or diff options will be ignored and the pager view
27will be opened loading data from stdin. The pager mode can be used for
28colorizing output from various git commands.
29
30Example on how to colorize the output of git-show(1):
31
511147de
JF
32-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
33$ git show | tig
34-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b 35
9783cb12 36[[cmd-options]]
d839253b
JF
37Git Command Options
38~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
39
40All git command options specified on the command line will be passed to the
41given command and all will be shell quoted before they are passed to the
42shell.
43
44NOTE: If you specify options for the main view, you should not use the
45`--pretty` option as this option will be set automatically to the format
46expected by the main view.
47
48Example on how to open the log view and show both author and committer
49information:
50
511147de
JF
51-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
52$ tig log --pretty=fuller
53-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
54
55See the <<refspec, "Specifying revisions">> section below for an introduction
56to revision options supported by the git commands. For details on specific git
57command options, refer to the man page of the command in question.
58
9783cb12 59[[env-variables]]
d839253b
JF
60Environment Variables
61---------------------
62
63Several options related to the interface with git can be configured via
64environment options.
65
9783cb12 66[[repo-refs]]
d839253b
JF
67Repository References
68~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
69
70Commits that are referenced by tags and branch heads will be marked by the
71reference name surrounded by '[' and ']':
72
511147de
JF
73-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
742006-03-26 19:42 Petr Baudis | [cogito-0.17.1] Cogito 0.17.1
75-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
76
77If you want to filter out certain directories under `.git/refs/`, say `tmp`
78you can do it by setting the following variable:
79
511147de
JF
80-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
81$ TIG_LS_REMOTE="git ls-remote . | sed /\/tmp\//d" tig
82-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
83
84Or set the variable permanently in your environment.
85
86TIG_LS_REMOTE::
87 Set command for retrieving all repository references. The command
88 should output data in the same format as git-ls-remote(1).
89
90[[history-commands]]
91History Commands
92~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
93
94It is possible to alter which commands are used for the different views. If
95for example you prefer commits in the main view to be sorted by date and only
96show 500 commits, use:
97
511147de
JF
98-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
99$ TIG_MAIN_CMD="git log --date-order -n500 --pretty=raw %s" tig
100-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
101
102Or set the variable permanently in your environment.
103
104Notice, how `%s` is used to specify the commit reference. There can be a
105maximum of 5 `%s` ref specifications.
106
107TIG_DIFF_CMD::
108 The command used for the diff view. By default, git show is used
109 as a backend.
110
111TIG_LOG_CMD::
112 The command used for the log view. If you prefer to have both
113 author and committer shown in the log view be sure to pass
114 `--pretty=fuller` to git log.
115
116TIG_MAIN_CMD::
117 The command used for the main view. Note, you must always specify
118 the option: `--pretty=raw` since the main view parser expects to
119 read that format.
120
9783cb12 121[[viewer]]
d839253b
JF
122The Viewer
123----------
124
125The display consists of a status window on the last line of the screen and one
126or more views. The default is to only show one view at the time but it is
127possible to split both the main and log view to also show the commit diff.
128
129If you are in the log view and press 'Enter' when the current line is a commit
130line, such as:
131
511147de
JF
132-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
133commit 4d55caff4cc89335192f3e566004b4ceef572521
134-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
135
136You will split the view so that the log view is displayed in the top window
137and the diff view in the bottom window. You can switch between the two views
138by pressing 'Tab'. To maximize the log view again, simply press 'l'.
139
9783cb12 140[[commit-id]]
d839253b
JF
141Current Head and Commit ID
142~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
143
144The viewer keeps track of both what head and commit ID you are currently
145viewing. The commit ID will follow the cursor line and change everytime time
146you highlight a different commit. Whenever you reopen the diff view it will be
147reloaded, if the commit ID changed.
148
149The head ID is used when opening the main and log view to indicate from what
150revision to show history.
151
9783cb12 152[[views]]
d839253b
JF
153Views
154~~~~~
155
511147de 156Various 'views' of a repository is presented. Each view is based on output
d839253b
JF
157from an external command, most often 'git log', 'git diff', or 'git show'.
158
159The main view::
160 Is the default view, and it shows a one line summary of each commit
161 in the chosen list of revisions. The summary includes commit date,
162 author, and the first line of the log message. Additionally, any
163 repository references, such as tags, will be shown.
164
165The log view::
166 Presents a more rich view of the revision log showing the whole log
167 message and the diffstat.
168
169The diff view::
170 Shows either the diff of the current working tree, that is, what
171 has changed since the last commit, or the commit diff complete
172 with log message, diffstat and diff.
173
174The pager view::
175 Is used for displaying both input from stdin and output from git
176 commands entered in the internal prompt.
177
178The help view::
24b5b3e0 179 Displays key binding quick reference.
d839253b 180
9783cb12 181[[title-window]]
d839253b
JF
182Title Windows
183~~~~~~~~~~~~~
184
185Each view has a title window which shows the name of the view, current commit
186ID if available, and where the view is positioned:
187
511147de
JF
188-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
189[main] c622eefaa485995320bc743431bae0d497b1d875 - commit 1 of 61 (1%)
190-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
191
192By default, the title of the current view is highlighted using bold font. For
193long loading views (taking over 3 seconds) the time since loading started will
194be appended:
195
511147de
JF
196-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
197[main] 77d9e40fbcea3238015aea403e06f61542df9a31 - commit 1 of 779 (0%) 5s
198-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b 199
9783cb12 200[[keys]]
d839253b
JF
201Keys
202----
203Below the default key bindings are shown.
204
9783cb12 205[[view-switching]]
d839253b
JF
206View Switching
207~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
208m::
209 Switch to main view.
210d::
211 Switch to diff view.
212l::
213 Switch to log view.
214p::
215 Switch to pager view.
24b5b3e0 216h, ?::
d839253b
JF
217 Show man page.
218
9783cb12 219[[view-manipulation]]
d839253b
JF
220View Manipulation
221~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
222q::
223 Close view, if multiple views are open it will jump back to the
224 previous view in the view stack. If it is the last open view it
225 will quit. Use 'Q' to quit all views at once.
226Enter::
227 This key is "context sensitive" depending on what view you are
228 currently in. When in log view on a commit line or in the main
229 view, split the view and show the commit diff. In the diff view
230 pressing Enter will simply scroll the view one line down.
231Tab::
232 Switch to next view.
233Up::
234 This key is "context sensitive" and will move the cursor one
235 line up. However, uf you opened a diff view from the main view
236 (split- or full-screen) it will change the cursor to point to
237 the previous commit in the main view and update the diff view
238 to display it.
239Down::
240 Similar to 'Up' but will move down.
241
9783cb12 242[[cursor-nav]]
d839253b
JF
243Cursor Navigation
244~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
245j::
246 Move cursor one line up.
247k::
248 Move cursor one line down.
249PgUp::
250b::
251-::
252 Move cursor one page up.
253PgDown::
254Space::
255 Move cursor one page down.
256Home::
257 Jump to first line.
258End::
259 Jump to last line.
260
9783cb12 261[[view-scrolling]]
d839253b
JF
262Scrolling
263~~~~~~~~~
264Insert::
265 Scroll view one line up.
266Delete::
267 Scroll view one line down.
268w::
269 Scroll view one page up.
270s::
271 Scroll view one page down.
272
9783cb12 273[[misc-keys]]
d839253b
JF
274Misc
275~~~~
276Q::
277 Quit.
278r::
279 Redraw screen.
280z::
281 Stop all background loading. This can be useful if you use
511147de 282 tig in a repository with a long history without limiting
d839253b
JF
283 the revision log.
284v::
285 Show version.
286n::
287 Toggle line numbers on/off.
54efb62b
JF
288g::
289 Toggle revision graph visualization on/off.
d839253b
JF
290':'::
291 Open prompt. This allows you to specify what git command
292 to run. Example:
293
294 :log -p
295
296[[refspec]]
297Revision Specification
298----------------------
299
300This section describes various ways to specify what revisions to display or
511147de 301otherwise limit the view to. Tig does not itself parse the described
d839253b
JF
302revision options so refer to the relevant git man pages for futher
303information. Relevant man pages besides git-log(1) are git-diff(1) and
304git-rev-list(1).
305
306You can tune the interaction with git by making use of the options explained
307in this section. For example, by configuring the environment variables
308described in the <<history-commands, "History commands">> section.
309
9783cb12 310[[path-limiting]]
d839253b
JF
311Limit by Path Name
312~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
313
314If you are interested only in those revisions that made changes to a specific
315file (or even several files) list the files like this:
316
511147de
JF
317-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
318$ tig log Makefile README
319-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
320
321To avoid ambiguity with repository references such as tag name, be sure to
322separate file names from other git options using "\--". So if you have a file
323named 'master' it will clash with the reference named 'master', and thus you
324will have to use:
325
511147de
JF
326-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
327$ tig log -- master
328-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
329
330NOTE: For the main view, avoiding ambiguity will in some cases require you to
511147de 331specify two "\--" options. The first will make tig stop option processing
d839253b
JF
332and the latter will be passed to git log.
333
9783cb12 334[[date-number-limiting]]
d839253b
JF
335Limit by Date or Number
336~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
337
338To speed up interaction with git, you can limit the amount of commits to show
339both for the log and main view. Either limit by date using e.g.
340`--since=1.month` or limit by the number of commits using `-n400`.
341
342If you are only interested in changed that happened between two dates you can
343use:
344
511147de
JF
345-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
346$ tig -- --after="May 5th" --before="2006-05-16 15:44"
347-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
348
349NOTE: If you want to avoid having to quote dates containing spaces you can use
350"." instead, e.g. `--after=May.5th`.
351
9783cb12 352[[commit-range-limiting]]
d839253b
JF
353Limiting by Commit Ranges
354~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
355
356Alternatively, commits can be limited to a specific range, such as "all
357commits between 'tag-1.0' and 'tag-2.0'". For example:
358
511147de
JF
359-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
360$ tig log tag-1.0..tag-2.0
361-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
362
363This way of commit limiting makes it trivial to only browse the commits which
364haven't been pushed to a remote branch. Assuming 'origin' is your upstream
365remote branch, using:
366
511147de
JF
367-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
368$ tig log origin..HEAD
369-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
370
371will list what will be pushed to the remote branch. Optionally, the ending
372'HEAD' can be left out since it is implied.
373
9783cb12 374[[reachability-limiting]]
d839253b
JF
375Limiting by Reachability
376~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
377
378Git interprets the range specifier "tag-1.0..tag-2.0" as "all commits
379reachable from 'tag-2.0' but not from 'tag-1.0'". Where reachability refers
380to what commits are ancestors (or part of the history) of the branch or tagged
381revision in question.
382
383If you prefer to specify which commit to preview in this way use the
384following:
385
511147de
JF
386-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
387$ tig log tag-2.0 ^tag-1.0
388-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
389
390You can think of '^' as a negation operator. Using this alternate syntax, it
391is possible to further prune commits by specifying multiple branch cut offs.
392
9783cb12 393[[refspec-combi]]
d839253b
JF
394Combining Revisions Specification
395~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
396
397Revisions options can to some degree be combined, which makes it possible to
398say "show at most 20 commits from within the last month that changed files
399under the Documentation/ directory."
400
511147de
JF
401-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
402$ tig -- --since=1.month -n20 -- Documentation/
403-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b 404
9783cb12 405[[refspec-all]]
d839253b
JF
406Examining All Repository References
407~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
408
409In some cases, it can be useful to query changes across all references in a
410repository. An example is to ask "did any line of development in this
411repository change a particular file within the last week". This can be
412accomplished using:
413
511147de
JF
414-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
415$ tig -- --all --since=1.week -- Makefile
416-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
d839253b
JF
417
418include::BUGS[]
419
9783cb12 420[[copy-right]]
d839253b
JF
421Copyright
422---------
423
424Copyright (c) 2006 Jonas Fonseca <fonseca@diku.dk>
425
426This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
427it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
428the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
429(at your option) any later version.
430
9783cb12 431[[references]]
d839253b
JF
432References and Related Tools
433----------------------------
434
511147de
JF
435Manpages:
436
437 - gitlink:tig[1]
438 - gitlink:tigrc[5]
439
440Online resources:
441
d839253b
JF
442include::SITES[]
443
444Git porcelains:
445
446 - link:http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/[git],
447 - link:http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/cogito/docs/[Cogito]
448
449Other git repository browsers:
450
451 - gitk(1)
452 - qgit(1)
453 - gitview(1)