| 1 | The tig Manual |
| 2 | ============== |
| 3 | Jonas Fonseca <fonseca@diku.dk> |
| 4 | |
| 5 | This is the manual for tig, the ncurses-based text-mode interface for git. |
| 6 | Tig allows you to browse changes in a git repository and can additionally act |
| 7 | as a pager for output of various git commands. When used as a pager, it will |
| 8 | display input from stdin and colorize it. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | When browsing repositories, tig uses the underlying git commands to present |
| 11 | the user with various views, such as summarized commit log and showing the |
| 12 | commit with the log message, diffstat, and the diff. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | ifndef::backend-docbook[] |
| 15 | *Table of Contents* |
| 16 | |
| 17 | include::manual.toc[] |
| 18 | endif::backend-docbook[] |
| 19 | |
| 20 | [[calling-conventions]] |
| 21 | Calling Conventions |
| 22 | ------------------- |
| 23 | |
| 24 | [[pager-mode]] |
| 25 | Pager Mode |
| 26 | ~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 27 | |
| 28 | If stdin is a pipe, any log or diff options will be ignored and the pager view |
| 29 | will be opened loading data from stdin. The pager mode can be used for |
| 30 | colorizing output from various git commands. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | Example on how to colorize the output of git-show(1): |
| 33 | |
| 34 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 35 | $ git show | tig |
| 36 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[cmd-options]] |
| 39 | Git Command Options |
| 40 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 41 | |
| 42 | All git command options specified on the command line will be passed to the |
| 43 | given command and all will be shell quoted before they are passed to the |
| 44 | shell. |
| 45 | |
| 46 | NOTE: If you specify options for the main view, you should not use the |
| 47 | `--pretty` option as this option will be set automatically to the format |
| 48 | expected by the main view. |
| 49 | |
| 50 | Example on how to open the log view and show both author and committer |
| 51 | information: |
| 52 | |
| 53 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 54 | $ tig log --pretty=fuller |
| 55 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 56 | |
| 57 | See the <<refspec, "Specifying revisions">> section below for an introduction |
| 58 | to revision options supported by the git commands. For details on specific git |
| 59 | command options, refer to the man page of the command in question. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | [[env-variables]] |
| 62 | Environment Variables |
| 63 | --------------------- |
| 64 | |
| 65 | Several options related to the interface with git can be configured via |
| 66 | environment options. |
| 67 | |
| 68 | [[repo-refs]] |
| 69 | Repository References |
| 70 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 71 | |
| 72 | Commits that are referenced by tags and branch heads will be marked by the |
| 73 | reference name surrounded by '[' and ']': |
| 74 | |
| 75 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 76 | 2006-03-26 19:42 Petr Baudis | [cogito-0.17.1] Cogito 0.17.1 |
| 77 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 78 | |
| 79 | If you want to filter out certain directories under `.git/refs/`, say `tmp` |
| 80 | you can do it by setting the following variable: |
| 81 | |
| 82 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 83 | $ TIG_LS_REMOTE="git ls-remote . | sed /\/tmp\//d" tig |
| 84 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 85 | |
| 86 | Or set the variable permanently in your environment. |
| 87 | |
| 88 | TIG_LS_REMOTE:: |
| 89 | Set command for retrieving all repository references. The command |
| 90 | should output data in the same format as git-ls-remote(1). |
| 91 | |
| 92 | [[history-commands]] |
| 93 | History Commands |
| 94 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 95 | |
| 96 | It is possible to alter which commands are used for the different views. If |
| 97 | for example you prefer commits in the main view to be sorted by date and only |
| 98 | show 500 commits, use: |
| 99 | |
| 100 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 101 | $ TIG_MAIN_CMD="git log --date-order -n500 --pretty=raw %s" tig |
| 102 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 103 | |
| 104 | Or set the variable permanently in your environment. |
| 105 | |
| 106 | Notice, how `%s` is used to specify the commit reference. There can be a |
| 107 | maximum of 5 `%s` ref specifications. |
| 108 | |
| 109 | TIG_DIFF_CMD:: |
| 110 | The command used for the diff view. By default, git show is used |
| 111 | as a backend. |
| 112 | |
| 113 | TIG_LOG_CMD:: |
| 114 | The command used for the log view. If you prefer to have both |
| 115 | author and committer shown in the log view be sure to pass |
| 116 | `--pretty=fuller` to git log. |
| 117 | |
| 118 | TIG_MAIN_CMD:: |
| 119 | The command used for the main view. Note, you must always specify |
| 120 | the option: `--pretty=raw` since the main view parser expects to |
| 121 | read that format. |
| 122 | |
| 123 | [[tree-commands]] |
| 124 | Tree Commands |
| 125 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 126 | |
| 127 | TIG_TREE_CMD:: |
| 128 | The command used for the tree view. Takes two arguments, the first |
| 129 | is the revision ID and the second is the path of the directory tree, |
| 130 | empty for the root directory. Defaults to "git ls-tree %s %s". |
| 131 | |
| 132 | TIG_BLOB_CMD:: |
| 133 | The command used for the blob view. Takes one argument which is |
| 134 | the blob ID. Defaults to "git cat-file blob %s". |
| 135 | |
| 136 | [[viewer]] |
| 137 | The Viewer |
| 138 | ---------- |
| 139 | |
| 140 | The display consists of a status window on the last line of the screen and one |
| 141 | or more views. The default is to only show one view at the time but it is |
| 142 | possible to split both the main and log view to also show the commit diff. |
| 143 | |
| 144 | If you are in the log view and press 'Enter' when the current line is a commit |
| 145 | line, such as: |
| 146 | |
| 147 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 148 | commit 4d55caff4cc89335192f3e566004b4ceef572521 |
| 149 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 150 | |
| 151 | You will split the view so that the log view is displayed in the top window |
| 152 | and the diff view in the bottom window. You can switch between the two views |
| 153 | by pressing 'Tab'. To maximize the log view again, simply press 'l'. |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[commit-id]] |
| 156 | Current Head and Commit ID |
| 157 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 158 | |
| 159 | The viewer keeps track of both what head and commit ID you are currently |
| 160 | viewing. The commit ID will follow the cursor line and change every time |
| 161 | you highlight a different commit. Whenever you reopen the diff view it will be |
| 162 | reloaded, if the commit ID changed. |
| 163 | |
| 164 | The head ID is used when opening the main and log view to indicate from what |
| 165 | revision to show history. |
| 166 | |
| 167 | [[views]] |
| 168 | Views |
| 169 | ~~~~~ |
| 170 | |
| 171 | Various 'views' of a repository is presented. Each view is based on output |
| 172 | from an external command, most often 'git log', 'git diff', or 'git show'. |
| 173 | |
| 174 | The main view:: |
| 175 | Is the default view, and it shows a one line summary of each commit |
| 176 | in the chosen list of revisions. The summary includes commit date, |
| 177 | author, and the first line of the log message. Additionally, any |
| 178 | repository references, such as tags, will be shown. |
| 179 | |
| 180 | The log view:: |
| 181 | Presents a more rich view of the revision log showing the whole log |
| 182 | message and the diffstat. |
| 183 | |
| 184 | The diff view:: |
| 185 | Shows either the diff of the current working tree, that is, what |
| 186 | has changed since the last commit, or the commit diff complete |
| 187 | with log message, diffstat and diff. |
| 188 | |
| 189 | The tree view:: |
| 190 | Lists directory trees associated with the current revision allowing |
| 191 | subdirectories to be descended or ascended and file blobs to be |
| 192 | viewed. |
| 193 | |
| 194 | The blob view:: |
| 195 | Displays the file content or "blob" of data associated with a file |
| 196 | name. |
| 197 | |
| 198 | The status view:: |
| 199 | Displays status of files in the working tree and allows changes to be |
| 200 | staged/unstaged as well as adding of untracked files. |
| 201 | |
| 202 | The stage view:: |
| 203 | Displays diff changes for staged or unstanged files being tracked or |
| 204 | file content of untracked files. |
| 205 | |
| 206 | The pager view:: |
| 207 | Is used for displaying both input from stdin and output from git |
| 208 | commands entered in the internal prompt. |
| 209 | |
| 210 | The help view:: |
| 211 | Displays key binding quick reference. |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[title-window]] |
| 214 | Title Windows |
| 215 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 216 | |
| 217 | Each view has a title window which shows the name of the view, current commit |
| 218 | ID if available, and where the view is positioned: |
| 219 | |
| 220 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 221 | [main] c622eefaa485995320bc743431bae0d497b1d875 - commit 1 of 61 (1%) |
| 222 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 223 | |
| 224 | By default, the title of the current view is highlighted using bold font. For |
| 225 | long loading views (taking over 3 seconds) the time since loading started will |
| 226 | be appended: |
| 227 | |
| 228 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 229 | [main] 77d9e40fbcea3238015aea403e06f61542df9a31 - commit 1 of 779 (0%) 5s |
| 230 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 231 | |
| 232 | [[keys]] |
| 233 | Default Keybindings |
| 234 | ------------------- |
| 235 | Below the default key bindings are shown. |
| 236 | |
| 237 | [[view-switching]] |
| 238 | View Switching |
| 239 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 240 | |
| 241 | `-------`-------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 242 | Key Action |
| 243 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 244 | m Switch to main view. |
| 245 | d Switch to diff view. |
| 246 | l Switch to log view. |
| 247 | p Switch to pager view. |
| 248 | t Switch to (directory) tree view. |
| 249 | f Switch to (file) blob view. |
| 250 | h Switch to help view |
| 251 | S Switch to status view |
| 252 | c Switch to stage view |
| 253 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 254 | |
| 255 | [[view-manipulation]] |
| 256 | View Manipulation |
| 257 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 258 | |
| 259 | `-------`-------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 260 | Key Action |
| 261 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 262 | q Close view, if multiple views are open it will jump back to the \ |
| 263 | previous view in the view stack. If it is the last open view it \ |
| 264 | will quit. Use 'Q' to quit all views at once. |
| 265 | Enter This key is "context sensitive" depending on what view you are \ |
| 266 | currently in. When in log view on a commit line or in the main \ |
| 267 | view, split the view and show the commit diff. In the diff view \ |
| 268 | pressing Enter will simply scroll the view one line down. |
| 269 | Tab Switch to next view. |
| 270 | R Reload and refresh the current view. |
| 271 | Up This key is "context sensitive" and will move the cursor one \ |
| 272 | line up. However, if you opened a diff view from the main view \ |
| 273 | (split- or full-screen) it will change the cursor to point to \ |
| 274 | the previous commit in the main view and update the diff view \ |
| 275 | to display it. |
| 276 | Down Similar to 'Up' but will move down. |
| 277 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 278 | |
| 279 | [[cursor-nav]] |
| 280 | Cursor Navigation |
| 281 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 282 | |
| 283 | `-------`-------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 284 | Key Action |
| 285 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 286 | j Move cursor one line up. |
| 287 | k Move cursor one line down. |
| 288 | PgUp,\ |
| 289 | -,a Move cursor one page up. |
| 290 | PgDown Space Move cursor one page down. |
| 291 | Home Jump to first line. |
| 292 | End Jump to last line. |
| 293 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 294 | |
| 295 | [[view-scrolling]] |
| 296 | Scrolling |
| 297 | ~~~~~~~~~ |
| 298 | |
| 299 | `-------`-------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 300 | Key Action |
| 301 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 302 | Insert Scroll view one line up. |
| 303 | Delete Scroll view one line down. |
| 304 | w Scroll view one page up. |
| 305 | s Scroll view one page down. |
| 306 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 307 | |
| 308 | [[searching]] |
| 309 | Searching |
| 310 | ~~~~~~~~~ |
| 311 | |
| 312 | `-------`-------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 313 | Key Action |
| 314 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 315 | / Search the view. Opens a prompt for entering search regex to use. |
| 316 | ? Search backwards in the view. Also prompts for regex. |
| 317 | n Find next match for the current search regex. |
| 318 | N Find previous match for the current search regex. |
| 319 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 320 | |
| 321 | [[misc-keys]] |
| 322 | Misc |
| 323 | ~~~~ |
| 324 | |
| 325 | `-------`-------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 326 | Key Action |
| 327 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 328 | Q Quit. |
| 329 | r Redraw screen. |
| 330 | z Stop all background loading. This can be useful if you use \ |
| 331 | tig in a repository with a long history without limiting \ |
| 332 | the revision log. |
| 333 | v Show version. |
| 334 | '.' Toggle line numbers on/off. |
| 335 | g Toggle revision graph visualization on/off. |
| 336 | ':' Open prompt. This allows you to specify what git command \ |
| 337 | to run. Example `:log -p` |
| 338 | u Update status of file. In the status view, this allows you to add an \ |
| 339 | untracked file or stage changes to a file for next commit (similar to \ |
| 340 | running git-add <filename>). In the stage view, when pressing this on \ |
| 341 | a diff chunk line stages only that chunk for next commit, when not on \ |
| 342 | a diff chunk line all changes in the displayed diff is staged. |
| 343 | M Resolve unmerged file by launching git-mergetool(1). Note, to work \ |
| 344 | correctly this might require some initial configuration of your \ |
| 345 | preferred merge tool. See the manpage of git-mergetool(1). |
| 346 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 347 | |
| 348 | [[external-commands]] |
| 349 | External Commands |
| 350 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 351 | |
| 352 | Tig also comes with a few builtin external commands. These are simple shell |
| 353 | commands that are run and can take arguments from the current browsing state, |
| 354 | such as the current commit ID. The default commands are: |
| 355 | |
| 356 | `-------`-------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 357 | Key Action |
| 358 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 359 | C git cherry-pick %(commit) |
| 360 | G git gc |
| 361 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 362 | |
| 363 | [[refspec]] |
| 364 | Revision Specification |
| 365 | ---------------------- |
| 366 | |
| 367 | This section describes various ways to specify what revisions to display or |
| 368 | otherwise limit the view to. Tig does not itself parse the described |
| 369 | revision options so refer to the relevant git man pages for further |
| 370 | information. Relevant man pages besides git-log(1) are git-diff(1) and |
| 371 | git-rev-list(1). |
| 372 | |
| 373 | You can tune the interaction with git by making use of the options explained |
| 374 | in this section. For example, by configuring the environment variables |
| 375 | described in the <<history-commands, "History commands">> section. |
| 376 | |
| 377 | [[path-limiting]] |
| 378 | Limit by Path Name |
| 379 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 380 | |
| 381 | If you are interested only in those revisions that made changes to a specific |
| 382 | file (or even several files) list the files like this: |
| 383 | |
| 384 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 385 | $ tig log Makefile README |
| 386 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 387 | |
| 388 | To avoid ambiguity with repository references such as tag name, be sure to |
| 389 | separate file names from other git options using "\--". So if you have a file |
| 390 | named 'master' it will clash with the reference named 'master', and thus you |
| 391 | will have to use: |
| 392 | |
| 393 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 394 | $ tig log -- master |
| 395 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 396 | |
| 397 | NOTE: For the main view, avoiding ambiguity will in some cases require you to |
| 398 | specify two "\--" options. The first will make tig stop option processing |
| 399 | and the latter will be passed to git log. |
| 400 | |
| 401 | [[date-number-limiting]] |
| 402 | Limit by Date or Number |
| 403 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 404 | |
| 405 | To speed up interaction with git, you can limit the amount of commits to show |
| 406 | both for the log and main view. Either limit by date using e.g. |
| 407 | `--since=1.month` or limit by the number of commits using `-n400`. |
| 408 | |
| 409 | If you are only interested in changed that happened between two dates you can |
| 410 | use: |
| 411 | |
| 412 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 413 | $ tig -- --after="May 5th" --before="2006-05-16 15:44" |
| 414 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 415 | |
| 416 | NOTE: If you want to avoid having to quote dates containing spaces you can use |
| 417 | "." instead, e.g. `--after=May.5th`. |
| 418 | |
| 419 | [[commit-range-limiting]] |
| 420 | Limiting by Commit Ranges |
| 421 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 422 | |
| 423 | Alternatively, commits can be limited to a specific range, such as "all |
| 424 | commits between 'tag-1.0' and 'tag-2.0'". For example: |
| 425 | |
| 426 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 427 | $ tig log tag-1.0..tag-2.0 |
| 428 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 429 | |
| 430 | This way of commit limiting makes it trivial to only browse the commits which |
| 431 | haven't been pushed to a remote branch. Assuming 'origin' is your upstream |
| 432 | remote branch, using: |
| 433 | |
| 434 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 435 | $ tig log origin..HEAD |
| 436 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 437 | |
| 438 | will list what will be pushed to the remote branch. Optionally, the ending |
| 439 | 'HEAD' can be left out since it is implied. |
| 440 | |
| 441 | [[reachability-limiting]] |
| 442 | Limiting by Reachability |
| 443 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 444 | |
| 445 | Git interprets the range specifier "tag-1.0..tag-2.0" as "all commits |
| 446 | reachable from 'tag-2.0' but not from 'tag-1.0'". Where reachability refers |
| 447 | to what commits are ancestors (or part of the history) of the branch or tagged |
| 448 | revision in question. |
| 449 | |
| 450 | If you prefer to specify which commit to preview in this way use the |
| 451 | following: |
| 452 | |
| 453 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 454 | $ tig log tag-2.0 ^tag-1.0 |
| 455 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 456 | |
| 457 | You can think of '^' as a negation operator. Using this alternate syntax, it |
| 458 | is possible to further prune commits by specifying multiple branch cut offs. |
| 459 | |
| 460 | [[refspec-combi]] |
| 461 | Combining Revisions Specification |
| 462 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 463 | |
| 464 | Revisions options can to some degree be combined, which makes it possible to |
| 465 | say "show at most 20 commits from within the last month that changed files |
| 466 | under the Documentation/ directory." |
| 467 | |
| 468 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 469 | $ tig -- --since=1.month -n20 -- Documentation/ |
| 470 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 471 | |
| 472 | [[refspec-all]] |
| 473 | Examining All Repository References |
| 474 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 475 | |
| 476 | In some cases, it can be useful to query changes across all references in a |
| 477 | repository. An example is to ask "did any line of development in this |
| 478 | repository change a particular file within the last week". This can be |
| 479 | accomplished using: |
| 480 | |
| 481 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 482 | $ tig -- --all --since=1.week -- Makefile |
| 483 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 484 | |
| 485 | include::BUGS[] |
| 486 | |
| 487 | [[copy-right]] |
| 488 | Copyright |
| 489 | --------- |
| 490 | |
| 491 | Copyright (c) 2006-2007 Jonas Fonseca <fonseca@diku.dk> |
| 492 | |
| 493 | This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify |
| 494 | it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by |
| 495 | the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or |
| 496 | (at your option) any later version. |
| 497 | |
| 498 | [[references]] |
| 499 | References and Related Tools |
| 500 | ---------------------------- |
| 501 | |
| 502 | Manpages: |
| 503 | |
| 504 | - gitlink:tig[1] |
| 505 | - gitlink:tigrc[5] |
| 506 | |
| 507 | Online resources: |
| 508 | |
| 509 | include::SITES[] |
| 510 | |
| 511 | Git porcelains: |
| 512 | |
| 513 | - link:http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/[git], |
| 514 | - link:http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/cogito/docs/[Cogito] |
| 515 | |
| 516 | Other git repository browsers: |
| 517 | |
| 518 | - gitk(1) |
| 519 | - qgit(1) |
| 520 | - gitview(1) |