As more and more developer tools use AI, we are facing two main risks
related to AI generated content:
- its situation regarding copyright and license is not clear,
and:
- more and more bad quality content could be submitted for review to
the mailing list.
To mitigate both risks, let's add an "Use of Artificial Intelligence"
section to "Documentation/SubmittingPatches" with the goal of
discouraging its blind use to generate content that is submitted to
the project, while still allowing us to benefit from its help in some
innovative, useful and less risky ways.
Helped-by: Rick Sanders <rick@sfconservancy.org>
Signed-off-by: Christian Couder <chriscool@tuxfamily.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Documentation was inaccurate since 9a121b0d22 (credential: handle
`credential.<partial-URL>.<key>` again, 2020-04-24)
Add tests for documented behaviour.
Signed-off-by: M Hickford <mirth.hickford@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
All the final paragraphs on these three options are rendered as
literal blocks. The intent was surely to keep each of them wed to their
respective description list items. But the attempt at maintaining the
indentation level of the block causes each them to be interpreted as a
code block, since code blocks can be represented using indentation.
We need to use list continuation (+) in order to keep them wed to
their blocks.
There is also an unordered list which sandwiches two paragraphs on an
option. We don’t need to do anything about that since it attaches to the
description list item without list continuation (i.e. it is already
correct). But for consistency let’s use list continuation and an open
block on it.
Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
The stash.index configuration variable can be set to make "git stash
pop/apply" pretend that it was invoked with "--index".
* dk/stash-apply-index:
stash: honor stash.index in apply, pop modes
stash: refactor private config globals
t3905: remove unneeded blank line
t3903: reduce dependencies on previous tests
Declare that "git init" that is not otherwise configured uses
'main' as the initial branch, not 'master', starting Git 3.0.
* pw/3.0-default-initial-branch-to-main:
t0613: stop setting default initial branch
t9902: switch default branch name to main
t4013: switch default branch name to main
breaking-changes: switch default branch to main
Asciidoctor and asciidoc.py have different behaviors when a paragraph
follows a nested list item. Asciidoctor has a bug[1] that makes it keep a
plus sign (+) used to attached paragraphs at the beginning of the paragraph.
This commit uses workarounds to avoid this problem by using second level
definition lists and open blocks.
[1]:https://github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctor/issues/4704
Signed-off-by: Jean-Noël Avila <jn.avila@free.fr>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
From user feedback, there was a request for examples, as well as a
comment that one person found "If git push [<repository>] without
any <refspec> argument is set to update some ref at the destination
with <src> with remote.<repository>.push configuration variable..."
impossible to understand.
To make the section easier to navigate, create a list of every possible
refspec form, with examples for each form as well as 2 forms which were
previously missing (patterns and negative refspecs).
Made a few changes to use more familiar language, but ultimately
refspecs are a pretty advanced feature so I've mostly left the
terminology alone.
Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Right now the rules for when a `git push` is allowed are buried at the
bottom of the description of `<refspec>`. Put them in their own section
so that we can reference them from `--force` and give some context for
why they exist.
Having the "PUSH RULES" section also lets us be a little bit more
specific with the rule in `--force`: we can just focus on the rule
for pushing for a branch (which is likely the one that's most relevant)
and leave the details about what happens when you push to a tag or a ref
that isn't a branch to the later section.
Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
The "promisor-remote" capability mechanism has been updated to
allow the "partialCloneFilter" settings and the "token" value to be
communicated from the server side.
* cc/promisor-remote-capability:
promisor-remote: use string_list_split() in mark_remotes_as_accepted()
promisor-remote: allow a client to check fields
promisor-remote: use string_list_split() in filter_promisor_remote()
promisor-remote: refactor how we parse advertised fields
promisor-remote: use string constants for 'name' and 'url' too
promisor-remote: allow a server to advertise more fields
promisor-remote: refactor to get rid of 'struct strvec'
As part of the ongoing effort to consolidate reference handling,
introduce a new `optimize` subcommand. This command provides the same
functionality and exit-code behavior as `git pack-refs`, serving as its
modern replacement.
Implement `cmd_refs_optimize` by having it call the `pack_refs_core()`
helper function. This helper was factored out of the original
`cmd_pack_refs` in a preceding commit, allowing both commands to share
the same core logic as independent peers.
Add documentation for the new command. The man page leverages the shared
options file, created in a previous commit, by using the AsciiDoc
`include::` macro to ensure consistency with git-pack-refs(1).
Mentored-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Mentored-by: shejialuo <shejialuo@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Meet Soni <meetsoni3017@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
In preparation for adding documentation for `git refs optimize`, factor
out the common options from the `git-pack-refs` man page into a
shareable file `pack-refs-options.adoc` and update `git-pack-refs.adoc`
to use an `include::` macro.
This change is a pure refactoring and results in no change to the final
rendered documentation for `pack-refs`.
Mentored-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Mentored-by: shejialuo <shejialuo@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Meet Soni <meetsoni3017@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
"git send-email" learned to drive "git imap-send" to store already
sent e-mails in an IMAP folder.
* ag/send-email-imap-sent:
send-email: enable copying emails to an IMAP folder without actually sending them
send-email: add ability to send a copy of sent emails to an IMAP folder
"core.commentChar=auto" that attempts to dynamically pick a
suitable comment character is non-workable, as it is too much
trouble to support for little benefit, and is marked as deprecated.
* pw/3.0-commentchar-auto-deprecation:
commit: print advice when core.commentString=auto
config: warn on core.commentString=auto
breaking-changes: deprecate support for core.commentString=auto
This was written in e836757e14 (whatschanged: list it in
BreakingChanges document, 2025-05-12) which was on the same
topic that added the `--i-still-use-this` requirement.[1]
Maybe it was a work-in-progress comment/status.
[1]: jc/you-still-use-whatchanged
Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
The closest equivalent is `git log --raw --no-merges`.
Also change to “defaults” (implicit plural).
Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
git-whatchanged(1) is deprecated and you need to pass
`--i-still-use-this` in order to force it to work as before.
There are two affected users, or usages:
1. people who use the command in scripts; and
2. people who are used to using it interactively.
For (1) the replacement is straightforward.[1] But people in (2) might
like the name or be really used to typing it.[3]
An obvious first thought is to suggest aliasing `whatchanged` to the
git-log(1) equivalent.[1] But this doesn’t work and is awkward since you
cannot shadow builtins via aliases.
Now you are left in an uncomfortable limbo; your alias won’t work until
the command is removed for good.
Let’s lift this limitation by allowing *deprecated* builtins to be
shadowed by aliases.
The only observed demand for aliasing has been for git-whatchanged(1),
not for git-pack-redundant(1). But let’s be consistent and treat all
deprecated commands the same.
[1]:
git log --raw --no-merges
With a minor caveat: you get different outputs if you happen to
have empty commits (no changes)[2]
[2]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/20250825085428.GA367101@coredump.intra.peff.net/
[3]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/BL3P221MB0449288C8B0FA448A227FD48833AA@BL3P221MB0449.NAMP221.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM/
Based-on-patch-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
With 145 builtin commands (according to `git --list-cmds=builtins`),
users are probably not keeping on top of which ones (if any) are
deprecated.
Let’s expand the experimental `--list-cmds`[1] to allow users and
programs to query for this information. We will also use this in an
upcoming commit to implement `is_deprecated_command`.
[1]: Using something which is experimental to query for deprecations is
perhaps not the most ideal approach, but it is simple to implement
and better than having to scan the documentation
Acked-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Helped-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
A '--signed-commits=<mode>' option is already available when using
`git fast-export` to decide what should be done at export time about
commit signatures. At import time though, there is no option, or
other way, in `git fast-import` to decide about commit signatures.
To remediate that, let's add a '--signed-commits=<mode>' option to
`git fast-import` too.
For now the supported <mode>s are the same as those supported by
`git fast-export`.
The code responsible for consuming a signature is refactored into
the import_one_signature() and discard_one_signature() functions,
which makes it easier to follow the logic and add new modes in the
future.
In the 'strip' and 'warn-strip' modes, we deliberately use
discard_one_signature() to discard the signature without parsing it.
This ensures that even malformed signatures, which would cause the
parser to fail, can be successfully stripped from a commit.
Signed-off-by: Christian Couder <chriscool@tuxfamily.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
The 'git sparse-checkout clean' subcommand is focused on directories,
deleting any tracked sparse directories to clean up the worktree and
make the sparse index feature work optimally.
However, this directory-focused approach can leave users wondering why
those directories exist at all. In my experience, these files are left
over due to ignore or exclude patterns, Windows file handles, or
possibly merge conflict resolutions.
Add a new '--verbose' option for users to see all the files that are
being deleted (with '--force') or would be deleted (with '--dry-run').
Based on usage, users may request further context on this list of files for
states such as tracked/untracked, unstaged/staged/conflicted, etc.
Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
"repo info" learns a short-hand option "-z" that is the same as
"--format=nul", and learns to report the objects format used in the
repository.
* lo/repo-info-step-2:
repo: add the field objects.format
repo: add the flag -z as an alias for --format=nul
"git refs exists" that works like "git show-ref --exists" has been
added.
* ms/refs-exists:
t: add test for git refs exists subcommand
t1422: refactor tests to be shareable
t1403: split 'show-ref --exists' tests into a separate file
builtin/refs: add 'exists' subcommand
Documentation for "git add" has been updated.
* je/doc-add:
doc: rephrase the purpose of the staging area
doc: git-add: simplify discussion of ignored files
doc: git-add: clarify intro & add an example
The 'git sparse-checkout clean' subcommand is somewhat similar to 'git
clean' in that it will delete files that should not be in the worktree.
The big difference is that it focuses on the directories that should not
be in the worktree due to cone-mode sparse-checkout. It also does not
discriminate in the kinds of files and focuses on deleting entire
directories.
However, there are some restrictions that would be good to bring over
from 'git clean', specifically how it refuses to do anything without the
'-f'/'--force' or '-n'/'--dry-run' arguments. The 'clean.requireForce'
config can be set to 'false' to imply '--force'.
Add this behavior to avoid accidental deletion of files that cannot be
recovered from Git.
Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
When users change their sparse-checkout definitions to add new
directories and remove old ones, there may be a few reasons why
directories no longer in scope remain (ignored or excluded files still
exist, Windows handles are still open, etc.). When these files still
exist, the sparse index feature notices that a tracked, but sparse,
directory still exists on disk and thus the index expands. This causes a
performance hit _and_ the advice printed isn't very helpful. Using 'git
clean' isn't enough (generally '-dfx' may be needed) but also this may
not be sufficient.
Add a new subcommand to 'git sparse-checkout' that removes these
tracked-but-sparse directories.
The implementation details provide a clear definition of what is happening,
but it is difficult to describe this without including the internal
implementation details. The core operation converts the index to a sparse
index (in memory if not already on disk) and then deletes any directories in
the worktree that correspond with a sparse directory entry in that sparse
index.
In the most common case, this means that a file will be removed if it is
contained within a directory that is both tracked and outside of the
sparse-checkout definition. However, there can be exceptions depending on
the current state of the index:
* If the worktree has a modification to a tracked, sparse file, then that
file's parent directories will be expanded instead of represented as
sparse directories. Siblings of those parent directories may be
considered sparse.
* If the user staged a sparse file with "git add --sparse", then that file
loses the SKIP_WORKTREE bit until the sparse-checkout is reapplied. Until
then, that file's parent directories are not represented as sparse
directory entries and thus will not be removed. Siblings of those parent
directories may be considered sparse. (There may be other reasons why
the SKIP_WORKTREE bit was removed for a file and this impact on the
sparse directories will apply to those as well.)
* If the user has a merge conflict outside of the sparse-checkout
definition, then those conflict entries prevent the parent directories
from being represented as sparse directory entries and thus are not
removed.
* The cases above present reasons why certain _file conditions_ will impact
which _directories_ are considered sparse. The list of tracked
directories that are outside of the sparse-checkout definition but not
represented as a sparse directory further reduces the list of files that
will be removed.
For these complicated reasons, the documentation details a potential list of
files that will be "considered for removal" instead of defining the list
concretely. The special cases can be handled by resolving conflicts,
committing staged changes, and running 'git sparse-checkout reapply' to
update the SKIP_WORKTREE bits as expected by the sparse-checkout definition.
It is important to make clear that this operation will remove ignored and
excluded files which would normally be ignored even by 'git clean -f' unless
the '-x' or '-X' option is provided. This is the most extreme method for
doing this, but it works when the sparse-checkout is in cone mode and is
expected to rescope based on directories, not files.
The current implementation always deletes these sparse directories
without warning. This is unacceptable for a released version, but those
features will be added in changes coming immediately after this one.
Note that this will not remove an untracked directory (or any of its
contents) if its parent is a tracked directory within the sparse-checkout
definition. This is required to prevent removing data created by tools that
perform caching operations for editors or build tools.
Thus, 'git sparse-checkout clean' is both more aggressive and more careful
than 'git clean -fx':
* It is more aggressive because it will remove _tracked_ files within the
sparse directories.
* It is less aggressive because it will leave _untracked_ files that are
not contained in sparse directories.
These special cases will be handled more explicitly in a future change that
expands tests for the 'git sparse-checkout clean' command. We handle some of
the modified, staged, and committed states including some impact on 'git
status' after cleaning.
Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Meson does not currently provide a target to compile documentation,
only. Instead, users needs to compile the whole project, which may be
way more than they really intend to do.
Introduce a new "docs" alias to plug this gap. This alias can be invoked
e.g. with `meson compile docs`.
Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
68061e3470 (fast-import: disallow "feature export-marks" by default,
2019-08-29) added the documentation for this option. The second
paragraph is a literal block but it looks like it should just be
a regular paragraph.
Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
Acked-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
From user feedback on this section: 3 users don't know what "tree-ish"
means and 3 users don't know what "pathspec" means. One user also says
that the section is very confusing and that they don't understand what
the "index" is.
From conversations on Mastodon, several users said that their impression
is that "the index" means the same thing as "HEAD". It would be good to
give those users (and other users who do not know what "index" means) a
hint as to its meaning.
Make this section more accessible to users who don't know what the terms
"pathspec", "tree-ish", and "index" mean by using more familiar language,
adding examples, and using simpler sentence structures.
Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
From user feedback: one user mentioned that "When the <tree-ish> (most
often a commit) is not given" is confusing since it starts with a
negative.
Restructuring so that `git checkout main file.txt` and
`git checkout file.txt` are separate items will help us simplify the
sentence structure a lot.
As a bonus, it appears that `-f` actually only applies to one of those
forms, so we can include fewer options, and now the structure of the
DESCRIPTION matches the SYNOPSIS.
Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
From user feedback: several users say they don't understand the use case
for `--detach`. It's probably not realistic to explain the use case for
detached HEAD state here, but we can improve the situation.
Explain how `git checkout --detach` is different from
`git checkout <branch>` instead of copying over the description from
`git checkout <branch>`, since `git checkout <branch>` will be a
familiar command to many readers.
Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
From user feedback: several users reported having trouble understanding
the difference between `-b` and `-B` ("I think it's because my brain
expects it to contrast with `-b`, but instead it starts off explaining
how they're the same").
Also, in `-B`, 2 users can't tell what the branch is reset *to*.
Simplify the sentence structure in the explanations of `-b` and `-B` and
add a little extra information (what `<start-point>` is, what the branch
is reset to).
Splitting up `-b` and `-B` into separate items helps simplify the
sentence structure since there's less "In this case...".
Replace the long "the branch is not reset/created unless "git checkout"
is successful..." with just "will fail", since we should generally
assume that Git will fail operations in a clean way and not leave
operations half-finished, and that cases where it does not fail cleanly
are the exceptions that the documentation should flag.
Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
From user feedback: several users commented that "Local modifications
to the files in the working tree are kept, so that they can be committed
to the <branch>." didn't seem accurate to them, since
`git checkout <branch>` will often fail.
One user also thought that "... and by pointing HEAD at the branch"
was something that _they_ had to do somehow ("How do I point HEAD at
a branch?") rather than a description of what the `git checkout`
operation is doing for them.
Explain when `git checkout <branch>` will fail and clarify that
"pointing HEAD at the branch" is part of what the command does.
6 users commented that the "You could omit <branch>..." section is
extremely confusing. Explain this in a much more direct way.
Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
There's no need to use the terms "pathspec" or "tree-ish" in the
ARGUMENT DISAMBIGUATION section, which are terms that (from user
feedback on this page) many users do not understand.
"tree-ish" is actually not accurate here: `git checkout` in this case
takes a commit-ish, not a tree-ish. So we can say "branch or commit"
instead of "tree-ish" which is both more accurate and uses more familiar
terms.
And now that the intro to the man pages mentions that `git checkout` has
"two main modes", it makes sense to refer to this disambiguation section
to understand how Git decides which one to use when there's an overlap
in syntax.
Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
From user feedback: in the first paragraph, 5 users reported not
understanding the terms "pathspec" and 1 user reported not understanding
the term "HEAD". Of the users who said they didn't know what "pathspec"
means, 3 said they couldn't understand what the paragraph was trying to
communicate as a result.
One user also commented that "If no pathspec was given..." makes
`git checkout <branch>` sounds like a special edge case, instead of
being one of the most common ways to use this core Git command.
It looks like the goal of this paragraph is to communicate that `git
checkout` has two different modes: one where you switch branches and one
where you just update your working directory files/index. So say that
directly, and use more familiar language (including examples) to say it.
Signed-off-by: Julia Evans <julia@jvns.ca>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Since 1296cbe4b4 (init: document `init.defaultBranch` better,
2020-12-11) "git-init.adoc" has advertised that the default name
of the initial branch may change in the future. The name "main"
is chosen to match the default used by the big Git forge web sites.
The advice printed when init.defaultBranch is not set is updated
to say that the default will change to "main" in Git 3.0. Building
with WITH_BREAKING_CHANGES enabled removes the advice and changes
the default branch name to "main". The code in guess_remote_head()
that looks for "refs/heads/master" is left unchanged as that is only
called when the remote server does not support the symref capability
in the v0 protocol or the symref extension to the ls-refs list in the
v2 protocol. Such an old server is more likely to be using "master"
as the default branch name.
With the exception of the "git-init.adoc" the documentation is left
unchanged. I had hoped to parameterize the name of the default branch
by using an asciidoc attribute. Unfortunately attribute expansion
is inhibited by backticks and we use backticks to mark up ref names
so that idea does not work. As the changes to git-init.adoc show
inserting ifdef's around each instance of the branch name "master"
is cumbersome and makes the documentation sources harder to read.
Apart from "git-init.adoc" there are some other files where "master" is
used as the name of the initial branch rather than as an example of a
branch name such as "user-manual.adoc" and "gitcore-tutorial.adoc". The
name appears a lot in those so updating it with ifdef's is not really
practical. We can update that document in the 3.0 release cycle. The
other documentation where master is used as an example branch name
can be gradually converted over time.
Signed-off-by: Phillip Wood <phillip.wood@dunelm.org.uk>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
