How do I Git help?

Git help FAQ: How do I Git help?

Sorry for that cheesy title, but I used to live in several southern states in the United States, and people there often pronounce "get" like "git". (And I hope they'll take this joke well.)

The Git help command

If you need to see the Git help text, you can start by using the "git help" command, like this:

git help

This command displays the following output:

usage: git [--version] [--exec-path[=GIT_EXEC_PATH]] [--html-path]
           [-p|--paginate|--no-pager] [--no-replace-objects]
           [--bare] [--git-dir=GIT_DIR] [--work-tree=GIT_WORK_TREE]
           [--help] COMMAND [ARGS]

The most commonly used git commands are:
   add        Add file contents to the index
   bisect     Find by binary search the change that introduced a bug
   branch     List, create, or delete branches
   checkout   Checkout a branch or paths to the working tree
   clone      Clone a repository into a new directory
   commit     Record changes to the repository
   diff       Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
   fetch      Download objects and refs from another repository
   grep       Print lines matching a pattern
   init       Create an empty git repository or reinitialize an existing one
   log        Show commit logs
   merge      Join two or more development histories together
   mv         Move or rename a file, a directory, or a symlink
   pull       Fetch from and merge with another repository or a local branch
   push       Update remote refs along with associated objects
   rebase     Forward-port local commits to the updated upstream head
   reset      Reset current HEAD to the specified state
   rm         Remove files from the working tree and from the index
   show       Show various types of objects
   status     Show the working tree status
   tag        Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG

See 'git help COMMAND' for more information on a specific command.

You can also see this same help page if you just type "git" by itself on the command line:

git

Git help - show the Git version

As you can see from that output, if you want to see the Git version number you're using, you can use this command:

git --version

How to Git help on a specific command

To get help on a specific Git command, like the "git add" command, use this "git help" syntax:

git help add

Interestingly, this displays a man page for the "git add" command, which you can also display like this:

man git-add

Even more Git help

For more Git help, check out my Git cheat sheet and reference page. There I've put together a list of the most common Git commands and Git FAQs.