'\" t
.\" Title: git-help
.\" Author: [FIXME: author] [see http://docbook.sf.net/el/author]
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.76.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\" Date: 02/24/2014
.\" Manual: Git Manual
.\" Source: Git 1.9.0
.\" Language: English
.\"
.TH "GIT\-HELP" "1" "02/24/2014" "Git 1\&.9\&.0" "Git Manual"
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.SH "NAME"
git-help \- Display help information about Git
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.sp
.nf
\fIgit help\fR [\-a|\-\-all] [\-g|\-\-guide]
[\-i|\-\-info|\-m|\-\-man|\-w|\-\-web] [COMMAND|GUIDE]
.fi
.sp
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.sp
With no options and no COMMAND or GUIDE given, the synopsis of the \fIgit\fR command and a list of the most commonly used Git commands are printed on the standard output\&.
.sp
If the option \fI\-\-all\fR or \fI\-a\fR is given, all available commands are printed on the standard output\&.
.sp
If the option \fI\-\-guide\fR or \fI\-g\fR is given, a list of the useful Git guides is also printed on the standard output\&.
.sp
If a command, or a guide, is given, a manual page for that command or guide is brought up\&. The \fIman\fR program is used by default for this purpose, but this can be overridden by other options or configuration variables\&.
.sp
Note that git \-\-help \&.\&.\&. is identical to git help \&.\&.\&. because the former is internally converted into the latter\&.
.sp
To display the \fBgit\fR(1) man page, use git help git\&.
.sp
This page can be displayed with \fIgit help help\fR or git help \-\-help
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP
\-a, \-\-all
.RS 4
Prints all the available commands on the standard output\&. This option overrides any given command or guide name\&.
.RE
.PP
\-g, \-\-guides
.RS 4
Prints a list of useful guides on the standard output\&. This option overrides any given command or guide name\&.
.RE
.PP
\-i, \-\-info
.RS 4
Display manual page for the command in the
\fIinfo\fR
format\&. The
\fIinfo\fR
program will be used for that purpose\&.
.RE
.PP
\-m, \-\-man
.RS 4
Display manual page for the command in the
\fIman\fR
format\&. This option may be used to override a value set in the
\fIhelp\&.format\fR
configuration variable\&.
.sp
By default the
\fIman\fR
program will be used to display the manual page, but the
\fIman\&.viewer\fR
configuration variable may be used to choose other display programs (see below)\&.
.RE
.PP
\-w, \-\-web
.RS 4
Display manual page for the command in the
\fIweb\fR
(HTML) format\&. A web browser will be used for that purpose\&.
.sp
The web browser can be specified using the configuration variable
\fIhelp\&.browser\fR, or
\fIweb\&.browser\fR
if the former is not set\&. If none of these config variables is set, the
\fIgit web\-\-browse\fR
helper script (called by
\fIgit help\fR) will pick a suitable default\&. See
\fBgit-web--browse\fR(1)
for more information about this\&.
.RE
.SH "CONFIGURATION VARIABLES"
.SS "help\&.format"
.sp
If no command line option is passed, the \fIhelp\&.format\fR configuration variable will be checked\&. The following values are supported for this variable; they make \fIgit help\fR behave as their corresponding command line option:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
"man" corresponds to
\fI\-m|\-\-man\fR,
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
"info" corresponds to
\fI\-i|\-\-info\fR,
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
"web" or "html" correspond to
\fI\-w|\-\-web\fR\&.
.RE
.SS "help\&.browser, web\&.browser and browser\&.<tool>\&.path"
.sp
The \fIhelp\&.browser\fR, \fIweb\&.browser\fR and \fIbrowser\&.<tool>\&.path\fR will also be checked if the \fIweb\fR format is chosen (either by command line option or configuration variable)\&. See \fI\-w|\-\-web\fR in the OPTIONS section above and \fBgit-web--browse\fR(1)\&.
.SS "man\&.viewer"
.sp
The \fIman\&.viewer\fR config variable will be checked if the \fIman\fR format is chosen\&. The following values are currently supported:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
"man": use the
\fIman\fR
program as usual,
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
"woman": use
\fIemacsclient\fR
to launch the "woman" mode in emacs (this only works starting with emacsclient versions 22),
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
"konqueror": use
\fIkfmclient\fR
to open the man page in a new konqueror tab (see
\fINote about konqueror\fR
below)\&.
.RE
.sp
Values for other tools can be used if there is a corresponding \fIman\&.<tool>\&.cmd\fR configuration entry (see below)\&.
.sp
Multiple values may be given to the \fIman\&.viewer\fR configuration variable\&. Their corresponding programs will be tried in the order listed in the configuration file\&.
.sp
For example, this configuration:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[man]
viewer = konqueror
viewer = woman
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
.sp
will try to use konqueror first\&. But this may fail (for example if DISPLAY is not set) and in that case emacs\(aq woman mode will be tried\&.
.sp
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 \fIman\fR program will be tried anyway\&.
.SS "man\&.<tool>\&.path"
.sp
You can explicitly provide a full path to your preferred man viewer by setting the configuration variable \fIman\&.<tool>\&.path\fR\&. For example, you can configure the absolute path to konqueror by setting \fIman\&.konqueror\&.path\fR\&. Otherwise, \fIgit help\fR assumes the tool is available in PATH\&.
.SS "man\&.<tool>\&.cmd"
.sp
When the man viewer, specified by the \fIman\&.viewer\fR configuration variables, is not among the supported ones, then the corresponding \fIman\&.<tool>\&.cmd\fR 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\&.
.SS "Note about konqueror"
.sp
When \fIkonqueror\fR is specified in the \fIman\&.viewer\fR configuration variable, we launch \fIkfmclient\fR to try to open the man page on an already opened konqueror in a new tab if possible\&.
.sp
For consistency, we also try such a trick if \fIman\&.konqueror\&.path\fR is set to something like \fIA_PATH_TO/konqueror\fR\&. That means we will try to launch \fIA_PATH_TO/kfmclient\fR instead\&.
.sp
If you really want to use \fIkonqueror\fR, then you can use something like the following:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
[man]
viewer = konq
[man "konq"]
cmd = A_PATH_TO/konqueror
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
.SS "Note about git config \-\-global"
.sp
Note that all these configuration variables should probably be set using the \fI\-\-global\fR flag, for example like this:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ git config \-\-global help\&.format web
$ git config \-\-global web\&.browser firefox
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
.sp
as they are probably more user specific than repository specific\&. See \fBgit-config\fR(1) for more information about this\&.
.SH "GIT"
.sp
Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite