CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitcommand-line
jII
jII

Reputation: 1155

Resource for Reading Git Man Pages?

I am interested in learning how to read the command-line syntax on Git Man pages. For instance, the following appears in the synopsis of this page

git [--version] [--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
    [-p|--paginate|--no-pager] [--no-replace-objects]
    [--bare] [--git-dir=<path>] [--work-tree=<path>]
    [-c <name>=<value>]
    [--help] <command> [<args>]

Can someone please offer an explanation or resource as to how to read this syntax? A Google search brings up results for Windows and IBM syntax, but I can't find anything about Linux-type commands.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 274

Answers (1)

Alex Gittemeier
Alex Gittemeier

Reputation: 5373

  • Words in square brackets are optional
  • Pipes (|) make the things in brackets mutually exclusive
  • Angle brackets are placeholders for any kind of information
  • words not preceded with a - or a -- are placeholders for things like filenames, etc.

(from man-pages(7))

SYNOPSIS      briefly describes the command or function's interface.
             For commands, this shows the syntax of the command and
             its arguments (including options); boldface is used for
             as-is text and italics are used to indicate replaceable
             arguments.  Brackets ([]) surround optional arguments,
             vertical bars (|) separate choices, and ellipses (...)
             can be repeated.  For functions, it shows any required
             data declarations or #include directives, followed by
             the function declaration.

Upvotes: 2

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