git-describe (1)
NAME
git-describe - Give an object a human readable name based on an available refSYNOPSIS
git describe [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] [<commit-ish>...] git describe [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] --dirty[=<mark>] git describe <blob>
DESCRIPTION
The command finds the most recent tag that is reachable from a commit. If the tag points to the commit, then only the tag is shown. Otherwise, it suffixes the tag name with the number of additional commits on top of the tagged object and the abbreviated object name of the most recent commit. The result is a "human-readable" object name which can also be used to identify the commit to other git commands.OPTIONS
<commit-ish>...Commit-ish object names to describe. Defaults to HEAD if omitted.
--dirty[=<mark>], --broken[=<mark>]
Describe the state of the working tree. When the working tree matches HEAD, the output is the same as "git describe HEAD". If the working tree has local modification "-dirty" is appended to it. If a repository is corrupt and Git cannot determine if there is local modification, Git will error out, unless ‘--broken’ is given, which appends the suffix "-broken" instead.
--all
Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any ref found in refs/ namespace. This option enables matching any known branch, remote-tracking branch, or lightweight tag.
--tags
Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any tag found in refs/tags namespace. This option enables matching a lightweight (non-annotated) tag.
--contains
Instead of finding the tag that predates the commit, find the tag that comes after the commit, and thus contains it. Automatically implies --tags.
--abbrev=<n>
Instead of using the default 7 hexadecimal digits as the abbreviated object name, use <n> digits, or as many digits as needed to form a unique object name. An <n> of 0 will suppress long format, only showing the closest tag.
--candidates=<n>
Instead of considering only the 10 most recent tags as candidates to describe the input commit-ish consider up to <n> candidates. Increasing <n> above 10 will take slightly longer but may produce a more accurate result. An <n> of 0 will cause only exact matches to be output.
--exact-match
Only output exact matches (a tag directly references the supplied commit). This is a synonym for --candidates=0.
--debug
Verbosely display information about the searching strategy being employed to standard error. The tag name will still be printed to standard out.
--long
Always output the long format (the tag, the number of commits and the abbreviated commit name) even when it matches a tag. This is useful when you want to see parts of the commit object name in "describe" output, even when the commit in question happens to be a tagged version. Instead of just emitting the tag name, it will describe such a commit as v1.2-0-gdeadbee (0th commit since tag v1.2 that points at object deadbee....).
--match <pattern>
Only consider tags matching the given glob(7) pattern, excluding the "refs/tags/" prefix. If used with --all, it also considers local branches and remote-tracking references matching the pattern, excluding respectively "refs/heads/" and "refs/remotes/" prefix; references of other types are never considered. If given multiple times, a list of patterns will be accumulated, and tags matching any of the patterns will be considered. Use --no-match to clear and reset the list of patterns.
--exclude <pattern>
Do not consider tags matching the given glob(7) pattern, excluding the "refs/tags/" prefix. If used with --all, it also does not consider local branches and remote-tracking references matching the pattern, excluding respectively "refs/heads/" and "refs/remotes/" prefix; references of other types are never considered. If given multiple times, a list of patterns will be accumulated and tags matching any of the patterns will be excluded. When combined with --match a tag will be considered when it matches at least one --match pattern and does not match any of the --exclude patterns. Use --no-exclude to clear and reset the list of patterns.
--always
Show uniquely abbreviated commit object as fallback.
--first-parent
Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge commit. This is useful when you wish to not match tags on branches merged in the history of the target commit.
EXAMPLES
With something like git.git current tree, I get:[torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe parent v1.0.4-14-g2414721
[torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe v1.0.4 v1.0.4
[torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 v1.0.5^2 tags/v1.0.0-21-g975b
[torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 HEAD^ heads/lt/describe-7-g975b
[torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --abbrev=0 v1.0.5^2 tags/v1.0.0