TIGMANUAL(7) Tig Manual TIGMANUAL(7)NAMEtigmanual - text-mode interface for Git
SYNOPSIS
tig [options] [revisions] [--] [paths]
tig show [options] [revisions] [--] [paths]
tig blame [options] [rev] [--] path
tig status
tig < [Git command output]
DESCRIPTION
This is the manual for Tig, the ncurses-based text-mode interface for
git. Tig allows you to browse changes in a Git repository and can
additionally act as a pager for output of various Git commands. When
used as a pager, it will display input from stdin and colorize it.
When browsing repositories, Tig uses the underlying Git commands to
present the user with various views, such as summarized commit log and
showing the commit with the log message, diffstat, and the diff.
CALLING CONVENTIONS
Pager Mode
If stdin is a pipe, any log or diff options will be ignored and the
pager view will be opened loading data from stdin. The pager mode can
be used for colorizing output from various Git commands.
Example on how to colorize the output of git-show(1):
$ git show | tig
Git Command Options
All Git command options specified on the command line will be passed to
the given command and all will be shell quoted before they are passed
to the shell.
Note
If you specify options for the main view, you should not use the
--pretty option as this option will be set automatically to the
format expected by the main view.
Example on how to view a commit and show both author and committer
information:
$ tig show --pretty=fuller
See the section on specifying revisions for an introduction to revision
options supported by the Git commands. For details on specific Git
command options, refer to the man page of the command in question.
THE VIEWER
The display consists of a status window on the last line of the screen
and one or more views. The default is to only show one view at a time
but it is possible to split both the main and log view to also show the
commit diff.
If you are in the log view and press Enter when the current line is a
commit line, such as:
commit 4d55caff4cc89335192f3e566004b4ceef572521
You will split the view so that the log view is displayed in the top
window and the diff view in the bottom window. You can switch between
the two views by pressing Tab. To maximize the log view again, simply
press l.
Views
Various views of a repository are presented. Each view is based on
output from an external command, most often git log, git diff, or git
show.
The main view
Is the default view, and it shows a one line summary of each commit
in the chosen list of revisions. The summary includes author date,
author, and the first line of the log message. Additionally, any
repository references, such as tags, will be shown.
The log view
Presents a more rich view of the revision log showing the whole log
message and the diffstat.
The diff view
Shows either the diff of the current working tree, that is, what
has changed since the last commit, or the commit diff complete with
log message, diffstat and diff.
The tree view
Lists directory trees associated with the current revision allowing
subdirectories to be descended or ascended and file blobs to be
viewed.
The blob view
Displays the file content or "blob" of data associated with a file
name.
The blame view
Displays the file content annotated or blamed by commits.
The refs view
Displays the branches, remotes and tags in the repository.
The status view
Displays status of files in the working tree and allows changes to
be staged/unstaged as well as adding of untracked files.
The stage view
Displays diff changes for staged or unstaged files being tracked or
file content of untracked files.
The stash view
Displays the list of stashes in the repository.
The grep view
Displays a list of files and all the lines that matches a search
pattern.
The pager view
Is used for displaying both input from stdin and output from Git
commands entered in the internal prompt.
The help view
Displays a quick reference of key bindings.
Browsing State and User-defined Commands
The viewer keeps track of both what head and commit ID you are
currently viewing. The commit ID will follow the cursor line and change
every time you highlight a different commit. Whenever you reopen the
diff view it will be reloaded, if the commit ID changed. The head ID is
used when opening the main and log view to indicate from what revision
to show history.
Some of the commands used or provided by Tig can be configured. This
goes for some of the environment variables as well as the external
commands. These user-defined commands can use arguments that refer to
the current browsing state by using one of the following variables.
Table 1. Browsing state variables
%(head) The currently viewed head
ID. Defaults to HEAD
%(commit) The currently selected
commit ID.
%(blob) The currently selected
blob ID.
%(branch) The currently selected
branch name.
%(stash) The currently selected
stash name.
%(directory) The current directory path
in the tree view; empty
for the root directory.
%(file) The currently selected
file.
%(lineno) The currently selected
line number. Defaults to
0.
%(ref) The reference given to
blame or HEAD if
undefined.
%(revargs) The revision arguments
passed on the command
line.
%(fileargs) The file arguments passed
on the command line.
%(cmdlineargs) All other options passed
on the command line.
%(diffargs) Options from diff-options
or TIG_DIFF_OPTS used used
by the diff view.
%(blameargs) Options from blame-options
used by the blame view.
%(logargs) Options from log-options
used by the log view.
%(mainargs) Options from main-options
used by the main view.
%(prompt) Prompt for the argument
value.
Example user-defined commands:
· Allow to amend the last commit:
bind generic + !git commit --amend
· Copy commit ID to clipboard:
bind generic 9 !@sh -c "echo -n %(commit) | xclip -selection c"
· Add/edit notes for the current commit used during a review:
bind generic T !git notes edit %(commit)
· Enter Git’s interactive add for fine-grained staging of file
content:
bind generic I !git add -i %(file)
· Rebase current branch on top of the selected branch:
bind refs 3 !git rebase -i %(branch)
Title Windows
Each view has a title window which shows the name of the view, current
commit ID if available, and where the view is positioned:
[main] c622eefaa485995320bc743431bae0d497b1d875 - commit 1 of 61 (1%)
By default, the title of the current view is highlighted using bold
font. For long loading views (taking over 3 seconds) the time since
loading started will be appended:
[main] 77d9e40fbcea3238015aea403e06f61542df9a31 - commit 1 of 779 (0%) 5s
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
Several options related to the interface with Git can be configured via
environment options.
Configuration Files
Upon startup, Tig first reads the system wide configuration file
({sysconfdir}/tigrc by default) and then proceeds to read the user’s
configuration file (~/.tigrc by default). The paths to either of these
files can be overridden through the following environment variables:
TIGRC_USER
Path of the user configuration file.
TIGRC_SYSTEM
Path of the system wide configuration file.
Repository References
Commits that are referenced by tags and branch heads will be marked by
the reference name surrounded by [ and ]:
2006-03-26 19:42 Petr Baudis | [cogito-0.17.1] Cogito 0.17.1
If you want to limit what branches are shown, say only show branches
named master or those which start with the feature/ prefix, you can do
it by setting the following variable:
$ TIG_LS_REMOTE="git ls-remote . master feature/*" tig
Or set the variable permanently in your environment.
TIG_LS_REMOTE
Set command for retrieving all repository references. The command
should output data in the same format as git-ls-remote(1). Defaults
to:
git ls-remote .
Diff options
It is possible to alter how diffs are shown by the diff view. If for
example you prefer to have commit and author dates shown as relative
dates, use:
$ TIG_DIFF_OPTS="--relative-date" tig
Or set the variable permanently in your environment.
DEFAULT KEYBINDINGS
Below the default key bindings are shown.
View Switching
Key Action
m Switch to main view.
d Switch to diff view.
l Switch to log view.
p Switch to pager view.
t Switch to (directory) tree
view.
f Switch to (file) blob
view.
g Switch to grep view.
b Switch to blame view.
r Switch to refs view.
y Switch to stash view.
h Switch to help view
s Switch to status view
c Switch to stage view
View Manipulation
Key Action
q Close view, if multiple
views are open it will
jump back to the previous
view in the view stack. If
it is the last open view
it will quit. Use Q to
quit all views at once.
Enter This key is "context
sensitive" depending on
what view you are
currently in. When in log
view on a commit line or
in the main view, split
the view and show the
commit diff. In the diff
view pressing Enter will
simply scroll the view one
line down.
Tab Switch to next view.
R Reload and refresh the
current view.
O Maximize the current view
to fill the whole display.
Up This key is "context
sensitive" and will move
the cursor one line up.
However, if you opened a
diff view from the main
view (split- or
full-screen) it will
change the cursor to point
to the previous commit in
the main view and update
the diff view to display
it.
Down Similar to Up but will
move down.
, Move to parent. In the
tree view, this means
switch to the parent
directory. In the blame
view it will load blame
for the parent commit. For
merges the parent is
queried.
View Specific Actions
Key Action
u Update status of file. In
the status view, this
allows you to add an
untracked file or stage
changes to a file for next
commit (similar to running
git-add <filename>). In
the stage view, when
pressing this on a diff
chunk line stages only
that chunk for next
commit, when not on a diff
chunk line all changes in
the displayed diff are
staged.
M Resolve unmerged file by
launching
git-mergetool(1). Note, to
work correctly this might
require some initial
configuration of your
preferred merge tool. See
the manpage of
git-mergetool(1).
! Checkout file with
unstaged changes. This
will reset the file to
contain the content it had
at last commit.
1 Stage single diff line.
@ Move to next chunk in the
stage view.
] Increase the diff context.
[ Decrease the diff context.
Cursor Navigation
Key Action
k Move cursor one line up.
j Move cursor one line down.
PgUp,-,a Move cursor one page up.
PgDown, Space Move cursor one page down.
End Jump to last line.
Home Jump to first line.
Scrolling
Key Action
Insert Scroll view one line up.
Delete Scroll view one line down.
ScrBack Scroll view one page up.
ScrFwd Scroll view one page down.
Left Scroll view one column
left.
Right Scroll view one column
right.
| Scroll view to the first
column.
Searching
Key Action
/ Search the view. Opens a
prompt for entering search
regexp to use.
? Search backwards in the
view. Also prompts for
regexp.
n Find next match for the
current search regexp.
N Find previous match for
the current search regexp.
Misc
Key Action
Q Quit.
<C-L> Redraw screen.
z Stop all background
loading. This can be
useful if you use Tig in a
repository with a long
history without limiting
the revision log.
v Show version.
o Open option menu
# Toggle line numbers
on/off.
D Toggle date display
on/off/short/relative/local.
A Toggle author display
on/off/abbreviated/email/email
user name.
G Toggle revision graph
visualization on/off.
~ Toggle (line) graphics mode
F Toggle reference display
on/off (tag and branch names).
W Toggle ignoring whitespace
on/off for diffs
X Toggle commit ID display
on/off
% Toggle file filtering in order
to see the full diff instead
of only the diff concerning
the currently selected file.
$ Toggle highlighting of commit
title overflow.
: Open prompt. This allows you
to specify what command to
run.
e Open file in editor.
Prompt
Key Action
:<number> Jump to the specific line
number, e.g. :80.
:<sha> Jump to a specific commit,
e.g. :2f12bcc.
:<x> Execute the corresponding
key binding, e.g. :q.
:!<command> Execute a system command
in a pager, e.g. :!git log
-p.
:<action> Execute a Tig command,
e.g. :edit.
:save-display <file> Save current display to
<file>.
:save-options <file> Save current options to
<file>.
:script <file> Execute commands from
<file>.
:exec <flags><args...> Execute command using
<args> with external
user-defined command
option flags defined in
<flags>.
External Commands
For more custom needs, external commands provide a way to easily
execute a script or program. They are bound to keys and use information
from the current browsing state, such as the current commit ID. Tig
comes with the following built-in external commands:
Keymap Key Action
main C git cherry-pick
%(commit)
status C git commit
generic G git gc
REVISION SPECIFICATION
This section describes various ways to specify what revisions to
display or otherwise limit the view to. Tig does not itself parse the
described revision options so refer to the relevant Git man pages for
further information. Relevant man pages besides git-log(1) are
git-diff(1) and git-rev-list(1).
You can tune the interaction with Git by making use of the options
explained in this section. For example, by configuring the environment
variable described in the section on diff options.
Limit by Path Name
If you are interested only in those revisions that made changes to a
specific file (or even several files) list the files like this:
$ tig Makefile README
To avoid ambiguity with Tig’s subcommands or repository references such
as tag names, be sure to separate file names from other Git options
using "--". So if you have a file named status it will clash with the
status subcommand, and thus you will have to use:
$ tig -- status
Limit by Date or Number
To speed up interaction with Git, you can limit the amount of commits
to show both for the log and main view. Either limit by date using e.g.
--since=1.month or limit by the number of commits using -n400.
If you are only interested in changes that happened between two dates
you can use:
$ tig --after="May 5th" --before="2006-05-16 15:44"
Note
If you want to avoid having to quote dates containing spaces you
can use "." instead, e.g. --after=May.5th.
Limiting by Commit Ranges
Alternatively, commits can be limited to a specific range, such as "all
commits between tag-1.0 and tag-2.0". For example:
$ tig tag-1.0..tag-2.0
This way of commit limiting makes it trivial to only browse the commits
which haven’t been pushed to a remote branch. Assuming origin is your
upstream remote branch, using:
$ tig origin..HEAD
will list what will be pushed to the remote branch. Optionally, the
ending HEAD can be left out since it is implied.
Limiting by Reachability
Git interprets the range specifier "tag-1.0..tag-2.0" as "all commits
reachable from tag-2.0 but not from tag-1.0". Where reachability refers
to what commits are ancestors (or part of the history) of the branch or
tagged revision in question.
If you prefer to specify which commit to preview in this way use the
following:
$ tig tag-2.0 ^tag-1.0
You can think of ^ as a negation operator. Using this alternate syntax,
it is possible to further prune commits by specifying multiple branch
cut offs.
Combining Revisions Specification
Revision options can to some degree be combined, which makes it
possible to say "show at most 20 commits from within the last month
that changed files under the Documentation/ directory."
$ tig --since=1.month -n20 -- Documentation/
Examining All Repository References
In some cases, it can be useful to query changes across all references
in a repository. An example is to ask "did any line of development in
this repository change a particular file within the last week". This
can be accomplished using:
$ tig --all --since=1.week -- Makefile
MORE INFORMATION
Please visit Tig’s home page[1] or main Git repository[2] for
information about new releases and how to report bugs and feature
requests.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2006-2014 Jonas Fonseca <jonas.fonseca@gmail.com[3]>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.
SEE ALSO
Manpages:
· tig(1)
· tigrc(5)NOTES
1. home page
http://jonas.nitro.dk/tig
2. main Git repository
https://github.com/jonas/tig
3. jonas.fonseca@gmail.com
mailto:jonas.fonseca@gmail.com
Tig 2.1.1 04/08/2015 TIGMANUAL(7)
