describe: Make --tags and --all match lightweight tags more often

[git.git] / Documentation / git-describe.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/git-describe.txt b/Documentation/git-describe.txt
index 3f0b7b2f47567183ab4db3f9c71c4a27ee1b45ae..3d79f05995d28214f68640dd3f693033dff03547 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-describe.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-describe.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ git-describe - Show the most recent tag that is reachable from a commit
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-'git-describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] <committish>...
+'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] <committish>...
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
@@ -18,19 +18,24 @@ 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.
 
+By default (without --all or --tags) `git describe` only shows
+annotated tags.  For more information about creating annotated tags
+see the -a and -s options to linkgit:git-tag[1].
 
 OPTIONS
 -------
-<committish>::
-       The object name of the committish.
+<committish>...::
+       Committish object names to describe.
 
 --all::
        Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any ref
-       found in `.git/refs/`.
+       found in `.git/refs/`.  This option enables matching
+       any known branch, remote branch, or lightweight tag.
 
 --tags::
        Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any tag
-       found in `.git/refs/tags`.
+       found in `.git/refs/tags`.  This option enables matching
+       a lightweight (non-annotated) tag.
 
 --contains::
        Instead of finding the tag that predates the commit, find
@@ -70,12 +75,15 @@ OPTIONS
        Only consider tags matching the given pattern (can be used to avoid
        leaking private tags made from the repository).
 
+--always::
+       Show uniquely abbreviated commit object as fallback.
+
 EXAMPLES
 --------
 
 With something like git.git current tree, I get:
 
-       [torvalds@g5 git]$ git-describe parent
+       [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe parent
        v1.0.4-14-g2414721
 
 i.e. the current head of my "parent" branch is based on v1.0.4,
@@ -89,9 +97,9 @@ of commits which would be displayed by "git log v1.0.4..parent".
 The hash suffix is "-g" + 7-char abbreviation for the tip commit
 of parent (which was `2414721b194453f058079d897d13c4e377f92dc6`).
 
-Doing a "git-describe" on a tag-name will just show the tag name:
+Doing a 'git-describe' on a tag-name will just show the tag name:
 
-       [torvalds@g5 git]$ git-describe v1.0.4
+       [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe v1.0.4
        v1.0.4
 
 With --all, the command can use branch heads as references, so
@@ -112,13 +120,13 @@ closest tagname without any suffix:
 SEARCH STRATEGY
 ---------------
 
-For each committish supplied "git describe" will first look for
+For each committish supplied, 'git-describe' will first look for
 a tag which tags exactly that commit.  Annotated tags will always
 be preferred over lightweight tags, and tags with newer dates will
 always be preferred over tags with older dates.  If an exact match
 is found, its name will be output and searching will stop.
 
-If an exact match was not found "git describe" will walk back
+If an exact match was not found, 'git-describe' will walk back
 through the commit history to locate an ancestor commit which
 has been tagged.  The ancestor's tag will be output along with an
 abbreviation of the input committish's SHA1.
@@ -126,14 +134,14 @@ abbreviation of the input committish's SHA1.
 If multiple tags were found during the walk then the tag which
 has the fewest commits different from the input committish will be
 selected and output.  Here fewest commits different is defined as
-the number of commits which would be shown by "git log tag..input"
+the number of commits which would be shown by `git log tag..input`
 will be the smallest number of commits possible.
 
 
 Author
 ------
 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>, but somewhat
-butchered by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>.  Later significantly
+butchered by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>.  Later significantly
 updated by Shawn Pearce <spearce@spearce.org>.
 
 Documentation