git-sh-setup(1) — Linux manual page

NAME \| SYNOPSIS \| DESCRIPTION \| FUNCTIONS \| GIT \| COLOPHON

GIT-SH-SETUP(1)                 Git Manual                GIT-SH-SETUP(1)

NAME top

       git-sh-setup - Common Git shell script setup code

SYNOPSIS top

       . "$(git --exec-path)/git-sh-setup"

DESCRIPTION top

       This is not a command the end user would want to run. Ever. This
       documentation is meant for people who are studying the
       Porcelain-ish scripts and/or are writing new ones.

       The git sh-setup scriptlet is designed to be sourced (using .) by
       other shell scripts to set up some variables pointing at the
       normal Git directories and a few helper shell functions.

       Before sourcing it, your script should set up a few variables;
       USAGE (and LONG_USAGE, if any) is used to define the message given
       by usage() shell function. SUBDIRECTORY_OK can be set if the
       script can run from a subdirectory of the working tree (some
       commands do not).

       The scriptlet sets GIT_DIR and GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY shell
       variables, but does not export them to the environment.

FUNCTIONS top

       die
           exit after emitting the supplied error message to the standard
           error stream.

       usage
           die with the usage message.

       set_reflog_action
           Set GIT_REFLOG_ACTION environment to a given string (typically
           the name of the program) unless it is already set. Whenever
           the script runs a git command that updates refs, a reflog
           entry is created using the value of this string to leave the
           record of what command updated the ref.

       git_editor
           runs an editor of user’s choice (GIT_EDITOR, core.editor,
           VISUAL or EDITOR) on a given file, but error out if no editor
           is specified and the terminal is dumb.

       is_bare_repository
           outputs true or false to the standard output stream to
           indicate if the repository is a bare repository (i.e. without
           an associated working tree).

       cd_to_toplevel
           runs chdir to the toplevel of the working tree.

       require_work_tree
           checks if the current directory is within the working tree of
           the repository, and otherwise dies.

       require_work_tree_exists
           checks if the working tree associated with the repository
           exists, and otherwise dies. Often done before calling
           cd_to_toplevel, which is impossible to do if there is no
           working tree.

       require_clean_work_tree <action> [<hint>]
           checks that the working tree and index associated with the
           repository have no uncommitted changes to tracked files.
           Otherwise it emits an error message of the form Cannot
           <action>: <reason>.  <hint>, and dies. Example:

               require_clean_work_tree rebase "Please commit or stash them."

       get_author_ident_from_commit
           outputs code for use with eval to set the GIT_AUTHOR_NAME,
           GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL and GIT_AUTHOR_DATE variables for a given
           commit.

       create_virtual_base
           modifies the first file so only lines in common with the
           second file remain. If there is insufficient common material,
           then the first file is left empty. The result is suitable as a
           virtual base input for a 3-way merge.

GIT top

       Part of the git(1) suite

COLOPHON top

       This page is part of the git (Git distributed version control
       system) project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://git-scm.com/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this manual
       page, see ⟨http://git-scm.com/community⟩.  This page was obtained
       from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/git/git.git⟩ on 2025-08-11.  (At that time,
       the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2025-08-07.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

Git 2.51.0.rc1                  2025-08-07                GIT-SH-SETUP(1)

Pages that refer to this page: git(1)