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Apparently my google-fu sucks...

I know these from other StackExchange posts:

--cd-to-home # Change directory to home --cd=<path> # Change directory to <path> -i # ? -c # Run command, but --command doesn't work/exist

Where can I find a complete list of options for git-bash.exe (the therminal emulator)? I found them for mintty [1], but they don't seem to be the correct ones for git-bash.exe...

Update:

So git-bash.exe just seems to be a simple wrapper that first parses the --cd... options and then runs

usr\bin\mintty.exe --icon git-bash.exe,0 --exec "/usr/bin/bash" --login -i <other arguments>

or similar. That's why only --cd.. and bash options are parsed correctly and not mintty.

If you want to use other options from mintty, you should use a similar command instead of trying to do it with git-bash.exe. E.g.: 

usr\bin\mintty.exe --icon git-bash.exe,0 --window full --exec "/usr/bin/bash" --login -i -c "echo 'Hello World!'; read"
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  • Did you tried to start with help? If it works like git under linux from command-line you can ask git --help -a to have the full list of commands. Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 13:39
  • Stack Overflow duplicate: gitbash command quick reference Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 13:53
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    git-bash.exe is the terminal emulator (based on mintty) which has collection of standard commands like ls or git (based on msys). I know how to get the options for those commands, I'm looking for the options for the terminal emulator. I have also tried git-bash.exe --help and git-bash.exe /?, both don't show anything. Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 14:15
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    @DavidPostill not a dupe -- this asks for command-line options to the shell invocation command Commented Oct 27, 2016 at 16:28
  • 4
    It may be worth moving your edit to an answer and mark that as the answer. Commented Jul 19, 2017 at 10:12

4 Answers 4

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I also wondered on how to get command line options and Google search brought up this thread.

I found that the options are documented within git.

Call:

git help git-bash

and it will open up a git-bash manual page in your browser explaining all the options

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  • 1
    Wow thanks, this is what I meant. I never thought about looking for the tool documentation within the git documentation itself... Commented Jul 11, 2022 at 8:26
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    Yet the --login -i that we see everywhere is not mentioned. Do you have an idea of where it is documented? Commented May 20, 2024 at 7:11
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I found this commit from 2015 that introduced new command line options: https://github.com/git/git/commit/ac6b03cb4197311b055dc5f46ab10bf37c591ae6

Here is the list from the commit description:

--command=<command-line>:: Executes `<command-line>` instead of the embedded string resource --[no-]minimal-search-path:: Ensures that only `/cmd/` is added to the `PATH` instead of `/mingw??/bin` and `/usr/bin/`, or not --[no-]needs-console:: Ensures that there is a Win32 console associated with the spawned process, or not --[no-]hide:: Hides the console window, or not

You can read the full information in the URL above.

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25

Correct there isn't a list of command line options help for git-bash.exe. I spend some time looking for them myself and there isn't any proper documentation on it. It appears to be a wrapper for bin/sh.exe. If you really need to do more then I recommend looking at the help info for sh.exe instead.

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  • 5
    Ah yes, this seems accurate for the options like -c, -i, --login etc. Here's the online man page. I mainly was wondering what the -i option does. --cd-to-home and --cd aren't sh commands though (neither mintty), so I guess they were added for convenience and wonder if there are more... PS: There's also C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\mintty.exe Commented Aug 19, 2016 at 19:36
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    same for git-cmd.exe no doc and the args ConEmu passes, --no-cd and --command, have nothing to do with cmd.exe Commented Nov 13, 2020 at 14:14
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Here is the command line you found when you start git-bash.exe (on 2.8.1)

usr\bin\mintty.exe -o AppID=GitForWindows.Bash -o RelaunchCommand="C:\Git\git-bash.exe" -o RelaunchDisplayName="Git Bash" -i /mingw32/share/git/git-for-windows.ico /usr/bin/bash --login -i
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