Autogenerated HTML docs for v1.5.0-rc1-g5fe3
diff --git a/git-describe.txt b/git-describe.txt index 2700f35..b87783c 100644 --- a/git-describe.txt +++ b/git-describe.txt
@@ -35,6 +35,16 @@ Instead of using the default 8 hexadecimal digits as the abbreviated object name, use <n> digits. +--candidates=<n>:: + Instead of considering only the 10 most recent tags as + candidates to describe the input committish consider + up to <n> candidates. Increasing <n> above 10 will take + slightly longer but may produce a more accurate result. + +--debug:: + Verbosely display information about the searching strategy + being employed to standard error. The tag name will still + be printed to standard out. EXAMPLES -------- @@ -63,6 +73,26 @@ [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all HEAD^ heads/lt/describe-g975b +SEARCH STRATEGY +--------------- + +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 +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. + +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" +will be the smallest number of commits possible. + Author ------
