#+TITLE: Magit User Manual
:PREAMBLE:
#+AUTHOR: Jonas Bernoulli
#+EMAIL: jonas@bernoul.li
#+DATE: 2015-2021
#+LANGUAGE: en

#+TEXINFO_DIR_CATEGORY: Emacs
#+TEXINFO_DIR_TITLE: Magit: (magit).
#+TEXINFO_DIR_DESC: Using Git from Emacs with Magit.
#+SUBTITLE: for version 3.3.0

#+TEXINFO_DEFFN: t
#+OPTIONS: H:4 num:3 toc:2
#+PROPERTY: header-args :eval never
#+BIND: ox-texinfo+-before-export-hook ox-texinfo+-update-copyright-years
#+BIND: ox-texinfo+-before-export-hook ox-texinfo+-update-version-strings

Magit is an interface to the version control system Git, implemented
as an Emacs package.  Magit aspires to be a complete Git porcelain.
While we cannot (yet) claim that Magit wraps and improves upon each
and every Git command, it is complete enough to allow even experienced
Git users to perform almost all of their daily version control tasks
directly from within Emacs.  While many fine Git clients exist, only
Magit and Git itself deserve to be called porcelains.

#+TEXINFO: @noindent
This manual is for Magit version 3.3.0.

#+BEGIN_QUOTE
Copyright (C) 2015-2021 Jonas Bernoulli <jonas@bernoul.li>

You can redistribute this document and/or modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any
later version.

This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
#+END_QUOTE
:END:
* Introduction

Magit is an interface to the version control system Git, implemented
as an Emacs package.  Magit aspires to be a complete Git porcelain.
While we cannot (yet) claim that Magit wraps and improves upon each
and every Git command, it is complete enough to allow even experienced
Git users to perform almost all of their daily version control tasks
directly from within Emacs.  While many fine Git clients exist, only
Magit and Git itself deserve to be called porcelains.

Staging and otherwise applying changes is one of the most important
features in a Git porcelain and here Magit outshines anything else,
including Git itself.  Git's own staging interface (~git add --patch~)
is so cumbersome that many users only use it in exceptional cases.
In Magit staging a hunk or even just part of a hunk is as trivial as
staging all changes made to a file.

The most visible part of Magit's interface is the status buffer, which
displays information about the current repository.  Its content is
created by running several Git commands and making their output
actionable.  Among other things, it displays information about the
current branch, lists unpulled and unpushed changes and contains
sections displaying the staged and unstaged changes.  That might sound
noisy, but, since sections are collapsible, it's not.

To stage or unstage a change one places the cursor on the change and
then types ~s~ or ~u~.  The change can be a file or a hunk, or when the
region is active (i.e. when there is a selection) several files or
hunks, or even just part of a hunk.  The change or changes that these
commands - and many others - would act on are highlighted.

Magit also implements several other "apply variants" in addition to
staging and unstaging.  One can discard or reverse a change, or
apply it to the working tree.  Git's own porcelain only supports this
for staging and unstaging and you would have to do something like ~git
diff ... | ??? | git apply ...~ to discard, revert, or apply a single
hunk on the command line.  In fact that's exactly what Magit does
internally (which is what lead to the term "apply variants").

Magit isn't just for Git experts, but it does assume some prior
experience with Git as well as Emacs.  That being said, many users
have reported that using Magit was what finally taught them what Git
is capable of and how to use it to its fullest.  Other users
wished they had switched to Emacs sooner so that they would have
gotten their hands on Magit earlier.

While one has to know the basic features of Emacs to be able to make
full use of Magit, acquiring just enough Emacs skills doesn't take
long and is worth it, even for users who prefer other editors.  Vim
users are advised to give [[https://bitbucket.org/lyro/evil/wiki/Home][Evil]], the "Extensible VI Layer for Emacs",
and [[https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs][Spacemacs]], an "Emacs starter-kit focused on Evil" a try.

Magit provides a consistent and efficient Git porcelain.  After a
short learning period, you will be able to perform most of your daily
version control tasks faster than you would on the command line.  You
will likely also start using features that seemed too daunting in the
past.

Magit fully embraces Git.  It exposes many advanced features using a
simple but flexible interface instead of only wrapping the trivial
ones like many GUI clients do.  Of course Magit supports logging,
cloning, pushing, and other commands that usually don't fail in
spectacular ways; but it also supports tasks that often cannot be
completed in a single step.  Magit fully supports tasks such as
merging, rebasing, cherry-picking, reverting, and blaming by not only
providing a command to initiate these tasks but also by displaying
context sensitive information along the way and providing commands
that are useful for resolving conflicts and resuming the sequence
after doing so.

Magit wraps and in many cases improves upon at least the following Git
porcelain commands: ~add~, ~am~, ~bisect~, ~blame~, ~branch~, ~checkout~, ~cherry~,
~cherry-pick~, ~clean~, ~clone~, ~commit~, ~config~, ~describe~, ~diff~, ~fetch~,
~format-patch~, ~init~, ~log~, ~merge~, ~merge-tree~, ~mv~, ~notes~, ~pull~, ~rebase~,
~reflog~, ~remote~, ~request-pull~, ~reset~, ~revert~, ~rm~, ~show~, ~stash~,
~submodule~, ~subtree~, ~tag~, and ~worktree.~  Many more Magit porcelain
commands are implemented on top of Git plumbing commands.

* Installation
** _

Magit can be installed using Emacs' package manager or manually from
its development repository.

** Installing from Melpa

Magit is available from Melpa and Melpa-Stable.  If you haven't used
Emacs' package manager before, then it is high time you familiarize
yourself with it by reading the documentation in the Emacs manual, see
[[info:emacs#Packages]].  Then add one of the archives to
~package-archives~:

- To use Melpa:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (require 'package)
  (add-to-list 'package-archives
               '("melpa" . "http://melpa.org/packages/") t)
#+END_SRC

- To use Melpa-Stable:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (require 'package)
  (add-to-list 'package-archives
               '("melpa-stable" . "http://stable.melpa.org/packages/") t)
#+END_SRC

Once you have added your preferred archive, you need to update the
local package list using:

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  M-x package-refresh-contents RET
#+END_EXAMPLE

Once you have done that, you can install Magit and its dependencies
using:

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  M-x package-install RET magit RET
#+END_EXAMPLE

Now see [[*Post-Installation Tasks]].

** Installing from the Git Repository

Magit depends on the ~dash~, ~transient~ and ~with-editor~ libraries
which are available from Melpa and Melpa-Stable.  Install them using
~M-x package-install RET <package> RET~.  Of course you may also install
them manually from their repository.

Then clone the Magit repository:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell-script
  $ git clone https://github.com/magit/magit.git ~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/magit
  $ cd ~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/magit
#+END_SRC

Then compile the libraries and generate the info manuals:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell-script
  $ make
#+END_SRC

If you haven't installed ~dash~, ~transient~ and ~with-editor~ from
Melpa or at ~/path/to/magit/../<package>~, then you have to tell ~make~
where to find them.  To do so create the file ~/path/to/magit/config.mk~
with the following content before running ~make~:

#+BEGIN_SRC makefile
  LOAD_PATH  = -L ~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/magit/lisp
  LOAD_PATH += -L ~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/dash
  LOAD_PATH += -L ~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/transient/lisp
  LOAD_PATH += -L ~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/with-editor
#+END_SRC

Finally add this to your init file:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/magit/lisp")
  (require 'magit)

  (with-eval-after-load 'info
    (info-initialize)
    (add-to-list 'Info-directory-list
                 "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/magit/Documentation/"))
#+END_SRC

Of course if you installed the dependencies manually as well, then
you have to tell Emacs about them too, by prefixing the above with:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/dash")
  (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/transient/lisp")
  (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/with-editor")
#+END_SRC

Note that you have to add the ~lisp~ subdirectory to the ~load-path~, not
the top-level of the repository, and that elements of ~load-path~ should
not end with a slash, while those of ~Info-directory-list~ should.

Instead of requiring the feature ~magit~, you could load just the
autoload definitions, by loading the file ~magit-autoloads.el~.

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (load "/path/to/magit/lisp/magit-autoloads")
#+END_SRC

Instead of running Magit directly from the repository by adding that
to the ~load-path~, you might want to instead install it in some other
directory using ~sudo make install~ and setting ~load-path~ accordingly.

To update Magit use:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell-script
  $ git pull
  $ make
#+END_SRC

At times it might be necessary to run ~make clean all~ instead.

To view all available targets use ~make help~.

Now see [[*Post-Installation Tasks]].

** Post-Installation Tasks

After installing Magit you should verify that you are indeed using the
Magit, Git, and Emacs releases you think you are using.  It's best to
restart Emacs before doing so, to make sure you are not using an
outdated value for ~load-path~.

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  M-x magit-version RET
#+END_EXAMPLE

should display something like

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  Magit 2.8.0, Git 2.10.2, Emacs 25.1.1, gnu/linux
#+END_EXAMPLE

Then you might also want to read about options that many users likely
want to customize.  See [[*Essential Settings]].

To be able to follow cross references to Git manpages found in this
manual, you might also have to manually install the ~gitman~ info manual,
or advice ~Info-follow-nearest-node~ to instead open the actual manpage.
See [[*How to install the gitman info manual?]].

If you are completely new to Magit then see [[*Getting Started]].

If you run into problems, then please see the [[*FAQ]].  Also see the
[[*Debugging Tools]].

And last but not least please consider making a donation, to ensure
that I can keep working on Magit.  See https://magit.vc/donations.
for various donation options.

* Getting Started

This short tutorial describes the most essential features that many
Magitians use on a daily basis.  It only scratches the surface but
should be enough to get you started.

IMPORTANT: It is safest if you clone some repository just for this
tutorial.  Alternatively you can use an existing local repository, but
if you do that, then you should commit all uncommitted changes before
proceeding.

Type ~C-x g~ to display information about the current Git repository in
a dedicated buffer, called the status buffer.

Most Magit commands are commonly invoked from the status buffer.  It
can be considered the primary interface for interacting with Git using
Magit.  Many other Magit buffers may exist at a given time, but they
are often created from this buffer.

Depending on what state your repository is in, this buffer may contain
sections titled "Staged changes", "Unstaged changes", "Unmerged into
origin/master", "Unpushed to origin/master", and many others.

Since we are starting from a safe state, which you can easily return
to (by doing a ~git reset --hard PRE-MAGIT-STATE~), there currently are
no staged or unstaged changes.  Edit some files and save the changes.
Then go back to the status buffer, while at the same time refreshing
it, by typing ~C-x g~.  (When the status buffer, or any Magit buffer for
that matter, is the current buffer, then you can also use just ~g~ to
refresh it).

Move between sections using ~p~ and ~n~.  Note that the bodies of some
sections are hidden.  Type ~TAB~ to expand or collapse the section at
point.  You can also use ~C-tab~ to cycle the visibility of the current
section and its children.  Move to a file section inside the section
named "Unstaged changes" and type ~s~ to stage the changes you have made
to that file.  That file now appears under "Staged changes".

Magit can stage and unstage individual hunks, not just complete files.
Move to the file you have just staged, expand it using ~TAB~, move to
one of the hunks using ~n~, and unstage just that by typing ~u~.  Note how
the staging (~s~) and unstaging (~u~) commands operate on the change at
point.  Many other commands behave the same way.

You can also un-/stage just part of a hunk.  Inside the body of a hunk
section (move there using ~C-n~), set the mark using ~C-SPC~ and move down
until some added and/or removed lines fall inside the region but not
all of them.  Again type ~s~ to stage.

It is also possible to un-/stage multiple files at once.  Move to a
file section, type ~C-SPC~, move to the next file using ~n~, and then ~s~ to
stage both files.  Note that both the mark and point have to be on the
headings of sibling sections for this to work.  If the region looks
like it does in other buffers, then it doesn't select Magit sections
that can be acted on as a unit.

And then of course you want to commit your changes.  Type ~c~.  This
shows the available commit commands and arguments in a buffer at the
bottom of the frame.  Each command and argument is prefixed with the
key that invokes/sets it.  Do not worry about this for now.  We want
to create a "normal" commit, which is done by typing ~c~ again.

Now two new buffers appear.  One is for writing the commit message,
the other shows a diff with the changes that you are about to
commit.  Write a message and then type ~C-c C-c~ to actually create
the commit.

You probably don't want to push the commit you just created because
you just committed some random changes, but if that is not the case
you could push it by typing ~P~ to show all the available push commands
and arguments and then ~p~ to push to a branch with the same name as the
local branch onto the remote configured as the push-remote.  (If the
push-remote is not configured yet, then you would first be prompted
for the remote to push to.)

So far we have mentioned the commit, push, and log menu commands.
These are probably among the menus you will be using the most, but
many others exist.  To show a menu that lists all other menus (as well
as the various apply commands and some other essential commands), type
~h~.  Try a few.  (Such menus are also called "transient prefix
commands" or just "transients".)

The key bindings in that menu correspond to the bindings in Magit
buffers, including but not limited to the status buffer.  So you could
type ~h d~ to bring up the diff menu, but once you remember that "d"
stands for "diff", you would usually do so by just typing ~d~.  But this
"prefix of prefixes" is useful even once you have memorized all the
bindings, as it can provide easy access to Magit commands from
non-Magit buffers.  The global binding is ~C-x M-g~.

In file visiting buffers ~C-c M-g~ brings up a similar menu featuring
commands that act on just the visited file, see [[*Commands for Buffers
Visiting Files]].

It is not necessary that you do so now, but if you stick with Magit,
then it is highly recommended that you read the next section too.

* Interface Concepts
** Modes and Buffers
*** _

Magit provides several major-modes.  For each of these modes there
usually exists only one buffer per repository.  Separate modes and
thus buffers exist for commits, diffs, logs, and some other things.

Besides these special purpose buffers, there also exists an overview
buffer, called the *status buffer*.  It's usually from this buffer that
the user invokes Git commands, or creates or visits other buffers.

In this manual we often speak about "Magit buffers".  By that we mean
buffers whose major-modes derive from ~magit-mode~.

- Key: M-x magit-toggle-buffer-lock, magit-toggle-buffer-lock

  This command locks the current buffer to its value or if the buffer
  is already locked, then it unlocks it.

  Locking a buffer to its value prevents it from being reused to
  display another value.  The name of a locked buffer contains its
  value, which allows telling it apart from other locked buffers and
  the unlocked buffer.

  Not all Magit buffers can be locked to their values; for example, it
  wouldn't make sense to lock a status buffer.

  There can only be a single unlocked buffer using a certain
  major-mode per repository.  So when a buffer is being unlocked and
  another unlocked buffer already exists for that mode and repository,
  then the former buffer is instead deleted and the latter is
  displayed in its place.

*** Switching Buffers

- Function: magit-display-buffer buffer &optional display-function

  This function is a wrapper around ~display-buffer~ and is used to
  display any Magit buffer.  It displays BUFFER in some window and,
  unlike ~display-buffer~, also selects that window, provided
  ~magit-display-buffer-noselect~ is ~nil~.  It also runs the hooks
  mentioned below.

  If optional DISPLAY-FUNCTION is non-nil, then that is used to
  display the buffer.  Usually that is ~nil~ and the function specified
  by ~magit-display-buffer-function~ is used.

- Variable: magit-display-buffer-noselect

  When this is non-nil, then ~magit-display-buffer~ only displays the
  buffer but forgoes also selecting the window.  This variable should
  not be set globally, it is only intended to be let-bound, by code
  that automatically updates "the other window".  This is used for
  example when the revision buffer is updated when you move inside the
  log buffer.

- User Option: magit-display-buffer-function

  The function specified here is called by ~magit-display-buffer~ with
  one argument, a buffer, to actually display that buffer.  This
  function should call ~display-buffer~ with that buffer as first and a
  list of display actions as second argument.

  Magit provides several functions, listed below, that are suitable
  values for this option.  If you want to use different rules, then a
  good way of doing that is to start with a copy of one of these
  functions and then adjust it to your needs.

  Instead of using a wrapper around ~display-buffer~, that function
  itself can be used here, in which case the display actions have to
  be specified by adding them to ~display-buffer-alist~ instead.

  To learn about display actions, see [[info:elisp#Choosing Window]].

- Function: magit-display-buffer-traditional buffer

  This function is the current default value of the option
  ~magit-display-buffer-function~.  Before that option and this function
  were added, the behavior was hard-coded in many places all over the
  code base but now all the rules are contained in this one function
  (except for the "noselect" special case mentioned above).

- Function: magit-display-buffer-same-window-except-diff-v1

  This function displays most buffers in the currently selected
  window.  If a buffer's mode derives from ~magit-diff-mode~ or
  ~magit-process-mode~, it is displayed in another window.

- Function: magit-display-buffer-fullframe-status-v1

  This function fills the entire frame when displaying a status
  buffer.  Otherwise, it behaves like
  ~magit-display-buffer-traditional~.

- Function: magit-display-buffer-fullframe-status-topleft-v1

  This function fills the entire frame when displaying a status
  buffer.  It behaves like ~magit-display-buffer-fullframe-status-v1~
  except that it displays buffers that derive from ~magit-diff-mode~
  or ~magit-process-mode~ to the top or left of the current buffer
  rather than to the bottom or right.  As a result, Magit buffers tend
  to pop up on the same side as they would if
  ~magit-display-buffer-traditional~ were in use.

- Function: magit-display-buffer-fullcolumn-most-v1

  This function displays most buffers so that they fill the entire
  height of the frame.  However, the buffer is displayed in another
  window if (1) the buffer's mode derives from ~magit-process-mode~,
  or (2) the buffer's mode derives from ~magit-diff-mode~, provided
  that the mode of the current buffer derives from ~magit-log-mode~ or
  ~magit-cherry-mode~.

- User Option: magit-pre-display-buffer-hook

  This hook is run by ~magit-display-buffer~ before displaying the
  buffer.

- Function: magit-save-window-configuration

  This function saves the current window configuration.  Later when
  the buffer is buried, it may be restored by
  ~magit-restore-window-configuration~.

- User Option: magit-post-display-buffer-hook

  This hook is run by ~magit-display-buffer~ after displaying the
  buffer.

- Function: magit-maybe-set-dedicated

  This function remembers if a new window had to be created to display
  the buffer, or whether an existing window was reused.  This
  information is later used by ~magit-mode-quit-window~, to determine
  whether the window should be deleted when its last Magit buffer is
  buried.

*** Naming Buffers

- User Option: magit-generate-buffer-name-function

  The function used to generate the names of Magit buffers.

  Such a function should take the options ~magit-uniquify-buffer-names~
  as well as ~magit-buffer-name-format~ into account.  If it doesn't,
  then should be clearly stated in the doc-string.  And if it supports
  %-sequences beyond those mentioned in the doc-string of the option
  ~magit-buffer-name-format~, then its own doc-string should describe
  the additions.

- Function: magit-generate-buffer-name-default-function mode

  This function returns a buffer name suitable for a buffer whose
  major-mode is MODE and which shows information about the repository
  in which ~default-directory~ is located.

  This function uses ~magit-buffer-name-format~ and supporting all of
  the %-sequences mentioned the documentation of that option.  It also
  respects the option ~magit-uniquify-buffer-names~.

- User Option: magit-buffer-name-format

  The format string used to name Magit buffers.

  At least the following %-sequences are supported:

  - ~%m~

    The name of the major-mode, but with the ~-mode~ suffix removed.

  - ~%M~

    Like ~%m~ but abbreviate ~magit-status-mode~ as ~magit~.

  - ~%v~

    The value the buffer is locked to, in parentheses, or an empty
    string if the buffer is not locked to a value.

  - ~%V~

    Like ~%v~, but the string is prefixed with a space, unless it is an
    empty string.

  - ~%t~

    The top-level directory of the working tree of the repository, or
    if ~magit-uniquify-buffer-names~ is non-nil an abbreviation of that.

  - ~%x~

    If ~magit-uniquify-buffer-names~ is nil "*", otherwise the empty
    string.  Due to limitations of the ~uniquify~ package, buffer names
    must end with the path.

  - ~%T~

    Obsolete, use "%t%x" instead.  Like ~%t~, but append an asterisk if
    and only if ~magit-uniquify-buffer-names~ is nil.

  The value should always contain ~%m~ or ~%M~, ~%v~ or ~%V~, and ~%t~ (or the
  obsolete ~%T~).  If ~magit-uniquify-buffer-names~ is non-nil, then the
  value must end with ~%t~ or ~%t%x~ (or the obsolete ~%T~).  See issue
  #2841.

- User Option: magit-uniquify-buffer-names

  This option controls whether the names of Magit buffers are
  uniquified.  If the names are not being uniquified, then they
  contain the full path of the top-level of the working tree of the
  corresponding repository.  If they are being uniquified, then they
  end with the basename of the top-level, or if that would conflict
  with the name used for other buffers, then the names of all these
  buffers are adjusted until they no longer conflict.

  This is done using the ~uniquify~ package; customize its options to
  control how buffer names are uniquified.

*** Quitting Windows

- Key: q, magit-mode-bury-buffer

  This command buries the current Magit buffer.

  With a prefix argument, it instead kills the buffer.  With a double
  prefix argument, also kills all other Magit buffers associated with
  the current project.

- User Option: magit-bury-buffer-function

  The function used to actually bury or kill the current buffer.

  ~magit-mode-bury-buffer~ calls this function with one argument.  If
  the argument is non-nil, then the function has to kill the current
  buffer.  Otherwise it has to bury it alive.  The default value
  currently is ~magit-restore-window-configuration~.

- Function: magit-restore-window-configuration kill-buffer

  Bury or kill the current buffer using ~quit-window~, which is called
  with KILL-BUFFER as first and the selected window as second
  argument.

  Then restore the window configuration that existed right before the
  current buffer was displayed in the selected frame.  Unfortunately
  that also means that point gets adjusted in all the buffers, which
  are being displayed in the selected frame.

- Function: magit-mode-quit-window kill-buffer

  Bury or kill the current buffer using ~quit-window~, which is called
  with KILL-BUFFER as first and the selected window as second
  argument.

  Then, if the window was originally created to display a Magit buffer
  and the buried buffer was the last remaining Magit buffer that was
  ever displayed in the window, then that is deleted.

*** Automatic Refreshing of Magit Buffers

After running a command which may change the state of the current
repository, the current Magit buffer and the corresponding status
buffer are refreshed. The status buffer can be automatically refreshed
whenever a buffer is saved to a file inside the respective repository
by adding a hook, like so:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (with-eval-after-load 'magit-mode
    (add-hook 'after-save-hook 'magit-after-save-refresh-status t))
#+END_SRC

Automatically refreshing Magit buffers ensures that the displayed
information is up-to-date most of the time but can lead to a
noticeable delay in big repositories.  Other Magit buffers are not
refreshed to keep the delay to a minimum and also because doing so can
sometimes be undesirable.

Buffers can also be refreshed explicitly, which is useful in buffers
that weren't current during the last refresh and after changes were
made to the repository outside of Magit.

- Key: g, magit-refresh

  This command refreshes the current buffer if its major mode derives
  from ~magit-mode~ as well as the corresponding status buffer.

  If the option ~magit-revert-buffers~ calls for it, then it also
  reverts all unmodified buffers that visit files being tracked in the
  current repository.

- Key: G, magit-refresh-all

  This command refreshes all Magit buffers belonging to the current
  repository and also reverts all unmodified buffers that visit files
  being tracked in the current repository.

  The file-visiting buffers are always reverted, even if
  ~magit-revert-buffers~ is nil.

- User Option: magit-refresh-buffer-hook

  This hook is run in each Magit buffer that was refreshed during the
  current refresh - normally the current buffer and the status buffer.

- User Option: magit-refresh-status-buffer

  When this option is non-nil, then the status buffer is automatically
  refreshed after running git for side-effects, in addition to the
  current Magit buffer, which is always refreshed automatically.

  Only set this to nil after exhausting all other options to improve
  performance.

- Function: magit-after-save-refresh-status

  This function is intended to be added to ~after-save-hook~.  After
  doing that the corresponding status buffer is refreshed whenever a
  buffer is saved to a file inside a repository.

  Note that refreshing a Magit buffer is done by re-creating its
  contents from scratch, which can be slow in large repositories.  If
  you are not satisfied with Magit's performance, then you should
  obviously not add this function to that hook.

*** Automatic Saving of File-Visiting Buffers

File-visiting buffers are by default saved at certain points in time.
This doesn't guarantee that Magit buffers are always up-to-date, but,
provided one only edits files by editing them in Emacs and uses only
Magit to interact with Git, one can be fairly confident.  When in
doubt or after outside changes, type ~g~ (~magit-refresh~) to save and
refresh explicitly.

- User Option: magit-save-repository-buffers

  This option controls whether file-visiting buffers are saved before
  certain events.

  If this is non-nil then all modified file-visiting buffers belonging
  to the current repository may be saved before running commands,
  before creating new Magit buffers, and before explicitly refreshing
  such buffers.  If this is ~dontask~ then this is done without user
  intervention.  If it is ~t~ then the user has to confirm each save.

*** Automatic Reverting of File-Visiting Buffers

By default Magit automatically reverts buffers that are visiting files
that are being tracked in a Git repository, after they have changed on
disk.  When using Magit one often changes files on disk by running
Git, i.e. "outside Emacs", making this a rather important feature.

For example, if you discard a change in the status buffer, then that
is done by running ~git apply --reverse ...~, and Emacs considers the
file to have "changed on disk".  If Magit did not automatically revert
the buffer, then you would have to type ~M-x revert-buffer RET RET~ in
the visiting buffer before you could continue making changes.

- User Option: magit-auto-revert-mode

  When this mode is enabled, then buffers that visit tracked files
  are automatically reverted after the visited files change on disk.

- User Option: global-auto-revert-mode

  When this mode is enabled, then any file-visiting buffer is
  automatically reverted after the visited file changes on disk.

  If you like buffers that visit tracked files to be automatically
  reverted, then you might also like any buffer to be reverted, not
  just those visiting tracked files.  If that is the case, then enable
  this mode /instead of/ ~magit-auto-revert-mode~.

- User Option: magit-auto-revert-immediately

  This option controls whether Magit reverts buffers immediately.

  If this is non-nil and either ~global-auto-revert-mode~ or
  ~magit-auto-revert-mode~ is enabled, then Magit immediately reverts
  buffers by explicitly calling ~auto-revert-buffers~ after running Git
  for side-effects.

  If ~auto-revert-use-notify~ is non-nil (and file notifications are
  actually supported), then ~magit-auto-revert-immediately~ does not
  have to be non-nil, because the reverts happen immediately anyway.

  If ~magit-auto-revert-immediately~ and ~auto-revert-use-notify~ are both
  ~nil~, then reverts happen after ~auto-revert-interval~ seconds of user
  inactivity.  That is not desirable.

- User Option: auto-revert-use-notify

  This option controls whether file notification functions should be
  used.  Note that this variable unfortunately defaults to ~t~ even on
  systems on which file notifications cannot be used.

- User Option: magit-auto-revert-tracked-only

  This option controls whether ~magit-auto-revert-mode~ only reverts
  tracked files or all files that are located inside Git repositories,
  including untracked files and files located inside Git's control
  directory.

- User Option: auto-revert-mode

  The global mode ~magit-auto-revert-mode~ works by turning on this
  local mode in the appropriate buffers (but ~global-auto-revert-mode~
  is implemented differently).  You can also turn it on or off
  manually, which might be necessary if Magit does not notice that a
  previously untracked file now is being tracked or vice-versa.

- User Option: auto-revert-stop-on-user-input

  This option controls whether the arrival of user input suspends the
  automatic reverts for ~auto-revert-interval~ seconds.

- User Option: auto-revert-interval

  This option controls how many seconds Emacs waits for before
  resuming suspended reverts.

- User Option: auto-revert-buffer-list-filter

  This option specifies an additional filter used by
  ~auto-revert-buffers~ to determine whether a buffer should be reverted
  or not.

  This option is provided by Magit, which also advises
  ~auto-revert-buffers~ to respect it.  Magit users who do not turn on
  the local mode ~auto-revert-mode~ themselves, are best served by
  setting the value to ~magit-auto-revert-repository-buffer-p~.

  However the default is nil, so as not to disturb users who do use the
  local mode directly.  If you experience delays when running Magit
  commands, then you should consider using one of the predicates
  provided by Magit - especially if you also use Tramp.

  Users who do turn on ~auto-revert-mode~ in buffers in which Magit
  doesn't do that for them, should likely not use any filter.  Users
  who turn on ~global-auto-revert-mode~, do not have to worry about this
  option, because it is disregarded if the global mode is enabled.

- User Option: auto-revert-verbose

  This option controls whether Emacs reports when a buffer has been
  reverted.

The options with the ~auto-revert-~ prefix are located in the Custom
group named ~auto-revert~.  The other, Magit-specific, options are
located in the ~magit~ group.

**** Risk of Reverting Automatically
:PROPERTIES:
:TEXINFO-NODE: t
:END:

For the vast majority of users, automatically reverting file-visiting
buffers after they have changed on disk is harmless.

If a buffer is modified (i.e. it contains changes that haven't been
saved yet), then Emacs will refuse to automatically revert it.  If
you save a previously modified buffer, then that results in what is
seen by Git as an uncommitted change.  Git will then refuse to carry
out any commands that would cause these changes to be lost.  In other
words, if there is anything that could be lost, then either Git or
Emacs will refuse to discard the changes.

However, if you use file-visiting buffers as a sort of ad hoc
"staging area", then the automatic reverts could potentially cause
data loss.  So far I have heard from only one user who uses such a
workflow.

An example: You visit some file in a buffer, edit it, and save the
changes.  Then, outside of Emacs (or at least not using Magit or by
saving the buffer) you change the file on disk again.  At this point
the buffer is the only place where the intermediate version still
exists.  You have saved the changes to disk, but that has since been
overwritten.  Meanwhile Emacs considers the buffer to be unmodified
(because you have not made any changes to it since you last saved it
to the visited file) and therefore would not object to it being
automatically reverted.  At this point an Auto-Revert mode would kick
in.  It would check whether the buffer is modified and since that is
not the case it would revert it.  The intermediate version would be
lost.  (Actually you could still get it back using the ~undo~ command.)

If your workflow depends on Emacs preserving the intermediate version
in the buffer, then you have to disable all Auto-Revert modes.  But
please consider that such a workflow would be dangerous even without
using an Auto-Revert mode, and should therefore be avoided.  If Emacs
crashes or if you quit Emacs by mistake, then you would also lose the
buffer content.  There would be no autosave file still containing the
intermediate version (because that was deleted when you saved the
buffer) and you would not be asked whether you want to save the buffer
(because it isn't modified).

** Sections
*** _

Magit buffers are organized into nested sections, which can be
collapsed and expanded, similar to how sections are handled in Org
mode.  Each section also has a type, and some sections also have a
value.  For each section type there can also be a local keymap, shared
by all sections of that type.

Taking advantage of the section value and type, many commands operate on
the current section, or when the region is active and selects sections
of the same type, all of the selected sections.  Commands that only
make sense for a particular section type (as opposed to just behaving
differently depending on the type) are usually bound in section type
keymaps.

*** Section Movement

To move within a section use the usual keys (~C-p~, ~C-n~, ~C-b~, ~C-f~ etc),
whose global bindings are not shadowed.  To move to another section use
the following commands.

- Key: p, magit-section-backward

  When not at the beginning of a section, then move to the beginning
  of the current section.  At the beginning of a section, instead move
  to the beginning of the previous visible section.

- Key: n, magit-section-forward

  Move to the beginning of the next visible section.

- Key: M-p, magit-section-backward-siblings

  Move to the beginning of the previous sibling section.  If there is
  no previous sibling section, then move to the parent section
  instead.

- Key: M-n, magit-section-forward-siblings

  Move to the beginning of the next sibling section.  If there is no
  next sibling section, then move to the parent section instead.

- Key: ^, magit-section-up

  Move to the beginning of the parent of the current section.

The above commands all call the hook ~magit-section-movement-hook~.
Any of the functions listed below can be used as members of this hook.

You might want to remove some of the functions that Magit adds using
~add-hook~.  In doing so you have to make sure you do not attempt to
remove function that haven't even been added yet, for example:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (with-eval-after-load 'magit-diff
    (remove-hook 'magit-section-movement-hook
                 'magit-hunk-set-window-start))
#+END_SRC

- Variable: magit-section-movement-hook

  This hook is run by all of the above movement commands, after
  arriving at the destination.

- Function: magit-hunk-set-window-start

  This hook function ensures that the beginning of the current section
  is visible, provided it is a ~hunk~ section.  Otherwise, it does
  nothing.

  Loading ~magit-diff~ adds this function to the hook.

- Function: magit-section-set-window-start

  This hook function ensures that the beginning of the current section
  is visible, regardless of the section's type.  If you add this to
  ~magit-section-movement-hook~, then you must remove the hunk-only
  variant in turn.

- Function: magit-log-maybe-show-more-commits

  This hook function only has an effect in log buffers, and ~point~ is
  on the "show more" section.  If that is the case, then it doubles
  the number of commits that are being shown.

  Loading ~magit-log~ adds this function to the hook.

- Function: magit-log-maybe-update-revision-buffer

  When moving inside a log buffer, then this function updates the
  revision buffer, provided it is already being displayed in another
  window of the same frame.

  Loading ~magit-log~ adds this function to the hook.

- Function: magit-log-maybe-update-blob-buffer

  When moving inside a log buffer and another window of the same frame
  displays a blob buffer, then this function instead displays the blob
  buffer for the commit at point in that window.

- Function: magit-status-maybe-update-revision-buffer

  When moving inside a status buffer, then this function updates the
  revision buffer, provided it is already being displayed in another
  window of the same frame.

- Function: magit-status-maybe-update-stash-buffer

  When moving inside a status buffer, then this function updates the
  stash buffer, provided it is already being displayed in another
  window of the same frame.

- Function: magit-status-maybe-update-blob-buffer

  When moving inside a status buffer and another window of the same
  frame displays a blob buffer, then this function instead displays
  the blob buffer for the commit at point in that window.

- Function: magit-stashes-maybe-update-stash-buffer

  When moving inside a buffer listing stashes, then this function
  updates the stash buffer, provided it is already being displayed
  in another window of the same frame.

- User Option: magit-update-other-window-delay

  Delay before automatically updating the other window.

  When moving around in certain buffers, then certain other buffers,
  which are being displayed in another window, may optionally be
  updated to display information about the section at point.

  When holding down a key to move by more than just one section, then
  that would update that buffer for each section on the way.  To
  prevent that, updating the revision buffer is delayed, and this
  option controls for how long.  For optimal experience you might have
  to adjust this delay and/or the keyboard repeat rate and delay of
  your graphical environment or operating system.

*** Section Visibility

Magit provides many commands for changing the visibility of sections,
but all you need to get started are the next two.

- Key: TAB, magit-section-toggle

  Toggle the visibility of the body of the current section.

- Key: C-<tab>, magit-section-cycle

  Cycle the visibility of current section and its children.

- Key: M-<tab>, magit-section-cycle-diffs

  Cycle the visibility of diff-related sections in the current buffer.

- Key: S-<tab>, magit-section-cycle-global

  Cycle the visibility of all sections in the current buffer.

- Key: 1, magit-section-show-level-1
- Key: 2, magit-section-show-level-2
- Key: 3, magit-section-show-level-3
- Key: 4, magit-section-show-level-4

  Show sections surrounding the current section up to level N.

- Key: M-1, magit-section-show-level-1-all
- Key: M-2, magit-section-show-level-2-all
- Key: M-3, magit-section-show-level-3-all
- Key: M-4, magit-section-show-level-4-all

  Show all sections up to level N.

Some functions, which are used to implement the above commands, are
also exposed as commands themselves.  By default no keys are bound to
these commands, as they are generally perceived to be much less
useful.  But your mileage may vary.

- Command: magit-section-show

  Show the body of the current section.

- Command: magit-section-hide

  Hide the body of the current section.

- Command: magit-section-show-headings

  Recursively show headings of children of the current section.  Only
  show the headings.  Previously shown text-only bodies are hidden.

- Command: magit-section-show-children

  Recursively show the bodies of children of the current section.
  With a prefix argument show children down to the level of the
  current section, and hide deeper children.

- Command: magit-section-hide-children

  Recursively hide the bodies of children of the current section.

- Command: magit-section-toggle-children

  Toggle visibility of bodies of children of the current section.

When a buffer is first created then some sections are shown expanded
while others are not.  This is hard coded.  When a buffer is refreshed
then the previous visibility is preserved.  The initial visibility of
certain sections can also be overwritten using the hook
~magit-section-set-visibility-hook~.

- User Option: magit-section-initial-visibility-alist

  This options can be used to override the initial visibility of
  sections.  In the future it will also be used to define the
  defaults, but currently a section's default is still hardcoded.

  The value is an alist.  Each element maps a section type or lineage
  to the initial visibility state for such sections.  The state has to
  be one of ~show~ or ~hide~, or a function that returns one of these
  symbols.  A function is called with the section as the only argument.

  Use the command ~magit-describe-section-briefly~ to determine a
  section's lineage or type.  The vector in the output is the section
  lineage and the type is the first element of that vector.  Wildcards
  can be used, see ~magit-section-match~.

- User Option: magit-section-cache-visibility

  This option controls for which sections the previous visibility
  state should be restored if a section disappears and later appears
  again.  The value is a boolean or a list of section types.  If t,
  then the visibility of all sections is cached.  Otherwise this is
  only done for sections whose type matches one of the listed types.

  This requires that the function ~magit-section-cached-visibility~ is
  a member of ~magit-section-set-visibility-hook~.

- Variable: magit-section-set-visibility-hook

  This hook is run when first creating a buffer and also when
  refreshing an existing buffer, and is used to determine the
  visibility of the section currently being inserted.

  Each function is called with one argument, the section being
  inserted.  It should return ~hide~ or ~show~, or to leave the visibility
  undefined ~nil~.  If no function decides on the visibility and the
  buffer is being refreshed, then the visibility is preserved; or if
  the buffer is being created, then the hard coded default is used.

  Usually this should only be used to set the initial visibility but
  not during refreshes.  If ~magit-insert-section--oldroot~ is non-nil,
  then the buffer is being refreshed and these functions should
  immediately return ~nil~.

- User Option: magit-section-visibility-indicator

  This option controls whether and how to indicate that a section can
  be expanded/collapsed.

  If nil, then no visibility indicators are shown.  Otherwise the
  value has to have one of these two forms:

  - ~(EXPANDABLE-BITMAP . COLLAPSIBLE-BITMAP)~

    Both values have to be variables whose values are fringe
    bitmaps.  In this case every section that can be expanded
    or collapsed gets an indicator in the left fringe.

    To provide extra padding around the indicator, set
    ~left-fringe-width~ in ~magit-mode-hook~, e.g.:

    #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
      (add-hook 'magit-mode-hook (lambda ()
                                   (setq left-fringe-width 20)))
    #+END_SRC

  - ~(STRING . BOOLEAN)~

    In this case STRING (usually an ellipsis) is shown at the end
    of the heading of every collapsed section.  Expanded sections
    get no indicator.  The cdr controls whether the appearance of
    these ellipsis take section highlighting into account.  Doing
    so might potentially have an impact on performance, while not
    doing so is kinda ugly.

*** Section Hooks

Which sections are inserted into certain buffers is controlled with
hooks.  This includes the status and the refs buffers.  For other
buffers, e.g. log and diff buffers, this is not possible.  The command
~magit-describe-section~ can be used to see which hook (if any) was
responsible for inserting the section at point.

For buffers whose sections can be customized by the user, a hook
variable called ~magit-TYPE-sections-hook~ exists.  This hook should be
changed using ~magit-add-section-hook~.  Avoid using ~add-hooks~ or the
Custom interface.

The various available section hook variables are described later in
this manual along with the appropriate "section inserter functions".

- Function: magit-add-section-hook hook function &optional at append local

  Add the function FUNCTION to the value of section hook HOOK.

  Add FUNCTION at the beginning of the hook list unless optional
  APPEND is non-nil, in which case FUNCTION is added at the end.  If
  FUNCTION already is a member then move it to the new location.

  If optional AT is non-nil and a member of the hook list, then add
  FUNCTION next to that instead.  Add before or after AT, or replace
  AT with FUNCTION depending on APPEND.  If APPEND is the symbol
  ~replace~, then replace AT with FUNCTION.  For any other non-nil value
  place FUNCTION right after AT.  If nil, then place FUNCTION right
  before AT.  If FUNCTION already is a member of the list but AT is
  not, then leave FUNCTION where ever it already is.

  If optional LOCAL is non-nil, then modify the hook's buffer-local
  value rather than its global value.  This makes the hook local by
  copying the default value.  That copy is then modified.

  HOOK should be a symbol.  If HOOK is void, it is first set to nil.
  HOOK's value must not be a single hook function.  FUNCTION should
  be a function that takes no arguments and inserts one or multiple
  sections at point, moving point forward.  FUNCTION may choose not
  to insert its section(s), when doing so would not make sense.  It
  should not be abused for other side-effects.

To remove a function from a section hook, use ~remove-hook~.

*** Section Types and Values

Each section has a type, for example ~hunk~, ~file~, and ~commit~.
Instances of certain section types also have a value.  The value of a
section of type ~file~, for example, is a file name.

Users usually do not have to worry about a section's type and value,
but knowing them can be handy at times.

- Key: H, magit-describe-section

  This command shows information about the section at point in a
  separate buffer.

- Command: magit-describe-section-briefly

  This command shows information about the section at point in the
  echo area, as ~#<magit-section VALUE [TYPE PARENT-TYPE...]
  BEGINNING-END>~.

Many commands behave differently depending on the type of the section
at point and/or somehow consume the value of that section.  But that
is only one of the reasons why the same key may do something different,
depending on what section is current.

Additionally for each section type a keymap *might* be defined, named
~magit-TYPE-section-map~.  That keymap is used as text property keymap
of all text belonging to any section of the respective type.  If such
a map does not exist for a certain type, then you can define it
yourself, and it will automatically be used.

*** Section Options

This section describes options that have an effect on more than just a
certain type of sections.  As you can see there are not many of those.

- User Option: magit-section-show-child-count

  Whether to append the number of children to section headings.  This
  only affects sections that could benefit from this information.

** Transient Commands

Many Magit commands are implemented as *transient* commands.  First the
user invokes a *prefix* command, which causes its *infix* arguments and
*suffix* commands to be displayed in the echo area.  The user then
optionally sets some infix arguments and finally invokes one of the
suffix commands.

This is implemented in the library ~transient~.  Earlier Magit releases
used the package ~magit-popup~ and even earlier versions library
~magit-key-mode~.

Transient is documented in [[info:transient]].

- Key: C-c C-c, magit-dispatch

  This transient prefix command binds most of Magit's other prefix
  commands as suffix commands and displays them in a temporary buffer
  until one of them is invoked.  Invoking such a sub-prefix causes the
  suffixes of that command to be bound and displayed instead of those
  of ~magit-dispatch~.

This command is also, or especially, useful outside Magit buffers, so
you should setup a global binding:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (global-set-key (kbd "C-x M-g") 'magit-dispatch)
#+END_SRC

** Transient Arguments and Buffer Variables

The infix arguments of many of Magit's transient prefix commands cease
to have an effect once the ~git~ command that is called with those
arguments has returned.  Commands that create a commit are a good
example for this.  If the user changes the arguments, then that only
affects the next invocation of a suffix command.  If the same
transient prefix command is later invoked again, then the arguments
are initially reset to the default value.  This default value can be
set for the current Emacs session or saved permanently, see
[[info:transient#Saving Values]].  It is also possible to cycle through
previously used sets of arguments using ~M-p~ and ~M-n~, see
[[info:transient#Using History]].

However the infix arguments of many other transient commands continue
to have an effect even after the ~git~ command that was called with
those arguments has returned.  The most important commands like this
are those that display a diff or log in a dedicated buffer.  Their
arguments obviously continue to have an effect for as long as the
respective diff or log is being displayed.  Furthermore the used
arguments are stored in buffer-local variables for future reference.

For commands in the second group it isn't always desirable to reset
their arguments to the global value when the transient prefix command
is invoked again.

As mentioned above, it is possible to cycle through previously used
sets of arguments while a transient popup is visible.  That means that
we could always reset the infix arguments to the default because the
set of arguments that is active in the existing buffer is only a few
~M-p~ away.  Magit can be configured to behave like that, but because I
expect that most users would not find that very convenient, it is not
the default.

Also note that it is possible to change the diff and log arguments
used in the current buffer (including the status buffer, which
contains both diff and log sections) using the respective "refresh"
transient prefix commands on ~D~ and ~L~.  (~d~ and ~l~ on the other hand are
intended to change *what* diff or log is being displayed.  It is
possible to also change *how* the diff or log is being displayed at the
same time, but if you only want to do the latter, then you should use
the refresh variants.)  Because these secondary diff and log transient
prefixes are about *changing* the arguments used in the current buffer,
they *always* start out with the set of arguments that are currently in
effect in that buffer.

Some commands are usually invoked directly even though they can also
be invoked as the suffix of a transient prefix command.  Most
prominently ~magit-show-commit~ is usually invoked by typing ~RET~ while
point is on a commit in a log, but it can also be invoked from the
~magit-diff~ transient prefix.

When such a command is invoked directly, then it is important to reuse
the arguments as specified by the respective buffer-local values,
instead of using the default arguments.  Imagine you press ~RET~ in a
log to display the commit at point in a different buffer and then use
~D~ to change how the diff is displayed in that buffer.  And then you
press ~RET~ on another commit to show that instead and the diff
arguments are reset to the default.  Not cool; so Magit does not do
that by default.

- User Option: magit-prefix-use-buffer-arguments

  This option controls whether the infix arguments initially shown in
  certain transient prefix commands are based on the arguments that
  are currently in effect in the buffer that their suffixes update.

  The ~magit-diff~ and ~magit-log~ transient prefix commands are affected
  by this option.

- User Option: magit-direct-use-buffer-arguments

  This option controls whether certain commands, when invoked directly
  (i.e. not as the suffix of a transient prefix command), use the
  arguments that are currently active in the buffer that they are
  about to update.  The alternative is to use the default value for
  these arguments, which might change the arguments that are used in
  the buffer.

#+TEXINFO: @noindent
Valid values for both of the above options are:

  - ~always~: Always use the set of arguments that is currently active
    in the respective buffer, provided that buffer exists of course.
  - ~selected~ or ~t~: Use the set of arguments from the respective
    buffer, but only if it is displayed in a window of the current
    frame.  This is the default for both variables.
  - ~current~: Use the set of arguments from the respective buffer, but
    only if it is the current buffer.
  - ~never~: Never use the set of arguments from the respective buffer.

#+TEXINFO: @noindent
I am afraid it gets more complicated still:

- The global diff and log arguments are set for each supported mode
  individually.  The diff arguments for example have different values
  in ~magit-diff-mode~, ~magit-revision-mode~, ~magit-merge-preview-mode~
  and ~magit-status-mode~ buffers.  Setting or saving the value for one
  mode does not change the value for other modes.  The history however
  is shared.

- When ~magit-show-commit~ is invoked directly from a log buffer, then
  the file filter is picked up from that buffer, not from the revision
  buffer or the mode's global diff arguments.

- Even though they are suffixes of the diff prefix ~magit-show-commit~
  and ~magit-stash-show~ do not use the diff buffer used by the diff
  commands, instead they use the dedicated revision and stash buffers.

  At the time you invoke the diff prefix it is unknown to Magit which
  of the suffix commands you are going to invoke.  While not certain,
  more often than not users invoke one of the commands that use the
  diff buffer, so the initial infix arguments are those used in that
  buffer.  However if you invoke one of these commands directly, then
  Magit knows that it should use the arguments from the revision resp.
  stash buffer.

- The log prefix also features reflog commands, but these commands do
  not use the log arguments.

- If ~magit-show-refs~ is invoked from a ~magit-refs-mode~ buffer, then it
  acts as a refresh prefix and therefore unconditionally uses the
  buffer's arguments as initial arguments. If it is invoked elsewhere
  with a prefix argument, then it acts as regular prefix and therefore
  respects ~magit-prefix-use-buffer-arguments~.  If it is invoked
  elsewhere without a prefix argument, then it acts as a direct
  command and therefore respects ~magit-direct-use-buffer-arguments~.

** Completion, Confirmation and the Selection
*** Action Confirmation

By default many actions that could potentially lead to data loss have
to be confirmed.  This includes many very common actions, so this can
quickly become annoying.  Many of these actions can be undone and if
you have thought about how to undo certain mistakes, then it should
be safe to disable confirmation for the respective actions.

The option ~magit-no-confirm~ can be used to tell Magit to perform
certain actions without the user having to confirm them.  Note that
while this option can only be used to disable confirmation for a
specific set of actions, the next section explains another way of
telling Magit to ask fewer questions.

- User Option: magit-no-confirm

  The value of this option is a list of symbols, representing actions
  that do not have to be confirmed by the user before being carried
  out.

  By default many potentially dangerous commands ask the user for
  confirmation.  Each of the below symbols stands for an action which,
  when invoked unintentionally or without being fully aware of the
  consequences, could lead to tears.  In many cases there are several
  commands that perform variations of a certain action, so we don't
  use the command names but more generic symbols.

  - Applying changes:

    - ~discard~ Discarding one or more changes (i.e. hunks or the
      complete diff for a file) loses that change, obviously.

    - ~reverse~ Reverting one or more changes can usually be undone by
      reverting the reversion.

    - ~stage-all-changes~, ~unstage-all-changes~ When there are both
      staged and unstaged changes, then un-/staging everything would
      destroy that distinction.  Of course that also applies when
      un-/staging a single change, but then less is lost and one does
      that so often that having to confirm every time would be
      unacceptable.

  - Files:

    - ~delete~ When a file that isn't yet tracked by Git is deleted,
      then it is completely lost, not just the last changes.  Very
      dangerous.

    - ~trash~ Instead of deleting a file it can also be move to the
      system trash.  Obviously much less dangerous than deleting it.

      Also see option ~magit-delete-by-moving-to-trash~.

    - ~resurrect~ A deleted file can easily be resurrected by "deleting"
      the deletion, which is done using the same command that was used
      to delete the same file in the first place.

    - ~untrack~ Untracking a file can be undone by tracking it again.

    - ~rename~ Renaming a file can easily be undone.

  - Sequences:

    - ~reset-bisect~ Aborting (known to Git as "resetting") a bisect
      operation loses all information collected so far.

    - ~abort-rebase~ Aborting a rebase throws away all already modified
      commits, but it's possible to restore those from the reflog.

    - ~abort-merge~ Aborting a merge throws away all conflict
      resolutions which have already been carried out by the user.

    - ~merge-dirty~ Merging with a dirty worktree can make it hard to go
      back to the state before the merge was initiated.

  - References:

    - ~delete-unmerged-branch~ Once a branch has been deleted, it can
      only be restored using low-level recovery tools provided by Git.
      And even then the reflog is gone.  The user always has to
      confirm the deletion of a branch by accepting the default choice
      (or selecting another branch), but when a branch has not been
      merged yet, also make sure the user is aware of that.

    - ~delete-pr-remote~ When deleting a branch that was created from a
      pull-request and if no other branches still exist on that
      remote, then ~magit-branch-delete~ offers to delete the remote
      as well.  This should be safe because it only happens if no
      other refs exist in the remotes namespace, and you can recreate
      the remote if necessary.

    - ~drop-stashes~ Dropping a stash is dangerous because Git stores
      stashes in the reflog.  Once a stash is removed, there is no
      going back without using low-level recovery tools provided by
      Git.  When a single stash is dropped, then the user always has
      to confirm by accepting the default (or selecting another).
      This action only concerns the deletion of multiple stashes at
      once.

  - Publishing:

    - ~set-and-push~ When pushing to the upstream or the push-remote
      and that isn't actually configured yet, then the user can first
      set the target.  If s/he confirms the default too quickly, then
      s/he might end up pushing to the wrong branch and if the remote
      repository is configured to disallow fixing such mistakes, then
      that can be quite embarrassing and annoying.

  - Edit published history:

    Without adding these symbols here, you will be warned before
    editing commits that have already been pushed to one of the
    branches listed in ~magit-published-branches~.

    - ~amend-published~ Affects most commands that amend to "HEAD".

    - ~rebase-published~ Affects commands that perform interactive
      rebases.  This includes commands from the commit transient that
      modify a commit other than "HEAD", namely the various fixup and
      squash variants.

    - ~edit-published~ Affects the commands ~magit-edit-line-commit~ and
      ~magit-diff-edit-hunk-commit~.  These two commands make it quite
      easy to accidentally edit a published commit, so you should
      think twice before configuring them not to ask for confirmation.

    To disable confirmation completely, add all three symbols here or
    set ~magit-published-branches~ to ~nil~.

  - Various:

    - ~kill-process~ There seldom is a reason to kill a process.

  - Global settings:

    Instead of adding all of the above symbols to the value of this
    option, you can also set it to the atom `t', which has the same
    effect as adding all of the above symbols.  Doing that most
    certainly is a bad idea, especially because other symbols might be
    added in the future.  So even if you don't want to be asked for
    confirmation for any of these actions, you are still better of
    adding all of the respective symbols individually.

    When ~magit-wip-before-change-mode~ is enabled, then the following
    actions can be undone fairly easily: ~discard~, ~reverse~,
    ~stage-all-changes~, and ~unstage-all-changes~.  If and only if
    this mode is enabled, then ~safe-with-wip~ has the same effect as
    adding all of these symbols individually.

*** Completion and Confirmation

Many Magit commands ask the user to select from a list of possible
things to act on, while offering the most likely choice as the
default.  For many of these commands the default is the thing at
point, provided that it actually is a valid thing to act on.  For
many commands that act on a branch, the current branch serves as
the default if there is no branch at point.

These commands combine asking for confirmation and asking for a target
to act on into a single action.  The user can confirm the default
target using ~RET~ or abort using ~C-g~.  This is similar to a ~y-or-n-p~
prompt, but the keys to confirm or abort differ.

At the same time the user is also given the opportunity to select
another target, which is useful because for some commands and/or in
some situations you might want to select the action before selecting
the target by moving to it.

However you might find that for some commands you always want to use
the default target, if any, or even that you want the command to act
on the default without requiring any confirmation at all.  The option
~magit-dwim-selection~ can be used to configure certain commands to that
effect.

Note that when the region is active then many commands act on the
things that are selected using a mechanism based on the region, in
many cases after asking for confirmation.  This region-based mechanism
is called the "selection" and is described in detail in the next
section.  When a selection exists that is valid for the invoked
command, then that command never offers to act on something else, and
whether it asks for confirmation is not controlled by this option.

Also note that Magit asks for confirmation of certain actions that are
not coupled with completion (or the selection).  Such dialogs are also
not affected by this option and are described in the previous section.

- User Option: magit-dwim-selection

This option can be used to tell certain commands to use the thing
at point instead of asking the user to select a candidate to act
on, with or without confirmation.

The value has the form ~((COMMAND nil|PROMPT DEFAULT)...)~.

- COMMAND is the command that should not prompt for a choice.
  To have an effect, the command has to use the function
  ~magit-completing-read~ or a utility function which in turn uses
  that function.

- If the command uses ~magit-completing-read~ multiple times, then
  PROMPT can be used to only affect one of these uses.  PROMPT, if
  non-nil, is a regular expression that is used to match against
  the PROMPT argument passed to ~magit-completing-read~.

- DEFAULT specifies how to use the default.  If it is ~t~, then
  the DEFAULT argument passed to ~magit-completing-read~ is used
  without confirmation.  If it is ~ask~, then the user is given
  a chance to abort.  DEFAULT can also be ~nil~, in which case the
  entry has no effect.

*** The Selection

If the region is active, then many Magit commands act on the things
that are selected using a mechanism based on the region instead of one
single thing.  When the region is not active, then these commands act
on the thing at point or read a single thing to act on.  This is
described in the previous section — this section only covers how
multiple things are selected, how that is visualized, and how certain
commands behave when that is the case.

Magit's mechanism for selecting multiple things, or rather sections
that represent these things, is based on the Emacs region, but the
area that Magit considers to be selected is typically larger than the
region and additional restrictions apply.

Magit makes a distinction between a region that qualifies as forming a
valid Magit selection and a region that does not.  If the region does
not qualify, then it is displayed as it is in other Emacs buffers.  If
the region does qualify as a Magit selection, then the selection is
always visualized, while the region itself is only visualized if it
begins and ends on the same line.

For a region to qualify as a Magit selection, it must begin in the
heading of one section and end in the heading of a sibling section.
Note that if the end of the region is at the very beginning of section
heading (i.e. at the very beginning of a line) then that section is
considered to be *inside* the selection.

This is not consistent with how the region is normally treated in
Emacs — if the region ends at the beginning of a line, then that line
is outside the region.  Due to how Magit visualizes the selection, it
should be obvious that this difference exists.

Not every command acts on every valid selection.  Some commands do not
even consider the location of point, others may act on the section at
point but not support acting on the selection, and even commands that
do support the selection of course only do so if it selects things
that they can act on.

This is the main reason why the selection must include the section at
point.  Even if a selection exists, the invoked command may disregard
it, in which case it may act on the current section only.  It is much
safer to only act on the current section but not the other selected
sections than it is to act on the current section *instead* of the
selected sections.  The latter would be much more surprising and if
the current section always is part of the selection, then that cannot
happen.

- Variable: magit-keep-region-overlay

  This variable controls whether the region is visualized as usual
  even when a valid Magit selection or a hunk-internal region exists.
  See the doc-string for more information.

*** The hunk-internal region

Somewhat related to the Magit selection described in the previous
section is the hunk-internal region.

Like the selection, the hunk-internal region is based on the Emacs
region but causes that region to not be visualized as it would in
other Emacs buffers, and includes the line on which the region ends
even if it ends at the very beginning of that line.

Unlike the selection, which is based on a region that must begin in
the heading of one section and ends in the section of a sibling
section, the hunk-internal region must begin inside the *body* of a
hunk section and end in the body of the *same* section.

The hunk-internal region is honored by "apply" commands, which can,
among other targets, act on a hunk.  If the hunk-internal region is
active, then such commands act only on the marked part of the hunk
instead of on the complete hunk.

*** Support for Completion Frameworks

The built-in option ~completing-read-function~ specifies the low-level
function used by ~completing-read~ to ask a user to select from a list
of choices.  Its default value is ~completing-read-default~.
Alternative completion frameworks typically activate themselves by
substituting their own implementation.

Mostly for historic reasons Magit provides a similar option named
~magit-completing-read-function~, which only controls the low-level
function used by ~magit-completing-read~.  This option also makes it
possible to use a different completing mechanism for Magit than for
the rest of Emacs, but doing that is not recommend.

You most likely don't have to customize the magit-specific option to
use an alternative completion framework.  For example, if you enable
~ivy-mode~, then Magit will respect that, and if you enable ~helm-mode~,
then you are done too.

However if you want to use Ido, then ~ido-mode~ won't do the trick.  You
will also have to install the ~ido-completing-read+~ package and use
~magit-ido-completing-read~ as ~magit-completing-read-function~.

- User Option: magit-completing-read-function

  The value of this variable is the low-level function used to perform
  completion by code that uses ~magit-completing-read~ (as opposed to
  the built-in ~completing-read~).

  The default value, ~magit-builtin-completing-read~, is suitable for
  the standard completion mechanism, ~ivy-mode~, and ~helm-mode~ at least.

  The built-in ~completing-read~ and ~completing-read-default~ are *not*
  suitable to be used here.  ~magit-builtin-completing-read~ performs
  some additional work, and any function used in its place has to do
  the same.

- Function: magit-builtin-completing-read prompt choices &optional predicate require-match initial-input hist def

  This function performs completion using the built-in ~completing-read~
  and does some additional magit-specific work.

- Function: magit-ido-completing-read prompt choices &optional predicate require-match initial-input hist def

  This function performs completion using ~ido-completing-read+~ from the
  package by the same name (which you have to explicitly install) and
  does some additional magit-specific work.

  We have to use ~ido-completing-read+~ instead of the
  ~ido-completing-read~ that comes with Ido itself, because the latter,
  while intended as a drop-in replacement, cannot serve that purpose
  because it violates too many of the implicit conventions.

- Function: magit-completing-read prompt choices &optional predicate require-match initial-input hist def fallback

  This is the function that Magit commands use when they need the user
  to select a single thing to act on.  The arguments have the same
  meaning as for ~completing-read~, except for FALLBACK, which is unique
  to this function and is described below.

  Instead of asking the user to choose from a list of possible
  candidates, this function may just return the default specified by
  DEF, with or without requiring user confirmation.  Whether that is
  the case depends on PROMPT, ~this-command~ and ~magit-dwim-selection~.
  See the documentation of the latter for more information.

  If it does read a value in the minibuffer, then this function acts
  similar to ~completing-read~, except for the following:

  - COLLECTION must be a list of choices.  A function is not
    supported.

  - If REQUIRE-MATCH is ~nil~ and the user exits without a choice, then
    ~nil~ is returned instead of an empty string.

  - If REQUIRE-MATCH is non-nil and the users exits without a choice,
    an user-error is raised.

  - FALLBACK specifies a secondary default that is only used if the
    primary default DEF is ~nil~.  The secondary default is not subject
    to ~magit-dwim-selection~ — if DEF is ~nil~ but FALLBACK is not, then
    this function always asks the user to choose a candidate, just as
    if both defaults were ~nil~.

  - ": " is appended to PROMPT.

  - PROMPT is modified to end with \" (default DEF|FALLBACK): \"
    provided that DEF or FALLBACK is non-nil, that neither ~ivy-mode~
    nor ~helm-mode~ is enabled, and that
    ~magit-completing-read-function~ is set to its default value of
    ~magit-builtin-completing-read~.

*** Additional Completion Options

- User Option: magit-list-refs-sortby

  For many commands that read a ref or refs from the user, the value
  of this option can be used to control the order of the refs.  Valid
  values include any key accepted by the ~--sort~ flag of ~git
  for-each-ref~.  By default, refs are sorted alphabetically by their
  full name (e.g., "refs/heads/master").

** Running Git
*** Viewing Git Output

Magit runs Git either for side-effects (e.g. when pushing) or to get
some value (e.g. the name of the current branch).

When Git is run for side-effects, the process output is logged in a
per-repository log buffer, which can be consulted using the
~magit-process~ command when things don't go as expected.

The output/errors for up to `magit-process-log-max' Git commands are
retained.

- Key: $, magit-process

  This commands displays the process buffer for the current
  repository.

Inside that buffer, the usual key bindings for navigating and showing
sections are available.  There is one additional command.

- Key: k, magit-process-kill

  This command kills the process represented by the section at point.

- Variable: magit-git-debug

  This option controls whether additional reporting of git errors is
  enabled.

  Magit basically calls git for one of these two reasons: for
  side-effects or to do something with its standard output.

  When git is run for side-effects then its output, including error
  messages, go into the process buffer which is shown when using ~$~.

  When git's output is consumed in some way, then it would be too
  expensive to also insert it into this buffer, but when this
  option is non-nil and git returns with a non-zero exit status,
  then at least its standard error is inserted into this buffer.

  This is only intended for debugging purposes.  Do not enable this
  permanently, that would negatively affect performance.

- Variable: magit-process-extreme-logging

  This option controls whether ~magit-process-file~ logs to the
  ~*Messages*~ buffer.

  Only intended for temporary use when you try to figure out how
  Magit uses Git behind the scene.  Output that normally goes to
  the magit-process buffer continues to go there.  Not all output
  goes to either of these two buffers.

*** Git Process Status

When a Git process is running for side-effects, Magit displays an
indicator in the mode line, using the ~magit-mode-line-process~ face.

If the Git process exits successfully, the process indicator is
removed from the mode line immediately.

In the case of a Git error, the process indicator is not removed, but
is instead highlighted with the ~magit-mode-line-process-error~ face,
and the error details from the process buffer are provided as a
tooltip for mouse users.  This error indicator persists in the mode
line until the next magit buffer refresh.

If you do not wish process errors to be indicated in the mode line,
customize the ~magit-process-display-mode-line-error~ user option.

Process errors are additionally indicated at the top of the status
buffer.

*** Running Git Manually

While Magit provides many Emacs commands to interact with Git, it does
not cover everything.  In those cases your existing Git knowledge will
come in handy.  Magit provides some commands for running arbitrary Git
commands by typing them into the minibuffer, instead of having to
switch to a shell.

- Key: !, magit-run

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  and displays them in a temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: ! !, magit-git-command-topdir

  This command reads a command from the user and executes it in the
  top-level directory of the current working tree.

  The string "git " is used as initial input when prompting the user
  for the command.  It can be removed to run another command.

- Key: :, magit-git-command
- Key: ! p, magit-git-command

  This command reads a command from the user and executes it in
  ~default-directory~.  With a prefix argument the command is executed
  in the top-level directory of the current working tree instead.

  The string "git " is used as initial input when prompting the user
  for the command.  It can be removed to run another command.

- Key: ! s, magit-shell-command-topdir

  This command reads a command from the user and executes it in the
  top-level directory of the current working tree.

- Key: ! S, magit-shell-command

  This command reads a command from the user and executes it in
  ~default-directory~.  With a prefix argument the command is executed
  in the top-level directory of the current working tree instead.

- User Option: magit-shell-command-verbose-prompt

  Whether the prompt, used by the above commands when reading a
  shell command, shows the directory in which it will be run.

These suffix commands start external gui tools.

- Key: ! k, magit-run-gitk

  This command runs ~gitk~ in the current repository.

- Key: ! a, magit-run-gitk-all

  This command runs ~gitk --all~ in the current repository.

- Key: ! b, magit-run-gitk-branches

  This command runs ~gitk --branches~ in the current repository.

- Key: ! g, magit-run-git-gui

  This command runs ~git gui~ in the current repository.

*** Git Executable

When Magit calls Git, then it may do so using the absolute path to the
~git~ executable, or using just its name.

When running ~git~ locally and the ~system-type~ is ~windows-nt~ (any
Windows version) or ~darwin~ (macOS) then ~magit-git-executable~ is set
to an absolute path when Magit is loaded.

On Windows it is necessary to use an absolute path because Git comes
with several wrapper scripts for the actual ~git~ binary, which are also
placed on ~$PATH~, and using one of these wrappers instead of the binary
would degrade performance horribly.  For some macOS users using just
the name of the executable also performs horribly, so we avoid doing
that on that platform as well.  On other platforms, using just the
name seems to work just fine.

Using an absolute path when running ~git~ on a remote machine over
Tramp, would be problematic to use an absolute path that is suitable
on the local machine, so a separate option is used to control the name
or path that is used on remote machines.

- User Option: magit-git-executable

  The ~git~ executable used by Magit on the local host.  This should be
  either the absolute path to the executable, or the string "git" to
  let Emacs find the executable itself, using the standard mechanism
  for doing such things.

- User Option: magit-remote-git-executable

  The ~git~ executable used by Magit on remote machines over Tramp.
  Normally this should be just the string "git".  Consider customizing
  ~tramp-remote-path~ instead of this option.

If Emacs is unable to find the correct executable, then you can
work around that by explicitly setting the value of one of these two
options.  Doing that should be considered a kludge; it is better to
make sure that the order in ~exec-path~ or ~tramp-remote-path~ is correct.

Note that ~exec-path~ is set based on the value of the ~PATH~ environment
variable that is in effect when Emacs is started.  If you set ~PATH~ in
your shell's init files, then that only has an effect on Emacs if you
start it from that shell (because the environment of a process is only
passed to its child processes, not to arbitrary other processes).  If
that is not how you start Emacs, then the ~exec-path-from-shell~ package
can help; though honestly I consider that a kludge too.

The command ~magit-debug-git-executable~ can be useful to find out where
Emacs is searching for ~git~.

- Key: M-x magit-debug-git-executable, magit-debug-git-executable

  This command displays a buffer with information about
  ~magit-git-executable~ and  ~magit-remote-git-executable~.

- Key: M-x magit-version, magit-version

  This command shows the currently used versions of Magit, Git, and
  Emacs in the echo area.  Non-interactively this just returns the
  Magit version.

*** Global Git Arguments

- User Option: magit-git-global-arguments

  The arguments set here are used every time the git executable is run
  as a subprocess.  They are placed right after the executable itself
  and before the git command - as in ~git HERE... COMMAND REST~.  For
  valid arguments see [[man:git]]

  Be careful what you add here, especially if you are using Tramp to
  connect to servers with ancient Git versions.  Never remove anything
  that is part of the default value, unless you really know what you
  are doing.  And think very hard before adding something; it will be
  used every time Magit runs Git for any purpose.

* Inspecting
** _

The functionality provided by Magit can be roughly divided into three
groups: inspecting existing data, manipulating existing data or adding
new data, and transferring data.  Of course that is a rather crude
distinction that often falls short, but it's more useful than no
distinction at all.  This section is concerned with inspecting data,
the next two with manipulating and transferring it.  Then follows a
section about miscellaneous functionality, which cannot easily be fit
into this distinction.

Of course other distinctions make sense too, e.g. Git's distinction
between porcelain and plumbing commands, which for the most part is
equivalent to Emacs' distinction between interactive commands and
non-interactive functions.  All of the sections mentioned before are
mainly concerned with the porcelain -- Magit's plumbing layer is
described later.

** Status Buffer
*** _

While other Magit buffers contain e.g. one particular diff or one
particular log, the status buffer contains the diffs for staged and
unstaged changes, logs for unpushed and unpulled commits, lists of
stashes and untracked files, and information related to the current
branch.

During certain incomplete operations -- for example when a merge
resulted in a conflict -- additional information is displayed that
helps proceeding with or aborting the operation.

The command ~magit-status~ displays the status buffer belonging to the
current repository in another window.  This command is used so often
that it should be bound globally.  We recommend using ~C-x g~:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (global-set-key (kbd "C-x g") 'magit-status)
#+END_SRC

- Key: C-x g, magit-status

  When invoked from within an existing Git repository, then this
  command shows the status of that repository in a buffer.

  If the current directory isn't located within a Git repository, then
  this command prompts for an existing repository or an arbitrary
  directory, depending on the option ~magit-repository-directories~, and
  the status for the selected repository is shown instead.

  - If that option specifies any existing repositories, then the user
    is asked to select one of them.

  - Otherwise the user is asked to select an arbitrary directory using
    regular file-name completion.  If the selected directory is the
    top-level directory of an existing working tree, then the status
    buffer for that is shown.

  - Otherwise the user is offered to initialize the selected directory
    as a new repository.  After creating the repository its status
    buffer is shown.

  These fallback behaviors can also be forced using one or more
  prefix arguments:

  - With two prefix arguments (or more precisely a numeric prefix
    value of 16 or greater) an arbitrary directory is read, which is
    then acted on as described above.  The same could be accomplished
    using the command ~magit-init~.

  - With a single prefix argument an existing repository is read from
    the user, or if no repository can be found based on the value of
    ~magit-repository-directories~, then the behavior is the same as with
    two prefix arguments.

- User Option: magit-repository-directories

  List of directories that are Git repositories or contain Git
  repositories.

  Each element has the form ~(DIRECTORY . DEPTH)~.  DIRECTORY has to be
  a directory or a directory file-name, a string.  DEPTH, an integer,
  specifies the maximum depth to look for Git repositories.  If it is
  0, then only add DIRECTORY itself.

  This option controls which repositories are being listed by
  ~magit-list-repositories~.  It also affects ~magit-status~ (which see)
  in potentially surprising ways (see above).

- Command: magit-status-quick

  This command is an alternative to ~magit-status~ that usually avoids
  refreshing the status buffer.

  If the status buffer of the current Git repository exists but isn't
  being displayed in the selected frame, then it is displayed without
  being refreshed.

  If the status buffer is being displayed in the selected frame,
  then this command refreshes it.

  Prefix arguments have the same meaning as for ~magit-status~,
  and additionally cause the buffer to be refresh.

  To use this command add this to your init file:

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-x g") 'magit-status-quick).
  #+END_SRC

  If you do that and then for once want to redisplay the buffer and
  also immediately refresh it, then type ~C-x g~ followed by ~g~.

  A possible alternative command is ~magit-display-repository-buffer~.
  It supports displaying any existing Magit buffer that belongs to the
  current repository; not just the status buffer.

- Command: ido-enter-magit-status

  From an Ido prompt used to open a file, instead drop into
  ~magit-status~.  This is similar to ~ido-magic-delete-char~, which,
  despite its name, usually causes a Dired buffer to be created.

  To make this command available, use something like:

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (add-hook 'ido-setup-hook
              (lambda ()
                (define-key ido-completion-map
                  (kbd \"C-x g\") 'ido-enter-magit-status)))
  #+END_SRC

  Starting with Emacs 25.1 the Ido keymaps are defined just once
  instead of every time Ido is invoked, so now you can modify it
  like pretty much every other keymap:

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (define-key ido-common-completion-map
      (kbd \"C-x g\") 'ido-enter-magit-status)
  #+END_SRC

*** Status Sections

The contents of status buffers is controlled using the hook
~magit-status-sections-hook~.  See [[*Section Hooks]] to learn about such
hooks and how to customize them.

- User Option: magit-status-sections-hook

  Hook run to insert sections into a status buffer.

The first function on that hook by default is
~magit-insert-status-headers~; it is described in the next section.
By default the following functions are also members of that hook:

- Function: magit-insert-merge-log

  Insert section for the on-going merge.  Display the heads that are
  being merged.  If no merge is in progress, do nothing.

- Function: magit-insert-rebase-sequence

  Insert section for the on-going rebase sequence.
  If no such sequence is in progress, do nothing.

- Function: magit-insert-am-sequence

  Insert section for the on-going patch applying sequence.
  If no such sequence is in progress, do nothing.

- Function: magit-insert-sequencer-sequence

  Insert section for the on-going cherry-pick or revert sequence.
  If no such sequence is in progress, do nothing.

- Function: magit-insert-bisect-output

  While bisecting, insert section with output from ~git bisect~.

- Function: magit-insert-bisect-rest

  While bisecting, insert section visualizing the bisect state.

- Function: magit-insert-bisect-log

  While bisecting, insert section logging bisect progress.

- Function: magit-insert-untracked-files

  Maybe insert a list or tree of untracked files.

  Do so depending on the value of ~status.showUntrackedFiles~.  Note
  that even if the value is ~all~, Magit still initially only shows
  directories.  But the directory sections can then be expanded using
  ~TAB~.

- Function: magit-insert-unstaged-changes

  Insert section showing unstaged changes.

- Function: magit-insert-staged-changes

  Insert section showing staged changes.

- Function: magit-insert-stashes &optional ref heading

  Insert the ~stashes~ section showing reflog for "refs/stash".
  If optional REF is non-nil show reflog for that instead.
  If optional HEADING is non-nil use that as section heading
  instead of "Stashes:".

- Function: magit-insert-unpulled-from-upstream

  Insert section showing commits that haven't been pulled from the
  upstream branch yet.

- Function: magit-insert-unpulled-from-pushremote

  Insert section showing commits that haven't been pulled from the
  push-remote branch yet.

- Function: magit-insert-unpushed-to-upstream

  Insert section showing commits that haven't been pushed to the
  upstream yet.

- Function: magit-insert-unpushed-to-pushremote

  Insert section showing commits that haven't been pushed to the
  push-remote yet.

The following functions can also be added to the above hook:

- Function: magit-insert-tracked-files

  Insert a tree of tracked files.

- Function: magit-insert-ignored-files

  Insert a tree of ignored files.
  Its possible to limit the logs in the current buffer to a certain
  directory using ~D = f <DIRECTORY> RET g~.  If you do that, then that
  that also affects this command.

  The log filter can be used to limit to multiple files.  In that case
  this function only respects the first of the files and only if it is
  a directory.

- Function: magit-insert-skip-worktree-files

  Insert a tree of skip-worktree files.
  If the first element of ~magit-buffer-diff-files~ is a
  directory, then limit the list to files below that.  The value
  of that variable can be set using ~D -- DIRECTORY RET g~.

- Function: magit-insert-assumed-unchanged-files

  Insert a tree of files that are assumed to be unchanged.
  If the first element of ~magit-buffer-diff-files~ is a
  directory, then limit the list to files below that.  The value
  of that variable can be set using ~D -- DIRECTORY RET g~.

- Function: magit-insert-unpulled-or-recent-commits

  Insert section showing unpulled or recent commits.
  If an upstream is configured for the current branch and it is
  ahead of the current branch, then show the missing commits.
  Otherwise, show the last ~magit-log-section-commit-count~
  commits.

- Function: magit-insert-recent-commits

  Insert section showing the last ~magit-log-section-commit-count~
  commits.

- User Option: magit-log-section-commit-count

  How many recent commits ~magit-insert-recent-commits~ and
  ~magit-insert-unpulled-or-recent-commits~ (provided there are no
  unpulled commits) show.

- Function: magit-insert-unpulled-cherries

  Insert section showing unpulled commits.
  Like ~magit-insert-unpulled-commits~ but prefix each commit
  that has not been applied yet (i.e. a commit with a patch-id
  not shared with any local commit) with "+", and all others
  with "-".

- Function: magit-insert-unpushed-cherries

  Insert section showing unpushed commits.
  Like ~magit-insert-unpushed-commits~ but prefix each commit
  which has not been applied to upstream yet (i.e. a commit with
  a patch-id not shared with any upstream commit) with "+" and
  all others with "-".

See [[*References Buffer]] for some more section inserters, which could be
used here.

*** Status Header Sections

The contents of status buffers is controlled using the hook
~magit-status-sections-hook~ (see [[*Status Sections]]).

By default ~magit-insert-status-headers~ is the first member of that
hook variable.

- Function: magit-insert-status-headers

  Insert headers sections appropriate for ~magit-status-mode~ buffers.
  The sections are inserted by running the functions on the hook
  ~magit-status-headers-hook~.

- User Option: magit-status-headers-hook

  Hook run to insert headers sections into the status buffer.

  This hook is run by ~magit-insert-status-headers~, which in turn has
  to be a member of ~magit-status-sections-hook~ to be used at all.

By default the following functions are members of the above hook:

- Function: magit-insert-error-header

  Insert a header line showing the message about the Git error that
  just occurred.

  This function is only aware of the last error that occur when Git
  was run for side-effects.  If, for example, an error occurs while
  generating a diff, then that error won't be inserted.  Refreshing
  the status buffer causes this section to disappear again.

- Function: magit-insert-diff-filter-header

  Insert a header line showing the effective diff filters.

- Function: magit-insert-head-branch-header

  Insert a header line about the current branch or detached ~HEAD~.

- Function: magit-insert-upstream-branch-header

  Insert a header line about the branch that is usually pulled into
  the current branch.

- Function: magit-insert-push-branch-header

  Insert a header line about the branch that the current branch is
  usually pushed to.

- Function: magit-insert-tags-header

  Insert a header line about the current and/or next tag, along with
  the number of commits between the tag and ~HEAD~.

The following functions can also be added to the above hook:

- Function: magit-insert-repo-header

  Insert a header line showing the path to the repository top-level.

- Function: magit-insert-remote-header

  Insert a header line about the remote of the current branch.

  If no remote is configured for the current branch, then fall back
  showing the "origin" remote, or if that does not exist the first
  remote in alphabetic order.

- Function: magit-insert-user-header

  Insert a header line about the current user.

*** Status Module Sections

The contents of status buffers is controlled using the hook
~magit-status-sections-hook~ (see [[*Status Sections]]).

By default ~magit-insert-modules~ is /not/ a member of that hook
variable.

- Function: magit-insert-modules

  Insert submodule sections.

  Hook ~magit-module-sections-hook~ controls which module sections are
  inserted, and option ~magit-module-sections-nested~ controls whether
  they are wrapped in an additional section.

- User Option: magit-module-sections-hook

  Hook run by ~magit-insert-modules~.

- User Option: magit-module-sections-nested

  This option controls whether ~magit-insert-modules~ wraps inserted
  sections in an additional section.

  If this is non-nil, then only a single top-level section is inserted.
  If it is nil, then all sections listed in ~magit-module-sections-hook~
  become top-level sections.

- Function: magit-insert-modules-overview

  Insert sections for all submodules.  For each section insert the
  path, the branch, and the output of ~git describe --tags~,
  or, failing that, the abbreviated HEAD commit hash.

  Press ~RET~ on such a submodule section to show its own status buffer.
  Press ~RET~ on the "Modules" section to display a list of submodules
  in a separate buffer.  This shows additional information not
  displayed in the super-repository's status buffer.

- Function: magit-insert-modules-unpulled-from-upstream

  Insert sections for modules that haven't been pulled from the
  upstream yet.  These sections can be expanded to show the respective
  commits.

- Function: magit-insert-modules-unpulled-from-pushremote

  Insert sections for modules that haven't been pulled from the
  push-remote yet.  These sections can be expanded to show the
  respective commits.

- Function: magit-insert-modules-unpushed-to-upstream

  Insert sections for modules that haven't been pushed to the upstream
  yet.  These sections can be expanded to show the respective commits.

- Function: magit-insert-modules-unpushed-to-pushremote

  Insert sections for modules that haven't been pushed to the
  push-remote yet.  These sections can be expanded to show the
  respective commits.

*** Status Options

- User Option: magit-status-refresh-hook

  Hook run after a status buffer has been refreshed.

- User Option: magit-status-margin

  This option specifies whether the margin is initially shown in
  Magit-Status mode buffers and how it is formatted.

  The value has the form ~(INIT STYLE WIDTH AUTHOR AUTHOR-WIDTH)~.

  - If INIT is non-nil, then the margin is shown initially.
  - STYLE controls how to format the author or committer date.  It can
    be one of ~age~ (to show the age of the commit), ~age-abbreviated~ (to
    abbreviate the time unit to a character), or a string (suitable
    for ~format-time-string~) to show the actual date.  Option
    ~magit-log-margin-show-committer-date~ controls which date is being
    displayed.
  - WIDTH controls the width of the margin.  This exists for forward
    compatibility and currently the value should not be changed.
  - AUTHOR controls whether the name of the author is also shown by
    default.
  - AUTHOR-WIDTH has to be an integer.  When the name of the author
    is shown, then this specifies how much space is used to do so.

Also see the proceeding section for more options concerning status
buffers.

** Repository List

- Command: magit-list-repositories

  This command displays a list of repositories in a separate buffer.

  The options ~magit-repository-directories~ and
  ~magit-repository-directories-depth~ control which repositories are
  displayed.

- User Option: magit-repolist-columns

  This option controls what columns are displayed by the command
  ~magit-list-repositories~ and how they are displayed.

  Each element has the form ~(HEADER WIDTH FORMAT PROPS)~.

  HEADER is the string displayed in the header.  WIDTH is the width of
  the column.  FORMAT is a function that is called with one argument,
  the repository identification (usually its basename), and with
  ~default-directory~ bound to the toplevel of its working tree.  It
  has to return a string to be inserted or nil.  PROPS is an alist
  that supports the keys ~:right-align~ and ~:pad-right~.

  You may wish to display a range of numeric columns using just one
  character per column and without any padding between columns, in
  which case you should use an appropriate HEADER, set WIDTH to 1,
  and set ~:pad-right~ to 0.  ~+~ is substituted for numbers higher
  than 9.

The following functions can be added to the above option:

- Function: magit-repolist-column-ident

  This function inserts the identification of the repository.  Usually
  this is just its basename.

- Function: magit-repolist-column-path

  This function inserts the absolute path of the repository.

- Function: magit-repolist-column-version

  This function inserts a description of the repository's ~HEAD~ revision.

- Function: magit-repolist-column-branch

  This function inserts the name of the current branch.

- Function: magit-repolist-column-upstream

  This function inserts the name of the upstream branch of the current
  branch.

- Function: magit-repolist-column-branches

  This function inserts the number of branches.

- Function: magit-repolist-column-stashes

  This function inserts the number of stashes.

- Function: magit-repolist-column-flag

  This function inserts a flag as specified by
  ~magit-repolist-column-flag-alist~.

  By default this indicates whether there are uncommitted changes.

  - ~N~ if there is at least one untracked file.
  - ~U~ if there is at least one unstaged file.
  - ~S~ if there is at least one staged file.

  Only the first one of these that applies is shown.

- Function: magit-repolist-column-unpulled-from-upstream

  This function inserts the number of upstream commits not in the
  current branch.

- Function: magit-repolist-column-unpulled-from-pushremote

  This function inserts the number of commits in the push branch but
  not the current branch.

- Function: magit-repolist-column-unpushed-to-upstream

  This function inserts the number of commits in the current branch
  but not its upstream.

- Function: magit-repolist-column-unpushed-to-pushremote

  This function inserts the number of commits in the current branch
  but not its push branch.

** Logging
*** _

The status buffer contains logs for the unpushed and unpulled commits,
but that obviously isn't enough.  The transient prefix command
~magit-log~, on ~l~, features several suffix commands, which show a
specific log in a separate log buffer.

Like other transient prefix commands, ~magit-log~ also features several
infix arguments that can be changed before invoking one of the suffix
commands.  However, in the case of the log transient, these arguments
may be taken from those currently in use in the current repository's
log buffer, depending on the value of ~magit-prefix-use-buffer-arguments~
(see [[*Transient Arguments and Buffer Variables]]).

For information about the various arguments, see [[man:git-log]]
The switch ~++order=VALUE~ is converted to one of ~--author-date-order~,
~--date-order~, or ~--topo-order~ before being passed to ~git log~.

The log transient also features several reflog commands.  See [[*Reflog]].

- Key: l, magit-log

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: l l, magit-log-current

  Show log for the current branch.  When ~HEAD~ is detached or with a
  prefix argument, show log for one or more revs read from the
  minibuffer.

- Key: l o, magit-log-other

  Show log for one or more revs read from the minibuffer.  The user
  can input any revision or revisions separated by a space, or even
  ranges, but only branches, tags, and a representation of the
  commit at point are available as completion candidates.

- Key: l h, magit-log-head

  Show log for ~HEAD~.

- Key: l L, magit-log-branches

  Show log for all local branches and ~HEAD~.

- Key: l b, magit-log-all-branches

  Show log for all local and remote branches and ~HEAD~.

- Key: l a, magit-log-all

  Show log for all references and ~HEAD~.

Two additional commands that show the log for the file or blob that is
being visited in the current buffer exists, see [[*Commands for Buffers
Visiting Files]].  The command ~magit-cherry~ also shows a log, see
[[*Cherries]].

*** Refreshing Logs

The transient prefix command ~magit-log-refresh~, on ~L~, can be used to
change the log arguments used in the current buffer, without changing
which log is shown.  This works in dedicated log buffers, but also in
the status buffer.

- Key: L, magit-log-refresh

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: L g, magit-log-refresh

  This suffix command sets the local log arguments for the current
  buffer.

- Key: L s, magit-log-set-default-arguments

  This suffix command sets the default log arguments for buffers of
  the same type as that of the current buffer.  Other existing buffers
  of the same type are not affected because their local values have
  already been initialized.

- Key: L w, magit-log-save-default-arguments

  This suffix command sets the default log arguments for buffers of
  the same type as that of the current buffer, and saves the value for
  future sessions.  Other existing buffers of the same type are not
  affected because their local values have already been initialized.

- Key: L t, magit-toggle-margin

  Show or hide the margin.

*** Log Buffer

- Key: L, magit-log-refresh

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

  See [[*Refreshing Logs]].

- Key: q, magit-log-bury-buffer

  Bury the current buffer or the revision buffer in the same frame.
  Like ~magit-mode-bury-buffer~ (which see) but with a negative prefix
  argument instead bury the revision buffer, provided it is displayed
  in the current frame.

- Key: C-c C-b, magit-go-backward

  Move backward in current buffer's history.

- Key: C-c C-f, magit-go-forward

  Move forward in current buffer's history.

- Key: C-c C-n, magit-log-move-to-parent

  Move to a parent of the current commit.  By default, this is the
  first parent, but a numeric prefix can be used to specify another
  parent.

- Key: j, magit-log-move-to-revision

  Read a revision and move to it in current log buffer.

  If the chosen reference or revision isn't being displayed in
  the current log buffer, then inform the user about that and do
  nothing else.

  If invoked outside any log buffer, then display the log buffer
  of the current repository first; creating it if necessary.

- Key: SPC, magit-diff-show-or-scroll-up

  Update the commit or diff buffer for the thing at point.

  Either show the commit or stash at point in the appropriate buffer,
  or if that buffer is already being displayed in the current frame
  and contains information about that commit or stash, then instead
  scroll the buffer up.  If there is no commit or stash at point, then
  prompt for a commit.

- Key: DEL, magit-diff-show-or-scroll-down

  Update the commit or diff buffer for the thing at point.

  Either show the commit or stash at point in the appropriate buffer,
  or if that buffer is already being displayed in the current frame
  and contains information about that commit or stash, then instead
  scroll the buffer down.  If there is no commit or stash at point,
  then prompt for a commit.

- Key: =, magit-log-toggle-commit-limit

  Toggle the number of commits the current log buffer is limited to.
  If the number of commits is currently limited, then remove that
  limit.  Otherwise set it to 256.

- Key: +, magit-log-double-commit-limit

  Double the number of commits the current log buffer is limited to.

- Key: -, magit-log-half-commit-limit

  Half the number of commits the current log buffer is limited to.

- User Option: magit-log-auto-more

  Insert more log entries automatically when moving past the last
  entry.  Only considered when moving past the last entry with
  ~magit-goto-*-section~ commands.

- User Option: magit-log-show-refname-after-summary

  Whether to show the refnames after the commit summaries.  This is
  useful if you use really long branch names.

Magit displays references in logs a bit differently from how Git does
it.

Local branches are blue and remote branches are green.  Of course that
depends on the used theme, as do the colors used for other types of
references.  The current branch has a box around it, as do remote
branches that are their respective remote's ~HEAD~ branch.

If a local branch and its push-target point at the same commit, then
their names are combined to preserve space and to make that
relationship visible.  For example:

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  origin/feature
  [green][blue-]

  instead of

  feature origin/feature
  [blue-] [green-------]
#+END_EXAMPLE

Also note that while the transient features the ~--show-signature~
argument, that won't actually be used when enabled, because Magit
defaults to use just one line per commit.  Instead the commit
colorized to indicate the validity of the signed commit object,
using the faces named ~magit-signature-*~ (which see).

For a description of ~magit-log-margin~ see [[*Log Margin]].

*** Log Margin

In buffers which show one or more logs, it is possible to show
additional information about each commit in the margin.  The options
used to configure the margin are named ~magit-INFIX-margin~, where INFIX
is the same as in the respective major-mode ~magit-INFIX-mode~.  In
regular log buffers that would be ~magit-log-margin~.

- User Option: magit-log-margin

  This option specifies whether the margin is initially shown in
  Magit-Log mode buffers and how it is formatted.

  The value has the form ~(INIT STYLE WIDTH AUTHOR AUTHOR-WIDTH)~.

  - If INIT is non-nil, then the margin is shown initially.
  - STYLE controls how to format the author or committer date.  It can
    be one of ~age~ (to show the age of the commit), ~age-abbreviated~ (to
    abbreviate the time unit to a character), or a string (suitable
    for ~format-time-string~) to show the actual date.  Option
    ~magit-log-margin-show-committer-date~ controls which date is being
    displayed.
  - WIDTH controls the width of the margin.  This exists for forward
    compatibility and currently the value should not be changed.
  - AUTHOR controls whether the name of the author is also shown by
    default.
  - AUTHOR-WIDTH has to be an integer.  When the name of the author
    is shown, then this specifies how much space is used to do so.

You can change the STYLE and AUTHOR-WIDTH of all ~magit-INFIX-margin~
options to the same values by customizing ~magit-log-margin~ *before*
~magit~ is loaded.  If you do that, then the respective values for the
other options will default to what you have set for that variable.
Likewise if you set INIT in ~magit-log-margin~ to ~nil~, then that is used
in the default of all other options.  But setting it to ~t~, i.e.
re-enforcing the default for that option, does not carry to other
options.

- User Option: magit-log-margin-show-committer-date

  This option specifies whether to show the committer date in the
  margin.  This option only controls whether the committer date is
  displayed instead of the author date.  Whether some date is
  displayed in the margin and whether the margin is displayed at all
  is controlled by other options.

- Key: L, magit-margin-settings

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands,
  each of which changes the appearance of the margin in some way.

In some buffers that support the margin, ~L~ is instead bound to
~magit-log-refresh~, but that transient features the same commands, and
then some other unrelated commands.

- Key: L L, magit-toggle-margin

  This command shows or hides the margin.

- Key: L l, magit-cycle-margin-style

  This command cycles the style used for the margin.

- Key: L d, magit-toggle-margin-details

  This command shows or hides details in the margin.

*** Select from Log

When the user has to select a recent commit that is reachable from
~HEAD~, using regular completion would be inconvenient (because most
humans cannot remember hashes or "HEAD~5", at least not without double
checking).  Instead a log buffer is used to select the commit, which
has the advantage that commits are presented in order and with the
commit message.

Such selection logs are used when selecting the beginning of a rebase
and when selecting the commit to be squashed into.

In addition to the key bindings available in all log buffers, the
following additional key bindings are available in selection log
buffers:

- Key: C-c C-c, magit-log-select-pick

  Select the commit at point and act on it.  Call
  ~magit-log-select-pick-function~ with the selected commit as
  argument.

- Key: C-c C-k, magit-log-select-quit

  Abort selecting a commit, don't act on any commit.

- User Option: magit-log-select-margin

  This option specifies whether the margin is initially shown in
  Magit-Log-Select mode buffers and how it is formatted.

  The value has the form ~(INIT STYLE WIDTH AUTHOR AUTHOR-WIDTH)~.

  - If INIT is non-nil, then the margin is shown initially.
  - STYLE controls how to format the author or committer date.  It can
    be one of ~age~ (to show the age of the commit), ~age-abbreviated~ (to
    abbreviate the time unit to a character), or a string (suitable
    for ~format-time-string~) to show the actual date.  Option
    ~magit-log-margin-show-committer-date~ controls which date is being
    displayed.
  - WIDTH controls the width of the margin.  This exists for forward
    compatibility and currently the value should not be changed.
  - AUTHOR controls whether the name of the author is also shown by
    default.
  - AUTHOR-WIDTH has to be an integer.  When the name of the author
    is shown, then this specifies how much space is used to do so.

*** Reflog

Also see [[man:git-reflog]]

These reflog commands are available from the log transient.  See
[[*Logging]].

- Key: l r, magit-reflog-current

  Display the reflog of the current branch.

- Key: l O, magit-reflog-other

  Display the reflog of a branch or another ref.

- Key: l H, magit-reflog-head

  Display the ~HEAD~ reflog.

- User Option: magit-reflog-margin

  This option specifies whether the margin is initially shown in
  Magit-Reflog mode buffers and how it is formatted.

  The value has the form ~(INIT STYLE WIDTH AUTHOR AUTHOR-WIDTH)~.

  - If INIT is non-nil, then the margin is shown initially.
  - STYLE controls how to format the author or committer date.  It can
    be one of ~age~ (to show the age of the commit), ~age-abbreviated~ (to
    abbreviate the time unit to a character), or a string (suitable
    for ~format-time-string~) to show the actual date.  Option
    ~magit-log-margin-show-committer-date~ controls which date is being
    displayed.
  - WIDTH controls the width of the margin.  This exists for forward
    compatibility and currently the value should not be changed.
  - AUTHOR controls whether the name of the author is also shown by
    default.
  - AUTHOR-WIDTH has to be an integer.  When the name of the author
    is shown, then this specifies how much space is used to do so.

*** Cherries

Cherries are commits that haven't been applied upstream (yet), and are
usually visualized using a log.  Each commit is prefixed with ~-~ if it
has an equivalent in the upstream and ~+~ if it does not, i.e. if it is
a cherry.

The command ~magit-cherry~ shows cherries for a single branch, but the
references buffer (see [[*References Buffer]]) can show cherries for
multiple "upstreams" at once.

Also see [[man:git-reflog]]

- Key: Y, magit-cherry

  Show commits that are in a certain branch but that have not been
  merged in the upstream branch.

- User Option: magit-cherry-margin

  This option specifies whether the margin is initially shown in
  Magit-Cherry mode buffers and how it is formatted.

  The value has the form ~(INIT STYLE WIDTH AUTHOR AUTHOR-WIDTH)~.

  - If INIT is non-nil, then the margin is shown initially.
  - STYLE controls how to format the author or committer date.  It can
    be one of ~age~ (to show the age of the commit), ~age-abbreviated~ (to
    abbreviate the time unit to a character), or a string (suitable
    for ~format-time-string~) to show the actual date.  Option
    ~magit-log-margin-show-committer-date~ controls which date is being
    displayed.
  - WIDTH controls the width of the margin.  This exists for forward
    compatibility and currently the value should not be changed.
  - AUTHOR controls whether the name of the author is also shown by
    default.
  - AUTHOR-WIDTH has to be an integer.  When the name of the author
    is shown, then this specifies how much space is used to do so.

** Diffing
*** _

The status buffer contains diffs for the staged and unstaged commits,
but that obviously isn't enough.  The transient prefix command
~magit-diff~, on ~d~, features several suffix commands, which show a
specific diff in a separate diff buffer.

Like other transient prefix commands, ~magit-diff~ also features several
infix arguments that can be changed before invoking one of the suffix
commands.  However, in the case of the diff transient, these arguments may
be taken from those currently in use in the current repository's diff
buffer, depending on the value of ~magit-prefix-use-buffer-arguments~
(see [[*Transient Arguments and Buffer Variables]]).

Also see [[man:git-diff]]

- Key: d, magit-diff

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: d d, magit-diff-dwim

  Show changes for the thing at point.

- Key: d r, magit-diff-range

  Show differences between two commits.

  RANGE should be a range (A..B or A...B) but can also be a single
  commit.  If one side of the range is omitted, then it defaults to
  ~HEAD~.  If just a commit is given, then changes in the working tree
  relative to that commit are shown.

  If the region is active, use the revisions on the first and last
  line of the region.  With a prefix argument, instead of diffing the
  revisions, choose a revision to view changes along, starting at the
  common ancestor of both revisions (i.e., use a "..."  range).

- Key: d w, magit-diff-working-tree

  Show changes between the current working tree and the ~HEAD~ commit.
  With a prefix argument show changes between the working tree and a
  commit read from the minibuffer.

- Key: d s, magit-diff-staged

  Show changes between the index and the ~HEAD~ commit.  With a prefix
  argument show changes between the index and a commit read from the
  minibuffer.

- Key: d u, magit-diff-unstaged

  Show changes between the working tree and the index.

- Key: d p, magit-diff-paths

  Show changes between any two files on disk.

All of the above suffix commands update the repository's diff buffer.
The diff transient also features two commands which show differences
in another buffer:

- Key: d c, magit-show-commit

  Show the commit at point.  If there is no commit at point or with a
  prefix argument, prompt for a commit.

- Key: d t, magit-stash-show

  Show all diffs of a stash in a buffer.

Two additional commands that show the diff for the file or blob that
is being visited in the current buffer exists, see [[*Commands for
Buffers Visiting Files]].

*** Refreshing Diffs

The transient prefix command ~magit-diff-refresh~, on ~D~, can be used to
change the diff arguments used in the current buffer, without changing
which diff is shown.  This works in dedicated diff buffers, but also
in the status buffer.

- Key: D, magit-diff-refresh

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: D g, magit-diff-refresh

  This suffix command sets the local diff arguments for the current
  buffer.

- Key: D s, magit-diff-set-default-arguments

  This suffix command sets the default diff arguments for buffers of
  the same type as that of the current buffer.  Other existing buffers
  of the same type are not affected because their local values have
  already been initialized.

- Key: D w, magit-diff-save-default-arguments

  This suffix command sets the default diff arguments for buffers of
  the same type as that of the current buffer, and saves the value for
  future sessions.  Other existing buffers of the same type are not
  affected because their local values have already been initialized.

- Key: D t, magit-diff-toggle-refine-hunk

  This command toggles hunk refinement on or off.

- Key: D r, magit-diff-switch-range-type

  This command converts the diff range type from "revA..revB" to
  "revB...revA", or vice versa.

- Key: D f, magit-diff-flip-revs

  This command swaps revisions in the diff range from "revA..revB"
  to "revB..revA", or vice versa.

- Key: D F, magit-diff-toggle-file-filter

  This command toggles the file restriction of the diffs in the
  current buffer, allowing you to quickly switch between viewing all
  the changes in the commit and the restricted subset.  As a special
  case, when this command is called from a log buffer, it toggles the
  file restriction in the repository's revision buffer, which is
  useful when you display a revision from a log buffer that is
  restricted to a file or files.

In addition to the above transient, which allows changing any of the
supported arguments, there also exist some commands that change only
a particular argument.

- Key: -, magit-diff-less-context

  This command decreases the context for diff hunks by COUNT lines.

- Key: +, magit-diff-more-context

  This command increases the context for diff hunks by COUNT lines.

- Key: 0, magit-diff-default-context

  This command resets the context for diff hunks to the default height.

The following commands quickly change what diff is being displayed
without having to using one of the diff transient.

- Key: C-c C-d, magit-diff-while-committing

  While committing, this command shows the changes that are about to
  be committed.  While amending, invoking the command again toggles
  between showing just the new changes or all the changes that will be
  committed.

  This binding is available in the diff buffer as well as the commit
  message buffer.

- Key: C-c C-b, magit-go-backward

  This command moves backward in current buffer's history.

- Key: C-c C-f, magit-go-forward

  This command moves forward in current buffer's history.

*** Commands Available in Diffs

Some commands are only available if point is inside a diff.

~magit-diff-visit-file~ and related commands visit the appropriate
version of the file that the diff at point is about.  Likewise
~magit-diff-visit-worktree-file~ and related commands visit the worktree
version of the file that the diff at point is about.  See [[*Visiting
Files and Blobs from a Diff]] for more information and the key bindings.

- Key: C-c C-t, magit-diff-trace-definition

  This command shows a log for the definition at point.

- User Option: magit-log-trace-definition-function

  The function specified by this option is used by
  ~magit-log-trace-definition~ to determine the function at point.  For
  major-modes that have special needs, you could set the local value
  using the mode's hook.

- Key: C-c C-e, magit-diff-edit-hunk-commit

  From a hunk, this command edits the respective commit and visits
  the file.

  First it visits the file being modified by the hunk at the correct
  location using ~magit-diff-visit-file~.  This actually visits a blob.
  When point is on a diff header, not within an individual hunk, then
  this visits the blob the first hunk is about.

  Then it invokes ~magit-edit-line-commit~, which uses an interactive
  rebase to make the commit editable, or if that is not possible
  because the commit is not reachable from ~HEAD~ by checking out that
  commit directly.  This also causes the actual worktree file to be
  visited.

  Neither the blob nor the file buffer are killed when finishing
  the rebase.  If that is undesirable, then it might be better to
  use ~magit-rebase-edit-command~ instead of this command.

- Key: j, magit-jump-to-diffstat-or-diff

  This command jumps to the diffstat or diff.  When point is on a file
  inside the diffstat section, then jump to the respective diff
  section.  Otherwise, jump to the diffstat section or a child
  thereof.

The next two commands are not specific to Magit-Diff mode (or and
Magit buffer for that matter), but it might be worth pointing out
that they are available here too.

- Key: SPC, scroll-up

  This command scrolls text upward.

- Key: DEL, scroll-down

  This command scrolls text downward.

*** Diff Options

- User Option: magit-diff-refine-hunk

  Whether to show word-granularity differences within diff hunks.

  - ~nil~ Never show fine differences.
  - ~t~ Show fine differences for the current diff hunk only.
  - ~all~ Show fine differences for all displayed diff hunks.

- User Option: magit-diff-refine-ignore-whitespace

  Whether to ignore whitespace changes in word-granularity
  differences.

- User Option: magit-diff-adjust-tab-width

  Whether to adjust the width of tabs in diffs.

  Determining the correct width can be expensive if it requires
  opening large and/or many files, so the widths are cached in the
  variable ~magit-diff--tab-width-cache~.  Set that to nil to invalidate
  the cache.

  - ~nil~ Never adjust tab width.  Use `tab-width's value from the Magit
    buffer itself instead.

  - ~t~ If the corresponding file-visiting buffer exits, then use
    ~tab-width~'s value from that buffer.  Doing this is cheap, so this
    value is used even if a corresponding cache entry exists.

  - ~always~ If there is no such buffer, then temporarily visit the file
    to determine the value.

  - NUMBER Like ~always~, but don't visit files larger than NUMBER
    bytes.

- User Option: magit-diff-paint-whitespace

  Specify where to highlight whitespace errors.

  See ~magit-diff-highlight-trailing~,
  ~magit-diff-highlight-indentation~.  The symbol ~t~ means in all
  diffs, ~status~ means only in the status buffer, and nil means
  nowhere.

  - ~nil~ Never highlight whitespace errors.
  - ~t~ Highlight whitespace errors everywhere.
  - ~uncommitted~ Only highlight whitespace errors in diffs showing
    uncommitted changes.  For backward compatibility ~status~ is treated
    as a synonym.

- User Option: magit-diff-paint-whitespace-lines

  Specify in what kind of lines to highlight whitespace errors.

  - ~t~ Highlight only in added lines.
  - ~both~ Highlight in added and removed lines.
  - ~all~ Highlight in added, removed and context lines.

- User Option: magit-diff-highlight-trailing

  Whether to highlight whitespace at the end of a line in diffs.  Used
  only when ~magit-diff-paint-whitespace~ is non-nil.

- User Option: magit-diff-highlight-indentation

  This option controls whether to highlight the indentation in case it
  used the "wrong" indentation style.  Indentation is only highlighted
  if ~magit-diff-paint-whitespace~ is also non-nil.

  The value is an alist of the form ~((REGEXP . INDENT)...)~.  The path
  to the current repository is matched against each element in reverse
  order.  Therefore if a REGEXP matches, then earlier elements are not
  tried.

  If the used INDENT is ~tabs~, highlight indentation with tabs.  If
  INDENT is an integer, highlight indentation with at least that many
  spaces.  Otherwise, highlight neither.

- User Option: magit-diff-hide-trailing-cr-characters

  Whether to hide ^M characters at the end of a line in diffs.

- User Option: magit-diff-highlight-hunk-region-functions

  This option specifies the functions used to highlight the
  hunk-internal region.

  ~magit-diff-highlight-hunk-region-dim-outside~ overlays the outside of
  the hunk internal selection with a face that causes the added and
  removed lines to have the same background color as context lines.
  This function should not be removed from the value of this option.

  ~magit-diff-highlight-hunk-region-using-overlays~ and
  ~magit-diff-highlight-hunk-region-using-underline~ emphasize the
  region by placing delimiting horizontal lines before and after it.
  Both of these functions have glitches which cannot be fixed due to
  limitations of Emacs' display engine.  For more information see
  https://github.com/magit/magit/issues/2758 ff.

  Instead of, or in addition to, using delimiting horizontal lines,
  to emphasize the boundaries, you may which to emphasize the text
  itself, using ~magit-diff-highlight-hunk-region-using-face~.

  In terminal frames it's not possible to draw lines as the overlay
  and underline variants normally do, so there they fall back to
  calling the face function instead.

- User Option: magit-diff-unmarked-lines-keep-foreground

  This option controls whether added and removed lines outside the
  hunk-internal region only lose their distinct background color or
  also the foreground color.  Whether the outside of the region is
  dimmed at all depends on ~magit-diff-highlight-hunk-region-functions~.

- User Option: magit-diff-extra-stat-arguments

  This option specifies additional arguments to be used alongside
  ~--stat~.

  The value is a list of zero or more arguments or a function that
  takes no argument and returns such a list.  These arguments are
  allowed here: ~--stat-width~, ~--stat-name-width~,
  ~--stat-graph-width~ and ~--compact-summary~.  Also see [[man:git-diff]]

*** Revision Buffer

- User Option: magit-revision-insert-related-refs

  Whether to show related branches in revision buffers.

  - ~nil~ Don't show any related branches.
  - ~t~ Show related local branches.
  - ~all~ Show related local and remote branches.
  - ~mixed~ Show all containing branches and local merged branches.

- User Option: magit-revision-show-gravatars

  Whether to show gravatar images in revision buffers.

  If ~nil~, then don't insert any gravatar images.  If ~t~, then insert
  both images.  If ~author~ or ~committer~, then insert only the
  respective image.

  If you have customized the option ~magit-revision-headers-format~
  and want to insert the images then you might also have to specify
  where to do so.  In that case the value has to be a cons-cell of
  two regular expressions.  The car specifies where to insert the
  author's image.  The top half of the image is inserted right
  after the matched text, the bottom half on the next line in the
  same column.  The cdr specifies where to insert the committer's
  image, accordingly.  Either the car or the cdr may be nil."

- User Option: magit-revision-use-hash-sections

  Whether to turn hashes inside the commit message into sections.

  If non-nil, then hashes inside the commit message are turned into
  ~commit~ sections.  There is a trade off to be made between
  performance and reliability:

  - ~slow~ calls git for every word to be absolutely sure.
  - ~quick~ skips words less than seven characters long.
  - ~quicker~ additionally skips words that don't contain a number.
  - ~quickest~ uses all words that are at least seven characters long
    and which contain at least one number as well as at least one
    letter.

  If nil, then no hashes are turned into sections, but you can still
  visit the commit at point using "RET".

The diffs shown in the revision buffer may be automatically restricted
to a subset of the changed files.  If the revision buffer is displayed
from a log buffer, the revision buffer will share the same file
restriction as that log buffer (also see the command
~magit-diff-toggle-file-filter~).

- User Option: magit-revision-filter-files-on-follow

  Whether showing a commit from a log buffer honors the log's file
  filter when the log arguments include ~--follow~.

  When this option is nil, displaying a commit from a log ignores the
  log's file filter if the log arguments include ~--follow~.  Doing so
  avoids showing an empty diff in revision buffers for commits before
  a rename event.  In such cases, the ~--patch~ argument of the log
  transient can be used to show the file-restricted diffs inline.

  Set this option to non-nil to keep the log's file restriction even
  if ~--follow~ is present in the log arguments.

If the revision buffer is not displayed from a log buffer, the file
restriction is determined as usual (see [[*Transient Arguments and
Buffer Variables]]).

** Ediffing

This section describes how to enter Ediff from Magit buffers.  For
information on how to use Ediff itself, see info:ediff.

- Key: e, magit-ediff-dwim

  Compare, stage, or resolve using Ediff.

  This command tries to guess what file, and what commit or range the
  user wants to compare, stage, or resolve using Ediff.  It might only
  be able to guess either the file, or range/commit, in which case
  the user is asked about the other.  It might not always guess right,
  in which case the appropriate ~magit-ediff-*~ command has to be used
  explicitly.  If it cannot read the user's mind at all, then it asks
  the user for a command to run.

- Key: E, magit-ediff

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  and displays them in a temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: E r, magit-ediff-compare

  Compare two revisions of a file using Ediff.

  If the region is active, use the revisions on the first and last
  line of the region.  With a prefix argument, instead of diffing the
  revisions, choose a revision to view changes along, starting at the
  common ancestor of both revisions (i.e., use a "..."  range).

- Key: E m, magit-ediff-resolve

  Resolve outstanding conflicts in a file using Ediff, defaulting to
  the file at point.

  Provided that the value of ~merge.conflictstyle~ is ~diff3~, you can
  view the file's merge-base revision using ~/~ in the Ediff control
  buffer.

  In the rare event that you want to manually resolve all conflicts,
  including those already resolved by Git, use
  ~ediff-merge-revisions-with-ancestor~.

- Key: E s, magit-ediff-stage

  Stage and unstage changes to a file using Ediff, defaulting to the
  file at point.

- Key: E u, magit-ediff-show-unstaged

  Show unstaged changes to a file using Ediff.

- Key: E i, magit-ediff-show-staged

  Show staged changes to a file using Ediff.

- Key: E w, magit-ediff-show-working-tree

  Show changes in a file between ~HEAD~ and working tree using Ediff.

- Key: E c, magit-ediff-show-commit

  Show changes to a file introduced by a commit using Ediff.

- Key: E z, magit-ediff-show-stash

  Show changes to a file introduced by a stash using Ediff.

- User Option: magit-ediff-dwim-show-on-hunks

  This option controls what command ~magit-ediff-dwim~ calls when
  point is on uncommitted hunks.  When nil, always run
  ~magit-ediff-stage~.  Otherwise, use ~magit-ediff-show-staged~ and
  ~magit-ediff-show-unstaged~ to show staged and unstaged changes,
  respectively.

- User Option: magit-ediff-show-stash-with-index

  This option controls whether ~magit-ediff-show-stash~ includes a
  buffer containing the file's state in the index at the time the
  stash was created.  This makes it possible to tell which changes in
  the stash were staged.

- User Option: magit-ediff-quit-hook

  This hook is run after quitting an Ediff session that was created
  using a Magit command.  The hook functions are run inside the Ediff
  control buffer, and should not change the current buffer.

  This is similar to ~ediff-quit-hook~ but takes the needs of Magit into
  account.  The regular ~ediff-quit-hook~ is ignored by Ediff sessions
  that were created using a Magit command.

** References Buffer
*** _

- Key: y, magit-show-refs

  This command lists branches and tags in a dedicated buffer.

  However if this command is invoked again from this buffer or if it
  is invoked with a prefix argument, then it acts as a transient
  prefix command, which binds the following suffix commands and some
  infix arguments.

All of the following suffix commands list exactly the same branches
and tags.  The only difference the optional feature that can be
enabled by changing the value of ~magit-refs-show-commit-count~ (see
below).  These commands specify a different branch or commit against
which all the other references are compared.

- Key: y y, magit-show-refs-head

  This command lists branches and tags in a dedicated buffer.  Each
  reference is being compared with ~HEAD~.

- Key: y c, magit-show-refs-current

  This command lists branches and tags in a dedicated buffer.  Each
  reference is being compared with the current branch or ~HEAD~ if it
  is detached.

- Key: y o, magit-show-refs-other

  This command lists branches and tags in a dedicated buffer.  Each
  reference is being compared with a branch read from the user.

- Key: y r, magit-refs-set-show-commit-count

  This command changes for which refs the commit count is shown.

- User Option: magit-refs-show-commit-count

  Whether to show commit counts in Magit-Refs mode buffers.

  - ~all~ Show counts for branches and tags.
  - ~branch~ Show counts for branches only.
  - ~nil~ Never show counts.

  The default is ~nil~ because anything else can be very expensive.

- User Option: magit-refs-pad-commit-counts

  Whether to pad all commit counts on all sides in Magit-Refs mode
  buffers.

  If this is nil, then some commit counts are displayed right next to
  one of the branches that appear next to the count, without any space
  in between.  This might look bad if the branch name faces look too
  similar to ~magit-dimmed~.

  If this is non-nil, then spaces are placed on both sides of all
  commit counts.

- User Option: magit-refs-show-remote-prefix

  Whether to show the remote prefix in lists of remote branches.

  Showing the prefix is redundant because the name of the remote is
  already shown in the heading preceding the list of its branches.

- User Option: magit-refs-primary-column-width

  Width of the primary column in `magit-refs-mode' buffers.  The
  primary column is the column that contains the name of the branch
  that the current row is about.

  If this is an integer, then the column is that many columns wide.
  Otherwise it has to be a cons-cell of two integers.  The first
  specifies the minimal width, the second the maximal width.  In that
  case the actual width is determined using the length of the names of
  the shown local branches.  (Remote branches and tags are not taken
  into account when calculating to optimal width.)

- User Option: magit-refs-focus-column-width

  Width of the focus column in `magit-refs-mode' buffers.

  The focus column is the first column, which marks one branch
  (usually the current branch) as the focused branch using ~*~ or ~@~.
  For each other reference, this column optionally shows how many
  commits it is ahead of the focused branch and ~<~, or if it isn't
  ahead then the commits it is behind and ~>~, or if it isn't behind
  either, then a ~=~.

  This column may also display only ~*~ or ~@~ for the focused branch, in
  which case this option is ignored.  Use ~L v~ to change the verbosity
  of this column.

- User Option: magit-refs-margin

  This option specifies whether the margin is initially shown in
  Magit-Refs mode buffers and how it is formatted.

  The value has the form ~(INIT STYLE WIDTH AUTHOR AUTHOR-WIDTH)~.

  - If INIT is non-nil, then the margin is shown initially.
  - STYLE controls how to format the author or committer date.  It can
    be one of ~age~ (to show the age of the commit), ~age-abbreviated~ (to
    abbreviate the time unit to a character), or a string (suitable
    for ~format-time-string~) to show the actual date.  Option
    ~magit-log-margin-show-committer-date~ controls which date is being
    displayed.
  - WIDTH controls the width of the margin.  This exists for forward
    compatibility and currently the value should not be changed.
  - AUTHOR controls whether the name of the author is also shown by
    default.
  - AUTHOR-WIDTH has to be an integer.  When the name of the author
    is shown, then this specifies how much space is used to do so.

- User Option: magit-refs-margin-for-tags

  This option specifies whether to show information about tags in the
  margin.  This is disabled by default because it is slow if there are
  many tags.

The following variables control how individual refs are displayed.  If
you change one of these variables (especially the "%c" part), then you
should also change the others to keep things aligned.  The following
%-sequences are supported:

- ~%a~ Number of commits this ref has over the one we compare to.
- ~%b~ Number of commits the ref we compare to has over this one.
- ~%c~ Number of commits this ref has over the one we compare to.  For
  the ref which all other refs are compared this is instead "@", if
  it is the current branch, or "#" otherwise.
- ~%C~ For the ref which all other refs are compared this is "@", if it
  is the current branch, or "#" otherwise.  For all other refs " ".
- ~%h~ Hash of this ref's tip.
- ~%m~ Commit summary of the tip of this ref.
- ~%n~ Name of this ref.
- ~%u~ Upstream of this local branch.
- ~%U~ Upstream of this local branch and additional local vs. upstream
  information.

- User Option: magit-refs-filter-alist

  The purpose of this option is to forgo displaying certain refs
  based on their name.  If you want to not display any refs of a
  certain type, then you should remove the appropriate function
  from ~magit-refs-sections-hook~ instead.

  This alist controls which tags and branches are omitted from being
  displayed in ~magit-refs-mode~ buffers.  If it is ~nil~, then all refs
  are displayed (subject to ~magit-refs-sections-hook~).

  All keys are tried in order until one matches.  Then its value is
  used and subsequent elements are ignored.  If the value is non-nil,
  then the reference is displayed, otherwise it is not.  If no element
  matches, then the reference is displayed.

  A key can either be a regular expression that the refname has to
  match, or a function that takes the refname as only argument and
  returns a boolean.  A remote branch such as "origin/master" is
  displayed as just "master", however for this comparison the
  former is used.

- Key: RET, magit-visit-ref

  This command visits the reference or revision at point in another
  buffer.  If there is no revision at point or with a prefix argument
  then it prompts for a revision.

  This command behaves just like ~magit-show-commit~ as described above,
  except if point is on a reference in a ~magit-refs-mode~ buffer, in
  which case the behavior may be different, but only if you have
  customized the option ~magit-visit-ref-behavior~.

- User Option: magit-visit-ref-behavior

  This option controls how ~magit-visit-ref~ behaves in ~magit-refs-mode~
  buffers.

  By default ~magit-visit-ref~ behaves like ~magit-show-commit~, in all
  buffers, including ~magit-refs-mode~ buffers.  When the type of the
  section at point is ~commit~ then "RET" is bound to ~magit-show-commit~,
  and when the type is either ~branch~ or ~tag~ then it is bound to
  ~magit-visit-ref~.

  "RET" is one of Magit's most essential keys and at least by default
  it should behave consistently across all of Magit, especially
  because users quickly learn that it does something very harmless; it
  shows more information about the thing at point in another buffer.

  However "RET" used to behave differently in ~magit-refs-mode~ buffers,
  doing surprising things, some of which cannot really be described as
  "visit this thing".  If you've grown accustomed this behavior, you
  can restore it by adding one or more of the below symbols to the
  value of this option.  But keep in mind that by doing so you don't
  only introduce inconsistencies, you also lose some functionality and
  might have to resort to ~M-x magit-show-commit~ to get it back.

  ~magit-visit-ref~ looks for these symbols in the order in which they
  are described here.  If the presence of a symbol applies to the
  current situation, then the symbols that follow do not affect the
  outcome.

  - ~focus-on-ref~

    With a prefix argument update the buffer to show commit counts
    and lists of cherry commits relative to the reference at point
    instead of relative to the current buffer or ~HEAD~.

    Instead of adding this symbol, consider pressing "C-u y o RET".

  - ~create-branch~

    If point is on a remote branch, then create a new local branch
    with the same name, use the remote branch as its upstream, and
    then check out the local branch.

    Instead of adding this symbol, consider pressing "b c RET RET",
    like you would do in other buffers.

  - ~checkout-any~

    Check out the reference at point.  If that reference is a tag
    or a remote branch, then this results in a detached ~HEAD~.

    Instead of adding this symbol, consider pressing "b b RET",
    like you would do in other buffers.

  - ~checkout-branch~

    Check out the local branch at point.

    Instead of adding this symbol, consider pressing "b b RET",
    like you would do in other buffers.

*** References Sections

The contents of references buffers is controlled using the hook
~magit-refs-sections-hook~.  See [[*Section Hooks]] to learn about such hooks
and how to customize them.  All of the below functions are members of
the default value.  Note that it makes much less sense to customize
this hook than it does for the respective hook used for the status
buffer.

- User Option: magit-refs-sections-hook

  Hook run to insert sections into a references buffer.

- Function: magit-insert-local-branches

  Insert sections showing all local branches.

- Function: magit-insert-remote-branches

  Insert sections showing all remote-tracking branches.

- Function: magit-insert-tags

  Insert sections showing all tags.

** Bisecting

Also see [[man:git-bisect]]

- Key: B, magit-bisect

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  and displays them in a temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

When bisecting is not in progress, then the transient features the
following suffix commands.

- Key: B B, magit-bisect-start

  Start a bisect session.

  Bisecting a bug means to find the commit that introduced it.
  This command starts such a bisect session by asking for a known
  good commit and a known bad commit.  If you're bisecting a change
  that isn't a regression, you can select alternate terms that are
  conceptually more fitting than "bad" and "good", but the infix
  arguments to do so are disabled by default.

- Key: B s, magit-bisect-run

  Bisect automatically by running commands after each step.

When bisecting in progress, then the transient instead features the
following suffix commands.

- Key: B b, magit-bisect-bad

  Mark the current commit as bad.  Use this after you have asserted
  that the commit does contain the bug in question.

- Key: B g, magit-bisect-good

  Mark the current commit as good.  Use this after you have asserted
  that the commit does not contain the bug in question.

- Key: B m, magit-bisect-mark

  Mark the current commit with one of the bisect terms.  This command
  provides an alternative to ~magit-bisect-bad~ and
  ~magit-bisect-good~ and is useful when using terms other than "bad"
  and "good".  This suffix is disabled by default.

- Key: B k, magit-bisect-skip

  Skip the current commit.  Use this if for some reason the current
  commit is not a good one to test.  This command lets Git choose a
  different one.

- Key: B r, magit-bisect-reset

  After bisecting, cleanup bisection state and return to original
  ~HEAD~.

By default the status buffer shows information about the ongoing
bisect session.

- User Option: magit-bisect-show-graph

  This option controls whether a graph is displayed for the log of
  commits that still have to be bisected.

** Visiting Files and Blobs

Magit provides several commands that visit a file or blob (the version
of a file that is stored in a certain commit).  Actually it provides
several *groups* of such commands and the several *variants* within each
group.

*** General-Purpose Visit Commands

These commands can be used anywhere to open any blob.  Currently no
keys are bound to these commands by default, but that is likely to
change.

- Command: magit-find-file

  This command reads a filename and revision from the user and visits
  the respective blob in a buffer.  The buffer is displayed in the
  selected window.

- Command: magit-find-file-other-window

  This command reads a filename and revision from the user and visits
  the respective blob in a buffer.  The buffer is displayed in another
  window.

- Command: magit-find-file-other-frame

  This command reads a filename and revision from the user and visits
  the respective blob in a buffer.  The buffer is displayed in another
  frame.

*** Visiting Files and Blobs from a Diff

These commands can only be used when point is inside a diff.

- Key: RET, magit-diff-visit-file

  This command visits the appropriate version of the file that the
  diff at point is about.

  This commands visits the worktree version of the appropriate file.
  The location of point inside the diff determines which file is being
  visited.  The visited version depends on what changes the diff is
  about.

  1. If the diff shows uncommitted changes (i.e. staged or unstaged
     changes), then visit the file in the working tree (i.e. the
     same "real" file that ~find-file~ would visit.  In all other
     cases visit a "blob" (i.e. the version of a file as stored
     in some commit).

  2. If point is on a removed line, then visit the blob for the
     first parent of the commit that removed that line, i.e. the
     last commit where that line still exists.

  3. If point is on an added or context line, then visit the blob
     that adds that line, or if the diff shows from more than a
     single commit, then visit the blob from the last of these
     commits.

  In the file-visiting buffer this command goes to the line that
  corresponds to the line that point is on in the diff.

  The buffer is displayed in the selected window.  With a prefix
  argument the buffer is displayed in another window instead.

- User Option: magit-diff-visit-previous-blob

  This option controls whether ~magit-diff-visit-file~ may visit the
  previous blob.  When this is ~t~ (the default) and point is on a
  removed line in a diff for a committed change, then
  ~magit-diff-visit-file~ visits the blob from the last revision which
  still had that line.

  Currently this is only supported for committed changes, for staged
  and unstaged changes ~magit-diff-visit-file~ always visits the file in
  the working tree.

- Key: C-<return>, magit-diff-visit-file-worktree

  This command visits the worktree version of the appropriate file.
  The location of point inside the diff determines which file is being
  visited.  Unlike ~magit-diff-visit-file~ it always visits the "real"
  file in the working tree, i.e the "current version" of the file.

  In the file-visiting buffer this command goes to the line that
  corresponds to the line that point is on in the diff.  Lines that
  were added or removed in the working tree, the index and other
  commits in between are automatically accounted for.

  The buffer is displayed in the selected window.  With a prefix
  argument the buffer is displayed in another window instead.

Variants of the above two commands exist that instead visit the file
in another window or in another frame.  If you prefer such behavior,
then you may want to change the above key bindings, but note that the
above commands also use another window when invoked with a prefix
argument.

- Command: magit-diff-visit-file-other-window
- Command: magit-diff-visit-file-other-frame
- Command: magit-diff-visit-worktree-file-other-window
- Command: magit-diff-visit-worktree-file-other-frame

** Blaming

Also see [[man:git-blame]]

To start blaming invoke the ~magit-file-dispatch~ transient prefix
command by pressing ~C-c M-g~.

The blaming suffix commands can be invoked from the dispatch
transient.  However if you want to set an infix argument, then you
have to enter the blaming sub-transient first.

The key bindings shown below assume that you enter the dispatch
transient using the default binding.

- Key: C-c M-g B, magit-blame

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

Note that not all of the following suffixes are available at all
times.  For example if ~magit-blame-mode~ is not enabled, then the
command whose purpose is to turn off that mode would not be of any
use and therefore isn't available.

- Key: C-c M-g b, magit-blame-addition
- Key: C-c M-g B b, magit-blame-addition

  This command augments each line or chunk of lines in the current
  file-visiting or blob-visiting buffer with information about what
  commits last touched these lines.

  If the buffer visits a revision of that file, then history up to
  that revision is considered.  Otherwise, the file's full history is
  considered, including uncommitted changes.

  If Magit-Blame mode is already turned on in the current buffer then
  blaming is done recursively, by visiting REVISION:FILE (using
  ~magit-find-file~), where REVISION is a parent of the revision that
  added the current line or chunk of lines.

- Key: C-c M-g r, magit-blame-removal
- Key: C-c M-g B r, magit-blame-removal

  This command augments each line or chunk of lines in the current
  blob-visiting buffer with information about the revision that
  removes it.  It cannot be used in file-visiting buffers.

  Like ~magit-blame-addition~, this command can be used recursively.

- Key: C-c M-g f, magit-blame-reverse
- Key: C-c M-g B f, magit-blame-reverse

  This command augments each line or chunk of lines in the current
  file-visiting or blob-visiting buffer with information about the
  last revision in which a line still existed.

  Like ~magit-blame-addition~, this command can be used recursively.

- Key: C-c M-g e, magit-blame-echo
- Key: C-c M-g B e, magit-blame-echo

  This command is like ~magit-blame-addition~ except that it doesn't
  turn on ~read-only-mode~ and that it initially uses the visualization
  style specified by option ~magit-blame-echo-style~.

The following key bindings are available when Magit-Blame mode is
enabled and Read-Only mode is not enabled.  These commands are also
available in other buffers; here only the behavior is described that
is relevant in file-visiting buffers that are being blamed.

- Key: RET, magit-show-commit

  This command shows the commit that last touched the line at point.

- Key: SPC, magit-diff-show-or-scroll-up

  This command updates the commit buffer.

  This either shows the commit that last touched the line at point in
  the appropriate buffer, or if that buffer is already being displayed
  in the current frame and if that buffer contains information about
  that commit, then the buffer is scrolled up instead.

- Key: DEL, magit-diff-show-or-scroll-down

  This command updates the commit buffer.

  This either shows the commit that last touched the line at point in
  the appropriate buffer, or if that buffer is already being displayed
  in the current frame and if that buffer contains information about
  that commit, then the buffer is scrolled down instead.

The following key bindings are available when both Magit-Blame mode
and Read-Only mode are enabled.

- Key: b, magit-blame

  See above.

- Key: n, magit-blame-next-chunk

  This command moves to the next chunk.

- Key: N, magit-blame-next-chunk-same-commit

  This command moves to the next chunk from the same commit.

- Key: p, magit-blame-previous-chunk

  This command moves to the previous chunk.

- Key: P, magit-blame-previous-chunk-same-commit

  This command moves to the previous chunk from the same commit.

- Key: q, magit-blame-quit

  This command turns off Magit-Blame mode.  If the buffer was created
  during a recursive blame, then it also kills the buffer.

- Key: M-w, magit-blame-copy-hash

  This command saves the hash of the current chunk's commit to the
  kill ring.

  When the region is active, the command saves the region's content
  instead of the hash, like ~kill-ring-save~ would.

- Key: c, magit-blame-cycle-style

  This command changes how blame information is visualized in the
  current buffer by cycling through the styles specified using the
  option ~magit-blame-styles~.

Blaming is also controlled using the following options.

- User Option: magit-blame-styles

  This option defines a list of styles used to visualize blame
  information.  For now see its doc-string to learn more.

- User Option: magit-blame-echo-style

  This option specifies the blame visualization style used by the
  command ~magit-blame-echo~.  This must be a symbol that is used as the
  identifier for one of the styles defined in ~magit-blame-styles~.

- User Option: magit-blame-time-format

  This option specifies the format string used to display times when
  showing blame information.

- User Option: magit-blame-read-only

  This option controls whether blaming a buffer also makes temporarily
  read-only.

- User Option: magit-blame-disable-modes

  This option lists incompatible minor-modes that should be disabled
  temporarily when a buffer contains blame information.  They are
  enabled again when the buffer no longer shows blame information.

- User Option: magit-blame-goto-chunk-hook

  This hook is run when moving between chunks.

* Manipulating
** Creating Repository

- Key: I, magit-init

  This command initializes a repository and then shows the status
  buffer for the new repository.

  If the directory is below an existing repository, then the user has
  to confirm that a new one should be created inside.  If the
  directory is the root of the existing repository, then the user has
  to confirm that it should be reinitialized.

** Cloning Repository

To clone a remote or local repository use ~C~, which is bound to the
command ~magit-clone~.  This command either act as a transient prefix
command, which binds several infix arguments and suffix commands, or
it can invoke ~git clone~ directly, depending on whether a prefix
argument is used and on the value of ~magit-clone-always-transient~.

- User Option: magit-clone-always-transient

  This option controls whether the command ~magit-clone~ always acts as
  a transient prefix command, regardless of whether a prefix argument
  is used or not.  If ~t~, then that command always acts as a transient
  prefix.  If ~nil~, then a prefix argument has to be used for it to act
  as a transient.

- Key: C, magit-clone

  This command either acts as a transient prefix command as described
  above or does the same thing as ~transient-clone-regular~ as described
  below.

  If it acts as a transient prefix, then it binds the following suffix
  commands and several infix arguments.

- Key: C C, magit-clone-regular

  This command creates a regular clone of an existing repository.
  The repository and the target directory are read from the user.

- Key: C s, magit-clone-shallow

  This command creates a shallow clone of an existing repository.
  The repository and the target directory are read from the user.
  By default the depth of the cloned history is a single commit,
  but with a prefix argument the depth is read from the user.

- Key: C b, magit-clone-bare

  This command creates a bare clone of an existing repository.
  The repository and the target directory are read from the user.

- Key: C m, magit-clone-mirror

  This command creates a mirror of an existing repository.
  The repository and the target directory are read from the user.

The following suffixes are disabled by default. See
[[info:transient#Enabling and Disabling Suffixes]] for how to enable them.

- Key: C d, magit-clone-shallow-since

  This command creates a shallow clone of an existing repository.
  Only commits that were committed after a date are cloned, which
  is read from the user.  The repository and the target directory
  are also read from the user.

- Key: C e, magit-clone-shallow-exclude

  This command creates a shallow clone of an existing repository.
  This reads a branch or tag from the user.  Commits that are
  reachable from that are not cloned.  The repository and the target
  directory are also read from the user.

- User Option: magit-clone-set-remote-head

  This option controls whether cloning causes the reference
  ~refs/remotes/<remote>/HEAD~ to be created in the clone.  The default
  is to delete the reference after running ~git clone~, which insists on
  creating it.  This is because the reference has not been found to be
  particularly useful as it is not automatically updated when the ~HEAD~
  of the remote changes.  Setting this option to ~t~ preserves Git's
  default behavior of creating the reference.

- User Option: magit-clone-set-remote.pushDefault

  This option controls whether the value of the Git variable
  ~remote.pushDefault~ is set after cloning.

  - If ~t~, then it is always set without asking.
  - If ~ask~, then the users are asked every time they clone a
    repository.
  - If ~nil~, then it is never set.

- User Option: magit-clone-default-directory

  This option control the default directory name used when reading the
  destination for a cloning operation.

  - If ~nil~ (the default), then the value of ~default-directory~ is used.
  - If a directory, then that is used.
  - If a function, then that is called with the remote url as the only
    argument and the returned value is used.

- User Option: magit-clone-name-alist

  This option maps regular expressions, which match repository names,
  to repository urls, making it possible for users to enter short
  names instead of urls when cloning repositories.

  Each element has the form ~(REGEXP HOSTNAME USER)~.  When the user
  enters a name when a cloning command asks for a name or url, then
  that is looked up in this list.  The first element whose REGEXP
  matches is used.

  The format specified by option ~magit-clone-url-format~ is used to
  turn the name into an url, using HOSTNAME and the repository name.
  If the provided name contains a slash, then that is used.  Otherwise
  if the name omits the owner of the repository, then the default user
  specified in the matched entry is used.

  If USER contains a dot, then it is treated as a Git variable and the
  value of that is used as the username.  Otherwise it is used as the
  username itself.

- User Option: magit-clone-url-format

  The format specified by this option is used when turning repository
  names into urls. ~%h~ is the hostname and ~%n~ is the repository name,
  including the name of the owner.

** Staging and Unstaging
*** _

Like Git, Magit can of course stage and unstage complete files.
Unlike Git, it also allows users to gracefully un-/stage
individual hunks and even just part of a hunk.  To stage individual
hunks and parts of hunks using Git directly, one has to use the very
modal and rather clumsy interface of a ~git add --interactive~ session.

With Magit, on the other hand, one can un-/stage individual hunks by
just moving point into the respective section inside a diff displayed
in the status buffer or a separate diff buffer and typing ~s~ or ~u~.  To
operate on just parts of a hunk, mark the changes that should be
un-/staged using the region and then press the same key that would be
used to un-/stage.  To stage multiple files or hunks at once use a
region that starts inside the heading of such a section and ends
inside the heading of a sibling section of the same type.

Besides staging and unstaging, Magit also provides several other
"apply variants" that can also operate on a file, multiple files at
once, a hunk, multiple hunks at once, and on parts of a hunk.  These
apply variants are described in the next section.

You can also use Ediff to stage and unstage.  See [[*Ediffing]].

- Key: s, magit-stage

  Add the change at point to the staging area.

  With a prefix argument and an untracked file (or files) at point,
  stage the file but not its content.  This makes it possible to stage
  only a subset of the new file's changes.

- Key: S, magit-stage-modified

  Stage all changes to files modified in the worktree.  Stage all new
  content of tracked files and remove tracked files that no longer
  exist in the working tree from the index also.  With a prefix
  argument also stage previously untracked (but not ignored) files.

- Key: u, magit-unstage

  Remove the change at point from the staging area.

  Only staged changes can be unstaged.  But by default this command
  performs an action that is somewhat similar to unstaging, when it is
  called on a committed change: it reverses the change in the index
  but not in the working tree.

- Key: U, magit-unstage-all

  Remove all changes from the staging area.

- User Option: magit-unstage-committed

  This option controls whether ~magit-unstage~ "unstages" committed
  changes by reversing them in the index but not the working tree.
  The alternative is to raise an error.

- Key: M-x magit-reverse-in-index, magit-reverse-in-index

  This command reverses the committed change at point in the index but
  not the working tree.  By default no key is bound directly to this
  command, but it is indirectly called when ~u~ (~magit-unstage~) is
  pressed on a committed change.

  This allows extracting a change from ~HEAD~, while leaving it in the
  working tree, so that it can later be committed using a separate
  commit.  A typical workflow would be:

  0. Optionally make sure that there are no uncommitted changes.
  1. Visit the ~HEAD~ commit and navigate to the change that should
     not have been included in that commit.
  2. Type ~u~ (~magit-unstage~) to reverse it in the index.
     This assumes that ~magit-unstage-committed-changes~ is non-nil.
  3. Type ~c e~ to extend ~HEAD~ with the staged changes,
     including those that were already staged before.
  4. Optionally stage the remaining changes using ~s~ or ~S~ and then
     type ~c c~ to create a new commit.

- Key: M-x magit-reset-index, magit-reset-index

  Reset the index to some commit.  The commit is read from the user
  and defaults to the commit at point.  If there is no commit at
  point, then it defaults to ~HEAD~.

*** Staging from File-Visiting Buffers

Fine-grained un-/staging has to be done from the status or a diff
buffer, but it's also possible to un-/stage all changes made to the
file visited in the current buffer right from inside that buffer.

- Key: M-x magit-stage-file, magit-stage-file

  When invoked inside a file-visiting buffer, then stage all changes
  to that file.  In a Magit buffer, stage the file at point if any.
  Otherwise prompt for a file to be staged.  With a prefix argument
  always prompt the user for a file, even in a file-visiting buffer or
  when there is a file section at point.

- Key: M-x magit-unstage-file, magit-unstage-file

  When invoked inside a file-visiting buffer, then unstage all changes
  to that file.  In a Magit buffer, unstage the file at point if any.
  Otherwise prompt for a file to be unstaged.  With a prefix argument
  always prompt the user for a file, even in a file-visiting buffer or
  when there is a file section at point.

** Applying

Magit provides several "apply variants": stage, unstage, discard,
reverse, and "regular apply".  At least when operating on a hunk they
are all implemented using ~git apply~, which is why they are called
"apply variants".

- Stage.  Apply a change from the working tree to the index.  The change
  also remains in the working tree.

- Unstage.  Remove a change from the index.  The change remains in the
  working tree.

- Discard.  On a staged change, remove it from the working tree and the
  index.  On an unstaged change, remove it from the working tree only.

- Reverse.  Reverse a change in the working tree.  Both committed and
  staged changes can be reversed.  Unstaged changes cannot be
  reversed.  Discard them instead.

- Apply.  Apply a change to the working tree.  Both committed and staged
  changes can be applied.  Unstaged changes cannot be applied - as
  they already have been applied.

The previous section described the staging and unstaging commands.
What follows are the commands which implement the remaining apply
variants.

- Key: a, magit-apply

  Apply the change at point to the working tree.

  With a prefix argument fallback to a 3-way merge.  Doing so causes
  the change to be applied to the index as well.

- Key: k, magit-discard

  Remove the change at point from the working tree.

  On a hunk or file with unresolved conflicts prompt which side to
  keep (while discarding the other).  If point is within the text
  of a side, then keep that side without prompting.

- Key: v, magit-reverse

  Reverse the change at point in the working tree.

  With a prefix argument fallback to a 3-way merge.  Doing so causes
  the change to be applied to the index as well.

With a prefix argument all apply variants attempt a 3-way merge when
appropriate (i.e. when ~git apply~ is used internally).

** Committing
*** _

When the user initiates a commit, Magit calls ~git commit~ without any
arguments, so Git has to get it from the user.  It creates the file
~.git/COMMIT_EDITMSG~ and then opens that file in an editor.  Magit
arranges for that editor to be the Emacsclient.  Once the user
finishes the editing session, the Emacsclient exits and Git creates the
commit using the file's content as message.

*** Initiating a Commit

Also see [[man:git-commit]]

- Key: c, magit-commit

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: c c, magit-commit-create

  Create a new commit on ~HEAD~.  With a prefix argument amend to the
  commit at ~HEAD~ instead.

- Key: c a, magit-commit-amend

  Amend the last commit.

- Key: c e, magit-commit-extend

  Amend the last commit, without editing the message.  With a prefix
  argument keep the committer date, otherwise change it.  The option
  ~magit-commit-extend-override-date~ can be used to inverse the meaning
  of the prefix argument.

  Non-interactively respect the optional OVERRIDE-DATE argument and
  ignore the option.

- Key: c w, magit-commit-reword

  Reword the last commit, ignoring staged changes.  With a prefix
  argument keep the committer date, otherwise change it.  The option
  ~magit-commit-reword-override-date~ can be used to inverse the meaning
  of the prefix argument.

  Non-interactively respect the optional OVERRIDE-DATE argument and
  ignore the option.

- Key: c f, magit-commit-fixup

  Create a fixup commit.

  With a prefix argument the target commit has to be confirmed.
  Otherwise the commit at point may be used without confirmation
  depending on the value of option ~magit-commit-squash-confirm~.

- Key: c F, magit-commit-instant-fixup

  Create a fixup commit and instantly rebase.

- Key: c s, magit-commit-squash

  Create a squash commit, without editing the squash message.

  With a prefix argument the target commit has to be confirmed.
  Otherwise the commit at point may be used without confirmation
  depending on the value of option ~magit-commit-squash-confirm~.

- Key: c S, magit-commit-instant-squash

  Create a squash commit and instantly rebase.

- Key: c A, magit-commit-augment

  Create a squash commit, editing the squash message.

  With a prefix argument the target commit has to be confirmed.
  Otherwise the commit at point may be used without confirmation
  depending on the value of option ~magit-commit-squash-confirm~.

- User Option: magit-commit-ask-to-stage

  Whether to ask to stage all unstaged changes when committing and nothing is
  staged.

- User Option: magit-commit-show-diff

  Whether the relevant diff is automatically shown when committing.

- User Option: magit-commit-extend-override-date

  Whether using ~magit-commit-extend~ changes the committer date.

- User Option: magit-commit-reword-override-date

  Whether using ~magit-commit-reword~ changes the committer date.

- User Option: magit-commit-squash-confirm

  Whether the commit targeted by squash and fixup has to be confirmed.
  When non-nil then the commit at point (if any) is used as default
  choice.  Otherwise it has to be confirmed.  This option only affects
  ~magit-commit-squash~ and ~magit-commit-fixup~.  The "instant" variants
  always require confirmation because making an error while using
  those is harder to recover from.

- User Option: magit-post-commit-hook

  Hook run after creating a commit without the user editing a message.

  This hook is run by ~magit-refresh~ if ~this-command~ is a member
  of ~magit-post-stage-hook-commands~.  This only includes commands
  named ~magit-commit-*~ that do *not* require that the user edits
  the commit message in a buffer.

  Also see ~git-commit-post-finish-hook~.

- User Option: magit-commit-diff-inhibit-same-window

  Whether to inhibit use of same window when showing diff while
  committing.

  When writing a commit, then a diff of the changes to be committed
  is automatically shown.  The idea is that the diff is shown in a
  different window of the same frame and for most users that just
  works.  In other words most users can completely ignore this
  option because its value doesn't make a difference for them.

  However for users who configured Emacs to never create a new
  window even when the package explicitly tries to do so, then
  displaying two new buffers necessarily means that the first is
  immediately replaced by the second.  In our case the message
  buffer is immediately replaced by the diff buffer, which is of
  course highly undesirable.

  A workaround is to suppress this user configuration in this
  particular case.  Users have to explicitly opt-in by toggling
  this option.  We cannot enable the workaround unconditionally
  because that again causes issues for other users: if the frame
  is too tiny or the relevant settings too aggressive, then the
  diff buffer would end up being displayed in a new frame.

  Also see https://github.com/magit/magit/issues/4132.

*** Editing Commit Messages

After initiating a commit as described in the previous section, two new
buffers appear.  One shows the changes that are about to be committed,
while the other is used to write the message.

Commit messages are edited in an edit session - in the background ~git~
is waiting for the editor, in our case ~emacsclient~, to save the commit
message in a file (in most cases ~.git/COMMIT_EDITMSG~) and then return.
If the editor returns with a non-zero exit status then ~git~ does not
create the commit.  So the most important commands are those for
finishing and aborting the commit.

- Key: C-c C-c, with-editor-finish

  Finish the current editing session by returning with exit code 0.
  Git then creates the commit using the message it finds in the file.

- Key: C-c C-k, with-editor-cancel

  Cancel the current editing session by returning with exit code 1.
  Git then cancels the commit, but leaves the file untouched.

In addition to being used by ~git commit~, messages may also be stored
in a ring that persists until Emacs is closed.  By default the message
is stored at the beginning and the end of an edit session (regardless
of whether the session is finished successfully or was canceled).  It
is sometimes useful to bring back messages from that ring.

- Key: C-c M-s, git-commit-save-message

  Save the current buffer content to the commit message ring.

- Key: M-p, git-commit-prev-message

  Cycle backward through the commit message ring, after saving the
  current message to the ring.  With a numeric prefix ARG, go back
  ARG comments.

- Key: M-n, git-commit-next-message

  Cycle forward through the commit message ring, after saving the
  current message to the ring.  With a numeric prefix ARG, go back
  ARG comments.

By default the diff for the changes that are about to be committed are
automatically shown when invoking the commit.  To prevent that, remove
~magit-commit-diff~ from ~server-switch-hook~.

When amending to an existing commit it may be useful to show either
the changes that are about to be added to that commit or to show those
changes alongside those that have already been committed.

- Key: C-c C-d, magit-diff-while-committing

  While committing, show the changes that are about to be committed.
  While amending, invoking the command again toggles between showing
  just the new changes or all the changes that will be committed.

**** Using the Revision Stack

- Key: C-c C-w, magit-pop-revision-stack

  This command inserts a representation of a revision into the current
  buffer.  It can be used inside buffers used to write commit messages
  but also in other buffers such as buffers used to edit emails or
  ChangeLog files.

  By default this command pops the revision which was last added to
  the ~magit-revision-stack~ and inserts it into the current buffer
  according to ~magit-pop-revision-stack-format~.  Revisions can be put
  on the stack using ~magit-copy-section-value~ and
  ~magit-copy-buffer-revision~.

  If the stack is empty or with a prefix argument it instead reads a
  revision in the minibuffer.  By using the minibuffer history this
  allows selecting an item which was popped earlier or to insert an
  arbitrary reference or revision without first pushing it onto the
  stack.

  When reading the revision from the minibuffer, then it might not
  be possible to guess the correct repository.  When this command
  is called inside a repository (e.g. while composing a commit
  message), then that repository is used.  Otherwise (e.g. while
  composing an email) then the repository recorded for the top
  element of the stack is used (even though we insert another
  revision).  If not called inside a repository and with an empty
  stack, or with two prefix arguments, then read the repository in
  the minibuffer too.

- User Option: magit-pop-revision-stack-format

  This option controls how the command ~magit-pop-revision-stack~
  inserts a revision into the current buffer.

  The entries on the stack have the format ~(HASH TOPLEVEL)~ and this
  option has the format ~(POINT-FORMAT EOB-FORMAT INDEX-REGEXP)~, all
  of which may be nil or a string (though either one of EOB-FORMAT
  or POINT-FORMAT should be a string, and if INDEX-REGEXP is
  non-nil, then the two formats should be too).

  First INDEX-REGEXP is used to find the previously inserted entry,
  by searching backward from point.  The first submatch must match
  the index number.  That number is incremented by one, and becomes
  the index number of the entry to be inserted.  If you don't want
  to number the inserted revisions, then use nil for INDEX-REGEXP.

  If INDEX-REGEXP is non-nil then both POINT-FORMAT and EOB-FORMAT
  should contain \"%N\", which is replaced with the number that was
  determined in the previous step.

  Both formats, if non-nil and after removing %N, are then expanded
  using ~git show --format=FORMAT ...~ inside TOPLEVEL.

  The expansion of POINT-FORMAT is inserted at point, and the
  expansion of EOB-FORMAT is inserted at the end of the buffer (if the
  buffer ends with a comment, then it is inserted right before that).

**** Commit Pseudo Headers

Some projects use pseudo headers in commit messages.  Magit colorizes
such headers and provides some commands to insert such headers.

- User Option: git-commit-known-pseudo-headers

  A list of Git pseudo headers to be highlighted.

- Key: C-c C-i, git-commit-insert-pseudo-header

  Insert a commit message pseudo header.

- Key: C-c C-a, git-commit-ack

  Insert a header acknowledging that you have looked at the commit.

- Key: C-c C-r, git-commit-review

  Insert a header acknowledging that you have reviewed the commit.

- Key: C-c C-s, git-commit-signoff

  Insert a header to sign off the commit.

- Key: C-c C-t, git-commit-test

  Insert a header acknowledging that you have tested the commit.

- Key: C-c C-o, git-commit-cc

  Insert a header mentioning someone who might be interested.

- Key: C-c C-p, git-commit-reported

  Insert a header mentioning the person who reported the issue being
  fixed by the commit.

- Key: C-c M-i, git-commit-suggested

  Insert a header mentioning the person who suggested the change.

**** Commit Mode and Hooks

~git-commit-mode~ is a minor mode that is only used to establish certain
key bindings.  This makes it possible to use an arbitrary major mode
in buffers used to edit commit messages.  It is even possible to use
different major modes in different repositories, which is useful when
different projects impose different commit message conventions.

- User Option: git-commit-major-mode

  The value of this option is the major mode used to edit Git commit
  messages.

Because ~git-commit-mode~ is a minor mode, we don't use its mode hook
to setup the buffer, except for the key bindings.  All other setup
happens in the function ~git-commit-setup~, which among other things runs
the hook ~git-commit-setup-hook~.


- User Option: git-commit-setup-hook

  Hook run at the end of ~git-commit-setup~.

#+TEXINFO: @noindent
The following functions are suitable for this hook:

- Function: git-commit-save-message

  Save the current buffer content to the commit message ring.

- Function: git-commit-setup-changelog-support

  After this function is called, ChangeLog entries are treated as
  paragraphs.

- Function: git-commit-turn-on-auto-fill

  Turn on ~auto-fill-mode~ and set ~fill-column~ to the value of
  ~git-commit-fill-column~.

- Function: git-commit-turn-on-flyspell

  Turn on Flyspell mode.  Also prevent comments from being checked and
  finally check current non-comment text.

- Function: git-commit-propertize-diff

  Propertize the diff shown inside the commit message buffer.  Git
  inserts such diffs into the commit message template when the
  ~--verbose~ argument is used.  ~magit-commit~ by default does not offer
  that argument because the diff that is shown in a separate buffer is
  more useful.  But some users disagree, which is why this function
  exists.

- Function: bug-reference-mode

  Hyperlink bug references in the buffer.

- Function: with-editor-usage-message

  Show usage information in the echo area.

- User Option: git-commit-setup-hook

  Hook run after the user finished writing a commit message.

  This hook is only run after pressing ~C-c C-c~ in a buffer used to
  edit a commit message.  If a commit is created without the user
  typing a message into a buffer, then this hook is not run.

  This hook is not run until the new commit has been created.  If
  doing so takes Git longer than one second, then this hook isn't run
  at all.  For certain commands such as ~magit-rebase-continue~ this
  hook is never run because doing so would lead to a race condition.

  This hook is only run if ~magit~ is available.

  Also see ~magit-post-commit-hook~.

**** Commit Message Conventions

Git-Commit highlights certain violations of commonly accepted commit
message conventions.  Certain violations even cause Git-Commit to ask
you to confirm that you really want to do that.  This nagging can of
course be turned off, but the result of doing that usually is that
instead of some code it's now the human who is reviewing your commits
who has to waste some time telling you to fix your commits.

- User Option: git-commit-summary-max-length

  The intended maximal length of the summary line of commit messages.
  Characters beyond this column are colorized to indicate that this
  preference has been violated.

- User Option: git-commit-fill-column

  Column beyond which automatic line-wrapping should happen in commit
  message buffers.

- User Option: git-commit-finish-query-functions

  List of functions called to query before performing commit.

  The commit message buffer is current while the functions are called.
  If any of them returns nil, then the commit is not performed and the
  buffer is not killed.  The user should then fix the issue and try
  again.

  The functions are called with one argument.  If it is non-nil then
  that indicates that the user used a prefix argument to force
  finishing the session despite issues.  Functions should usually
  honor this wish and return non-nil.

  By default the only member is ~git-commit-check-style-conventions~.

- Function: git-commit-check-style-conventions

  This function checks for violations of certain basic style
  conventions.  For each violation it asks users if they want to
  proceed anyway.

- User Option: git-commit-style-convention-checks

  This option controls what conventions the function by the same name
  tries to enforce.  The value is a list of self-explanatory symbols
  identifying certain conventions; ~non-empty-second-line~ and
  ~overlong-summary-line~.

** Branching
*** The Two Remotes

The upstream branch of some local branch is the branch into which the
commits on that local branch should eventually be merged, usually
something like ~origin/master~.  For the ~master~ branch itself the
upstream branch and the branch it is being pushed to, are usually the
same remote branch.  But for a feature branch the upstream branch and
the branch it is being pushed to should differ.

The commits on feature branches too should /eventually/ end up in a
remote branch such as ~origin/master~ or ~origin/maint~.  Such a branch
should therefore be used as the upstream.  But feature branches
shouldn't be pushed directly to such branches.  Instead a feature
branch ~my-feature~ is usually pushed to ~my-fork/my-feature~ or if you
are a contributor ~origin/my-feature~.  After the new feature has been
reviewed, the maintainer merges the feature into ~master~.  And finally
~master~ (not ~my-feature~ itself) is pushed to ~origin/master~.

But new features seldom are perfect on the first try, and so feature
branches usually have to be reviewed, improved, and re-pushed several
times.  Pushing should therefore be easy to do, and for that reason
many Git users have concluded that it is best to use the remote branch
to which the local feature branch is being pushed as its upstream.

But luckily Git has long ago gained support for a push-remote which
can be configured separately from the upstream branch, using the
variables ~branch.<name>.pushRemote~ and ~remote.pushDefault~.  So we no
longer have to choose which of the two remotes should be used as "the
remote".

Each of the fetching, pulling, and pushing transient commands features
three suffix commands that act on the current branch and some other
branch.  Of these, ~p~ is bound to a command which acts on the
push-remote, ~u~ is bound to a command which acts on the upstream, and ~e~
is bound to a command which acts on any other branch.  The status
buffer shows unpushed and unpulled commits for both the push-remote
and the upstream.

It's fairly simple to configure these two remotes.  The values of all
the variables that are related to fetching, pulling, and pushing (as
well as some other branch-related variables) can be inspected and
changed using the command ~magit-branch-configure~, which is available
from many transient prefix commands that deal with branches.  It is
also possible to set the push-remote or upstream while pushing (see
[[*Pushing]]).

*** Branch Commands

The transient prefix command ~magit-branch~ is used to create and
checkout branches, and to make changes to existing branches.  It is
not used to fetch, pull, merge, rebase, or push branches, i.e. this
command deals with branches themselves, not with the commits reachable
from them.  Those features are available from separate transient
command.

- Key: b, magit-branch

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  and displays them in a temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

  By default it also binds and displays the values of some
  branch-related Git variables and allows changing their values.

- User Option: magit-branch-direct-configure

  This option controls whether the transient command ~magit-branch~ can
  be used to directly change the values of Git variables.  This defaults
  to ~t~ (to avoid changing key bindings).  When set to ~nil~, then no
  variables are displayed by that transient command, and its suffix
  command ~magit-branch-configure~ has to be used instead to view and
  change branch related variables.

- Key: b C, magit-branch-configure
- Key: f C, magit-branch-configure
- Key: F C, magit-branch-configure
- Key: P C, magit-branch-configure

  This transient prefix command binds commands that set the value of
  branch-related variables and displays them in a temporary buffer
  until the transient is exited.

  With a prefix argument, this command always prompts for a branch.

  Without a prefix argument this depends on whether it was invoked as
  a suffix of ~magit-branch~ and on the ~magit-branch-direct-configure~
  option.  If ~magit-branch~ already displays the variables for the
  current branch, then it isn't useful to invoke another transient
  that displays them for the same branch.  In that case this command
  prompts for a branch.

The variables are described in [[*Branch Git Variables]].

- Key: b b, magit-checkout

  Checkout a revision read in the minibuffer and defaulting to the
  branch or arbitrary revision at point.  If the revision is a local
  branch then that becomes the current branch.  If it is something
  else then ~HEAD~ becomes detached.  Checkout fails if the working tree
  or the staging area contain changes.

- Key: b n, magit-branch-create

  Create a new branch.  The user is asked for a branch or arbitrary
  revision to use as the starting point of the new branch.  When a
  branch name is provided, then that becomes the upstream branch of
  the new branch.  The name of the new branch is also read in the
  minibuffer.

  Also see option ~magit-branch-prefer-remote-upstream~.

- Key: b c, magit-branch-and-checkout

  This command creates a new branch like ~magit-branch-create~, but then
  also checks it out.

  Also see option ~magit-branch-prefer-remote-upstream~.

- Key: b l, magit-branch-checkout

  This command checks out an existing or new local branch.  It reads a
  branch name from the user offering all local branches and a subset
  of remote branches as candidates.  Remote branches for which a local
  branch by the same name exists are omitted from the list of
  candidates.  The user can also enter a completely new branch name.

  - If the user selects an existing local branch, then that is checked
    out.

  - If the user selects a remote branch, then it creates and checks
    out a new local branch with the same name, and configures the
    selected remote branch as the push target.

  - If the user enters a new branch name, then it creates and checks
    that out, after also reading the starting-point from the user.

  In the latter two cases the upstream is also set.  Whether it is set
  to the chosen starting point or something else depends on the value
  of ~magit-branch-adjust-remote-upstream-alist~.

- Key: b s, magit-branch-spinoff

  This command creates and checks out a new branch starting at and
  tracking the current branch.  That branch in turn is reset to the
  last commit it shares with its upstream.  If the current branch has
  no upstream or no unpushed commits, then the new branch is created
  anyway and the previously current branch is not touched.

  This is useful to create a feature branch after work has already
  began on the old branch (likely but not necessarily "master").

  If the current branch is a member of the value of option
  ~magit-branch-prefer-remote-upstream~ (which see), then the current
  branch will be used as the starting point as usual, but the upstream
  of the starting-point may be used as the upstream of the new branch,
  instead of the starting-point itself.

  If optional FROM is non-nil, then the source branch is reset
  to ~FROM~~, instead of to the last commit it shares with its
  upstream.  Interactively, FROM is only ever non-nil, if the
  region selects some commits, and among those commits, FROM is
  the commit that is the fewest commits ahead of the source
  branch.

  The commit at the other end of the selection actually does not
  matter, all commits between FROM and ~HEAD~ are moved to the new
  branch.  If FROM is not reachable from ~HEAD~ or is reachable from the
  source branch's upstream, then an error is raised.

- Key: b S, magit-branch-spinout

  This command behaves like ~magit-branch-spinoff~, except that it does
  not change the current branch.  If there are any uncommitted changes,
  then it behaves exactly like ~magit-branch-spinoff~.

- Key: b x, magit-branch-reset

  This command resets a branch, defaulting to the branch at point, to
  the tip of another branch or any other commit.

  When the branch being reset is the current branch, then a hard reset
  is performed.  If there are any uncommitted changes, then the user
  has to confirm the reset because those changes would be lost.

  This is useful when you have started work on a feature branch but
  realize it's all crap and want to start over.

  When resetting to another branch and a prefix argument is used, then
  the target branch is set as the upstream of the branch that is being
  reset.

- Key: b k, magit-branch-delete

  Delete one or multiple branches.  If the region marks multiple
  branches, then offer to delete those.  Otherwise, prompt for a single
  branch to be deleted, defaulting to the branch at point.

- Key: b r, magit-branch-rename

  Rename a branch.  The branch and the new name are read in the
  minibuffer.  With prefix argument the branch is renamed even if that
  name conflicts with an existing branch.

- User Option: magit-branch-read-upstream-first

  When creating a branch, whether to read the upstream branch before
  the name of the branch that is to be created.  The default is ~t~,
  and I recommend you leave it at that.

- User Option: magit-branch-prefer-remote-upstream

  This option specifies whether remote upstreams are favored over
  local upstreams when creating new branches.

  When a new branch is created, then the branch, commit, or stash at
  point is suggested as the starting point of the new branch, or if
  there is no such revision at point the current branch.  In either
  case the user may choose another starting point.

  If the chosen starting point is a branch, then it may also be set
  as the upstream of the new branch, depending on the value of the
  Git variable `branch.autoSetupMerge'.  By default this is done
  for remote branches, but not for local branches.

  You might prefer to always use some remote branch as upstream.
  If the chosen starting point is (1) a local branch, (2) whose
  name matches a member of the value of this option, (3) the
  upstream of that local branch is a remote branch with the same
  name, and (4) that remote branch can be fast-forwarded to the
  local branch, then the chosen branch is used as starting point,
  but its own upstream is used as the upstream of the new branch.

  Members of this option's value are treated as branch names that
  have to match exactly unless they contain a character that makes
  them invalid as a branch name.  Recommended characters to use
  to trigger interpretation as a regexp are "*" and "^".  Some
  other characters which you might expect to be invalid, actually
  are not, e.g. ".+$" are all perfectly valid.  More precisely,
  if ~git check-ref-format --branch STRING~ exits with a non-zero
  status, then treat STRING as a regexp.

  Assuming the chosen branch matches these conditions you would end
  up with with e.g.:

  #+BEGIN_SRC text
    feature --upstream--> origin/master
  #+END_SRC

  instead of

  #+BEGIN_SRC text
    feature --upstream--> master --upstream--> origin/master
  #+END_SRC

  Which you prefer is a matter of personal preference.  If you do
  prefer the former, then you should add branches such as ~master~,
  ~next~, and ~maint~ to the value of this options.

- User Option: magit-branch-adjust-remote-upstream-alist

  The value of this option is an alist of branches to be used as
  the upstream when branching a remote branch.

  When creating a local branch from an ephemeral branch located on a
  remote, e.g. a feature or hotfix branch, then that remote branch
  should usually not be used as the upstream branch, since the
  push-remote already allows accessing it and having both the upstream
  and the push-remote reference the same related branch would be
  wasteful.  Instead a branch like "maint" or "master" should be used
  as the upstream.

  This option allows specifying the branch that should be used as the
  upstream when branching certain remote branches.  The value is an
  alist of the form ~((UPSTREAM . RULE)...)~.  The first matching
  element is used, the following elements are ignored.

  UPSTREAM is the branch to be used as the upstream for branches
  specified by RULE.  It can be a local or a remote branch.

  RULE can either be a regular expression, matching branches whose
  upstream should be the one specified by UPSTREAM.  Or it can be a
  list of the only branches that should *not* use UPSTREAM; all other
  branches will.  Matching is done after stripping the remote part of
  the name of the branch that is being branched from.

  If you use a finite set of non-ephemeral branches across all your
  repositories, then you might use something like:

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (("origin/master" . ("master" "next" "maint")))
  #+END_SRC

  Or if the names of all your ephemeral branches contain a slash,
  at least in some repositories, then a good value could be:

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (("origin/master" . "/"))
  #+END_SRC

  Of course you can also fine-tune:

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (("origin/maint" . "\\`hotfix/")
     ("origin/master" . "\\`feature/"))
  #+END_SRC

  UPSTREAM can be a local branch:

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (("master" . ("master" "next" "maint")))
  #+END_SRC

Because the main branch is no longer almost always named "master"
you should also account for other common names:

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (("main"  . ("main" "master" "next" "maint"))
     ("master" . ("main" "master" "next" "maint")))
  #+END_SRC

- Command: magit-branch-orphan

  This command creates and checks out a new orphan branch with
  contents from a given revision.

- Command: magit-branch-or-checkout

  This command is a hybrid between ~magit-checkout~ and
  ~magit-branch-and-checkout~ and is intended as a replacement for the
  former in ~magit-branch~.

  It first asks the user for an existing branch or revision.  If the
  user input actually can be resolved as a branch or revision, then it
  checks that out, just like ~magit-checkout~ would.

  Otherwise it creates and checks out a new branch using the input as
  its name.  Before doing so it reads the starting-point for the new
  branch.  This is similar to what ~magit-branch-and-checkout~ does.

  To use this command instead of ~magit-checkout~ add this to your init
  file:

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (transient-replace-suffix 'magit-branch 'magit-checkout
      '("b" "dwim" magit-branch-or-checkout))
  #+END_SRC

*** Branch Git Variables

These variables can be set from the transient prefix command
~magit-branch-configure~.  By default they can also be set from
~magit-branch~.  See [[*Branch Commands]].

- Variable: branch.NAME.merge

  Together with ~branch.NAME.remote~ this variable defines the upstream
  branch of the local branch named NAME.  The value of this variable
  is the full reference of the upstream /branch/.

- Variable: branch.NAME.remote

  Together with ~branch.NAME.merge~ this variable defines the upstream
  branch of the local branch named NAME.  The value of this variable
  is the name of the upstream /remote/.

- Variable: branch.NAME.rebase

  This variable controls whether pulling into the branch named NAME is
  done by rebasing or by merging the fetched branch.

  - When ~true~ then pulling is done by rebasing.
  - When ~false~ then pulling is done by merging.
  - When undefined then the value of ~pull.rebase~ is used.  The default
    of that variable is ~false~.

- Variable: branch.NAME.pushRemote

  This variable specifies the remote that the branch named NAME is
  usually pushed to.  The value has to be the name of an existing
  remote.

  It is not possible to specify the name of /branch/ to push the local
  branch to.  The name of the remote branch is always the same as the
  name of the local branch.

  If this variable is undefined but ~remote.pushDefault~ is defined,
  then the value of the latter is used.  By default ~remote.pushDefault~
  is undefined.

- Variable: branch.NAME.description

  This variable can be used to describe the branch named NAME.  That
  description is used e.g. when turning the branch into a series of
  patches.

The following variables specify defaults which are used if the above
branch-specific variables are not set.

- Variable: pull.rebase

  This variable specifies whether pulling is done by rebasing or by
  merging.  It can be overwritten using ~branch.NAME.rebase~.

  - When ~true~ then pulling is done by rebasing.
  - When ~false~ (the default) then pulling is done by merging.

  Since it is never a good idea to merge the upstream branch into a
  feature or hotfix branch and most branches are such branches, you
  should consider setting this to ~true~, and ~branch.master.rebase~ to
  ~false~.

- Variable: remote.pushDefault

  This variable specifies what remote the local branches are usually
  pushed to.  This can be overwritten per branch using
  ~branch.NAME.pushRemote~.

The following variables are used during the creation of a branch and
control whether the various branch-specific variables are
automatically set at this time.

- Variable: branch.autoSetupMerge

  This variable specifies under what circumstances creating a branch
  NAME should result in the variables ~branch.NAME.merge~ and
  ~branch.NAME.remote~ being set according to the starting point used to
  create the branch.  If the starting point isn't a branch, then these
  variables are never set.

  - When ~always~ then the variables are set regardless of whether the
    starting point is a local or a remote branch.
  - When ~true~ (the default) then the variables are set when the starting
    point is a remote branch, but not when it is a local branch.
  - When ~false~ then the variables are never set.

- Variable: branch.autoSetupRebase

  This variable specifies whether creating a branch NAME should result
  in the variable ~branch.NAME.rebase~ being set to ~true~.

  - When ~always~ then the variable is set regardless of whether the
    starting point is a local or a remote branch.
  - When ~local~ then the variable are set when the starting point is a
    local branch, but not when it is a remote branch.
  - When ~remote~ then the variable are set when the starting point is a
    remote branch, but not when it is a local branch.
  - When ~never~ (the default) then the variable is never set.

Note that the respective commands always change the repository-local
values.  If you want to change the global value, which is used when
the local value is undefined, then you have to do so on the command
line, e.g.:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell-script
  git config --global remote.autoSetupMerge always
#+END_SRC

For more information about these variables you should also see
man:git-config Also see [[man:git-branch]], [[man:git-checkout]] and [[*Pushing]].

- User Option: magit-prefer-remote-upstream

  This option controls whether commands that read a branch from the
  user and then set it as the upstream branch, offer a local or a
  remote branch as default completion candidate, when they have the
  choice.

  This affects all commands that use ~magit-read-upstream-branch~ or
  ~magit-read-starting-point~, which includes all commands that change
  the upstream and many which create new branches.

*** Auxiliary Branch Commands

These commands are not available from the transient ~magit-branch~ by
default.

- Command: magit-branch-shelve

  This command shelves a branch.  This is done by deleting the branch,
  and creating a new reference "refs/shelved/BRANCH-NAME" pointing at
  the same commit as the branch pointed at.  If the deleted branch had
  a reflog, then that is preserved as the reflog of the new reference.

  This is useful if you want to move a branch out of sight, but are
  not ready to completely discard it yet.

- Command: magit-branch-unshelve

  This command unshelves a branch that was previously shelved using
  ~magit-branch-shelve~.  This is done by deleting the reference
  "refs/shelved/BRANCH-NAME" and creating a branch "BRANCH-NAME"
  pointing at the same commit as the deleted reference pointed at.
  If the deleted reference had a reflog, then that is restored as
  the reflog of the branch.

** Merging

Also see [[man:git-merge]]  For information on how to resolve
merge conflicts see the next section.

- Key: m, magit-merge

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

When no merge is in progress, then the transient features the
following suffix commands.

- Key: m m, magit-merge-plain

  This command merges another branch or an arbitrary revision into the
  current branch.  The branch or revision to be merged is read in the
  minibuffer and defaults to the branch at point.

  Unless there are conflicts or a prefix argument is used, then the
  resulting merge commit uses a generic commit message, and the user
  does not get a chance to inspect or change it before the commit is
  created.  With a prefix argument this does not actually create the
  merge commit, which makes it possible to inspect how conflicts were
  resolved and to adjust the commit message.

- Key: m e, magit-merge-editmsg

  This command merges another branch or an arbitrary revision into the
  current branch and opens a commit message buffer, so that the user
  can make adjustments.  The commit is not actually created until the
  user finishes with ~C-c C-c~.

- Key: m n, magit-merge-nocommit

  This command merges another branch or an arbitrary revision into the
  current branch, but does not actually create the merge commit.  The
  user can then further adjust the merge, even when automatic conflict
  resolution succeeded and/or adjust the commit message.

- Key: m a, magit-merge-absorb

  This command merges another local branch into the current branch and
  then removes the former.

  Before the source branch is merged, it is first force pushed to its
  push-remote, provided the respective remote branch already exists.
  This ensures that the respective pull-request (if any) won't get
  stuck on some obsolete version of the commits that are being merged.
  Finally, if ~magit-branch-pull-request~ was used to create the merged
  branch, then the respective remote branch is also removed.

- Key: m i, magit-merge-into

  This command merges the current branch into another local branch and
  then removes the former.  The latter becomes the new current branch.

  Before the source branch is merged, it is first force pushed to its
  push-remote, provided the respective remote branch already exists.
  This ensures that the respective pull-request (if any) won't get
  stuck on some obsolete version of the commits that are being merged.
  Finally, if ~magit-branch-pull-request~ was used to create the merged
  branch, then the respective remote branch is also removed.

- Key: m s, magit-merge-squash

  This command squashes the changes introduced by another branch or an
  arbitrary revision into the current branch.  This only applies the
  changes made by the squashed commits.  No information is preserved
  that would allow creating an actual merge commit.  Instead of this
  command you should probably use a command from the apply transient.

- Key: m p, magit-merge-preview

  This command shows a preview of merging another branch or an
  arbitrary revision into the current branch.

When a merge is in progress, then the transient instead features the
following suffix commands.

- Key: m m, magit-merge

  After the user resolved conflicts, this command proceeds with the
  merge.  If some conflicts weren't resolved, then this command fails.

- Key: m a, magit-merge-abort

  This command aborts the current merge operation.

** Resolving Conflicts

When merging branches (or otherwise combining or changing history)
conflicts can occur.  If you edited two completely different parts of
the same file in two branches and then merge one of these branches
into the other, then Git can resolve that on its own, but if you edit
the same area of a file, then a human is required to decide how the
two versions, or "sides of the conflict", are to be combined into one.

Here we can only provide a brief introduction to the subject and point
you toward some tools that can help.  If you are new to this, then
please also consult Git's own documentation as well as other
resources.

If a file has conflicts and Git cannot resolve them by itself, then it
puts both versions into the affected file along with special markers
whose purpose is to denote the boundaries of the unresolved part of
the file and between the different versions.  These boundary lines
begin with the strings consisting of six times the same character, one
of ~<~, ~|~, ~=~ and ~>~ and are followed by information about the source of
the respective versions, e.g.:

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  <<<<<<< HEAD
  Take the blue pill.
  =======
  Take the red pill.
  >>>>>>> feature
#+END_EXAMPLE

In this case you have chosen to take the red pill on one branch and on
another you picked the blue pill.  Now that you are merging these two
diverging branches, Git cannot possibly know which pill you want to
take.

To resolve that conflict you have to create a version of the affected
area of the file by keeping only one of the sides, possibly by editing
it in order to bring in the changes from the other side, remove the
other versions as well as the markers, and then stage the result.  A
possible resolution might be:

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  Take both pills.
#+END_EXAMPLE

Often it is useful to see not only the two sides of the conflict but
also the "original" version from before the same area of the file was
modified twice on different branches.  Instruct Git to insert that
version as well by running this command once:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell-script
  git config --global merge.conflictStyle diff3
#+END_SRC

The above conflict might then have looked like this:

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  <<<<<<< HEAD
  Take the blue pill.
  ||||||| merged common ancestors
  Take either the blue or the red pill, but not both.
  =======
  Take the red pill.
  >>>>>>> feature
#+END_EXAMPLE

If that were the case, then the above conflict resolution would not
have been correct, which demonstrates why seeing the original version
alongside the conflicting versions can be useful.

You can perform the conflict resolution completely by hand, but Emacs
also provides some packages that help in the process: Smerge, Ediff
(info:ediff), and Emerge (info:emacs#Emerge).  Magit does not provide
its own tools for conflict resolution, but it does make using Smerge
and Ediff more convenient.  (Ediff supersedes Emerge, so you probably
don't want to use the latter anyway.)

In the Magit status buffer, files with unresolved conflicts are listed
in the "Unstaged changes" and/or "Staged changes" sections.  They are
prefixed with the word "unmerged", which in this context essentially
is a synonym for "unresolved".

Pressing ~RET~ while point is on such a file section shows a buffer
visiting that file, turns on ~smerge-mode~ in that buffer, and places
point inside the first area with conflicts.  You should then resolve
that conflict using regular edit commands and/or Smerge commands.

Unfortunately Smerge does not have a manual, but you can get a list of
commands and binding ~C-c ^ C-h~ and press ~RET~ while point is on a
command name to read its documentation.

Normally you would edit one version and then tell Smerge to keep only
that version.  Use ~C-c ^ m~ (~smerge-keep-mine~) to keep the ~HEAD~
version or ~C-c ^ o~ (~smerge-keep-other~) to keep the version that
follows "|||||||".  Then use ~C-c ^ n~ to move to the next conflicting
area in the same file.  Once you are done resolving conflicts, return
to the Magit status buffer.  The file should now be shown as
"modified", no longer as "unmerged", because Smerge automatically
stages the file when you save the buffer after resolving the last
conflict.

Magit now wraps the mentioned Smerge commands, allowing you to use
these key bindings without having to go to the file-visiting buffer.
Additionally ~k~ (~magit-discard~) on a hunk with unresolved conflicts
asks which side to keep or, if point is on a side, then it keeps it
without prompting.  Similarly ~k~ on a unresolved file ask which side
to keep.

Alternatively you could use Ediff, which uses separate buffers for the
different versions of the file.  To resolve conflicts in a file using
Ediff press ~e~ while point is on such a file in the status buffer.

Ediff can be used for other purposes as well.  For more information on
how to enter Ediff from Magit, see [[*Ediffing]].  Explaining how to use
Ediff is beyond the scope of this manual, instead see info:ediff.

If you are unsure whether you should Smerge or Ediff, then use the
former.  It is much easier to understand and use, and except for
truly complex conflicts, the latter is usually overkill.

** Rebasing
*** _

Also see [[man:git-rebase]]  For information on how to resolve
conflicts that occur during rebases see the preceding section.

- Key: r, magit-rebase

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

When no rebase is in progress, then the transient features the
following suffix commands.

Using one of these commands /starts/ a rebase sequence.  Git might then
stop somewhere along the way, either because you told it to do so, or
because applying a commit failed due to a conflict.  When that
happens, then the status buffer shows information about the rebase
sequence which is in progress in a section similar to a log section.
See [[*Information About In-Progress Rebase]].

For information about the upstream and the push-remote, see [[*The Two
Remotes]].

- Key: r p, magit-rebase-onto-pushremote

  This command rebases the current branch onto its push-remote.

  With a prefix argument or when the push-remote is either not
  configured or unusable, then let the user first configure the
  push-remote.

- Key: r u, magit-rebase-onto-upstream

  This command rebases the current branch onto its upstream branch.

  With a prefix argument or when the upstream is either not
  configured or unusable, then let the user first configure
  the upstream.

- Key: r e, magit-rebase-branch

  This command rebases the current branch onto a branch read in the
  minibuffer.  All commits that are reachable from head but not from
  the selected branch TARGET are being rebased.

- Key: r s, magit-rebase-subset

  This command starts a non-interactive rebase sequence to transfer
  commits from START to ~HEAD~ onto NEWBASE.  START has to be selected
  from a list of recent commits.

By default Magit uses the ~--autostash~ argument, which causes
uncommitted changes to be stored in a stash before the rebase begins.
These changes are restored after the rebase completes and if possible
the stash is removed.  If the stash does not apply cleanly, then the
stash is not removed.  In case something goes wrong when resolving
the conflicts, this allows you to start over.

Even though one of the actions is dedicated to interactive rebases,
the transient also features the infix argument ~--interactive~.  This
can be used to turn one of the other, non-interactive rebase variants
into an interactive rebase.

For example if you want to clean up a feature branch and at the same
time rebase it onto ~master~, then you could use ~r-iu~.  But we recommend
that you instead do that in two steps.  First use ~ri~ to cleanup the
feature branch, and then in a second step ~ru~ to rebase it onto ~master~.
That way if things turn out to be more complicated than you thought
and/or you make a mistake and have to start over, then you only have
to redo half the work.

Explicitly enabling ~--interactive~ won't have an effect on the
following commands as they always use that argument anyway, even if it
is not enabled in the transient.

- Key: r i, magit-rebase-interactive

  This command starts an interactive rebase sequence.

- Key: r f, magit-rebase-autosquash

  This command combines squash and fixup commits with their intended
  targets.

- Key: r m, magit-rebase-edit-commit

  This command starts an interactive rebase sequence that lets the
  user edit a single older commit.

- Key: r w, magit-rebase-reword-commit

  This command starts an interactive rebase sequence that lets the
  user reword a single older commit.

- Key: r k, magit-rebase-remove-commit

  This command removes a single older commit using rebase.

When a rebase is in progress, then the transient instead features
the following suffix commands.

- Key: r r, magit-rebase-continue

  This command restart the current rebasing operation.

  In some cases this pops up a commit message buffer for you do edit.
  With a prefix argument the old message is reused as-is.

- Key: r s, magit-rebase-skip

  This command skips the current commit and restarts the current
  rebase operation.

- Key: r e, magit-rebase-edit

  This command lets the user edit the todo list of the current rebase
  operation.

- Key: r a, magit-rebase-abort

  This command aborts the current rebase operation, restoring the
  original branch.

*** Editing Rebase Sequences

- Key: C-c C-c, with-editor-finish

  Finish the current editing session by returning with exit code 0.
  Git then uses the rebase instructions it finds in the file.

- Key: C-c C-k, with-editor-cancel

  Cancel the current editing session by returning with exit code 1.
  Git then forgoes starting the rebase sequence.

- Key: RET, git-rebase-show-commit

  Show the commit on the current line in another buffer and select
  that buffer.

- Key: SPC, git-rebase-show-or-scroll-up

  Show the commit on the current line in another buffer without
  selecting that buffer.  If the revision buffer is already visible in
  another window of the current frame, then instead scroll that window
  up.

- Key: DEL, git-rebase-show-or-scroll-down

  Show the commit on the current line in another buffer without
  selecting that buffer.  If the revision buffer is already visible in
  another window of the current frame, then instead scroll that window
  down.

- Key: p, git-rebase-backward-line

  Move to previous line.

- Key: n, forward-line

  Move to next line.

- Key: M-p, git-rebase-move-line-up

  Move the current commit (or command) up.

- Key: M-n, git-rebase-move-line-down

  Move the current commit (or command) down.

- Key: r, git-rebase-reword

  Edit message of commit on current line.

- Key: e, git-rebase-edit

  Stop at the commit on the current line.

- Key: s, git-rebase-squash

  Meld commit on current line into previous commit, and edit message.

- Key: f, git-rebase-fixup

  Meld commit on current line into previous commit, discarding the
  current commit's message.

- Key: k, git-rebase-kill-line

  Kill the current action line.

- Key: c, git-rebase-pick

  Use commit on current line.

- Key: x, git-rebase-exec

  Insert a shell command to be run after the proceeding commit.

  If there already is such a command on the current line, then edit
  that instead.  With a prefix argument insert a new command even when
  there already is one on the current line.  With empty input remove
  the command on the current line, if any.

- Key: b, git-rebase-break

  Insert a break action before the current line, instructing Git to
  return control to the user.

- Key: y, git-rebase-insert

  Read an arbitrary commit and insert it below current line.

- Key: C-x u, git-rebase-undo

  Undo some previous changes.  Like ~undo~ but works in read-only
  buffers.

- User Option: git-rebase-auto-advance

  Whether to move to next line after changing a line.

- User Option: git-rebase-show-instructions

  Whether to show usage instructions inside the rebase buffer.

- User Option: git-rebase-confirm-cancel

  Whether confirmation is required to cancel.

When a rebase is performed with the ~--rebase-merges~ option, the
sequence will include a few other types of actions and the following
commands become relevant.

- Key: l, git-rebase-label

  This commands inserts a label action or edits the one at point.

- Key: t, git-rebase-reset

  This command inserts a reset action or edits the one at point.  The
  prompt will offer the labels that are currently present in the
  buffer.

- Key: MM, git-rebase-merge

  The command inserts a merge action or edits the one at point.  The
  prompt will offer the labels that are currently present in the
  buffer.  Specifying a message to reuse via ~-c~ or ~-C~ is not
  supported; an editor will always be invoked for the merge.

- Key: Mt, git-rebase-merge-toggle-editmsg

  This command toggles between the ~-C~ and ~-c~ options of the merge
  action at point.  These options both specify a commit whose message
  should be reused.  The lower-case variant instructs Git to invoke
  the editor when creating the merge, allowing the user to edit the
  message.

*** Information About In-Progress Rebase

While a rebase sequence is in progress, the status buffer features a
section that lists the commits that have already been applied as well
as the commits that still have to be applied.

The commits are split in two halves.  When rebase stops at a commit,
either because the user has to deal with a conflict or because s/he
explicitly requested that rebase stops at that commit, then point is
placed on the commit that separates the two groups, i.e. on ~HEAD~.  The
commits above it have not been applied yet, while the ~HEAD~ and the
commits below it have already been applied.  In between these two
groups of applied and yet-to-be applied commits, there sometimes is a
commit which has been dropped.

Each commit is prefixed with a word and these words are additionally
shown in different colors to indicate the status of the commits.

The following colors are used:

- Yellow commits have not been applied yet.

- Gray commits have already been applied.

- The blue commit is the ~HEAD~ commit.

- The green commit is the commit the rebase sequence stopped at.  If
  this is the same commit as ~HEAD~ (e.g. because you haven't done
  anything yet after rebase stopped at the commit, then this commit is
  shown in blue, not green).  There can only be a green *and* a blue
  commit at the same time, if you create one or more new commits after
  rebase stops at a commit.

- Red commits have been dropped.  They are shown for reference only,
  e.g. to make it easier to diff.

Of course these colors are subject to the color-theme in use.

The following words are used:

- Commits prefixed with ~pick~, ~reword~, ~edit~, ~squash~, and ~fixup~ have not
  been applied yet.  These words have the same meaning here as they do
  in the buffer used to edit the rebase sequence.  See [[*Editing Rebase
  Sequences]].  When the ~--rebase-merges~ option was specified,
  ~reset~, ~label~, and ~merge~ lines may also be present.

- Commits prefixed with ~done~ and ~onto~ have already been applied.
  It is possible for such a commit to be the ~HEAD~, in which case it
  is blue.  Otherwise it is grey.

  - The commit prefixed with ~onto~ is the commit on top of which all
    the other commits are being re-applied.  This commit itself did
    not have to be re-applied, it is the commit rebase did rewind to
    before starting to re-apply other commits.

  - Commits prefixed with ~done~ have already been re-applied.  This
    includes commits that have been re-applied but also new commits
    that you have created during the rebase.

- All other commits, those not prefixed with any of the above words,
  are in some way related to the commit at which rebase stopped.

  To determine whether a commit is related to the stopped-at commit
  their hashes, trees and patch-ids [fn:patch-id] are being compared.
  The commit message is not used for this purpose.

  Generally speaking commits that are related to the stopped-at commit
  can have any of the used colors, though not all color/word
  combinations are possible.

  Words used for stopped-at commits are:

  - When a commit is prefixed with ~void~, then that indicates that
    Magit knows for sure that all the changes in that commit have been
    applied using several new commits.  This commit is no longer
    reachable from ~HEAD~, and it also isn't one of the commits that
    will be applied when resuming the session.

  - When a commit is prefixed with ~join~, then that indicates that the
    rebase sequence stopped at that commit due to a conflict - you now
    have to join (merge) the changes with what has already been
    applied.  In a sense this is the commit rebase stopped at, but
    while its effect is already in the index and in the worktree (with
    conflict markers), the commit itself has not actually been applied
    yet (it isn't the ~HEAD~).  So it is shown in yellow, like the other
    commits that still have to be applied.

  - When a commit is prefixed with ~stop~ or a /blue/ or /green/ ~same~, then
    that indicates that rebase stopped at this commit, that it is
    still applied or has been applied again, and that at least its
    patch-id is unchanged.

    - When a commit is prefixed with ~stop~, then that indicates that
      rebase stopped at that commit because you requested that
      earlier, and its patch-id is unchanged.  It might even still be
      the exact same commit.

    - When a commit is prefixed with a /blue/ or /green/ ~same~, then that
      indicates that while its tree or hash changed, its patch-id did
      not.  If it is blue, then it is the ~HEAD~ commit (as always for
      blue).  When it is green, then it no longer is ~HEAD~ because
      other commit have been created since (but before continuing the
      rebase).

  - When a commit is prefixed with ~goal~, a /yellow/ ~same,~ or ~work~, then
    that indicates that rebase applied that commit but that you then
    reset ~HEAD~ to an earlier commit (likely to split it up into
    multiple commits), and that there are some uncommitted changes
    remaining which likely (but not necessarily) originate from that
    commit.

    - When a commit is prefixed with ~goal~, then that indicates that it
      is still possible to create a new commit with the exact same
      tree (the "goal") without manually editing any files, by
      committing the index, or by staging all changes and then
      committing that.  This is the case when the original tree still
      exists in the index or worktree in untainted form.

    - When a commit is prefixed with a yellow ~same~, then that
      indicates that it is no longer possible to create a commit with
      the exact same tree, but that it is still possible to create a
      commit with the same patch-id.  This would be the case if you
      created a new commit with other changes, but the changes from
      the original commit still exist in the index or working tree in
      untainted form.

    - When a commit is prefixed with ~work~, then that indicates that
      you reset ~HEAD~ to an earlier commit, and that there are some
      staged and/or unstaged changes (likely, but not necessarily)
      originating from that commit.  However it is no longer possible
      to create a new commit with the same tree or at least the same
      patch-id because you have already made other changes.

  - When a commit is prefixed with ~poof~ or ~gone~, then that indicates
    that rebase applied that commit but that you then reset ~HEAD~ to an
    earlier commit (likely to split it up into multiple commits), and
    that there are no uncommitted changes.

    - When a commit is prefixed with ~poof~, then that indicates that it
      is no longer reachable from ~HEAD~, but that it has been replaced
      with one or more commits, which together have the exact same
      effect.

    - When a commit is prefixed with ~gone~, then that indicates that it
      is no longer reachable from ~HEAD~ and that we also cannot
      determine whether its changes are still in effect in one or more
      new commits.  They might be, but if so, then there must also be
      other changes which makes it impossible to know for sure.

Do not worry if you do not fully understand the above.  That's okay,
you will acquire a good enough understanding through practice.

For other sequence operations such as cherry-picking, a similar section
is displayed, but they lack some of the features described above, due
to limitations in the git commands used to implement them.  Most
importantly these sequences only support "picking" a commit but not
other actions such as "rewording", and they do not keep track of the
commits which have already been applied.

[fn:patch-id] The patch-id is a hash of the /changes/ introduced by a
commit.  It differs from the hash of the commit itself, which is a
hash of the result of applying that change (i.e. the resulting trees
and blobs) as well as author and committer information, the commit
message, and the hashes of the parents of the commit.  The patch-id
hash on the other hand is created only from the added and removed
lines, even line numbers and whitespace changes are ignored when
calculating this hash.  The patch-ids of two commits can be used to
answer the question "Do these commits make the same change?".

** Cherry Picking
*** _

Also see [[man:git-cherry-pick]]

- Key: A, magit-cherry-pick

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

When no cherry-pick or revert is in progress, then the transient
features the following suffix commands.

- Key: A A, magit-cherry-copy

  This command copies COMMITS from another branch onto the current
  branch.  If the region selects multiple commits, then those are
  copied, without prompting.  Otherwise the user is prompted for a
  commit or range, defaulting to the commit at point.

- Key: A a, magit-cherry-apply

  This command applies the changes in COMMITS from another branch onto
  the current branch.  If the region selects multiple commits, then
  those are used, without prompting.  Otherwise the user is prompted
  for a commit or range, defaulting to the commit at point.

  This command also has a top-level binding, which can be invoked
  without using the transient by typing ~a~ at the top-level.

The following commands not only apply some commits to some branch, but
also remove them from some other branch.  The removal is performed
using either ~git-update-ref~ or if necessary ~git-rebase~.  Both applying
commits as well as removing them using ~git-rebase~ can lead to
conflicts.  If that happens, then these commands abort and you not
only have to resolve the conflicts but also finish the process the
same way you would have to if these commands didn't exist at all.

- Key: A h, magit-cherry-harvest

  This command moves the selected COMMITS that must be located on
  another BRANCH onto the current branch instead, removing them from
  the former.  When this command succeeds, then the same branch is
  current as before.

  Applying the commits on the current branch or removing them from the
  other branch can lead to conflicts.  When that happens, then this
  command stops and you have to resolve the conflicts and then finish
  the process manually.

- Key: A d, magit-cherry-donate

  This command moves the selected COMMITS from the current branch onto
  another existing BRANCH, removing them from the former.  When this
  command succeeds, then the same branch is current as before.

  Applying the commits on the other branch or removing them from the
  current branch can lead to conflicts.  When that happens, then this
  command stops and you have to resolve the conflicts and then finish
  the process manually.

- Key: A n, magit-cherry-spinout

  This command moves the selected COMMITS from the current branch onto
  a new branch BRANCH, removing them from the former.  When this
  command succeeds, then the same branch is current as before.

  Applying the commits on the other branch or removing them from the
  current branch can lead to conflicts.  When that happens, then this
  command stops and you have to resolve the conflicts and then finish
  the process manually.

- Key: A s, magit-cherry-spinoff

  This command moves the selected COMMITS from the current branch onto
  a new branch BRANCH, removing them from the former.  When this
  command succeeds, then the new branch is checked out.

  Applying the commits on the other branch or removing them from the
  current branch can lead to conflicts.  When that happens, then this
  command stops and you have to resolve the conflicts and then finish
  the process manually.

When a cherry-pick or revert is in progress, then the transient
instead features the following suffix commands.

- Key: A A, magit-sequence-continue

  Resume the current cherry-pick or revert sequence.

- Key: A s, magit-sequence-skip

  Skip the stopped at commit during a cherry-pick or revert sequence.

- Key: A a, magit-sequence-abort

  Abort the current cherry-pick or revert sequence.  This discards all
  changes made since the sequence started.

*** Reverting

- Key: V, magit-revert

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

When no cherry-pick or revert is in progress, then the transient
features the following suffix commands.

- Key: V V, magit-revert-and-commit

  Revert a commit by creating a new commit.  Prompt for a commit,
  defaulting to the commit at point.  If the region selects multiple
  commits, then revert all of them, without prompting.

- Key: V v, magit-revert-no-commit

  Revert a commit by applying it in reverse to the working tree.
  Prompt for a commit, defaulting to the commit at point.  If the
  region selects multiple commits, then revert all of them, without
  prompting.

When a cherry-pick or revert is in progress, then the transient
instead features the following suffix commands.

- Key: V A, magit-sequence-continue

  Resume the current cherry-pick or revert sequence.

- Key: V s, magit-sequence-skip

  Skip the stopped at commit during a cherry-pick or revert sequence.

- Key: V a, magit-sequence-abort

  Abort the current cherry-pick or revert sequence.  This discards all
  changes made since the sequence started.

** Resetting

Also see [[man:git-reset]]

- Key: x, magit-reset-quickly

  Reset the ~HEAD~ and index to some commit read from the user and
  defaulting to the commit at point, and possibly also reset the
  working tree.  With a prefix argument reset the working tree
  otherwise don't.

- Key: X m, magit-reset-mixed

  Reset the ~HEAD~ and index to some commit read from the user and
  defaulting to the commit at point.  The working tree is kept as-is.

- Key: X s, magit-reset-soft

  Reset the ~HEAD~ to some commit read from the user and defaulting
  to the commit at point.  The index and the working tree are kept
  as-is.

- Key: X h, magit-reset-hard

  Reset the ~HEAD~, index, and working tree to some commit read from the
  user and defaulting to the commit at point.

- Key: X k, magit-reset-keep

  Reset the ~HEAD~, index, and working tree to some commit read from the
  user and defaulting to the commit at point.  Uncommitted changes are
  kept as-is.

- Key: X i, magit-reset-index

  Reset the index to some commit read from the user and defaulting to
  the commit at point.  Keep the ~HEAD~ and working tree as-is, so if
  the commit refers to the ~HEAD~, then this effectively unstages all
  changes.

- Key: X w, magit-reset-worktree

  Reset the working tree to some commit read from the user and
  defaulting to the commit at point.  Keep the ~HEAD~ and index as-is.

- Key: X f, magit-file-checkout

  Update file in the working tree and index to the contents from a
  revision.  Both the revision and file are read from the user.

** Stashing

Also see [[man:git-stash]]

- Key: z, magit-stash

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: z z, magit-stash-both

  Create a stash of the index and working tree.  Untracked files are
  included according to infix arguments.  One prefix argument is
  equivalent to ~--include-untracked~ while two prefix arguments are
  equivalent to ~--all~.

- Key: z i, magit-stash-index

  Create a stash of the index only.  Unstaged and untracked changes
  are not stashed.

- Key: z w, magit-stash-worktree

  Create a stash of unstaged changes in the working tree.  Untracked
  files are included according to infix arguments.  One prefix
  argument is equivalent to ~--include-untracked~ while two prefix
  arguments are equivalent to ~--all~.

- Key: z x, magit-stash-keep-index

  Create a stash of the index and working tree, keeping index intact.
  Untracked files are included according to infix arguments.  One
  prefix argument is equivalent to ~--include-untracked~ while two
  prefix arguments are equivalent to ~--all~.

- Key: z Z, magit-snapshot-both

  Create a snapshot of the index and working tree.  Untracked files
  are included according to infix arguments.  One prefix argument is
  equivalent to ~--include-untracked~ while two prefix arguments are
  equivalent to ~--all~.

- Key: z I, magit-snapshot-index

  Create a snapshot of the index only.  Unstaged and untracked changes
  are not stashed.

- Key: z W, magit-snapshot-worktree

  Create a snapshot of unstaged changes in the working tree.
  Untracked files are included according to infix arguments.  One
  prefix argument is equivalent to ~--include-untracked~ while two
  prefix arguments are equivalent to ~--all~-.

- Key: z a, magit-stash-apply

  Apply a stash to the working tree.  Try to preserve the stash index.
  If that fails because there are staged changes, apply without
  preserving the stash index.

- Key: z p, magit-stash-pop

  Apply a stash to the working tree and remove it from stash list.
  Try to preserve the stash index.  If that fails because there are
  staged changes, apply without preserving the stash index and forgo
  removing the stash.

- Key: z k, magit-stash-drop

  Remove a stash from the stash list.  When the region is active, offer
  to drop all contained stashes.

- Key: z v, magit-stash-show

  Show all diffs of a stash in a buffer.

- Key: z b, magit-stash-branch

  Create and checkout a new BRANCH from STASH.  The branch starts at
  the commit that was current when the stash was created.

- Key: z B, magit-stash-branch-here

  Create and checkout a new BRANCH using ~magit-branch~ with the current
  branch or ~HEAD~ as the starting-point.  Then apply STASH, dropping it
  if it applies cleanly.

- Key: z f, magit-stash-format-patch

  Create a patch from STASH.

- Key: k, magit-stash-clear

  Remove all stashes saved in REF's reflog by deleting REF.

- Key: z l, magit-stash-list

  List all stashes in a buffer.

- User Option: magit-stashes-margin

  This option specifies whether the margin is initially shown in
  stashes buffers and how it is formatted.

  The value has the form ~(INIT STYLE WIDTH AUTHOR AUTHOR-WIDTH)~.

  - If INIT is non-nil, then the margin is shown initially.
  - STYLE controls how to format the author or committer date.  It can
    be one of ~age~ (to show the age of the commit), ~age-abbreviated~ (to
    abbreviate the time unit to a character), or a string (suitable
    for ~format-time-string~) to show the actual date.  Option
    ~magit-log-margin-show-committer-date~ controls which date is being
    displayed.
  - WIDTH controls the width of the margin.  This exists for forward
    compatibility and currently the value should not be changed.
  - AUTHOR controls whether the name of the author is also shown by
    default.
  - AUTHOR-WIDTH has to be an integer.  When the name of the author
    is shown, then this specifies how much space is used to do so.

* Transferring
** Remotes
*** Remote Commands

The transient prefix command ~magit-remote~ is used to add remotes and
to make changes to existing remotes.  This command only deals with
remotes themselves, not with branches or the transfer of commits.
Those features are available from separate transient commands.

Also see [[man:git-remote]]

- Key: M, magit-remote

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  and displays them in a temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

  By default it also binds and displays the values of some
  remote-related Git variables and allows changing their values.

- User Option: magit-remote-direct-configure

  This option controls whether remote-related Git variables are
  accessible directly from the transient ~magit-remote~.

  If ~t~ (the default) and a local branch is checked out, then
  ~magit-remote~ features the variables for the upstream remote of that
  branch, or if ~HEAD~ is detached, for ~origin~, provided that exists.

  If ~nil~, then ~magit-remote-configure~ has to be used to do so.

- Key: M C, magit-remote-configure

  This transient prefix command binds commands that set the value of
  remote-related variables and displays them in a temporary buffer
  until the transient is exited.

  With a prefix argument, this command always prompts for a remote.

  Without a prefix argument this depends on whether it was invoked as
  a suffix of ~magit-remote~ and on the ~magit-remote-direct-configure~
  option.  If ~magit-remote~ already displays the variables for the
  upstream, then it does not make sense to invoke another transient
  that displays them for the same remote.  In that case this command
  prompts for a remote.

The variables are described in [[*Remote Git Variables]].

- Key: M a, magit-remote-add

  This command add a remote and fetches it.  The remote name and url
  are read in the minibuffer.

- Key: M r, magit-remote-rename

  This command renames a remote.  Both the old and the new names are
  read in the minibuffer.

- Key: M u, magit-remote-set-url

  This command changes the url of a remote.  Both the remote and the
  new url are read in the minibuffer.

- Key: M k, magit-remote-remove

  This command deletes a remote, read in the minibuffer.

- Key: M p, magit-remote-prune

  This command removes stale remote-tracking branches for a remote
  read in the minibuffer.

- Key: M P, magit-remote-prune-refspecs

  This command removes stale refspecs for a remote read in the
  minibuffer.

  A refspec is stale if there no longer exists at least one branch
  on the remote that would be fetched due to that refspec.  A stale
  refspec is problematic because its existence causes Git to refuse
  to fetch according to the remaining non-stale refspecs.

  If only stale refspecs remain, then this command offers to either
  delete the remote or to replace the stale refspecs with the default
  refspec ("+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/REMOTE/*").

  This command also removes the remote-tracking branches that were
  created due to the now stale refspecs.  Other stale branches are
  not removed.

- User Option: magit-remote-add-set-remote.pushDefault

  This option controls whether the user is asked whether they want to
  set ~remote.pushDefault~ after adding a remote.

  If ~ask~, then users is always ask.  If ~ask-if-unset~, then the user is
  only if the variable isn't set already.  If ~nil~, then the user isn't
  asked and the variable isn't set.  If the value is a string, then
  the variable is set without the user being asked, provided that the
  name of the added remote is equal to that string and the variable
  isn't already set.

*** Remote Git Variables

These variables can be set from the transient prefix command
~magit-remote-configure~.  By default they can also be set from
~magit-remote~.  See [[*Remote Commands]].

- Variable: remote.NAME.url

  This variable specifies the url of the remote named NAME.  It can
  have multiple values.

- Variable: remote.NAME.fetch

  The refspec used when fetching from the remote named NAME.  It can
  have multiple values.

- Variable: remote.NAME.pushurl

  This variable specifies the url used for fetching from the remote
  named NAME.  If it is not specified, then ~remote.NAME.url~ is used
  instead.  It can have multiple values.

- Variable: remote.NAME.push

  The refspec used when pushing to the remote named NAME.  It can
  have multiple values.

- Variable: remote.NAME.tagOpts

  This variable specifies what tags are fetched by default.  If the
  value is ~--no-tags~ then no tags are fetched.  If the value is
  ~--tags~, then all tags are fetched.  If this variable has no value,
  then only tags are fetched that are reachable from fetched branches.

** Fetching

Also see [[man:git-fetch]] For information about the upstream and the
push-remote, see [[*The Two Remotes]].

- Key: f, magit-fetch

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: f p, magit-fetch-from-pushremote

  This command fetches from the current push-remote.

  With a prefix argument or when the push-remote is either not
  configured or unusable, then let the user first configure the
  push-remote.

- Key: f u, magit-fetch-from-upstream

  This command fetch from the upstream of the current branch.

  If the upstream is configured for the current branch and names
  an existing remote, then use that.  Otherwise try to use another
  remote: If only a single remote is configured, then use that.
  Otherwise if a remote named "origin" exists, then use that.

  If no remote can be determined, then this command is not available
  from the ~magit-fetch~ transient prefix and invoking it directly
  results in an error.

- Key: f e, magit-fetch-other

  This command fetch from a repository read from the minibuffer.

- Key: f o, magit-fetch-branch

  This command fetches a branch from a remote, both of which are read
  from the minibuffer.

- Key: f r, magit-fetch-refspec

  This command fetches from a remote using an explicit refspec, both
  of which are read from the minibuffer.

- Key: f a, magit-fetch-all

  This command fetches from all remotes.

- Key: f m, magit-submodule-fetch

  This command fetches all submodules.  With a prefix argument it
  fetches all remotes of all submodules.

- User Option: magit-pull-or-fetch

  By default fetch and pull commands are available from separate
  transient prefix command.  Setting this to ~t~ adds some (but not all)
  of the above suffix commands to the ~magit-pull~ transient.

  If you do that, then you might also want to change the key binding
  for these prefix commands, e.g.:

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (setq magit-pull-or-fetch t)
    (define-key magit-mode-map "f" 'magit-pull) ; was magit-fetch
    (define-key magit-mode-map "F" nil)         ; was magit-pull
  #+END_SRC

** Pulling

Also see [[man:git-pull]] For information about the upstream and the
push-remote, see [[*The Two Remotes]].

- Key: F, magit-pull

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  and displays them in a temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: F p, magit-pull-from-pushremote

  This command pulls from the push-remote of the current branch.

  With a prefix argument or when the push-remote is either not
  configured or unusable, then let the user first configure the
  push-remote.

- Key: F u, magit-pull-from-upstream

  This command pulls from the upstream of the current branch.

  With a prefix argument or when the upstream is either not
  configured or unusable, then let the user first configure
  the upstream.

- Key: F e, magit-pull-branch

  This command pulls from a branch read in the minibuffer.

** Pushing

Also see [[man:git-push]] For information about the upstream and the
push-remote, see [[*The Two Remotes]].

- Key: P, magit-push

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: P p, magit-push-current-to-pushremote

  This command pushes the current branch to its push-remote.

  With a prefix argument or when the push-remote is either not
  configured or unusable, then let the user first configure the
  push-remote.

- Key: P u, magit-push-current-to-upstream

  This command pushes the current branch to its upstream branch.

  With a prefix argument or when the upstream is either not
  configured or unusable, then let the user first configure
  the upstream.

- Key: P e, magit-push-current

  This command pushes the current branch to a branch read in the
  minibuffer.

- Key: P o, magit-push-other

  This command pushes an arbitrary branch or commit somewhere.  Both
  the source and the target are read in the minibuffer.

- Key: P r, magit-push-refspecs

  This command pushes one or multiple refspecs to a remote, both of
  which are read in the minibuffer.

  To use multiple refspecs, separate them with commas.  Completion is
  only available for the part before the colon, or when no colon is
  used.

- Key: P m, magit-push-matching

  This command pushes all matching branches to another repository.

  If only one remote exists, then push to that.  Otherwise prompt for
  a remote, offering the remote configured for the current branch as
  default.

- Key: P t, magit-push-tags

  This command pushes all tags to another repository.

  If only one remote exists, then push to that.  Otherwise prompt for
  a remote, offering the remote configured for the current branch as
  default.

- Key: P T, magit-push-tag

  This command pushes a tag to another repository.

One of the infix arguments, ~--force-with-lease~, deserves a word of
caution.  It is passed without a value, which means "permit a force
push as long as the remote-tracking branches match their counterparts
on the remote end".  If you've set up a tool to do automatic fetches
(Magit itself does not provide such functionality), using
~--force-with-lease~ can be dangerous because you don't actually
control or know the state of the remote-tracking refs.  In that case,
you should consider setting ~push.useForceIfIncludes~ to ~true~
(available since Git 2.30).

Two more push commands exist, which by default are not available from
the push transient.  See their doc-strings for instructions on how to
add them to the transient.

- Command: magit-push-implicitly args

  This command pushes somewhere without using an explicit refspec.

  This command simply runs ~git push -v [ARGS]~.  ARGS are the infix
  arguments.  No explicit refspec arguments are used.  Instead the
  behavior depends on at least these Git variables: ~push.default~,
  ~remote.pushDefault~, ~branch.<branch>.pushRemote~,
  ~branch.<branch>.remote~, ~branch.<branch>.merge~, and
  ~remote.<remote>.push~.

  If you add this suffix to a transient prefix without explicitly
  specifying the description, then an attempt is made to predict
  what this command will do.  For example:

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (transient-insert-suffix 'magit-push \"p\"
      '(\"i\" magit-push-implicitly))"
  #+END_SRC

- Command: magit-push-to-remote remote args

  This command pushes to the remote REMOTE without using an explicit
  refspec.  The remote is read in the minibuffer.

  This command simply runs ~git push -v [ARGS] REMOTE~.  ARGS are the
  infix arguments.  No refspec arguments are used.  Instead the
  behavior depends on at least these Git variables: ~push.default~,
  ~remote.pushDefault~, ~branch.<branch>.pushRemote~,
  ~branch.<branch>.remote~, ~branch.<branch>.merge~, and
  ~remote.<remote>.push~.

** Plain Patches

- Key: W, magit-patch

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: W c, magit-patch-create

  This command creates patches for a set commits.  If the region marks
  several commits, then it creates patches for all of them.  Otherwise
  it functions as a transient prefix command, which features several
  infix arguments and binds itself as a suffix command.  When this
  command is invoked as a suffix of itself, then it creates a patch
  using the specified infix arguments.

- Key: w a, magit-patch-apply

  This command applies a patch.  This is a transient prefix command,
  which features several infix arguments and binds itself as a suffix
  command.  When this command is invoked as a suffix of itself, then
  it applies a patch using the specified infix arguments.

- Key: W s, magit-patch-save

  This command creates a patch from the current diff.

  Inside ~magit-diff-mode~ or ~magit-revision-mode~ buffers, ~C-x C-w~ is
  also bound to this command.

It is also possible to save a plain patch file by using ~C-x C-w~ inside
a ~magit-diff-mode~ or ~magit-revision-mode~ buffer.

** Maildir Patches

Also see [[man:git-am]] and [[man:git-apply]]

- Key: w, magit-am

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: w w, magit-am-apply-patches

  This command applies one or more patches.  If the region marks
  files, then those are applied as patches.  Otherwise this command
  reads a file-name in the minibuffer, defaulting to the file at
  point.

- Key: w m, magit-am-apply-maildir

  This command applies patches from a maildir.

- Key: w a, magit-patch-apply

  This command applies a plain patch.  For a longer description see
  [[*Plain Patches]].  This command is only available from the ~magit-am~
  transient for historic reasons.

When an "am" operation is in progress, then the transient instead
features the following suffix commands.

- Key: w w, magit-am-continue

  This command resumes the current patch applying sequence.

- Key: w s, magit-am-skip

  This command skips the stopped at patch during a patch applying
  sequence.

- Key: w a, magit-am-abort

  This command aborts the current patch applying sequence.  This
  discards all changes made since the sequence started.

* Miscellaneous
** Tagging

Also see [[man:git-tag]]

- Key: t, magit-tag

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: t t, magit-tag-create

  This command creates a new tag with the given NAME at REV.  With a
  prefix argument it creates an annotated tag.

- Key: t r, magit-tag-release

  This commands creates a release tag.  It assumes that release tags
  match ~magit-release-tag-regexp~.

  First it prompts for the name of the new tag using the highest
  existing tag as initial input and leaving it to the user to
  increment the desired part of the version string.  If you use
  unconventional release tags or version numbers (e.g.,
  ~v1.2.3-custom.1~), you can set the ~magit-release-tag-regexp~ and
  ~magit-tag-version-regexp-alist~ variables.

  If ~--annotate~ is enabled then it prompts for the message of the
  new tag.  The proposed tag message is based on the message of the
  highest tag, provided that that contains the corresponding version
  string and substituting the new version string for that.  Otherwise
  it proposes something like "Foo-Bar 1.2.3", given, for example, a
  TAG "v1.2.3" and a repository located at something like
  "/path/to/foo-bar".

- Key: t k, magit-tag-delete

  This command deletes one or more tags.  If the region marks multiple
  tags (and nothing else), then it offers to delete those.  Otherwise,
  it prompts for a single tag to be deleted, defaulting to the tag at
  point.

- Key: t p, magit-tag-prune

  This command offers to delete tags missing locally from REMOTE, and
  vice versa.

** Notes

Also see [[man:git-notes]]

- Key: T, magit-notes

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: T T, magit-notes-edit

  Edit the note attached to a commit, defaulting to the commit at
  point.

  By default use the value of Git variable ~core.notesRef~ or
  "refs/notes/commits" if that is undefined.

- Key: T r, magit-notes-remove

  Remove the note attached to a commit, defaulting to the commit at
  point.

  By default use the value of Git variable ~core.notesRef~ or
  "refs/notes/commits" if that is undefined.

- Key: T p, magit-notes-prune

  Remove notes about unreachable commits.

It is possible to merge one note ref into another.  That may result in
conflicts which have to resolved in the temporary worktree
".git/NOTES_MERGE_WORKTREE".

- Key: T m, magit-notes-merge

  Merge the notes of a ref read from the user into the current notes
  ref.  The current notes ref is the value of Git variable
  ~core.notesRef~ or "refs/notes/commits" if that is undefined.

When a notes merge is in progress then the transient features the
following suffix commands, instead of those listed above.

- Key: T c, magit-notes-merge-commit

  Commit the current notes ref merge, after manually resolving
  conflicts.

- Key: T a, magit-notes-merge-abort

  Abort the current notes ref merge.

The following variables control what notes reference ~magit-notes-*~,
~git notes~ and ~git show~ act on and display.  Both the local and global
values are displayed and can be modified.

- Variable: core.notesRef

  This variable specifies the notes ref that is displayed by default
  and which commands act on by default.

- Variable: notes.displayRef

  This variable specifies additional notes ref to be displayed in
  addition to the ref specified by ~core.notesRef~.  It can have
  multiple values and may end with ~*~ to display all refs in the
  ~refs/notes/~ namespace (or ~**~ if some names contain slashes).

** Submodules
*** _

Also see [[man:git-submodule]]

*** Listing Submodules

The command ~magit-list-submodules~ displays a list of the current
repository's submodules in a separate buffer.  It's also possible to
display information about submodules directly in the status buffer of
the super-repository by adding ~magit-insert-modules~ to the hook
~magit-status-sections-hook~ as described in [[*Status Module Sections]].

- Command: magit-list-submodules

  This command displays a list of the current repository's submodules
  in a separate buffer.

  It can be invoked by pressing ~RET~ on the section titled "Modules".

- User Option: magit-submodule-list-columns

  This option controls what columns are displayed by the command
  ~magit-list-submodules~ and how they are displayed.

  Each element has the form ~(HEADER WIDTH FORMAT PROPS)~.

  HEADER is the string displayed in the header.  WIDTH is the width of
  the column.  FORMAT is a function that is called with one argument,
  the repository identification (usually its basename), and with
  ~default-directory~ bound to the toplevel of its working tree.  It
  has to return a string to be inserted or nil.  PROPS is an alist
  that supports the keys ~:right-align~ and ~:pad-right~.

*** Submodule Transient

- Key: o, magit-submodule

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

Some of the below commands default to act on the modules that are
selected using the region.  For brevity their description talk about
"the selected modules", but if no modules are selected, then they act
on the current module instead, or if point isn't on a module, then the
read a single module to act on.  With a prefix argument these commands
ignore the selection and the current module and instead act on all
suitable modules.

- Key: o a, magit-submodule-add

  This commands adds the repository at URL as a module.  Optional PATH
  is the path to the module relative to the root of the super-project.
  If it is nil then the path is determined based on URL.

- Key: o r, magit-submodule-register

  This command registers the selected modules by copying their urls
  from ".gitmodules" to "$GIT_DIR/config".  These values can then be
  edited before running ~magit-submodule-populate~.  If you don't need
  to edit any urls, then use the latter directly.

- Key: o p, magit-submodule-populate

  This command creates the working directory or directories of the
  selected modules, checking out the recorded commits.

- Key: o u, magit-submodule-update

  This command updates the selected modules checking out the recorded
  commits.

- Key: o s, magit-submodule-synchronize

  This command synchronizes the urls of the selected modules, copying
  the values from ".gitmodules" to the ".git/config" of the
  super-project as well those of the modules.

- Key: o d, magit-submodule-unpopulate

  This command removes the working directory of the selected modules.

- Key: o l, magit-list-submodules

  This command displays a list of the current repository's modules.

- Key: o f, magit-fetch-modules

  This command fetches all modules.

  Option ~magit-fetch-modules-jobs~ controls how many submodules are
  being fetched in parallel.  Also fetch the super-repository, because
  ~git fetch~ does not support not doing that.  With a prefix argument
  fetch all remotes.

** Subtree

Also see [[man:git-subtree]]

- Key: O, magit-subtree

  This transient prefix command binds the two sub-transients; one for
  importing a subtree and one for exporting a subtree.

- Key: O i, magit-subtree-import

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

  The suffixes of this command import subtrees.

  If the ~--prefix~ argument is set, then the suffix commands use that
  prefix without prompting the user.  If it is unset, then they read
  the prefix in the minibuffer.

- Key: O i a, magit-subtree-add

  This command adds COMMIT from REPOSITORY as a new subtree at PREFIX.

- Key: O i c, magit-subtree-add-commit

  This command add COMMIT as a new subtree at PREFIX.

- Key: O i m, magit-subtree-merge

  This command merges COMMIT into the PREFIX subtree.

- Key: O i f, magit-subtree-pull

  This command pulls COMMIT from REPOSITORY into the PREFIX subtree.

- Key: O e, magit-subtree-export

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

  The suffixes of this command export subtrees.

  If the ~--prefix~ argument is set, then the suffix commands use that
  prefix without prompting the user.  If it is unset, then they read
  the prefix in the minibuffer.

- Key: O e p, magit-subtree-push

  This command extract the history of the subtree PREFIX and pushes it
  to REF on REPOSITORY.

- Key: O e s, magit-subtree-split

  This command extracts the history of the subtree PREFIX.

** Worktree

Also see [[man:git-worktree]]

- Key: Z, magit-worktree

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  and displays them in a temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

- Key: Z b, magit-worktree-checkout

  Checkout BRANCH in a new worktree at PATH.

- Key: Z c, magit-worktree-branch

  Create a new BRANCH and check it out in a new worktree at PATH.

- Key: Z m, magit-worktree-move

  Move an existing worktree to a new PATH.

- Key: Z k, magit-worktree-delete

  Delete a worktree, defaulting to the worktree at point.
  The primary worktree cannot be deleted.

- Key: Z g, magit-worktree-status

  Show the status for the worktree at point.

  If there is no worktree at point, then read one in the minibuffer.
  If the worktree at point is the one whose status is already being
  displayed in the current buffer, then show it in Dired instead.

** Bundle

Also see [[man:git-bundle]]

- Command: magit-bundle

  This transient prefix command binds several suffix commands for
  running ~git bundle~ subcommands and displays them in a temporary
  buffer until a suffix is invoked.

** Common Commands

- Command: magit-switch-to-repository-buffer
- Command: magit-switch-to-repository-buffer-other-window
- Command: magit-switch-to-repository-buffer-other-frame
- Command: magit-display-repository-buffer

  These commands read any existing Magit buffer that belongs to the
  current repository from the user and then switch to the selected
  buffer (without refreshing it).

  The last variant uses ~magit-display-buffer~ to do so and thus
  respects ~magit-display-buffer-function~.

These are some of the commands that can be used in all buffers whose
major-modes derive from ~magit-mode~.  There are other common commands
beside the ones below, but these didn't fit well anywhere else.

- Key: C-w, magit-copy-section-value

  This command saves the value of the current section to the
  ~kill-ring~, and, provided that the current section is a commit,
  branch, or tag section, it also pushes the (referenced) revision to
  the ~magit-revision-stack~.

  When the current section is a branch or a tag, and a prefix argument
  is used, then it saves the revision at its tip to the ~kill-ring~
  instead of the reference name.

  When the region is active, this command saves that to the
  ~kill-ring~, like ~kill-ring-save~ would, instead of behaving as
  described above. If a prefix argument is used and the region is
  within a hunk, then it strips the diff marker column and keeps
  only either the added or removed lines, depending on the sign of
  the prefix argument.

- Key: M-w, magit-copy-buffer-revision

  This command saves the revision being displayed in the current buffer
  to the ~kill-ring~ and also pushes it to the ~magit-revision-stack~.  It
  is mainly intended for use in ~magit-revision-mode~ buffers, the only
  buffers where it is always unambiguous exactly which revision should
  be saved.

  Most other Magit buffers usually show more than one revision, in
  some way or another, so this command has to select one of them, and
  that choice might not always be the one you think would have been
  the best pick.

Outside of Magit ~M-w~ and ~C-w~ are usually bound to ~kill-ring-save~ and
~kill-region~, and these commands would also be useful in Magit buffers.
Therefore when the region is active, then both of these commands
behave like ~kill-ring-save~ instead of as described above.

** Wip Modes
*** _

Git keeps *committed* changes around long enough for users to recover
changes they have accidentally deleted.  It does so by not garbage
collecting any committed but no longer referenced objects for a
certain period of time, by default 30 days.

But Git does *not* keep track of *uncommitted* changes in the working tree
and not even the index (the staging area).  Because Magit makes it so
convenient to modify uncommitted changes, it also makes it easy to
shoot yourself in the foot in the process.

For that reason Magit provides a global mode that saves *tracked* files
to work-in-progress references after or before certain actions.  (At
present untracked files are never saved and for technical reasons
nothing is saved before the first commit has been created).

Two separate work-in-progress references are used to track the state
of the index and of the working tree: ~refs/wip/index/<branchref>~ and
~refs/wip/wtree/<branchref>~, where ~<branchref>~ is the full ref of the
current branch, e.g. ~refs/heads/master~.  When the ~HEAD~ is detached
then ~HEAD~ is used in place of ~<branchref>~.

Checking out another branch (or detaching ~HEAD~) causes the use of
different wip refs for subsequent changes.

- User Option: magit-wip-mode

  When this mode is enabled, then uncommitted changes are committed
  to dedicated work-in-progress refs whenever appropriate (i.e. when
  dataloss would be a possibility otherwise).

  Setting this variable directly does not take effect; either use the
  Custom interface to do so or call the respective mode function.

  For historic reasons this mode is implemented on top of four other
  ~magit-wip-*~ modes, which can also be used individually, if you want
  finer control over when the wip refs are updated; but that is
  discouraged.  See [[*Legacy Wip Modes]].

To view the log for a branch and its wip refs use the commands
~magit-wip-log~ and ~magit-wip-log-current~.  You should use ~--graph~ when
using these commands.

- Command: magit-wip-log

  This command shows the log for a branch and its wip refs.
  With a negative prefix argument only the worktree wip ref is shown.

  The absolute numeric value of the prefix argument controls how many
  "branches" of each wip ref are shown.  This is only relevant if the
  value of ~magit-wip-merge-branch~ is ~nil~.

- Command: magit-wip-log-current

  This command shows the log for the current branch and its wip refs.
  With a negative prefix argument only the worktree wip ref is shown.

  The absolute numeric value of the prefix argument controls how many
  "branches" of each wip ref are shown.  This is only relevant if the
  value of ~magit-wip-merge-branch~ is ~nil~.

- Key: X w, magit-reset-worktree

  This command resets the working tree to some commit read from the
  user and defaulting to the commit at point, while keeping the ~HEAD~
  and index as-is.

  This can be used to restore files to the state committed to a wip
  ref.  Note that this will discard any unstaged changes that might
  have existed before invoking this command (but of course only after
  committing that to the working tree wip ref).

Note that even if you enable ~magit-wip-mode~ this won't give you
perfect protection.  The most likely scenario for losing changes
despite the use of ~magit-wip-mode~ is making a change outside Emacs and
then destroying it also outside Emacs.  In some such a scenario,
Magit, being an Emacs package, didn't get the opportunity to keep you
from shooting yourself in the foot.

When you are unsure whether Magit did commit a change to the wip refs,
then you can explicitly request that all changes to all tracked files
are being committed.

- Key: M-x magit-wip-commit, magit-wip-commit

  This command commits all changes to all tracked files to the index
  and working tree work-in-progress refs.  Like the modes described above,
  it does not commit untracked files, but it does check all tracked
  files for changes.  Use this command when you suspect that the modes
  might have overlooked a change made outside Emacs/Magit.

- User Option: magit-wip-namespace

  The namespace used for work-in-progress refs.  It has to end with
  a slash.  The wip refs are named ~<namespace>index/<branchref>~ and
  ~<namespace>wtree/<branchref>~.  When snapshots are created while
  the ~HEAD~ is detached then ~HEAD~ is used in place of ~<branchref>~.

- User Option: magit-wip-mode-lighter

  Mode-line lighter for ~magit-wip--mode~.

*** Wip Graph

- User Option: magit-wip-merge-branch

  This option controls whether the current branch is merged into the
  wip refs after a new commit was created on the branch.

  If non-nil and the current branch has new commits, then it is
  merged into the wip ref before creating a new wip commit.  This
  makes it easier to inspect wip history and the wip commits are
  never garbage collected.

  If nil and the current branch has new commits, then the wip ref
  is reset to the tip of the branch before creating a new wip
  commit.  With this setting wip commits are eventually garbage
  collected.

When ~magit-wip-merge-branch~ is ~t~, then the history looks like this:

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
  ,*--*--*--*--*--*       refs/wip/index/refs/heads/master
 /     /     /
A-----B-----C            refs/heads/master
#+END_EXAMPLE

When ~magit-wip-merge-branch~ is ~nil~, then creating a commit on the real
branch and then making a change causes the wip refs to be recreated to
fork from the new commit.  But the old commits on the wip refs are not
lost.  They are still available from the reflog.  To make it easier to
see when the fork point of a wip ref was changed, an additional commit
with the message "restart autosaving" is created on it (~xxO~ commits
below are such boundary commits).

Starting with

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
      BI0---BI1    refs/wip/index/refs/heads/master
     /
A---B              refs/heads/master
     \
      BW0---BW1    refs/wip/wtree/refs/heads/master
#+END_EXAMPLE

and committing the staged changes and editing and saving a file would
result in

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
      BI0---BI1        refs/wip/index/refs/heads/master
     /
A---B---C              refs/heads/master
     \   \
      \   CW0---CW1    refs/wip/wtree/refs/heads/master
       \
        BW0---BW1      refs/wip/wtree/refs/heads/master@{2}
#+END_EXAMPLE

The fork-point of the index wip ref is not changed until some change
is being staged.  Likewise just checking out a branch or creating a
commit does not change the fork-point of the working tree wip ref.  The
fork-points are not adjusted until there actually is a change that
should be committed to the respective wip ref.

*** Legacy Wip Modes

It is recommended that you use the mode ~magit-wip-mode~ (which see) and
ignore the existence of the following modes, which are preserved for
historic reasons.

Setting the following variables directly does not take effect; either
use the Custom interface to do so or call the respective mode
functions.

- User Option: magit-wip-after-save-mode

  When this mode is enabled, then saving a buffer that visits a file
  tracked in a Git repository causes its current state to be committed
  to the working tree wip ref for the current branch.

- User Option: magit-wip-after-apply-mode

  When this mode is enabled, then applying (i.e. staging, unstaging,
  discarding, reversing, and regularly applying) a change to a file
  tracked in a Git repository causes its current state to be committed
  to the index and/or working tree wip refs for the current branch.

If you only ever edit files using Emacs and only ever interact with
Git using Magit, then the above two modes should be enough to protect
each and every change from accidental loss.  In practice nobody does
that.  Two additional modes exists that do commit to the wip refs
before making changes that could cause the loss of earlier changes.

- User Option: magit-wip-before-change-mode

  When this mode is enabled, then certain commands commit the existing
  changes to the files they are about to make changes to.

- User Option: magit-wip-initial-backup-mode

  When this mode is enabled, then the current version of a file is
  committed to the worktree wip ref before the buffer visiting that
  file is saved for the first time since the buffer was created.

  This backs up the same version of the file that ~backup-buffer~ would
  save.  While ~backup-buffer~ uses a backup file, this mode uses the
  same worktree wip ref as used by the other Magit Wip modes.  Like
  ~backup-buffer~, it only does this once; unless you kill the buffer
  and visit the file again only one backup will be created per Emacs
  session.

  This mode ignores the variables that affect ~backup-buffer~ and can be
  used along-side that function, which is recommended because it only
  backs up files that are tracked in a Git repository.

- User Option: magit-wip-after-save-local-mode-lighter

  Mode-line lighter for ~magit-wip-after-save-local-mode~.

- User Option: magit-wip-after-apply-mode-lighter

  Mode-line lighter for ~magit-wip-after-apply-mode~.

- User Option: magit-wip-before-change-mode-lighter

  Mode-line lighter for ~magit-wip-before-change-mode~.

- User Option: magit-wip-initial-backup-mode-lighter

  Mode-line lighter for ~magit-wip-initial-backup-mode~.

** Commands for Buffers Visiting Files

Magit defines a few global key bindings unless the user sets
~magit-define-global-key-bindings~ to ~nil~.  This includes binding ~C-c
M-g~ to ~magit-file-dispatch~.  ~C-c g~ would be a much better binding
but the ~C-c <letter>~ namespace is reserved for users, meaning that
packages are not allowed to use it.  If you want to use ~C-c g~, then
you have to add that binding yourself.  Also see [[*Default Bindings]]
and [[info:elisp#Key Binding Conventions]].

If you want a better binding, you have to add it yourself:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (global-set-key (kbd "C-c g") 'magit-file-dispatch)
#+END_SRC

The key bindings shown below assume that you have not improved the
binding for ~magit-file-dispatch~.

- Key: C-c M-g, magit-file-dispatch

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  and displays them in a temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

  When invoked in a buffer that does not visit a file, then it falls
  back to regular ~magit-dispatch~.

- Key: C-c M-g s, magit-stage-file

  Stage all changes to the file being visited in the current buffer.

- Key: C-c M-g u, magit-unstage-file

  Unstage all changes to the file being visited in the current buffer.

- Key: C-c M-g c, magit-commit

  This transient prefix command binds the following suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.  See [[*Initiating a
  Commit]].

- Key: C-c M-g D, magit-diff

  This transient prefix command binds several diff suffix commands and
  infix arguments and displays them in a temporary buffer until a
  suffix is invoked.  See [[*Diffing]].

  This is the same command that ~d~ is bound to in Magit buffers.
  If this command is invoked from a file-visiting buffer, then the
  initial value of the option (~--~) that limits the diff to certain
  file(s) is set to the visited file.

- Key: C-c M-g d, magit-diff-buffer-file

  This command shows the diff for the file of blob that the current
  buffer visits.

- User Option: magit-diff-buffer-file-locked

  This option controls whether ~magit-diff-buffer-file~ uses a dedicated
  buffer.  See [[*Modes and Buffers]].

- Key: C-c M-g L, magit-log

  This transient prefix command binds several log suffix commands and
  infix arguments and displays them in a temporary buffer until a
  suffix is invoked.  See [[*Logging]].

  This is the same command that ~l~ is bound to in Magit buffers.
  If this command is invoked from a file-visiting buffer, then the
  initial value of the option (~--~) that limits the log to certain
  file(s) is set to the visited file.

- Key: C-c M-g l, magit-log-buffer-file

  This command shows the log for the file of blob that the current
  buffer visits.  Renames are followed when a prefix argument is used
  or when ~--follow~ is an active log argument.  When the region is
  active, the log is restricted to the selected line range.

- Key: C-c M-g t, magit-log-trace-definition

  This command shows the log for the definition at point.

- User Option: magit-log-buffer-file-locked

  This option controls whether ~magit-log-buffer-file~ uses a dedicated
  buffer.  See [[*Modes and Buffers]].

- Key: C-c M-g B, magit-blame

  This transient prefix command binds all blaming suffix commands
  along with the appropriate infix arguments and displays them in a
  temporary buffer until a suffix is invoked.

  For more information about this and the following commands also see
  [[*Blaming]].

In addition to the ~magit-blame~ sub-transient, the dispatch transient
also binds several blaming suffix commands directly.  See [[*Blaming]] for
information about those commands and bindings.

- Key: C-c M-g e, magit-edit-line-commit

  This command makes the commit editable that added the current line.

  With a prefix argument it makes the commit editable that removes the
  line, if any.  The commit is determined using ~git blame~ and made
  editable using ~git rebase --interactive~ if it is reachable from
  ~HEAD~, or by checking out the commit (or a branch that points at it)
  otherwise.

- Key: C-c M-g p, magit-blob-previous

  Visit the previous blob which modified the current file.

There are a few additional commands that operate on a single file but
are not enabled in the file transient command by default:

- Command: magit-file-rename

  This command renames a file read from the user.

- Command: magit-file-delete

  This command deletes a file read from the user.

- Command: magit-file-untrack

  This command untracks a file read from the user.

- Command: magit-file-checkout

  This command updates a file in the working tree and index to the
  contents from a revision.  Both the revision and file are read
  from the user.

To enable them invoke the transient (~C-c M-g~), enter "edit mode" (~C-x
l~), set the "transient level" (~C-x l~ again), enter ~5~, and leave edit
mode (~C-g~).  Also see [[info:transient#Enabling and Disabling Suffixes]].

** Minor Mode for Buffers Visiting Blobs

The ~magit-blob-mode~ enables certain Magit features in blob-visiting
buffers.  Such buffers can be created using ~magit-find-file~ and some
of the commands mentioned below, which also take care of turning on
this minor mode.  Currently this mode only establishes a few key
bindings, but this might be extended.

- Key: p, magit-blob-previous

  Visit the previous blob which modified the current file.

- Key: n, magit-blob-next

  Visit the next blob which modified the current file.

- Key: q, magit-kill-this-buffer

  Kill the current buffer.

* Customizing
** _

Both Git and Emacs are highly customizable.  Magit is both a Git
porcelain as well as an Emacs package, so it makes sense to customize
it using both Git variables as well as Emacs options.  However this
flexibility doesn't come without problems, including but not limited
to the following.

- Some Git variables automatically have an effect in Magit without
  requiring any explicit support.  Sometimes that is desirable - in
  other cases, it breaks Magit.

  When a certain Git setting breaks Magit but you want to keep using
  that setting on the command line, then that can be accomplished by
  overriding the value for Magit only by appending something like
  ~("-c" "some.variable=compatible-value")~ to
  ~magit-git-global-arguments~.

- Certain settings like ~fetch.prune=true~ are respected by Magit
  commands (because they simply call the respective Git command) but
  their value is not reflected in the respective transient buffers.
  In this case the ~--prune~ argument in ~magit-fetch~ might be active or
  inactive, but that doesn't keep the Git variable from being honored
  by the suffix commands anyway.  So pruning might happen despite the
  ~--prune~ arguments being displayed in a way that seems to indicate
  that no pruning will happen.

I intend to address these and similar issues in a future release.

** Per-Repository Configuration

Magit can be configured on a per-repository level using both Git
variables as well as Emacs options.

To set a Git variable for one repository only, simply set it in
~/path/to/repo/.git/config~ instead of ~$HOME/.gitconfig~ or
~/etc/gitconfig~.  See [[man:git-config]]

Similarly, Emacs options can be set for one repository only by editing
~/path/to/repo/.dir-locals.el~.  See [[info:emacs#Directory Variables]].
For example to disable automatic refreshes of file-visiting buffers in
just one huge repository use this:

- ~/path/to/huge/repo/.dir-locals.el~

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    ((nil . ((magit-refresh-buffers . nil))))
  #+END_SRC

It might only be costly to insert certain information into Magit
buffers for repositories that are exceptionally large, in which case
you can disable the respective section inserters just for that
repository:

- ~/path/to/tag/invested/repo/.dir-locals.el~

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    ((magit-status-mode
      . ((eval . (magit-disable-section-inserter 'magit-insert-tags-header)))))
  #+END_SRC

- Function: magit-disable-section-inserter fn

  This function disables the section inserter FN in the current
  repository.  It is only intended for use in ~.dir-locals.el~ and
  ~.dir-locals-2.el~.

If you want to apply the same settings to several, but not all,
repositories then keeping the repository-local config files in sync
would quickly become annoying.  To avoid that you can create config
files for certain classes of repositories (e.g. "huge repositories")
and then include those files in the per-repository config files.
For example:

- ~/path/to/huge/repo/.git/config~

  #+BEGIN_SRC conf
    [include]
            path = /path/to/huge-gitconfig
  #+END_SRC

- ~/path/to/huge-gitconfig~

  #+BEGIN_SRC conf
    [status]
            showUntrackedFiles = no
  #+END_SRC

- ~$HOME/.emacs.d/init.el~

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (dir-locals-set-class-variables 'huge-git-repository
       '((nil . ((magit-refresh-buffers . nil)))))

    (dir-locals-set-directory-class
       "/path/to/huge/repo/" 'huge-git-repository)
  #+END_SRC

** Essential Settings
*** _

The next two sections list and discuss several variables that many
users might want to customize, for safety and/or performance reasons.

*** Safety

This section discusses various variables that you might want to
change (or *not* change) for safety reasons.

Git keeps *committed* changes around long enough for users to recover
changes they have accidentally been deleted.  It does not do the same
for *uncommitted* changes in the working tree and not even the index
(the staging area).  Because Magit makes it so easy to modify
uncommitted changes, it also makes it easy to shoot yourself in the
foot in the process.  For that reason Magit provides three global
modes that save *tracked* files to work-in-progress references after or
before certain actions.  See [[*Wip Modes]].

These modes are not enabled by default because of performance
concerns.  Instead a lot of potentially destructive commands require
confirmation every time they are used.  In many cases this can be
disabled by adding a symbol to ~magit-no-confirm~ (see [[*Completion and
Confirmation]]).  If you enable the various wip modes then you should
add ~safe-with-wip~ to this list.

Similarly it isn't necessary to require confirmation before moving a
file to the system trash - if you trashed a file by mistake then you
can recover it from there.  Option ~magit-delete-by-moving-to-trash~
controls whether the system trash is used, which is the case by default.
Nevertheless, ~trash~ isn't a member of ~magit-no-confirm~ - you
might want to change that.

By default buffers visiting files are automatically reverted when the
visited file changes on disk.  This isn't as risky as it might seem,
but to make an informed decision you should see [[*Risk of Reverting
Automatically]].

*** Performance
**** _

After Magit has run ~git~ for side-effects, it also refreshes the
current Magit buffer and the respective status buffer.  This is
necessary because otherwise outdated information might be displayed
without the user noticing.  Magit buffers are updated by recreating
their content from scratch, which makes updating simpler and less
error-prone, but also more costly.  Keeping it simple and just
re-creating everything from scratch is an old design decision and
departing from that will require major refactoring.

I plan to do that in time for the next major release.  I also intend
to create logs and diffs asynchronously, which should also help a lot
but also requires major refactoring.

Meanwhile you can tell Magit to only automatically refresh the current
Magit buffer, but not the status buffer.  If you do that, then the
status buffer is only refreshed automatically if it is the
current buffer.

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (setq magit-refresh-status-buffer nil)
#+END_SRC

You should also check whether any third-party packages have added
anything to ~magit-refresh-buffer-hook~, ~magit-status-refresh-hook~,
~magit-pre-refresh-hook~, and ~magit-post-refresh-hook~.  If so, then
check whether those additions impact performance significantly.

Magit can be told to refresh buffers verbosely using ~M-x
magit-toggle-verbose-refresh~.  Enabling this helps figuring out which
sections are bottlenecks.  The additional output can be found in the
~*Messages*~ buffer.

Magit also reverts buffers for visited files located inside the
current repository when the visited file changes on disk.  That is
implemented on top of ~auto-revert-mode~ from the built-in library
~autorevert~.  To figure out whether that impacts performance, check
whether performance is significantly worse, when many buffers exist
and/or when some buffers visit files using TRAMP.  If so, then this
should help.

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (setq auto-revert-buffer-list-filter
        'magit-auto-revert-repository-buffer-p)
#+END_SRC

For alternative approaches see [[*Automatic Reverting of File-Visiting
Buffers]].

If you have enabled any features that are disabled by default, then
you should check whether they impact performance significantly.  It's
likely that they were not enabled by default because it is known that
they reduce performance at least in large repositories.

If performance is only slow inside certain unusually large
repositories, then you might want to disable certain features on a
per-repository or per-repository-class basis only.  See
[[*Per-Repository Configuration]].  For example it takes a long time to
determine the next and current tag in repository with exceptional
numbers of tags.  It would therefore be a good idea to disable
~magit-insert-tags-headers~, as explained at the mentioned node.

**** Log Performance
:PROPERTIES:
:UNNUMBERED: notoc
:END:

When showing logs, Magit limits the number of commits initially shown
in the hope that this avoids unnecessary work.  When using ~--graph~ is
used, then this unfortunately does not have the desired effect for
large histories.  Junio, Git's maintainer, said on the git mailing
list (http://www.spinics.net/lists/git/msg232230.html): "~--graph~ wants
to compute the whole history and the max-count only affects the output
phase after ~--graph~ does its computation".

In other words, it's not that Git is slow at outputting the
differences, or that Magit is slow at parsing the output - the problem
is that Git first goes outside and has a smoke.

We actually work around this issue by limiting the number of commits
not only by using ~-<N>~ but by also using a range.  But unfortunately
that's not always possible.

When more than a few thousand commits are shown, then the use of
~--graph~ can slow things down.

Using ~--color --graph~ is even slower.  Magit uses code that is part of
Emacs to turn control characters into faces.  That code is pretty slow
and this is quite noticeable when showing a log with many branches and
merges.  For that reason ~--color~ is not enabled by default anymore.
Consider leaving it at that.

**** Diff Performance
:PROPERTIES:
:UNNUMBERED: notoc
:END:

If diffs are slow, then consider turning off some optional diff
features by setting all or some of the following variables to ~nil~:
~magit-diff-highlight-indentation~, ~magit-diff-highlight-trailing~,
~magit-diff-paint-whitespace~, ~magit-diff-highlight-hunk-body~, and
~magit-diff-refine-hunk~.

When showing a commit instead of some arbitrary diff, then some
additional information is displayed.  Calculating this information
can be quite expensive given certain circumstances.  If looking at
a commit using ~magit-revision-mode~ takes considerably more time than
looking at the same commit in ~magit-diff-mode~, then consider setting
~magit-revision-insert-related-refs~ to ~nil~.

When you are often confronted with diffs that contain deleted files,
then you might want to enable the ~--irreversible-delete~ argument.  If
you do that then diffs still show that a file was deleted but without
also showing the complete deleted content of the file.  This argument
is not available by default, see [[info:transient#Enabling and Disabling
Suffixes]].  Once you have done that you should enable it and save that
setting, see [[info:transient#Saving Values]].  You should do this in both
the diff (~d~) and the diff refresh (~D~) transient popups.

**** Refs Buffer Performance
:PROPERTIES:
:UNNUMBERED: notoc
:END:

When refreshing the "references buffer" is slow, then that's usually
because several hundred refs are being displayed.  The best way to
address that is to display fewer refs, obviously.

If you are not, or only mildly, interested in seeing the list of tags,
then start by not displaying them:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (remove-hook 'magit-refs-sections-hook 'magit-insert-tags)
#+END_SRC

Then you should also make sure that the listed remote branches
actually all exist.  You can do so by pruning branches which no longer
exist using ~f-pa~.

**** Committing Performance
:PROPERTIES:
:UNNUMBERED: notoc
:END:

When you initiate a commit, then Magit by default automatically shows
a diff of the changes you are about to commit.  For large commits this
can take a long time, which is especially distracting when you are
committing large amounts of generated data which you don't actually
intend to inspect before committing.  This behavior can be turned off
using:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (remove-hook 'server-switch-hook 'magit-commit-diff)
#+END_SRC

Then you can type ~C-c C-d~ to show the diff when you actually want to
see it, but only then.  Alternatively you can leave the hook alone and
just type ~C-g~ in those cases when it takes too long to generate the
diff.  If you do that, then you will end up with a broken diff buffer,
but doing it this way has the advantage that you usually get to see
the diff, which is useful because it increases the odds that you spot
potential issues.

**** Microsoft Windows Performance

In order to update the status buffer, ~git~ has to be run a few dozen
times.  That is problematic on Microsoft Windows, because that
operating system is exceptionally slow at starting processes.  Sadly
this is an issue that can only be fixed by Microsoft itself, and they
don't appear to be particularly interested in doing so.

Beside the subprocess issue, there are also other Windows-specific
performance issues. Some of these have workarounds.  The
maintainers of "Git for Windows" try to improve performance on Windows.
Always use the latest release in order to benefit from the latest
performance tweaks.  Magit too tries to work around some
Windows-specific issues.

According to some sources, setting the following Git variables can also
help.

#+BEGIN_SRC shell-script
  git config --global core.preloadindex true   # default since v2.1
  git config --global core.fscache true        # default since v2.8
  git config --global gc.auto 256
#+END_SRC

You should also check whether an anti-virus program is affecting
performance.

**** MacOS Performance

Before Emacs 26.1 child processes were created using ~fork~ on macOS.
That needlessly copied GUI resources, which is expensive.  The result
was that forking took about 30 times as long on Darwin than on Linux,
and because Magit starts many ~git~ processes that made quite a
difference.

So make sure that you are using at least Emacs 26.1, in which case the
faster ~vfork~ will be used.  (The creation of child processes still
takes about twice as long on Darwin compared to Linux.)  See [fn:mac1]
for more information.

[fn:mac1] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2017-04/msg00201.html

*** Default Bindings

- User Option: magit-define-global-key-bindings

  This option controls whether some Magit commands are automatically
  bound in the global keymap even before Magit is used for the first
  time in the current session.

  If this variable is non-nil, which it is by default, then the
  following bindings may be added to the global keymap.

  | ~C-x g~   | ~magit-status~        |
  | ~C-x M-g~ | ~magit-dispatch~      |
  | ~C-c M-g~ | ~magit-file-dispatch~ |

  These bindings may be added when ~after-init-hook~ is run.
  Each binding is added if and only if at that time no other key
  is bound to the same command and no other command is bound to
  the same key.  In other words we try to avoid adding bindings
  that are unnecessary, as well as bindings that conflict with
  other bindings.

  Adding the above bindings is delayed until ~after-init-hook~
  is called to allow users to set the variable anywhere in their
  init file (without having to make sure to do so before ~magit~
  is loaded or autoloaded) and to increase the likelihood that
  all the potentially conflicting user bindings have already
  been added.

  To set this variable use either ~setq~ or the Custom interface.
  Do not use the function ~customize-set-variable~ because doing
  that would cause Magit to be loaded immediately when that form
  is evaluated (this differs from ~custom-set-variables~, which
  doesn't load the libraries that define the customized variables).

  Setting this variable to nil has no effect if that is done after
  the key bindings have already been added.

  We recommend that you bind ~C-c g~ instead of ~C-c M-g~ to
  ~magit-file-dispatch~.  The former is a much better binding
  but the ~C-c <letter>~ namespace is strictly reserved for
  users; preventing Magit from using it by default.

  #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-c g") 'magit-file-dispatch)
  #+END_SRC

  Also see [[*Commands for Buffers Visiting Files]] and [[info:elisp#Key
  Binding Conventions]].

* Plumbing
** _

The following sections describe how to use several of Magit's core
abstractions to extend Magit itself or implement a separate extension.

A few of the low-level features used by Magit have been factored out
into separate libraries/packages, so that they can be used by other
packages, without having to depend on Magit.  See [[info:with-editor]] for
information about ~with-editor~.  ~transient~ doesn't have a manual yet.

If you are trying to find an unused key that you can bind to a
command provided by your own Magit extension, then checkout
https://github.com/magit/magit/wiki/Plugin-Dispatch-Key-Registry.

** Calling Git
*** _

Magit provides many specialized functions for calling Git.  All of
these functions are defined in either ~magit-git.el~ or ~magit-process.el~
and have one of the prefixes ~magit-run-~, ~magit-call-~, ~magit-start-~,
or ~magit-git-~ (which is also used for other things).

All of these functions accept an indefinite number of arguments, which
are strings that specify command line arguments for Git (or in some
cases an arbitrary executable).  These arguments are flattened before
being passed on to the executable; so instead of strings they can also
be lists of strings and arguments that are ~nil~ are silently dropped.
Some of these functions also require a single mandatory argument
before these command line arguments.

Roughly speaking, these functions run Git either to get some value or
for side-effects.  The functions that return a value are useful to
collect the information necessary to populate a Magit buffer, while
the others are used to implement Magit commands.

The functions in the value-only group always run synchronously, and
they never trigger a refresh.  The function in the side-effect group
can be further divided into subgroups depending on whether they run
Git synchronously or asynchronously, and depending on whether they
trigger a refresh when the executable has finished.

*** Getting a Value from Git

These functions run Git in order to get a value, an exit
status, or output.  Of course you could also use them to run Git
commands that have side-effects, but that should be avoided.

- Function: magit-git-exit-code &rest args

  Executes git with ARGS and returns its exit code.

- Function: magit-git-success &rest args

  Executes git with ARGS and returns ~t~ if the exit code is ~0~, ~nil~
  otherwise.

- Function: magit-git-failure &rest args

  Executes git with ARGS and returns ~t~ if the exit code is ~1~, ~nil~
  otherwise.

- Function: magit-git-true &rest args

  Executes git with ARGS and returns ~t~ if the first line printed by
  git is the string "true", ~nil~ otherwise.

- Function: magit-git-false &rest args

  Executes git with ARGS and returns ~t~ if the first line printed by
  git is the string "false", ~nil~ otherwise.

- Function: magit-git-insert &rest args

  Executes git with ARGS and inserts its output at point.

- Function: magit-git-string &rest args

  Executes git with ARGS and returns the first line of its output.  If
  there is no output or if it begins with a newline character, then
  this returns ~nil~.

- Function: magit-git-lines &rest args

  Executes git with ARGS and returns its output as a list of lines.
  Empty lines anywhere in the output are omitted.

- Function: magit-git-items &rest args

  Executes git with ARGS and returns its null-separated output as a
  list.  Empty items anywhere in the output are omitted.

  If the value of option ~magit-git-debug~ is non-nil and git exits with
  a non-zero exit status, then warn about that in the echo area and
  add a section containing git's standard error in the current
  repository's process buffer.

- Function: magit-process-git destination &rest args

  Calls Git synchronously in a separate process, returning its exit
  code.  DESTINATION specifies how to handle the output, like for
  ~call-process~, except that file handlers are supported.  Enables
  Cygwin's "noglob" option during the call and ensures unix eol
  conversion.

- Function: magit-process-file process &optional infile buffer display &rest args

  Processes files synchronously in a separate process.  Identical to
  ~process-file~ but temporarily enables Cygwin's "noglob" option during
  the call and ensures unix eol conversion.

If an error occurs when using one of the above functions, then that
is usually due to a bug, i.e. using an argument which is not
actually supported.  Such errors are usually not reported, but when
they occur we need to be able to debug them.

- User Option: magit-git-debug

  Whether to report errors that occur when using ~magit-git-insert~,
  ~magit-git-string~, ~magit-git-lines~, or ~magit-git-items~.  This does
  not actually raise an error.  Instead a message is shown in the echo
  area, and git's standard error is insert into a new section in the
  current repository's process buffer.

- Function: magit-git-str &rest args

  This is a variant of ~magit-git-string~ that ignores the option
  ~magit-git-debug~.  It is mainly intended to be used while handling
  errors in functions that do respect that option.  Using such a
  function while handing an error could cause yet another error and
  therefore lead to an infinite recursion.  You probably won't ever
  need to use this function.

*** Calling Git for Effect

These functions are used to run git to produce some effect.  Most
Magit commands that actually run git do so by using such a function.

Because we do not need to consume git's output when using these
functions, their output is instead logged into a per-repository
buffer, which can be shown using ~$~ from a Magit buffer or ~M-x
magit-process~ elsewhere.

These functions can have an effect in two distinct ways.  Firstly,
running git may change something, i.e. create or push a new commit.
Secondly, that change may require that Magit buffers are refreshed to
reflect the changed state of the repository.  But refreshing isn't
always desirable, so only some of these functions do perform such a
refresh after git has returned.

Sometimes it is useful to run git asynchronously.  For example, when
the user has just initiated a push, then there is no reason to make
her wait until that has completed.  In other cases it makes sense to
wait for git to complete before letting the user do something else.
For example after staging a change it is useful to wait until after
the refresh because that also automatically moves to the next change.

- Function: magit-call-git &rest args

  Calls git synchronously with ARGS.

- Function: magit-call-process program &rest args

  Calls PROGRAM synchronously with ARGS.

- Function: magit-run-git &rest args

  Calls git synchronously with ARGS and then refreshes.

- Function: magit-run-git-with-input &rest args

  Calls git synchronously with ARGS and sends it the content of the
  current buffer on standard input.

  If the current buffer's ~default-directory~ is on a remote
  filesystem, this function actually runs git asynchronously.  But
  then it waits for the process to return, so the function itself is
  synchronous.

- Function: magit-git &rest args

  Calls git synchronously with ARGS for side-effects only.  This
  function does not refresh the buffer.

- Function: magit-git-wash washer &rest args

  Execute Git with ARGS, inserting washed output at point.  Actually
  first insert the raw output at point.  If there is no output call
  ~magit-cancel-section~.  Otherwise temporarily narrow the buffer to
  the inserted text, move to its beginning, and then call function
  WASHER with ARGS as its sole argument.

And now for the asynchronous variants.

- Function: magit-run-git-async &rest args

  Start Git, prepare for refresh, and return the process object.
  ARGS is flattened and then used as arguments to Git.

  Display the command line arguments in the echo area.

  After Git returns some buffers are refreshed: the buffer that was
  current when this function was called (if it is a Magit buffer and
  still alive), as well as the respective Magit status buffer.
  Unmodified buffers visiting files that are tracked in the current
  repository are reverted if ~magit-revert-buffers~ is non-nil.

- Function: magit-run-git-with-editor &rest args

  Export GIT_EDITOR and start Git.  Also prepare for refresh and
  return the process object.  ARGS is flattened and then used as
  arguments to Git.

  Display the command line arguments in the echo area.

  After Git returns some buffers are refreshed: the buffer that was
  current when this function was called (if it is a Magit buffer and
  still alive), as well as the respective Magit status buffer.

- Function: magit-start-git input &rest args

  Start Git, prepare for refresh, and return the process object.

  If INPUT is non-nil, it has to be a buffer or the name of an
  existing buffer.  The buffer content becomes the processes
  standard input.

  Option ~magit-git-executable~ specifies the Git executable and option
  ~magit-git-global-arguments~ specifies constant arguments.  The
  remaining arguments ARGS specify arguments to Git.  They are
  flattened before use.

  After Git returns, some buffers are refreshed: the buffer that was
  current when this function was called (if it is a Magit buffer and
  still alive), as well as the respective Magit status buffer.
  Unmodified buffers visiting files that are tracked in the current
  repository are reverted if ~magit-revert-buffers~ is non-nil.

- Function: magit-start-process &rest args

  Start PROGRAM, prepare for refresh, and return the process object.

  If optional argument INPUT is non-nil, it has to be a buffer or
  the name of an existing buffer.  The buffer content becomes the
  processes standard input.

  The process is started using ~start-file-process~ and then setup to
  use the sentinel ~magit-process-sentinel~ and the filter
  ~magit-process-filter~.  Information required by these functions is
  stored in the process object.  When this function returns the
  process has not started to run yet so it is possible to override the
  sentinel and filter.

  After the process returns, ~magit-process-sentinel~ refreshes the
  buffer that was current when ~magit-start-process~ was called (if it
  is a Magit buffer and still alive), as well as the respective Magit
  status buffer.  Unmodified buffers visiting files that are tracked
  in the current repository are reverted if ~magit-revert-buffers~ is
  non-nil.

- Variable: magit-this-process

  The child process which is about to start.  This can be used to
  change the filter and sentinel.

- Variable: magit-process-raise-error

  When this is non-nil, then ~magit-process-sentinel~ raises an error if
  git exits with a non-zero exit status.  For debugging purposes.

** Section Plumbing
*** Creating Sections

- Macro: magit-insert-section &rest args

  Insert a section at point.

  TYPE is the section type, a symbol.  Many commands that act on the
  current section behave differently depending on that type.  Also if
  a variable ~magit-TYPE-section-map~ exists, then use that as the
  text-property ~keymap~ of all text belonging to the section (but this
  may be overwritten in subsections).  TYPE can also have the form
  ~(eval FORM)~ in which case FORM is evaluated at runtime.

  Optional VALUE is the value of the section, usually a string that is
  required when acting on the section.

  When optional HIDE is non-nil collapse the section body by default,
  i.e. when first creating the section, but not when refreshing the
  buffer.  Otherwise, expand it by default.  This can be overwritten using
  ~magit-section-set-visibility-hook~.  When a section is recreated
  during a refresh, then the visibility of predecessor is inherited
  and HIDE is ignored (but the hook is still honored).

  BODY is any number of forms that actually insert the section's
  heading and body.  Optional NAME, if specified, has to be a symbol,
  which is then bound to the struct of the section being inserted.

  Before BODY is evaluated the ~start~ of the section object is set to
  the value of ~point~ and after BODY was evaluated its ~end~ is set to
  the new value of ~point~; BODY is responsible for moving ~point~
  forward.

  If it turns out inside BODY that the section is empty, then
  ~magit-cancel-section~ can be used to abort and remove all traces of
  the partially inserted section.  This can happen when creating a
  section by washing Git's output and Git didn't actually output
  anything this time around.

- Function: magit-insert-heading &rest args

  Insert the heading for the section currently being inserted.

  This function should only be used inside ~magit-insert-section~.

  When called without any arguments, then just set the ~content~ slot of
  the object representing the section being inserted to a marker at
  ~point~.  The section should only contain a single line when this
  function is used like this.

  When called with arguments ARGS, which have to be strings, then
  insert those strings at point.  The section should not contain any
  text before this happens and afterwards it should again only contain
  a single line.  If the ~face~ property is set anywhere inside any of
  these strings, then insert all of them unchanged.  Otherwise use the
  ~magit-section-heading~ face for all inserted text.

  The ~content~ property of the section struct is the end of the heading
  (which lasts from ~start~ to ~content~) and the beginning of the body
  (which lasts from ~content~ to ~end~).  If the value of ~content~ is nil,
  then the section has no heading and its body cannot be collapsed.
  If a section does have a heading then its height must be exactly one
  line, including a trailing newline character.  This isn't enforced;
  you are responsible for getting it right.  The only exception is
  that this function does insert a newline character if necessary.

- Function: magit-cancel-section

  Cancel the section currently being inserted.  This exits the
  innermost call to ~magit-insert-section~ and removes all traces of
  what has already happened inside that call.

- Function: magit-define-section-jumper sym title &optional value

  Define an interactive function to go to section SYM.  TITLE is the
  displayed title of the section.

*** Section Selection

- Function: magit-current-section

  Return the section at point.

- Function: magit-region-sections &optional condition multiple

  Return a list of the selected sections.

  When the region is active and constitutes a valid section
  selection, then return a list of all selected sections.  This is
  the case when the region begins in the heading of a section and
  ends in the heading of the same section or in that of a sibling
  section.  If optional MULTIPLE is non-nil, then the region cannot
  begin and end in the same section.

  When the selection is not valid, then return nil.  In this case,
  most commands that can act on the selected sections will instead
  act on the section at point.

  When the region looks like it would in any other buffer then
  the selection is invalid.  When the selection is valid then the
  region uses the ~magit-section-highlight~ face.  This does not
  apply to diffs where things get a bit more complicated, but even
  here if the region looks like it usually does, then that's not
  a valid selection as far as this function is concerned.

  If optional CONDITION is non-nil, then the selection not only
  has to be valid; all selected sections additionally have to match
  CONDITION, or nil is returned.  See ~magit-section-match~ for the
  forms CONDITION can take.

- Function: magit-region-values &optional condition multiple

  Return a list of the values of the selected sections.

  Return the values that themselves would be returned by
  ~magit-region-sections~ (which see).

*** Matching Sections

- Key: M-x magit-describe-section-briefly, magit-describe-section-briefly

  Show information about the section at point.  This command is
  intended for debugging purposes.

- Function: magit-section-ident section

  Return an unique identifier for SECTION.  The return value has the
  form ~((TYPE . VALUE)...)~.

- Function: magit-get-section ident &optional root

  Return the section identified by IDENT.  IDENT has to be a list as
  returned by ~magit-section-ident~.

- Function: magit-section-match condition &optional section

  Return ~t~ if SECTION matches CONDITION.
  SECTION defaults to the section at point.  If SECTION is not
  specified and there also is no section at point, then return
  ~nil~.

  CONDITION can take the following forms:
  - ~(CONDITION...)~

    matches if any of the CONDITIONs matches.

  - ~[CLASS...]~

    matches if the section's class is the same
    as the first CLASS or a subclass of that;
    the section's parent class matches the
    second CLASS; and so on.

  - ~[* CLASS...]~

    matches sections that match ~[CLASS...]~ and
    also recursively all their child sections.

  - ~CLASS~

    matches if the section's class is the same
    as CLASS or a subclass of that; regardless
    of the classes of the parent sections.

  Each CLASS should be a class symbol, identifying a class that
  derives from ~magit-section~.  For backward compatibility CLASS
  can also be a "type symbol".  A section matches such a symbol
  if the value of its ~type~ slot is ~eq~.  If a type symbol has
  an entry in ~magit--section-type-alist~, then a section also
  matches that type if its class is a subclass of the class that
  corresponds to the type as per that alist.

  Note that it is not necessary to specify the complete section
  lineage as printed by ~magit-describe-section-briefly~, unless
  of course you want to be that precise.

- Function: magit-section-value-if condition &optional section

  If the section at point matches CONDITION, then return its value.

  If optional SECTION is non-nil then test whether that matches
  instead.  If there is no section at point and SECTION is nil,
  then return nil.  If the section does not match, then return
  nil.

  See ~magit-section-match~ for the forms CONDITION can take.

- Function: magit-section-case &rest clauses

  Choose among clauses on the type of the section at point.

  Each clause looks like (CONDITION BODY...).  The type of the
  section is compared against each CONDITION; the BODY forms of the
  first match are evaluated sequentially and the value of the last
  form is returned.  Inside BODY the symbol ~it~ is bound to the
  section at point.  If no clause succeeds or if there is no
  section at point return nil.

  See ~magit-section-match~ for the forms CONDITION can take.
  Additionally a CONDITION of t is allowed in the final clause and
  matches if no other CONDITION match, even if there is no section at
  point.

- Variable: magit-root-section

  The root section in the current buffer.  All other sections are
  descendants of this section.  The value of this variable is set by
  ~magit-insert-section~ and you should never modify it.

For diff related sections a few additional tools exist.

- Function: magit-diff-type &optional section

  Return the diff type of SECTION.

  The returned type is one of the symbols ~staged~, ~unstaged~, ~committed~,
  or ~undefined~.  This type serves a similar purpose as the general
  type common to all sections (which is stored in the ~type~ slot of the
  corresponding ~magit-section~ struct) but takes additional information
  into account.  When the SECTION isn't related to diffs and the
  buffer containing it also isn't a diff-only buffer, then return nil.

  Currently the type can also be one of ~tracked~ and ~untracked~, but
  these values are not handled explicitly in every place they should
  be.  A possible fix could be to just return nil here.

  The section has to be a ~diff~ or ~hunk~ section, or a section whose
  children are of type ~diff~.  If optional SECTION is nil, return the
  diff type for the current section.  In buffers whose major mode is
  ~magit-diff-mode~ SECTION is ignored and the type is determined using
  other means.  In ~magit-revision-mode~ buffers the type is always
  ~committed~.

- Function: magit-diff-scope &optional section strict

  Return the diff scope of SECTION or the selected section(s).

  A diff's "scope" describes what part of a diff is selected, it is a
  symbol, one of ~region~, ~hunk~, ~hunks~, ~file~, ~files~, or ~list~.  Do not
  confuse this with the diff "type", as returned by ~magit-diff-type~.

  If optional SECTION is non-nil, then return the scope of that,
  ignoring the sections selected by the region.  Otherwise return the
  scope of the current section, or if the region is active and selects
  a valid group of diff related sections, the type of these sections,
  i.e. ~hunks~ or ~files~.  If SECTION (or if the current section that
  is nil) is a ~hunk~ section and the region starts and ends inside
  the body of a that section, then the type is ~region~.

  If optional STRICT is non-nil then return nil if the diff type of
  the section at point is ~untracked~ or the section at point is not
  actually a ~diff~ but a ~diffstat~ section.

** Refreshing Buffers

All commands that create a new Magit buffer or change what is being
displayed in an existing buffer do so by calling ~magit-mode-setup~.
Among other things, that function sets the buffer local values of
~default-directory~ (to the top-level of the repository),
~magit-refresh-function~, and ~magit-refresh-args~.

Buffers are refreshed by calling the function that is the local value
of ~magit-refresh-function~ (a function named ~magit-*-refresh-buffer~,
where ~*~ may be something like ~diff~) with the value of
~magit-refresh-args~ as arguments.

- Macro: magit-mode-setup buffer switch-func mode refresh-func &optional refresh-args

  This function displays and selects BUFFER, turns on MODE, and
  refreshes a first time.

  This function displays and optionally selects BUFFER by calling
  ~magit-mode-display-buffer~ with BUFFER, MODE and SWITCH-FUNC as
  arguments.  Then it sets the local value of ~magit-refresh-function~
  to REFRESH-FUNC and that of ~magit-refresh-args~ to REFRESH-ARGS.
  Finally it creates the buffer content by calling REFRESH-FUNC with
  REFRESH-ARGS as arguments.

  All arguments are evaluated before switching to BUFFER.

- Function: magit-mode-display-buffer buffer mode &optional switch-function

  This function display BUFFER in some window and select it.  BUFFER
  may be a buffer or a string, the name of a buffer.  The buffer is
  returned.

  Unless BUFFER is already displayed in the selected frame, store the
  previous window configuration as a buffer local value, so that it
  can later be restored by ~magit-mode-bury-buffer~.

  The buffer is displayed and selected using SWITCH-FUNCTION.  If that
  is ~nil~ then ~pop-to-buffer~ is used if the current buffer's major mode
  derives from ~magit-mode~.  Otherwise ~switch-to-buffer~ is used.

- Variable: magit-refresh-function

  The value of this buffer-local variable is the function used to
  refresh the current buffer.  It is called with ~magit-refresh-args~ as
  arguments.

- Variable: magit-refresh-args

  The list of arguments used by ~magit-refresh-function~ to refresh the
  current buffer.  ~magit-refresh-function~ is called with these
  arguments.

  The value is usually set using ~magit-mode-setup~, but in some cases
  it's also useful to provide commands that can change the value.  For
  example, the ~magit-diff-refresh~ transient can be used to change any
  of the arguments used to display the diff, without having to specify
  again which differences should be shown, but ~magit-diff-more-context~,
  ~magit-diff-less-context~ and ~magit-diff-default-context~ change just
  the ~-U<N>~ argument.  In both case this is done by changing the value
  of this variable and then calling this ~magit-refresh-function~.

** Conventions
*** _

Also see [[*Completion and Confirmation]].

*** Theming Faces

The default theme uses blue for local branches, green for remote
branches, and goldenrod (brownish yellow) for tags.  When creating a
new theme, you should probably follow that example.  If your theme
already uses other colors, then stick to that.

In older releases these reference faces used to have a background
color and a box around them.  The basic default faces no longer do so,
to make Magit buffers much less noisy, and you should follow that
example at least with regards to boxes.  (Boxes were used in the past
to work around a conflict between the highlighting overlay and text
property backgrounds.  That's no longer necessary because highlighting no
longer causes other background colors to disappear.)  Alternatively
you can keep the background color and/or box, but then have to take
special care to adjust ~magit-branch-current~ accordingly.  By default
it looks mostly like ~magit-branch-local~, but with a box (by default
the former is the only face that uses a box, exactly so that it sticks
out).  If the former also uses a box, then you have to make sure that
it differs in some other way from the latter.

The most difficult faces to theme are those related to diffs,
headings, highlighting, and the region.  There are faces that fall
into all four groups - expect to spend some time getting this right.

The ~region~ face in the default theme, in both the light and dark
variants, as well as in many other themes, distributed with Emacs or
by third-parties, is very ugly.  It is common to use a background
color that really sticks out, which is ugly but if that were the only
problem then it would be acceptable.  Unfortunately many themes also
set the foreground color, which ensures that all text within the
region is readable.  Without doing that there might be cases where
some foreground color is too close to the region background color to
still be readable.  But it also means that text within the region
loses all syntax highlighting.

I consider the work that went into getting the ~region~ face right to be
a good indicator for the general quality of a theme.  My
recommendation for the ~region~ face is this: use a background color
slightly different from the background color of the ~default~ face, and
do not set the foreground color at all.  So for a light theme you
might use a light (possibly tinted) gray as the background color of
~default~ and a somewhat darker gray for the background of ~region~.
That should usually be enough to not collide with the foreground color
of any other face.  But if some other faces also set a light gray as
background color, then you should also make sure it doesn't collide
with those (in some cases it might be acceptable though).

Magit only uses the ~region~ face when the region is "invalid" by its
own definition.  In a Magit buffer the region is used to either select
multiple sibling sections, so that commands which support it act on
all of these sections instead of just the current section, or to
select lines within a single hunk section.  In all other cases, the
section is considered invalid and Magit won't act on it.  But such
invalid sections happen, either because the user has not moved point
enough yet to make it valid or because she wants to use a non-magit
command to act on the region, e.g. ~kill-region~.

So using the regular ~region~ face for invalid sections is a feature.  It
tells the user that Magit won't be able to act on it.  It's acceptable
if that face looks a bit odd and even (but less so) if it collides
with the background colors of section headings and other things that
have a background color.

Magit highlights the current section.  If a section has subsections,
then all of them are highlighted.  This is done using faces that have
"highlight" in their names.  For most sections, ~magit-section-highlight~
is used for both the body and the heading.  Like the ~region~ face, it
should only set the background color to something similar to that of
~default~.  The highlight background color must be different from both
the ~region~ background color and the ~default~ background color.

For diff related sections Magit uses various faces to
highlight different parts of the selected section(s).  Note that hunk
headings, unlike all other section headings, by default have a
background color, because it is useful to have very visible separators
between hunks.  That face ~magit-diff-hunk-heading~, should be different
from both ~magit-diff-hunk-heading-highlight~ and
~magit-section-highlight~, as well as from ~magit-diff-context~ and
~magit-diff-context-highlight~.  By default we do that by changing the
foreground color.  Changing the background color would lead to
complications, and there are already enough we cannot get around.
(Also note that it is generally a good idea for section headings to
always be bold, but only for sections that have subsections).

When there is a valid region selecting diff-related sibling sections,
i.e. multiple files or hunks, then the bodies of all these sections
use the respective highlight faces, but additionally the headings
instead use one of the faces ~magit-diff-file-heading-selection~ or
~magit-diff-hunk-heading-selection~.  These faces have to be different
from the regular highlight variants to provide explicit visual
indication that the region is active.

When theming diff related faces, start by setting the option
~magit-diff-refine-hunk~ to ~all~.  You might personally prefer to only
refine the current hunk or not use hunk refinement at all, but some of
the users of your theme want all hunks to be refined, so you have to
cater to that.

(Also turn on ~magit-diff-highlight-indentation~,
~magit-diff-highlight-trailing~, and ~magit-diff-paint-whitespace~; and
insert some whitespace errors into the code you use for testing.)

For e.g. "added lines" you have to adjust three faces:
~magit-diff-added~, ~magit-diff-added-highlight~, and
~smerge-refined-added~.  Make sure that the latter works well with both
of the former, as well as ~smerge-other~ and ~diff-added~.  Then do the
same for the removed lines, context lines, lines added by us, and
lines added by them.  Also make sure the respective added, removed,
and context faces use approximately the same saturation for both the
highlighted and unhighlighted variants.  Also make sure the file and
diff headings work nicely with context lines (e.g. make them look
different).  Line faces should set both the foreground and the
background color.  For example, for added lines use two different
greens.

It's best if the foreground color of both the highlighted and the
unhighlighted variants are the same, so you will need to have to find
a color that works well on the highlight and unhighlighted background,
the refine background, and the highlight context background.  When
there is an hunk internal region, then the added- and removed-lines
background color is used only within that region.  Outside the region
the highlighted context background color is used.  This makes it
easier to see what is being staged.  With an hunk internal region the
hunk heading is shown using ~magit-diff-hunk-heading-selection~, and so
are the thin lines that are added around the lines that fall within
the region.  The background color of that has to be distinct enough
from the various other involved background colors.

Nobody said this would be easy.  If your theme restricts itself to a
certain set of colors, then you should make an exception here.
Otherwise it would be impossible to make the diffs look good in each
and every variation.  Actually you might want to just stick to the
default definitions for these faces.  You have been warned.  Also
please note that if you do not get this right, this will in some cases
look to users like bugs in Magit - so please do it right or not at
all.

* FAQ
:PROPERTIES:
:APPENDIX:   t
:END:
** _

The next two nodes lists frequently asked questions.  For a list of
frequently *and recently* asked questions, i.e. questions that haven't
made it into the manual yet, see
https://github.com/magit/magit/wiki/FAQ.

Please also use the [[*Debugging Tools]].

** FAQ - How to ...?
*** How to pronounce Magit?

Either ~mu[m's] git~ or ~magi{c => t}~ is fine.

The slogan is "It's Magit! The magical Git client", so it makes sense
to pronounce Magit like magic, while taking into account that C and T
do not sound the same.

The German "Magie" is not pronounced the same as the English "magic",
so if you speak German then you can use the above rational to justify
using the former pronunciation; ~Mag{ie => it}~.

You can also choose to use the former pronunciation just because you
like it better.

Also see https://magit.vc/assets/videos/magic.mp4.
Also see https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/13696.

*** How to show git's output?

To show the output of recently run git commands, press ~$~ (or, if that
isn't available, ~M-x magit-process-buffer~).  This will show a buffer
containing a section per git invocation; as always press ~TAB~ to expand
or collapse them.

By default, git's output is only inserted into the process buffer if it
is run for side-effects.  When the output is consumed in some way,
also inserting it into the process buffer would be too expensive.  For
debugging purposes, it's possible to do so anyway by setting
~magit-git-debug~ to ~t~.

*** How to install the gitman info manual?

Git's manpages can be exported as an info manual called ~gitman~.
Magit's own info manual links to nodes in that manual instead of the
actual manpages because Info doesn't support linking to manpages.

Unfortunately some distributions do not install the ~gitman~ manual by
default and you will have to install a separate documentation package
to get it.

Magit patches Info adding the ability to visit links to the ~gitman~
Info manual by instead viewing the respective manpage.  If you prefer
that approach, then set the value of ~magit-view-git-manual-method~ to
one of the supported packages ~man~ or ~woman~, e.g.:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (setq magit-view-git-manual-method 'man)
#+END_SRC

*** How to show diffs for gpg-encrypted files?

Git supports showing diffs for encrypted files, but has to be told to
do so.  Since Magit just uses Git to get the diffs, configuring Git
also affects the diffs displayed inside Magit.

#+BEGIN_SRC shell-script
  git config --global diff.gpg.textconv "gpg --no-tty --decrypt"
  echo "*.gpg filter=gpg diff=gpg" > .gitattributes
#+END_SRC

*** How does branching and pushing work?

Please see [[*Branching]] and http://emacsair.me/2016/01/18/magit-2.4

*** Can Magit be used as ~ediff-version-control-package~?

No, it cannot.  For that to work the functions ~ediff-magit-internal~
and ~ediff-magit-merge-internal~ would have to be implemented, and they
are not.  These two functions are only used by the three commands
~ediff-revision~, ~ediff-merge-revisions-with-ancestor~, and
~ediff-merge-revisions~.

These commands only delegate the task of populating buffers with
certain revisions to the "internal" functions.  The equally important
task of determining which revisions are to be compared/merged is not
delegated.  Instead this is done without any support whatsoever from
the version control package/system - meaning that the user has to
enter the revisions explicitly.  Instead of implementing
~ediff-magit-internal~ we provide ~magit-ediff-compare~, which handles
both tasks like it is 2005.

The other commands ~ediff-merge-revisions~ and
~ediff-merge-revisions-with-ancestor~ are normally not what you want
when using a modern version control system like Git.  Instead of
letting the user resolve only those conflicts which Git could not
resolve on its own, they throw away all work done by Git and then
expect the user to manually merge all conflicts, including those that
had already been resolved.  That made sense back in the days when
version control systems couldn't merge (or so I have been told), but
not anymore.  Once in a blue moon you might actually want to see all
conflicts, in which case you *can* use these commands, which then use
~ediff-vc-merge-internal~.  So we don't actually have to implement
~ediff-magit-merge-internal~.  Instead we provide the more useful
command ~magit-ediff-resolve~ which only shows yet-to-be resolved
conflicts.

*** Should I disable VC?

If you don't use VC (the built-in version control interface) then
you might be tempted to disable it, not least because we used to
recommend that you do that.

We no longer recommend that you disable VC.  Doing so would break
useful third-party packages (such as ~diff-hl~), which depend on VC
being enabled.

If you choose to disable VC anyway, then you can do so by changing
the value of ~vc-handled-backends~.

** FAQ - Issues and Errors
*** Magit is slow

See [[*Performance]].

*** I changed several thousand files at once and now Magit is unusable

Magit is *currently* not expected to work under such conditions. It sure
would be nice if it did, and v2.5 will hopefully be a big step into
that direction.  But it might take until v3.1 to accomplish fully
satisfactory performance, because that requires some heavy refactoring.

But for now we recommend you use the command line to complete this one
commit.  Also see [[*Performance]].

*** I am having problems committing

That likely means that Magit is having problems finding an appropriate
emacsclient executable.  See [[info:with-editor#Configuring With-Editor]]
and [[info:with-editor#Debugging]].

*** I am using MS Windows and cannot push with Magit

It's almost certain that Magit is only incidental to this issue.  It
is much more likely that this is a configuration issue, even if you
can push on the command line.

Detailed setup instructions can be found at
https://github.com/magit/magit/wiki/Pushing-with-Magit-from-Windows.

*** I am using OS X and SOMETHING works in shell, but not in Magit

This usually occurs because Emacs doesn't have the same environment
variables as your shell.  Try installing and configuring
https://github.com/purcell/exec-path-from-shell.  By default it
synchronizes ~$PATH~, which helps Magit find the same ~git~ as the one you
are using on the shell.

If SOMETHING is "passphrase caching with gpg-agent for commit and/or
tag signing", then you'll also need to synchronize ~$GPG_AGENT_INFO~.

*** Expanding a file to show the diff causes it to disappear

This is probably caused by a change of a ~diff.*~ Git variable.  You
probably set that variable for a reason, and should therefore
only undo that setting in Magit by customizing
~magit-git-global-arguments~.

*** Point is wrong in the ~COMMIT_EDITMSG~ buffer

Neither Magit nor `git-commit` fiddle with point in the buffer used to
write commit messages, so something else must be doing it.

You have probably globally enabled a mode which does restore point in
file-visiting buffers.  It might be a bit surprising, but when you
write a commit message, then you are actually editing a file.

So you have to figure out which package is doing.  ~saveplace~,
~pointback~, and ~session~ are likely candidates.  These snippets might
help:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (setq session-name-disable-regexp "\\(?:\\`'\\.git/[A-Z_]+\\'\\)")

  (with-eval-after-load 'pointback
    (lambda ()
      (when (or git-commit-mode git-rebase-mode)
	(pointback-mode -1))))
#+END_SRC

*** The mode-line information isn't always up-to-date

Magit is not responsible for the version control information that is
being displayed in the mode-line and looks something like ~Git-master~.
The built-in "Version Control" package, also known as "VC", updates
that information, and can be told to do so more often:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (setq auto-revert-check-vc-info t)
#+END_SRC

But doing so isn't good for performance.  For more (overly optimistic)
information see [[info:emacs#VC Mode Line]].

If you don't really care about seeing this information in the
mode-line, but just don't want to see /incorrect/ information,
then consider simply not displaying it in the mode-line:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (setq-default mode-line-format
                (delete '(vc-mode vc-mode) mode-line-format))
#+END_SRC

*** A branch and tag sharing the same name breaks SOMETHING

Or more generally, ambiguous refnames break SOMETHING.

Magit assumes that refs are named non-ambiguously across the
"refs/heads/", "refs/tags/", and "refs/remotes/" namespaces (i.e., all
the names remain unique when those prefixes are stripped).  We
consider ambiguous refnames unsupported and recommend that you use a
non-ambiguous naming scheme.  However, if you do work with a
repository that has ambiguous refnames, please report any issues you
encounter so that we can investigate whether there is a simple fix.

*** My Git hooks work on the command-line but not inside Magit

When Magit calls ~git~ it adds a few global arguments including
~--literal-pathspecs~ and the ~git~ process started by Magit then passes
that setting on to other ~git~ process it starts itself.  It does so by
setting the environment variable ~GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS~, not by calling
subprocesses with the ~--literal-pathspecs~ argument.  You can therefore
override this setting in hook scripts using ~unset
GIT_LITERAL_PATHSPECS~.

*** ~git-commit-mode~ isn't used when committing from the command-line

The reason for this is that ~git-commit.el~ has not been loaded yet
and/or that the server has not been started yet.  These things have
always already been taken care of when you commit from Magit because
in order to do so, Magit has to be loaded and doing that involves
loading ~git-commit~ and starting the server.

If you want to commit from the command-line, then you have to take
care of these things yourself. Your ~init.el~ file should contain:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (require 'git-commit)
  (server-mode)
#+END_SRC

Instead of `(require 'git-commit)` you may also use:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (load "/path/to/magit-autoloads.el")
#+END_SRC

You might want to do that because loading ~git-commit~ causes large
parts of Magit to be loaded.

There are also some variations of ~(server-mode)~ that you might want to
try. Personally I use:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (use-package server
    :config (or (server-running-p) (server-mode)))
#+END_SRC

Now you can use:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell-script
  $ emacs&
  $ EDITOR=emacsclient git commit
#+END_SRC

However you cannot use:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell-script
  $ killall emacs
  $ EDITOR="emacsclient --alternate-editor emacs" git commit
#+END_SRC

This will actually end up using ~emacs~, not ~emacsclient~.  If you do
this, then you can still edit the commit message but ~git-commit-mode~
won't be used and you have to exit ~emacs~ to finish the process.

Tautology ahead.  If you want to be able to use ~emacsclient~ to connect
to a running ~emacs~ instance, even though no ~emacs~ instance is running,
then you cannot use ~emacsclient~ directly.

Instead you have to create a script that does something like this:

Try to use ~emacsclient~ (without using ~--alternate-editor~).  If that
succeeds, do nothing else.  Otherwise start ~emacs &~ (and ~init.el~ must
call ~server-start~) and try to use ~emacsclient~ again.

*** Point ends up inside invisible text when jumping to a file-visiting buffer

This can happen when you type ~RET~ on a hunk to visit the respective
file at the respective position.  One solution to this problem is to
use ~global-reveal-mode~.  It makes sure that text around point is
always visible.  If that is too drastic for your taste, then you may
instead use ~magit-diff-visit-file-hook~ to reveal the text, possibly
using ~reveal-post-command~ or for Org buffers ~org-reveal~.

*** I am unable to stage when using Tramp from MS Windows

Magit may be unable to stage (or otherwise apply) individual hunks
when you are connected to remote machine using Tramp and the local
machine uses MS Windows.

There appears to be a problem with ~process-send-eof~ in this scenario,
as mentioned at the end of ~tramp-tests.el~.  I have contacted the Tramp
maintainer about this.  For now this unfortunately means that it just
doesn't work and we cannot do anything about it.  If you have more
information, then please comment on
https://github.com/magit/magit/issues/3624.

*** I am no longer able to save popup defaults

Magit used to use Magit-Popup to implement the transient popup menus.
Now it used Transient instead, which is Magit-Popup's successor.

In the older Magit-Popup menus, it was possible to save user settings
(e.g. setting the gpg signing key for commits) by using ~C-c C-c~ in the
popup buffer.  This would dismiss the popup, but save the settings as
the defaults for future popups.

When switching to Transient menus, this functionality is now available
via ~C-x C-s~ instead; the ~C-x~ prefix has other options as well when
using Transient, which will be displayed when it is typed.  See
https://magit.vc/manual/transient/Saving-Values.html#Saving-Values for
more details.

* Debugging Tools

Magit and its dependencies provide a few debugging tools, and we
appreciate it very much if you use those tools before reporting an
issue.  Please include all relevant output when reporting an
issue.

- Key: M-x magit-version, magit-version

  This command shows the currently used versions of Magit, Git, and
  Emacs in the echo area.  Non-interactively this just returns the
  Magit version.

- Key: M-x magit-emacs-Q-command, magit-emacs-Q-command

  This command shows a debugging shell command in the echo area and
  adds it to the kill ring.  Paste that command into a shell and run
  it.

  This shell command starts ~emacs~ with only ~magit~ and its
  dependencies loaded.  Neither your configuration nor other installed
  packages are loaded.  This makes it easier to determine whether some
  issue lays with Magit or something else.

  If you run Magit from its Git repository, then you should be able to
  use ~make emacs-Q~ instead of the output of this command.

- Key: M-x magit-toggle-verbose-refresh, magit-toggle-verbose-refresh

  This command toggles whether Magit refreshes buffers verbosely.
  Enabling this helps figuring out which sections are bottlenecks.
  The additional output can be found in the ~*Messages*~ buffer.

- Key: M-x magit-debug-git-executable, magit-debug-git-executable

  This command displays a buffer containing information about the
  available and used ~git~ executable(s), and can be useful when
  investigating ~exec-path~ issues.

  Also see [[*Git Executable]].

- Key: M-x with-editor-debug, with-editor-debug

  This command displays a buffer containing information about the
  available and used ~emacsclient~ executable(s), and can be useful
  when investigating why Magit (or rather ~with-editor~) cannot find
  an appropriate ~emacsclient~ executable.

  Also see [[info:with-editor#Debugging]].

Please also see the [[*FAQ]].

* Keystroke Index
:PROPERTIES:
:APPENDIX:   t
:INDEX:      ky
:COOKIE_DATA: recursive
:END:
* Command Index
:PROPERTIES:
:APPENDIX:   t
:INDEX:      cp
:END:
* Function Index
:PROPERTIES:
:APPENDIX:   t
:INDEX:      fn
:END:
* Variable Index
:PROPERTIES:
:APPENDIX:   t
:INDEX:      vr
:END:

* Copying
:PROPERTIES:
:COPYING:    t
:END:

#+BEGIN_QUOTE
Copyright (C) 2015-2021 Jonas Bernoulli <jonas@bernoul.li>

You can redistribute this document and/or modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any
later version.

This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
#+END_QUOTE

#  LocalWords:  ARG ARGS CONDITIONs ChangeLog DNS Dired Ediff Ediffing
#  LocalWords:  Elpa Emacsclient FUNC Flyspell Git Git's Gitk HOOK's
#  LocalWords:  IDENT Ido Junio LocalWords Magit Magit's Magitian Magitians
#  LocalWords:  Melpa Propertize REF REF's RET Reflog SPC SYM Spacemacs
#  LocalWords:  Submodules TODO TYPEs Theming Unpulled Unpushed Unstaged
#  LocalWords:  Untracked WORKTREE Wip ack args async autoloads autosaving
#  LocalWords:  autosquash backport basename branchref builtin
#  LocalWords:  cdr changelog committer config customizable diff's diffstat
#  LocalWords:  dwim ediff ediffing editmsg emacsclient filename fixup
#  LocalWords:  flyspell func git's gitk gitman gitmodule gitmodules goto
#  LocalWords:  gpg gui ident ido init inserter inserters keymap keymaps
#  LocalWords:  logfile magit maildir manpage manpages minibuffer multi mv
#  LocalWords:  namespace newbase nocommit notesRef posix prev
#  LocalWords:  propertize rebase rebased rebasing reflog repo signoff str
#  LocalWords:  struct subcommand submodule submodule's submodules subprocess
#  LocalWords:  sym texinfo theming todo topdir un unhighlighted unpulled
#  LocalWords:  unpushed unstage unstaged unstages unstaging untracked url
#  LocalWords:  versa whitespace wip workflow worktree wtree
#  LocalWords:  backported macOS

# IMPORTANT: Also update ORG_ARGS and ORG_EVAL in the Makefile.
# Local Variables:
# eval: (require 'magit-utils nil t)
# eval: (require 'org-man     nil t)
# eval: (require 'ol-man      nil t)
# eval: (require 'ox-texinfo+ nil t)
# org-texinfo+-dissolve-noexport-headlines: t
# indent-tabs-mode: nil
# org-src-preserve-indentation: nil
# End:
