ifndef::doctype-manpage[]
The Tig Manual
==============
Jonas Fonseca <jonas.fonseca@gmail.com>
endif::doctype-manpage[]

This is the manual for Tig, the ncurses-based text-mode interface for git.
Tig allows you to browse changes in a Git repository and can additionally act
as a pager for output of various Git commands. When used as a pager, it will
display input from stdin and colorize it.

When browsing repositories, Tig uses the underlying Git commands to present
the user with various views, such as summarized commit log and showing the
commit with the log message, diffstat, and the diff.

ifdef::include-manual-toc[]
*Table of Contents*

include::manual.toc[]
endif::include-manual-toc[]

[[calling-conventions]]
Calling Conventions
-------------------

[[pager-mode]]
Pager Mode
~~~~~~~~~~

If stdin is a pipe, any log or diff options will be ignored and the pager view
will be opened loading data from stdin. The pager mode can be used for
colorizing output from various Git commands.

Example on how to colorize the output of git-show(1):

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ git show | tig
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[[cmd-options]]
Git Command Options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All Git command options specified on the command line will be passed to the
given command and all will be shell quoted before they are passed to the
shell.

NOTE: If you specify options for the main view, you should not use the
`--pretty` option as this option will be set automatically to the format
expected by the main view.

Example on how to view a commit and show both author and committer
information:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ tig show --pretty=fuller
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

See the section on <<refspec, specifying revisions>> for an introduction to
revision options supported by the Git commands. For details on specific Git
command options, refer to the man page of the command in question.

[[viewer]]
The Viewer
----------

The display consists of a status window on the last line of the screen and one
or more views. The default is to only show one view at a time but it is
possible to split both the main and log view to also show the commit diff.

If you are in the log view and press 'Enter' when the current line is a commit
line, such as:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
commit 4d55caff4cc89335192f3e566004b4ceef572521
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

You will split the view so that the log view is displayed in the top window
and the diff view in the bottom window. You can switch between the two views
by pressing 'Tab'. To maximize the log view again, simply press 'l'.

[[views]]
Views
~~~~~

Various 'views' of a repository are presented. Each view is based on output
from an external command, most often 'git log', 'git diff', or 'git show'.

The main view::
	Is the default view, and it shows a one line summary of each commit
	in the chosen list of revisions. The summary includes committer or
	author date, author, committer, and the first line of the log message.
	Additionally, any repository references, such as tags, will be shown.

The log view::
	Presents a more rich view of the revision log showing the whole log
	message and the diffstat.

The reflog view::
	Presents a view of the reflog allowing to navigate the repo
	history.

The diff view::
	Shows either the diff of the current working tree, that is, what
	has changed since the last commit, or the commit diff complete
	with log message, diffstat and diff.

The tree view::
	Lists directory trees associated with the current revision allowing
	subdirectories to be descended or ascended and file blobs to be
	viewed.

The blob view::
	Displays the file content or "blob" of data associated with a file
	name.

The blame view::
	Displays the file content annotated or blamed by commits.

The refs view::
	Displays the branches, remotes and tags in the repository.

The status view::
	Displays status of files in the working tree and allows changes to be
	staged/unstaged as well as adding of untracked files.

The stage view::
	Displays diff changes for staged or unstaged files being tracked or
	file content of untracked files.

The stash view::
	Displays the list of stashes in the repository.

The grep view::
	Displays a list of files and all the lines that matches a search
	pattern.

The pager view::
	Is used for displaying both input from stdin and output from Git
	commands entered in the internal prompt.

The help view::
	Displays a quick reference of key bindings.

[[commit-id]]
Browsing State and User-defined Commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The viewer keeps track of both what head and commit ID you are currently
viewing. The commit ID will follow the cursor line and change every time you
highlight a different commit. Whenever you reopen the diff view it will be
reloaded, if the commit ID changed. The head ID is used when opening the main
and log view to indicate from what revision to show history.

Some of the commands used or provided by Tig can be configured. This goes for
some of the <<env-variables, environment variables>> as well as the
<<external-commands, external commands>>. These user-defined commands can use
arguments that refer to the current browsing state by using one of the
following variables.

.Browsing state variables
[frame="none",grid="none",cols="25<m,75<"]
|=============================================================================
|%(head)		|The currently viewed 'head' ID. Defaults to HEAD
|%(commit)		|The currently selected commit ID.
|%(blob)		|The currently selected blob ID.
|%(branch)		|The currently selected branch name.
|%(remote)		|The currently selected remote name. For remote
			 branches %(branch) will contain the branch name.
|%(tag)			|The currently selected tag name.
|%(refname)		|The currently selected reference name including the
			 remote name for remote branches.
|%(stash)		|The currently selected stash name.
|%(directory)		|The current directory path in the tree view or
			 "." if undefined.
|%(file)		|The currently selected file.
|%(file_old)		|The old filename of the currently selected file.
|%(lineno)		|The currently selected line number. Defaults to 0.
|%(lineno_old)		|The currently selected line number, before the diff
			 was applied. Defaults to 0.
|%(ref)			|The reference given to blame or HEAD if undefined.
|%(revargs)		|The revision arguments passed on the command line.
|%(fileargs)		|The file arguments passed on the command line.
|%(cmdlineargs)		|All other options passed on the command line.
|%(diffargs)		|Options from 'diff-options' or 'TIG_DIFF_OPTS' used
			 by the diff and stage view.
|%(blameargs)		|Options from 'blame-options' used by the blame view.
|%(logargs)		|Options from 'log-options' used by the log view.
|%(mainargs)		|Options from 'main-options' used by the main view.
|%(prompt)		|Prompt for the argument value. Optionally specify a
			 custom prompt using `"%(prompt Enter branch name: )"`
|%(text)		|The text column of the currently selected line.
|%(repo:head)		|The name of the checked out branch, e.g. `master`
|%(repo:head-id)	|The commit ID of the checked out branch.
|%(repo:remote)		|The remote name associated with the checked out
			 branch, e.g. `origin`.
|%(repo:upstream)	|The upstream branch associated with the checked out
			 branch, e.g. `origin/master`.
|%(repo:cdup)		|The path to change directory to the repository root,
			 e.g. `../`
|%(repo:prefix)		|The path prefix of the current work directory,
			 e.g `subdir/`.
|%(repo:git-dir)	|The path to the Git directory, e.g. `/src/repo/.git`.
|%(repo:worktree)	|The worktree path, if defined.
|%(repo:is-inside-work-tree)
			|Whether Tig is running inside a work tree,
			 either `true` or `false`.
|=============================================================================

Example user-defined commands:

 - Allow to amend the last commit:

	bind generic + !git commit --amend

 - Copy commit ID to clipboard:

	bind generic 9 @sh -c "echo -n %(commit) | xclip -selection c"

 - Add/edit notes for the current commit used during a review:

	bind generic T !git notes edit %(commit)

 - Enter Git's interactive add for fine-grained staging of file content:

	bind generic I !git add -i %(file)

 - Rebase current branch on top of the selected branch:

	bind refs 3 !git rebase -i %(branch)

[[title-window]]
Title Windows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Each view has a title window which shows the name of the view, current commit
ID if available, and where the view is positioned:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[main] c622eefaa485995320bc743431bae0d497b1d875 - commit 1 of 61             1%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By default, the title of the current view is highlighted using bold font.  For
long loading views (taking over 3 seconds) the time since loading started will
be appended:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[main] 77d9e40fbcea3238015aea403e06f61542df9a31 - commit 1 of 779 loading 5s 0%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[[env-variables]]
Environment Variables
---------------------

Several options related to the interface with Git can be configured via
environment options.

[[configuration-files]]
Configuration Files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Upon startup, Tig first reads the system wide configuration file
(`{sysconfdir}/tigrc` by default) and then proceeds to read the user's
configuration file (`~/.tigrc` or `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tig/config` by default).
The paths to either of these files can be overridden through the following
environment variables:

TIGRC_USER::
	Path of the user configuration file.

TIGRC_SYSTEM::
	Path of the system wide configuration file.

[[history-files]]
History Files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If compiled with readline support, Tig writes a persistent command and search
history to `~/.tig_history` or `$XDG_DATA_HOME/tig/history`.

[[repo-refs]]
Repository References
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Commits that are referenced by tags and branch heads will be marked by the
reference name surrounded by '[' and ']':

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2006-03-26 19:42 Petr Baudis         | [cogito-0.17.1] Cogito 0.17.1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you want to limit what branches are shown, say only show branches named
`master` or those which start with the `feature/` prefix, you can do it by setting
the following variable:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ TIG_LS_REMOTE="git ls-remote . master feature/*" tig
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or set the variable permanently in your environment.

--

TIG_LS_REMOTE::

	Command for retrieving all repository references. The command should
	output data in the same format as git-ls-remote(1). Defaults to:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
git ls-remote .
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

[[diff-options]]
Diff options
~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is possible to alter how diffs are shown by the diff view. If for example
you prefer to have commit and author dates shown as relative dates, use:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ TIG_DIFF_OPTS="--relative-date" tig
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or set the variable permanently in your environment.

[[keys]]
Default Keybindings
-------------------
Below the default key bindings are shown.

[[view-switching]]
View Switching
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[frame="none",grid="none",cols="2<,8<",options="header"]
|=============================================================================
|Key	|Action
|m	|Switch to main view.
|d	|Switch to diff view.
|l	|Switch to log view.
|p	|Switch to pager view.
|t	|Switch to (directory) tree view.
|f	|Switch to (file) blob view.
|g	|Switch to grep view.
|b	|Switch to blame view.
|r	|Switch to refs view.
|y	|Switch to stash view.
|h	|Switch to help view
|s	|Switch to status view
|c	|Switch to stage view
|=============================================================================

[[view-manipulation]]
View Manipulation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[frame="none",grid="none",cols="2<,8<",options="header"]
|=============================================================================
|Key	|Action
|q	|Close view, if multiple views are open it will jump back to the
	previous view in the view stack. If it is the last open view it
	will quit. Use 'Q' to quit all views at once.
|Enter	|This key is "context sensitive" depending on what view you are
	currently in. When in log view on a commit line or in the main
	view, split the view and show the commit diff. In the diff view
	pressing Enter will simply scroll the view one line down.
|Tab	|Switch to next view.
|R	|Reload and refresh the current view.
|O	|Maximize the current view to fill the whole display.
|Up	|This key is "context sensitive" and will move the cursor one
	line up. However, if you opened a split view it will change the
	cursor to point to the previous commit in the parent view and
	update the child view to display it. If you prefer this key to
	move the cursor or scroll within the diff view instead,
	use `bind diff <Up> move-up` or `bind diff <Up> scroll-line-up`,
	respectively.
|Down	|Similar to 'Up' but will move down.
|,	|Move to parent. In the tree view, this means switch to the parent
	directory. In the blame view it will load blame for the parent
	commit. For merges the parent is queried.
|=============================================================================

[[view-actions]]
View Specific Actions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[frame="none",grid="none",cols="2<,8<",options="header"]
|=============================================================================
|Key	|Action
|u	|Update status of file. In the status view, this allows you to add an
	 untracked file or stage changes to a file for next commit (similar to
	 running git-add <filename>). In the stage view, when pressing this on
	 a diff chunk line stages only that chunk for next commit, when not on
	 a diff chunk line all changes in the displayed diff are staged.
|M	|Resolve unmerged file by launching git-mergetool(1). Note, to work
	 correctly this might require some initial configuration of your
	 preferred merge tool. See the manpage of git-mergetool(1).
|!	|Checkout file with unstaged changes. This will reset the file to
	 contain the content it had at last commit.
|1	|Stage single diff line.
|@	|Move to next chunk in the stage view.
|]	|Increase the diff context.
|[	|Decrease the diff context.
|=============================================================================

[[cursor-nav]]
Cursor Navigation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[frame="none",grid="none",cols="2<,8<",options="header"]
|=============================================================================
|Key		|Action
|k		|Move cursor one line up.
|j		|Move cursor one line down.
|PgUp, -	|Move cursor one page up.
|PgDown, Space	|Move cursor one page down.
|Home		|Jump to first line.
|End		|Jump to last line.
|=============================================================================

[[view-scrolling]]
Scrolling
~~~~~~~~~

[frame="none",grid="none",cols="2<,8<",options="header"]
|=============================================================================
|Key		|Action
|Insert		|Scroll view one line up.
|Delete		|Scroll view one line down.
|ScrollBack	|Scroll view one page up.
|ScrollFwd	|Scroll view one page down.
|Left		|Scroll view one column left.
|Right		|Scroll view one column right.
|\|		|Scroll view to the first column.
|=============================================================================

[[searching]]
Searching
~~~~~~~~~

[frame="none",grid="none",cols="2<,8<",options="header"]
|=============================================================================
|Key	|Action
|/	|Search the view. Opens a prompt for entering search regexp to use.
|?	|Search backwards in the view. Also prompts for regexp.
|n	|Find next match for the current search regexp.
|N	|Find previous match for the current search regexp.
|=============================================================================

The format for patterns is either POSIX.2 ``extended'' REs or PCRE / PCRE2 if
Tig was compiled with PCRE / PCRE2 support (check with `tig -v`). See the
manpage of re_format(7) or pcrepattern(3) / pcre2pattern(3).

Case sensitivity can be controlled with variable ignore-case.

[[misc-keys]]
Misc
~~~~

[frame="none",grid="none",cols="2<,8<",options="header"]
|=============================================================================
|Key	|Action
|Q	|Quit.
|<C-L>	|Redraw screen.
|z	|Stop all background loading. This can be useful if you use
	 Tig in a repository with a long history without limiting
	 the revision log.
|v	|Show version.
|o	|Open option menu
|#	|Toggle line numbers on/off.
|D	|Toggle date display on/off/relative/relative-compact/custom
|A	|Toggle author display on/off/abbreviated/email/email user name.
|T	|Toggle committer display on/off/abbreviated/email/email user name.
|G	|Toggle revision graph visualization on/off.
|~	|Toggle (line) graphics mode
|F	|Toggle reference display on/off (tag and branch names).
|W	|Toggle ignoring whitespace on/off for diffs
|X	|Toggle commit ID display on/off
|%	|Toggle file filtering in order to see the full diff instead of only
	 the diff concerning the currently selected file.
|^	|Toggle revision filtering in the main view.
|$	|Toggle highlighting of commit title overflow.
|H	|Go to the HEAD commit.
|:	|Open prompt. This allows you to specify what command to run and also to
	 jump to a specific line, e.g. `:23`
|e	|Open file in editor.
|=============================================================================

[[prompt]]
Prompt
~~~~~~

[frame="none",grid="none",cols="2<,8<",options="header"]
|=============================================================================
|Key			|Action
|:<number>		|Jump to the specific line number, e.g. `:80`.
|:<sha>			|Jump to a specific commit, e.g. `:2f12bcc`.
|:<x>			|Execute the corresponding key binding, e.g. `:q`.
|:!<command>		|Execute a system command in a pager, e.g. `:!git log -p`.
|:<action>		|Execute a Tig command, e.g. `:edit`.
|:goto <rev>		|Jump to a specific revision, e.g. `:goto %(commit)^2`
			 to goto the current commit's 2nd parent or
			 `:goto some/branch` to goto the commit denoting the
			 branch `some/branch`.
|:save-display <file>	|Save current display to `<file>`.
|:save-options <file>	|Save current options to `<file>`.
|:save-view <file>	|Save view info to `<file>` (for testing purposes).
|:script <file>		|Execute commands from `<file>`.
|:exec <flags><args...> |Execute command using `<args>` with external
			 user-defined command option flags defined in `<flags>`.
|:echo <args...>        |Display text in the status bar.
|=============================================================================

[[external-commands]]
External Commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more custom needs, external commands provide a way to easily execute
a script or program. They are bound to keys and use information from the
current browsing state, such as the current commit ID. Tig comes with
the following built-in external commands:

[frame="none",grid="none",cols="1<,1<,8<",options="header"]
|=============================================================================
|Keymap	|Key	|Action
|main	|C	|git cherry-pick %(commit)
|status	|C	|git commit
|generic|G	|git gc
|=============================================================================

[[refspec]]
Revision Specification
----------------------

This section describes various ways to specify what revisions to display or
otherwise limit the view to. Tig does not itself parse the described
revision options so refer to the relevant Git man pages for further
information. Relevant man pages besides git-log(1) are git-diff(1) and
git-rev-list(1).

You can tune the interaction with Git by making use of the options explained
in this section. For example, by configuring the environment variable
described in the section on <<diff-options, diff options>>.

[[path-limiting]]
Limit by Path Name
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are interested only in those revisions that made changes to a specific
file (or even several files) list the files like this:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ tig Makefile README
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To avoid ambiguity with Tig's subcommands or repository references such as tag
names, be sure to separate file names from other Git options using "`--`". So
if you have a file named 'status' it will clash with the 'status' subcommand,
and thus you will have to use:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ tig -- status
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[[date-number-limiting]]
Limit by Date or Number
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To speed up interaction with Git, you can limit the amount of commits to show
both for the log and main view. Either limit by date using e.g.
`--since=1.month` or limit by the number of commits using `-n400`.

If you are only interested in changes that happened between two dates you can
use:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ tig --after="May 5th" --before="2006-05-16 15:44"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: If you want to avoid having to quote dates containing spaces you can use
"." instead, e.g. `--after=May.5th`.

[[commit-range-limiting]]
Limiting by Commit Ranges
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alternatively, commits can be limited to a specific range, such as "all
commits between 'tag-1.0' and 'tag-2.0'". For example:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ tig tag-1.0..tag-2.0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

This way of commit limiting makes it trivial to only browse the commits which
haven't been pushed to a remote branch. Assuming 'origin' is your upstream
remote branch, using:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ tig origin..HEAD
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

will list what will be pushed to the remote branch. Optionally, the ending
'HEAD' can be left out since it is implied.

[[reachability-limiting]]
Limiting by Reachability
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Git interprets the range specifier "tag-1.0..tag-2.0" as "all commits
reachable from 'tag-2.0' but not from 'tag-1.0'".  Where reachability refers
to what commits are ancestors (or part of the history) of the branch or tagged
revision in question.

If you prefer to specify which commit to preview in this way use the
following:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ tig tag-2.0 ^tag-1.0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can think of '^' as a negation operator. Using this alternate syntax, it
is possible to further prune commits by specifying multiple branch cut offs.

[[refspec-combi]]
Combining Revisions Specification
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Revision options can to some degree be combined, which makes it possible to
say "show at most 20 commits from within the last month that changed files
under the Documentation/ directory."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ tig --since=1.month -n20 -- Documentation/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[[refspec-all]]
Examining All Repository References
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In some cases, it can be useful to query changes across all references in a
repository. An example is to ask "did any line of development in this
repository change a particular file within the last week". This can be
accomplished using:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ tig --all --since=1.week -- Makefile
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

More Information
----------------

Please visit Tig's https://github.com/jonas/tig[home page] for information
about new releases and how to report bugs and feature requests.

[[copy-right]]
Copyright
---------

Copyright (c) 2006-2026 Jonas Fonseca <jonas.fonseca@gmail.com>

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

[[references]]
See Also
--------

Manpages:

ifdef::version[]
 - manpage:tig[1]
 - manpage:tigrc[5]
endif::version[]
ifndef::version[]
 - link:tig.1.adoc[tig(1)]
 - link:tigrc.5.adoc[tigrc(5)]
endif::version[]
