git-describe(1) =============== NAME ---- git-describe - Show the most recent tag that is reachable from a commit SYNOPSIS -------- 'git-describe' [--all] [--tags] [--abbrev=] ... DESCRIPTION ----------- The command finds the most recent tag that is reachable from a commit, and if the commit itself is pointed at by the tag, shows the tag. Otherwise, it suffixes the tag name with abbreviated object name of the commit. OPTIONS ------- :: The object name of the committish. --all:: Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any ref found in `.git/refs/`. --tags:: Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any tag found in `.git/refs/tags`. --abbrev=:: Instead of using the default 8 hexadecimal digits as the abbreviated object name, use digits. EXAMPLES -------- With something like git.git current tree, I get: [torvalds@g5 git]$ git-describe parent v1.0.4-g2414721b i.e. the current head of my "parent" branch is based on v1.0.4, but since it has a few commits on top of that, it has added the git hash of the thing to the end: "-g" + 8-char shorthand for the commit `2414721b194453f058079d897d13c4e377f92dc6`. Doing a "git-describe" on a tag-name will just show the tag name: [torvalds@g5 git]$ git-describe v1.0.4 v1.0.4 With --all, the command can use branch heads as references, so the output shows the reference path as well: [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 v1.0.5^2 tags/v1.0.0-g975b [torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all HEAD^ heads/lt/describe-g975b Author ------ Written by Linus Torvalds , but somewhat butchered by Junio C Hamano Documentation -------------- Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list . GIT --- Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite