I'm trying to follow some tutorials to learn how to use Git but some of the instructions are for specific versions.
Is there a command that I can use find out what version I have installed?
06 Answers
$ git --version
git version 1.7.3.4git help and man git both hint at the available arguments you can pass to the command-line tool
If you're using the command-line tools, running git --version should give you the version number.
In a command prompt:
$ git --versionOr even just
git versionResults in something like
git version 1.8.3.msysgit.0
git helpandman gitboth hint at the available arguments you can pass to the command-line tool
Actually, the git version command finally gets an official help page with Git 2.34 (Q4 2021):
See commit b6d8887 (14 Sep 2021) by Matthias Aßhauer (rimrul).
(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 188da7d, 23 Sep 2021)
documentation: add documentation for 'git version'Signed-off-by: Matthias Aßhauer
While '
git version'(man) is probably the least complex git command, it is a non-experimental user-facing builtin command.
As such it should have a help page.Both
git help(man) andgit versioncan be called as options (--help/--version) that internally get converted to the corresponding command.
Add a small paragraph toDocumentation/git.txtdescribing how these two options interact with each other and link to this help page for the sub-options that--versioncan take.
Well, currently there is only one sub-option, but that could potentially increase in future versions of Git.
git version now includes in its man page:
git-version(1)
NAME
git-version - Display version information about Git
SYNOPSIS
git version [--build-options]DESCRIPTION
With no options given, the version of 'git' is printed on the standard output.
Note that
git --versionis identical togit versionbecause the former is internally converted into the latter.OPTIONS
--build-optionsInclude additional information about how git was built for diagnostic purposes.
git now includes in its man page:
This option is internally converted to
git version ...and accepts the same options as thegit versioncommand.
If--helpis also given, it takes precedence over--version.
which git &> /dev/null || { echo >&2 "I require git but it's not installed. Aborting."; exit 1; }
echo "Git is installed."That will echo "Git is installed" if it is, otherwise, it'll echo an error message. You can use this for scripts that use git
It's also customizable, so you can change "which git" to "which java" or something, and change the error message.
