TIG(1)

NAME
tig - text-mode interface for Git

SYNOPSIS

tig        [options] [revisions] [--] [paths]
tig log    [options] [revisions] [--] [paths]
tig show   [options] [revisions] [--] [paths]
tig reflog [options] [revisions]
tig blame  [options] [rev] [--] path
tig grep   [options] [pattern]
tig refs   [options]
tig stash  [options]
tig status
tig <      [Git command output]

DESCRIPTION

Tig is an ncurses-based text-mode interface for git(1). It functions mainly as a Git repository browser, but can also assist in staging changes for commit at chunk level and act as a pager for output from various Git commands.

OPTIONS

Command line options recognized by Tig include all valid git-log(1) and git-diff(1) options, as well as the following subcommands and Tig-specific options. The first command line parameter not starting with "-" is interpreted as being either a revision specification or a path and will end the option parsing. All additional options will be passed to the underlying Git command.

Note that this means that any arguments to options should be specified together. For example, run tig -Sfoo instead of tig -S foo, and tig --grep=foo instead of tig --grep foo, otherwise foo will be interpreted as a revision rather than an argument.

show
    Open diff view using the given git-show(1) options.

blame
    Show given file annotated by commits. Takes zero or more git-blame(1) options. Optionally limited from given revision.

status
    Start up in status view.

log
    Start up in log view, displaying git-log(1) output.

reflog
    Start up in reflog view.

refs
    Start up in refs view. All refs are displayed unless limited by using one of the --branches, --remotes, or --tags parameters.

stash
    Start up in stash view.

grep
    Open the grep view. Supports the same options as git-grep(1).

+<number>
    Show the first view with line <number> visible and selected.

-v, --version
    Show version and exit.

-h, --help
    Show help message and exit.

-C <path>
    Run as if Tig was started in <path> instead of the current working directory.

PAGER MODE

Tig enters pager mode when input is provided via stdin and supports the following subcommands and options:

    • When the show subcommand is specified and the --stdin option is given, stdin is assumed to be a list of commit IDs and will be forwarded to the diff view’s underlying git-show(1) command. For example:

    $ git rev-list --author=vivien HEAD | tig show --stdin

    • When --stdin is given, stdin is assumed to be a list of commit IDs and will be forwarded to the main view’s underlying git-log(1) command. For example:

    $ tig --no-walk --stdin < cherry-picks.txt

    • When --pretty=raw is given, stdin is assumed to be a "pretty=raw" formatted output similar to that of git-log(1). For example:

    $ git reflog --pretty=raw | tig --pretty=raw

When no subcommands nor options are given, the pager view will be used for displaying the Git command input given on stdin. The pager view assumes the input is either from git-log(1) or git-diff(1) and will highlight it similar to the log and diff views. For example:

    $ git log -Schange -p --raw | tig

EXAMPLES

Display the list of commits for the current branch:

    $ tig

Display commits from one or more branches:

    $ tig test master

Pretend as if all the refs in refs/ are listed on the command line:

    $ tig --all

Display differences between two branches:

    $ tig test..master

Display changes for sub-module versions:

    $ tig --submodule

Display changes for a single file:

    $ tig -- README

Display contents of the README file in a specific revision:

    $ tig show tig-0.8:README

Display revisions between two dates for a specific file:

    $ tig --after="2004-01-01" --before="2006-05-16" -- README

Blame file with copy detection enabled:

    $ tig blame -C README

Display the list of stashes:

    $ tig stash

Grep all files for lines containing DEFINE_ENUM:

    $ tig grep -p DEFINE_ENUM

Show references (branches, remotes and tags):

    $ tig refs

Use word diff in the diff view:

    $ tig --word-diff=plain

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

In addition to environment variables used by Git (e.g. GIT_DIR), Tig defines the ones below. The command related environment variables have access to the internal state of Tig via replacement variables, such as %(commit) and %(blob). See tigrc(5) for a full list.

TIGRC_USER
    Path of the user configuration file (defaults to ~/.tigrc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tig/config).

TIGRC_SYSTEM
    Path of the system wide configuration file (defaults to {sysconfdir}/tigrc). Define to empty string to use built-in configuration.

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

TIG_DIFF_OPTS
    The diff options to use in the diff view. The diff view uses git-show(1) for formatting and always passes --patch-with-stat. You may also set the diff-options setting in the configuration file.

TIG_TRACE
    Path for trace file where information about Git commands are logged.

TIG_SCRIPT
    Path to script that should be executed automatically on startup. If this environment variable is defined to the empty string, the script is read from stdin. The script is interpreted line-by-line and can contain prompt commands and key mappings.

        E.g. TIG_SCRIPT=<(echo :set main-view-commit-title-graph = no) tig

TIG_NO_DISPLAY
    Open Tig without rendering anything to the terminal. This force Ncurses to write to /dev/null. The main use is for automated testing of Tig.

TIG_EDITOR
    The editor command to use when visiting files. This environment variable overrides $GIT_EDITOR, $EDITOR and $VISUAL, so it allows to use a different editor from the one Git uses.

FILES

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tig/config, ~/.config/tig/config, ~/.tigrc
    The Tig user configuration file is loaded in the following way. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set, read user configuration from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tig/config. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is empty or undefined, read user configuration from ~/.config/tig/config if it exists and fall back to ~/.tigrc if it does not exist. See tigrc(5) for examples.

++SYSCONFDIR++/tigrc
    System wide configuration file.

$GIT_DIR/config, ~/.gitconfig, ++SYSCONFDIR++/gitconfig
    Git configuration files. Read on start-up with the help of git-config(1).

$XDG_DATA_HOME/tig/history, ~/.local/share/tig/history, ~/.tig_history
    When compiled with readline support, Tig writes a persistent command and search history. The location of the history file is determined in the following way. If $XDG_DATA_HOME is set and $XDG_DATA_HOME/ exists, create $XDG_DATA_HOME/tig/ if needed and store history to $XDG_DATA_HOME/tig/history. If $XDG_DATA_HOME is empty or undefined, store history to ~/.local/share/tig/history if the directory ~/.local/share/tig/ exists, and fall back to ~/.tig_history if it does not exist.

BUGS

Please visit Tig’s home page[1] or main Git repository[2] for information about new releases and how to report bugs or feature request.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2006-2025 Jonas Fonseca <jonas.fonseca@gmail.com[3]>

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.

SEE ALSO

tigrc(5), tigmanual(7), git(7)

NOTES

1.  home page
    https://jonas.github.io/tig

2.  main Git repository
    https://github.com/jonas/tig

3.  jonas.fonseca@gmail.com
    mailto:jonas.fonseca@gmail.com