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+git-describe(1)
+===============
+
+NAME
+----
+git-describe - Give an object a human readable name based on an available ref
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+[verse]
+'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] [<commit-ish>...]
+'git describe' [--all] [--tags] [--contains] [--abbrev=<n>] --dirty[=<mark>]
+'git describe' <blob>
+
+DESCRIPTION
+-----------
+The command finds the most recent tag that is reachable from a
+commit.  If the tag points to the commit, then only the tag is
+shown.  Otherwise, it suffixes the tag name with the number of
+additional commits on top of the tagged object and the
+abbreviated object name of the most recent commit. The result
+is a "human-readable" object name which can also be used to
+identify the commit to other git commands.
+
+By default (without --all or --tags) `git describe` only shows
+annotated tags.  For more information about creating annotated tags
+see the -a and -s options to linkgit:git-tag[1].
+
+If the given object refers to a blob, it will be described
+as `<commit-ish>:<path>`, such that the blob can be found
+at `<path>` in the `<commit-ish>`, which itself describes the
+first commit in which this blob occurs in a reverse revision walk
+from HEAD.
+
+OPTIONS
+-------
+<commit-ish>...::
+	Commit-ish object names to describe.  Defaults to HEAD if omitted.
+
+--dirty[=<mark>]::
+--broken[=<mark>]::
+	Describe the state of the working tree.  When the working
+	tree matches HEAD, the output is the same as "git describe
+	HEAD".  If the working tree has local modification "-dirty"
+	is appended to it.  If a repository is corrupt and Git
+	cannot determine if there is local modification, Git will
+	error out, unless `--broken' is given, which appends
+	the suffix "-broken" instead.
+
+--all::
+	Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any ref
+	found in `refs/` namespace.  This option enables matching
+	any known branch, remote-tracking branch, or lightweight tag.
+
+--tags::
+	Instead of using only the annotated tags, use any tag
+	found in `refs/tags` namespace.  This option enables matching
+	a lightweight (non-annotated) tag.
+
+--contains::
+	Instead of finding the tag that predates the commit, find
+	the tag that comes after the commit, and thus contains it.
+	Automatically implies --tags.
+
+--abbrev=<n>::
+	Instead of using the default 7 hexadecimal digits as the
+	abbreviated object name, use <n> digits, or as many digits
+	as needed to form a unique object name.  An <n> of 0
+	will suppress long format, only showing the closest tag.
+
+--candidates=<n>::
+	Instead of considering only the 10 most recent tags as
+	candidates to describe the input commit-ish consider
+	up to <n> candidates.  Increasing <n> above 10 will take
+	slightly longer but may produce a more accurate result.
+	An <n> of 0 will cause only exact matches to be output.
+
+--exact-match::
+	Only output exact matches (a tag directly references the
+	supplied commit).  This is a synonym for --candidates=0.
+
+--debug::
+	Verbosely display information about the searching strategy
+	being employed to standard error.  The tag name will still
+	be printed to standard out.
+
+--long::
+	Always output the long format (the tag, the number of commits
+	and the abbreviated commit name) even when it matches a tag.
+	This is useful when you want to see parts of the commit object name
+	in "describe" output, even when the commit in question happens to be
+	a tagged version.  Instead of just emitting the tag name, it will
+	describe such a commit as v1.2-0-gdeadbee (0th commit since tag v1.2
+	that points at object deadbee....).
+
+--match <pattern>::
+	Only consider tags matching the given `glob(7)` pattern,
+	excluding the "refs/tags/" prefix. If used with `--all`, it also
+	considers local branches and remote-tracking references matching the
+	pattern, excluding respectively "refs/heads/" and "refs/remotes/"
+	prefix; references of other types are never considered. If given
+	multiple times, a list of patterns will be accumulated, and tags
+	matching any of the patterns will be considered.  Use `--no-match` to
+	clear and reset the list of patterns.
+
+--exclude <pattern>::
+	Do not consider tags matching the given `glob(7)` pattern, excluding
+	the "refs/tags/" prefix. If used with `--all`, it also does not consider
+	local branches and remote-tracking references matching the pattern,
+	excluding respectively "refs/heads/" and "refs/remotes/" prefix;
+	references of other types are never considered. If given multiple times,
+	a list of patterns will be accumulated and tags matching any of the
+	patterns will be excluded. When combined with --match a tag will be
+	considered when it matches at least one --match pattern and does not
+	match any of the --exclude patterns. Use `--no-exclude` to clear and
+	reset the list of patterns.
+
+--always::
+	Show uniquely abbreviated commit object as fallback.
+
+--first-parent::
+	Follow only the first parent commit upon seeing a merge commit.
+	This is useful when you wish to not match tags on branches merged
+	in the history of the target commit.
+
+EXAMPLES
+--------
+
+With something like git.git current tree, I get:
+
+	[torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe parent
+	v1.0.4-14-g2414721
+
+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,
+describe has added the number of additional commits ("14") and
+an abbreviated object name for the commit itself ("2414721")
+at the end.
+
+The number of additional commits is the number
+of commits which would be displayed by "git log v1.0.4..parent".
+The hash suffix is "-g" + unambiguous abbreviation for the tip commit
+of parent (which was `2414721b194453f058079d897d13c4e377f92dc6`).
+The "g" prefix stands for "git" and is used to allow describing the version of
+a software depending on the SCM the software is managed with. This is useful
+in an environment where people may use different SCMs.
+
+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/v1.0.0-21-g975b
+
+	[torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --all --abbrev=4 HEAD^
+	heads/lt/describe-7-g975b
+
+With --abbrev set to 0, the command can be used to find the
+closest tagname without any suffix:
+
+	[torvalds@g5 git]$ git describe --abbrev=0 v1.0.5^2
+	tags/v1.0.0
+
+Note that the suffix you get if you type these commands today may be
+longer than what Linus saw above when he ran these commands, as your
+Git repository may have new commits whose object names begin with
+975b that did not exist back then, and "-g975b" suffix alone may not
+be sufficient to disambiguate these commits.
+
+
+SEARCH STRATEGY
+---------------
+
+For each commit-ish supplied, 'git describe' will first look for
+a tag which tags exactly that commit.  Annotated tags will always
+be preferred over lightweight tags, and tags with newer dates will
+always be preferred over tags with older dates.  If an exact match
+is found, its name will be output and searching will stop.
+
+If an exact match was not found, 'git describe' will walk back
+through the commit history to locate an ancestor commit which
+has been tagged.  The ancestor's tag will be output along with an
+abbreviation of the input commit-ish's SHA-1. If `--first-parent` was
+specified then the walk will only consider the first parent of each
+commit.
+
+If multiple tags were found during the walk then the tag which
+has the fewest commits different from the input commit-ish will be
+selected and output.  Here fewest commits different is defined as
+the number of commits which would be shown by `git log tag..input`
+will be the smallest number of commits possible.
+
+BUGS
+----
+
+Tree objects as well as tag objects not pointing at commits, cannot be described.
+When describing blobs, the lightweight tags pointing at blobs are ignored,
+but the blob is still described as <committ-ish>:<path> despite the lightweight
+tag being favorable.
+
+GIT
+---
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite