Do all git commands have a dry-run option?
GitGit Problem Overview
Do all git commands have a --dry-run option, or one which would indicate what the command would do without actually doing them?
Git Solutions
Solution 1 - Git
Not every command would naturally support a dry run directly.
- git merge has its own option (
git merge --no-commit --no-ff
) - but git pull does not really need it ('
git fetch origin
', then a 'git log master..origin/master
', before agit merge origin/master
)
(butgit push
has a dry-run option)
> There are things that are not implemented in git because they do not make
sense, and there are things that are not implemented in git because nobody
had itch to scratch for.
To put it differently, we tend to implement only
things that there are actual, demonstrated needs for from real world and
only when the addition makes sense as a coherent part of the system.
iboisver comments:
> Another thing to be aware of is that commands like git add
and git rm
allow the -n
command-line option to specify dry run, while in git commit
, the -n
option means something completely different.
So be sure to check the man page
git commit -n
:
-n
--no-verify
> This option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks. See also githooks(5).
Solution 2 - Git
While there isn't always a --dry-run
flag for every comment, there are usually equivalents. For example, this previous question shows what to do for git merge
.