make git easier with GitHub

Synopsis

hub [--noop] COMMAND [OPTIONS]
hub alias [-s] [SHELL]
hub help hub-COMMAND

Description

Hub is a tool that wraps git in order to extend it with extra functionality that makes it better when working with GitHub.

Commands

Available commands are split into two groups: those that are already present in git but that are extended through hub, and custom ones that hub provides.

Extended git commands

hub-am(1): Replicate commits from a GitHub pull request locally.
hub-apply(1): Download a patch from GitHub and apply it locally.
hub-checkout(1): Check out the head of a pull request as a local branch.
hub-cherry-pick(1): Cherry-pick a commit from a fork on GitHub.
hub-clone(1): Clone a repository from GitHub.
hub-fetch(1): Add missing remotes prior to performing git fetch.
hub-init(1): Initialize a git repository and add a remote pointing to GitHub.
hub-merge(1): Merge a pull request locally with a message like the GitHub Merge Button.
hub-push(1): Push a git branch to each of the listed remotes.
hub-remote(1): Add a git remote for a GitHub repository.
hub-submodule(1): Add a git submodule for a GitHub repository.

New commands provided by hub

hub-alias(1): Show shell instructions for wrapping git.
hub-api(1): Low-level GitHub API request interface.
hub-browse(1): Open a GitHub repository in a web browser.
hub-ci-status(1): Display status of GitHub checks for a commit.
hub-compare(1): Open a GitHub compare page in a web browser.
hub-create(1): Create a new repository on GitHub and add a git remote for it.
hub-delete(1): Delete a repository on GitHub.
hub-fork(1): Fork the current repository on GitHub and add a git remote for it.
hub-gist(1): Create and print GitHub Gists.
hub-pull-request(1): Create a GitHub Pull Request.
hub-pr(1): Manage GitHub Pull Requests for the current repository.
hub-issue(1): Manage GitHub Issues for the current repository.
hub-release(1): Manage GitHub Releases for the current repository.
hub-sync(1): Fetch git objects from upstream and update local branches.

Conventions

Most hub commands are supposed to be run in a context of an existing local git repository. Hub will automatically detect the GitHub repository that the current working directory belongs to by scanning its git remotes.

In case there are multiple git remotes that are all pointing to GitHub, hub assumes that the main one is named "upstream", "github", or "origin", in that order of preference.

When working with forks, it's recommended that the git remote for your own fork is named "origin" and that the git remote for the upstream repository is named "upstream". See https://help.github.com/articles/configuring-a-remote-for-a-fork/

The default branch (usually "master") for the current repository is detected like so:

git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD

where origin is the name of the git remote for the upstream repository.

The destination where the currently checked out branch is considered to be pushed to depends on the git config push.default setting. If the value is "upstream" or "tracking", the tracking information for a branch is read like so:

git rev-parse --symbolic-full-name BRANCH@{upstream}

Otherwise, hub scans git remotes to find the first one for which refs/remotes/REMOTE/BRANCH exists. The "origin", "github", and "upstream" remotes are searched last because hub assumes that it's more likely that the current branch is pushed to your fork rather than to the canonical repo.

Configuration

GitHub OAuth authentication

Hub will prompt for GitHub username & password the first time it needs to access the API and exchange it for an OAuth token, which it saves in ~/.config/hub.

To avoid being prompted, use GITHUB_USER and GITHUB_PASSWORD environment variables.

Alternatively, you may provide GITHUB_TOKEN, an access token with repo permissions. This will not be written to ~/.config/hub.

HTTPS instead of git protocol

If you prefer the HTTPS protocol for git operations, you can configure hub to generate all URLs with https: instead of git: or ssh::

$ git config --global hub.protocol https

This will affect clone, fork, remote add and other hub commands that expand shorthand references to GitHub repo URLs.

GitHub Enterprise

By default, hub will only work with repositories that have remotes which point to github.com. GitHub Enterprise hosts need to be whitelisted to configure hub to treat such remotes same as github.com:

$ git config --global --add hub.host MY.GIT.ORG

The default host for commands like init and clone is still github.com, but this can be affected with the GITHUB_HOST environment variable:

$ GITHUB_HOST=my.git.org git clone myproject

Environment variables

HUB_VERBOSE: If this environment variable is set, verbose logging will be printed to stderr.
HUB_CONFIG: The file path where hub configuration is read from and stored. If XDG_CONFIG_HOME is present, the default is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/hub; otherwise it's $HOME/.config/hub. The configuration file is also searched for in XDG_CONFIG_DIRS per XDG Base Directory Specification.
HUB_PROTOCOL: One of "https", "ssh", or "git" as preferred protocol for git clone/push.
GITHUB_HOST: The GitHub hostname to default to instead of "github.com".
GITHUB_TOKEN: OAuth token to use for GitHub API requests.
GITHUB_USER: The GitHub username of the actor of GitHub API operations.
GITHUB_PASSWORD: The GitHub password used to exchange user credentials for an OAuth token that gets stored in hub configuration. If not set, it may be interactively prompted for on first run.
GITHUB_REPOSITORY: A value in "OWNER/REPO" format that specifies the repository that API operations should be performed against. Currently only used to infer the default value of GITHUB_USER for API requests.

Bugs

https://github.com/github/hub/issues

Authors

https://github.com/github/hub/contributors