RTFM (Reading the Manual)

What

Git has a comprehensive built-in documentation system (manual pages, or “man pages”) that allows you to access help for any command directly from your terminal.

How

You can open the manual page for Git or any specific Git command using the git help command:

# Open the general Git manual
git help git

# Open the manual for a specific command (e.g., config)
git help config

Once the manual is open in your terminal (typically using a pager like less), you can navigate it using these common keyboard shortcuts:

j / k: Scroll down / up by one line.
d / u: Scroll down / up by half a page.
/<term>: Search for a specific term (e.g., /AUTHORS).
n: Go to the next search result.
N: Go to the previous search result.
q: Quit the manual and return to your terminal prompt.

Why

Although online resources and search engines are useful, Git’s local documentation is the ultimate source of truth. It is always available offline, matches the exact version of Git installed on your system, and provides precise explanations of every flag, configuration, and subcommand.

Summary

Use git help <command> to access official, version-matched documentation directly in your terminal, and navigate it using pager hotkeys.