What does the exclamation mark mean in git config alias?

Question

I just see a git config command as below:

git config --global alias.out !"git fetch; git cherry origin/HEAD -v"

what does it mean? Is it equal to this:

git config --global alias.out '!git fetch; git cherry origin/HEAD -v',

I am confused with the exclamation mark,any help will be appreciated.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21083933/what-does-the-exclamation-mark-mean-in-git-config-alias

Answer 1

From the git-config manual:

If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point, it will be treated as a shell command.