GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)NAMEgit-symbolic-ref - Read and modify symbolic refs
SYNOPSIS
git symbolic-ref [-q] [-m <reason>] <name> [<ref>]
DESCRIPTION
Given one argument, reads which branch head the given symbolic ref
refers to and outputs its path, relative to the .git/ directory. Typi-
cally you would give HEAD as the <name> argument to see which branch
your working tree is on.
Given two arguments, creates or updates a symbolic ref <name> to point
at the given branch <ref>.
A symbolic ref is a regular file that stores a string that begins with
ref: refs/. For example, your .git/HEAD is a regular file whose con-
tents is ref: refs/heads/master.
OPTIONS-q, --quiet
Do not issue an error message if the <name> is not a symbolic
ref but a detached HEAD; instead exit with non-zero status
silently.
-m Update the reflog for <name> with <reason>. This is valid only
when creating or updating a symbolic ref.
NOTES
In the past, .git/HEAD was a symbolic link pointing at refs/heads/mas-
ter. When we wanted to switch to another branch, we did ln -sf
refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD, and when we wanted to find out which
branch we are on, we did readlink .git/HEAD. This was fine, and inter-
nally that is what still happens by default, but on platforms that do
not have working symlinks, or that do not have the readlink(1) command,
this was a bit cumbersome. On some platforms, ln -sf does not even work
as advertised (horrors). Therefore symbolic links are now deprecated
and symbolic refs are used by default.
git symbolic-ref will exit with status 0 if the contents of the sym-
bolic ref were printed correctly, with status 1 if the requested name
is not a symbolic ref, or 128 if another error occurs.
AUTHOR
Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com: mailto:gitster@pobox.com>
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GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
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