NAME
git-symbolic-ref - Read, modify and delete symbolic refsSYNOPSIS
git symbolic-ref [-m <reason>] <name> <ref> git symbolic-ref [-q] [--short] [--no-recurse] <name> git symbolic-ref --delete [-q] <name>
DESCRIPTION
Given one argument, reads which branch head the given symbolic ref refers to and outputs its path, relative to the .git/ directory. Typically you would give HEAD as the <name> argument to see which branch your working tree is on.OPTIONS
-d, --deleteDelete the symbolic ref <name>.
-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.
--short
When showing the value of <name> as a
symbolic ref, try to shorten the value, e.g. from refs/heads/master to
master.
--recurse, --no-recurse
When showing the value of <name> as a
symbolic ref, if <name> refers to another symbolic ref, follow such a
chain of symbolic refs until the result no longer points at a symbolic ref (
--recurse, which is the default). --no-recurse stops after
dereferencing only a single level of symbolic ref.
-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/master. 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. But symbolic links are not entirely portable, so they are now deprecated and symbolic refs (as described above) are used by default.GIT
Part of the git(1) suite02/28/2023 | Git 2.39.2 |