Documentation/git-show-ref.txt

   1 git-show-ref(1)
   2 ===============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-show-ref - List references in a local repository
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10 [verse]
  11 'git show-ref' [-q | --quiet] [--verify] [--head] [-d | --dereference]
  12              [-s | --hash[=<n>]] [--abbrev[=<n>]] [--tags]
  13              [--heads] [--] [<pattern>...]
  14 'git show-ref' --exclude-existing[=<pattern>]
  15
  16 DESCRIPTION
  17 -----------
  18
  19 Displays references available in a local repository along with the associated
  20 commit IDs. Results can be filtered using a pattern and tags can be
  21 dereferenced into object IDs. Additionally, it can be used to test whether a
  22 particular ref exists.
  23
  24 By default, shows the tags, heads, and remote refs.
  25
  26 The `--exclude-existing` form is a filter that does the inverse. It reads
  27 refs from stdin, one ref per line, and shows those that don't exist in
  28 the local repository.
  29
  30 Use of this utility is encouraged in favor of directly accessing files under
  31 the `.git` directory.
  32
  33 OPTIONS
  34 -------
  35
  36 --head::
  37
  38         Show the HEAD reference, even if it would normally be filtered out.
  39
  40 --heads::
  41 --tags::
  42
  43         Limit to "refs/heads" and "refs/tags", respectively.  These options
  44         are not mutually exclusive; when given both, references stored in
  45         "refs/heads" and "refs/tags" are displayed.
  46
  47 -d::
  48 --dereference::
  49
  50         Dereference tags into object IDs as well. They will be shown with `^{}`
  51         appended.
  52
  53 -s::
  54 --hash[=<n>]::
  55
  56         Only show the OID, not the reference name. When combined with
  57         `--dereference`, the dereferenced tag will still be shown after the OID.
  58
  59 --verify::
  60
  61         Enable stricter reference checking by requiring an exact ref path.
  62         Aside from returning an error code of 1, it will also print an error
  63         message if `--quiet` was not specified.
  64
  65 --abbrev[=<n>]::
  66
  67         Abbreviate the object name.  When using `--hash`, you do
  68         not have to say `--hash --abbrev`; `--hash=n` would do.
  69
  70 -q::
  71 --quiet::
  72
  73         Do not print any results to stdout. When combined with `--verify`, this
  74         can be used to silently check if a reference exists.
  75
  76 --exclude-existing[=<pattern>]::
  77
  78         Make `git show-ref` act as a filter that reads refs from stdin of the
  79         form `^(?:<anything>\s)?<refname>(?:\^{})?$`
  80         and performs the following actions on each:
  81         (1) strip `^{}` at the end of line if any;
  82         (2) ignore if pattern is provided and does not head-match refname;
  83         (3) warn if refname is not a well-formed refname and skip;
  84         (4) ignore if refname is a ref that exists in the local repository;
  85         (5) otherwise output the line.
  86
  87
  88 <pattern>...::
  89
  90         Show references matching one or more patterns. Patterns are matched from
  91         the end of the full name, and only complete parts are matched, e.g.
  92         'master' matches 'refs/heads/master', 'refs/remotes/origin/master',
  93         'refs/tags/jedi/master' but not 'refs/heads/mymaster' or
  94         'refs/remotes/master/jedi'.
  95
  96 OUTPUT
  97 ------
  98
  99 The output is in the format:
 100
 101 ------------
 102 <oid> SP <ref> LF
 103 ------------
 104
 105 For example,
 106
 107 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 108 $ git show-ref --head --dereference
 109 832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 HEAD
 110 832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/master
 111 832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/origin
 112 3521017556c5de4159da4615a39fa4d5d2c279b5 refs/tags/v0.99.9c
 113 6ddc0964034342519a87fe013781abf31c6db6ad refs/tags/v0.99.9c^{}
 114 055e4ae3ae6eb344cbabf2a5256a49ea66040131 refs/tags/v1.0rc4
 115 423325a2d24638ddcc82ce47be5e40be550f4507 refs/tags/v1.0rc4^{}
 116 ...
 117 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 118
 119 When using `--hash` (and not `--dereference`), the output is in the format:
 120
 121 ------------
 122 <oid> LF
 123 ------------
 124
 125 For example,
 126
 127 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 128 $ git show-ref --heads --hash
 129 2e3ba0114a1f52b47df29743d6915d056be13278
 130 185008ae97960c8d551adcd9e23565194651b5d1
 131 03adf42c988195b50e1a1935ba5fcbc39b2b029b
 132 ...
 133 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 134
 135 EXAMPLES
 136 --------
 137
 138 To show all references called "master", whether tags or heads or anything
 139 else, and regardless of how deep in the reference naming hierarchy they are,
 140 use:
 141
 142 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 143         git show-ref master
 144 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 145
 146 This will show "refs/heads/master" but also "refs/remote/other-repo/master",
 147 if such references exists.
 148
 149 When using the `--verify` flag, the command requires an exact path:
 150
 151 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 152         git show-ref --verify refs/heads/master
 153 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 154
 155 will only match the exact branch called "master".
 156
 157 If nothing matches, `git show-ref` will return an error code of 1,
 158 and in the case of verification, it will show an error message.
 159
 160 For scripting, you can ask it to be quiet with the `--quiet` flag, which
 161 allows you to do things like
 162
 163 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 164         git show-ref --quiet --verify -- "refs/heads/$headname" ||
 165                 echo "$headname is not a valid branch"
 166 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 167
 168 to check whether a particular branch exists or not (notice how we don't
 169 actually want to show any results, and we want to use the full refname for it
 170 in order to not trigger the problem with ambiguous partial matches).
 171
 172 To show only tags, or only proper branch heads, use `--tags` and/or `--heads`
 173 respectively (using both means that it shows tags and heads, but not other
 174 random references under the refs/ subdirectory).
 175
 176 To do automatic tag object dereferencing, use the `-d` or `--dereference`
 177 flag, so you can do
 178
 179 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 180         git show-ref --tags --dereference
 181 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 182
 183 to get a listing of all tags together with what they dereference.
 184
 185 FILES
 186 -----
 187 `.git/refs/*`, `.git/packed-refs`
 188
 189 SEE ALSO
 190 --------
 191 linkgit:git-for-each-ref[1],
 192 linkgit:git-ls-remote[1],
 193 linkgit:git-update-ref[1],
 194 linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5]
 195
 196 GIT
 197 ---
 198 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite