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' [--head] [-d | --dereference]
  12              [-s | --hash[=<n>]] [--abbrev[=<n>]] [--tags]
  13              [--heads] [--] [<pattern>...]
  14 'git show-ref' --verify [-q | --quiet] [-d | --dereference]
  15              [-s | --hash[=<n>]] [--abbrev[=<n>]]
  16              [--] [<ref>...]
  17 'git show-ref' --exclude-existing[=<pattern>]
  18 'git show-ref' --exists <ref>
  19
  20 DESCRIPTION
  21 -----------
  22
  23 Displays references available in a local repository along with the associated
  24 commit IDs. Results can be filtered using a pattern and tags can be
  25 dereferenced into object IDs. Additionally, it can be used to test whether a
  26 particular ref exists.
  27
  28 By default, shows the tags, heads, and remote refs.
  29
  30 The `--exclude-existing` form is a filter that does the inverse. It reads
  31 refs from stdin, one ref per line, and shows those that don't exist in
  32 the local repository.
  33
  34 The `--exists` form can be used to check for the existence of a single
  35 references. This form does not verify whether the reference resolves to an
  36 actual object.
  37
  38 Use of this utility is encouraged in favor of directly accessing files under
  39 the `.git` directory.
  40
  41 OPTIONS
  42 -------
  43
  44 --head::
  45
  46         Show the HEAD reference, even if it would normally be filtered out.
  47
  48 --heads::
  49 --tags::
  50
  51         Limit to "refs/heads" and "refs/tags", respectively.  These options
  52         are not mutually exclusive; when given both, references stored in
  53         "refs/heads" and "refs/tags" are displayed.
  54
  55 -d::
  56 --dereference::
  57
  58         Dereference tags into object IDs as well. They will be shown with `^{}`
  59         appended.
  60
  61 -s::
  62 --hash[=<n>]::
  63
  64         Only show the OID, not the reference name. When combined with
  65         `--dereference`, the dereferenced tag will still be shown after the OID.
  66
  67 --verify::
  68
  69         Enable stricter reference checking by requiring an exact ref path.
  70         Aside from returning an error code of 1, it will also print an error
  71         message if `--quiet` was not specified.
  72
  73 --exists::
  74
  75         Check whether the given reference exists. Returns an exit code of 0 if
  76         it does, 2 if it is missing, and 1 in case looking up the reference
  77         failed with an error other than the reference being missing.
  78
  79 --abbrev[=<n>]::
  80
  81         Abbreviate the object name.  When using `--hash`, you do
  82         not have to say `--hash --abbrev`; `--hash=n` would do.
  83
  84 -q::
  85 --quiet::
  86
  87         Do not print any results to stdout. Can be used with `--verify` to
  88         silently check if a reference exists.
  89
  90 --exclude-existing[=<pattern>]::
  91
  92         Make `git show-ref` act as a filter that reads refs from stdin of the
  93         form `^(?:<anything>\s)?<refname>(?:\^{})?$`
  94         and performs the following actions on each:
  95         (1) strip `^{}` at the end of line if any;
  96         (2) ignore if pattern is provided and does not head-match refname;
  97         (3) warn if refname is not a well-formed refname and skip;
  98         (4) ignore if refname is a ref that exists in the local repository;
  99         (5) otherwise output the line.
 100
 101
 102 <pattern>...::
 103
 104         Show references matching one or more patterns. Patterns are matched from
 105         the end of the full name, and only complete parts are matched, e.g.
 106         'master' matches 'refs/heads/master', 'refs/remotes/origin/master',
 107         'refs/tags/jedi/master' but not 'refs/heads/mymaster' or
 108         'refs/remotes/master/jedi'.
 109
 110 OUTPUT
 111 ------
 112
 113 The output is in the format:
 114
 115 ------------
 116 <oid> SP <ref> LF
 117 ------------
 118
 119 For example,
 120
 121 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 122 $ git show-ref --head --dereference
 123 832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 HEAD
 124 832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/master
 125 832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/origin
 126 3521017556c5de4159da4615a39fa4d5d2c279b5 refs/tags/v0.99.9c
 127 6ddc0964034342519a87fe013781abf31c6db6ad refs/tags/v0.99.9c^{}
 128 055e4ae3ae6eb344cbabf2a5256a49ea66040131 refs/tags/v1.0rc4
 129 423325a2d24638ddcc82ce47be5e40be550f4507 refs/tags/v1.0rc4^{}
 130 ...
 131 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 132
 133 When using `--hash` (and not `--dereference`), the output is in the format:
 134
 135 ------------
 136 <oid> LF
 137 ------------
 138
 139 For example,
 140
 141 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 142 $ git show-ref --heads --hash
 143 2e3ba0114a1f52b47df29743d6915d056be13278
 144 185008ae97960c8d551adcd9e23565194651b5d1
 145 03adf42c988195b50e1a1935ba5fcbc39b2b029b
 146 ...
 147 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 148
 149 EXAMPLES
 150 --------
 151
 152 To show all references called "master", whether tags or heads or anything
 153 else, and regardless of how deep in the reference naming hierarchy they are,
 154 use:
 155
 156 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 157         git show-ref master
 158 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 159
 160 This will show "refs/heads/master" but also "refs/remote/other-repo/master",
 161 if such references exist.
 162
 163 When using the `--verify` flag, the command requires an exact path:
 164
 165 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 166         git show-ref --verify refs/heads/master
 167 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 168
 169 will only match the exact branch called "master".
 170
 171 If nothing matches, `git show-ref` will return an error code of 1,
 172 and in the case of verification, it will show an error message.
 173
 174 For scripting, you can ask it to be quiet with the `--quiet` flag, which
 175 allows you to do things like
 176
 177 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 178         git show-ref --quiet --verify -- "refs/heads/$headname" ||
 179                 echo "$headname is not a valid branch"
 180 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 181
 182 to check whether a particular branch exists or not (notice how we don't
 183 actually want to show any results, and we want to use the full refname for it
 184 in order to not trigger the problem with ambiguous partial matches).
 185
 186 To show only tags, or only proper branch heads, use `--tags` and/or `--heads`
 187 respectively (using both means that it shows tags and heads, but not other
 188 random references under the refs/ subdirectory).
 189
 190 To do automatic tag object dereferencing, use the `-d` or `--dereference`
 191 flag, so you can do
 192
 193 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 194         git show-ref --tags --dereference
 195 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 196
 197 to get a listing of all tags together with what they dereference.
 198
 199 FILES
 200 -----
 201 `.git/refs/*`, `.git/packed-refs`
 202
 203 SEE ALSO
 204 --------
 205 linkgit:git-for-each-ref[1],
 206 linkgit:git-ls-remote[1],
 207 linkgit:git-update-ref[1],
 208 linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5]
 209
 210 GIT
 211 ---
 212 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite