projects / thirdparty / git.git / blame
| Commit | Line | Data |
|---|---|---|
| 12905637 JH |
1 | git-symbolic-ref(1) |
| 2 | =================== | |
| 3 | ||
| 4 | NAME | |
| 5 | ---- | |
| 9ab55daa | 6 | git-symbolic-ref - Read, modify and delete symbolic refs |
| 12905637 JH |
7 | |
| 8 | SYNOPSIS | |
| 9 | -------- | |
| 7791a1d9 | 10 | [verse] |
| 42b00599 | 11 | 'git symbolic-ref' [-m <reason>] <name> <ref> |
| b77e3bdd | 12 | 'git symbolic-ref' [-q] [--short] [--no-recurse] <name> |
| 9ab55daa | 13 | 'git symbolic-ref' --delete [-q] <name> |
| 12905637 JH |
14 | |
| 15 | DESCRIPTION | |
| 16 | ----------- | |
| 17 | Given one argument, reads which branch head the given symbolic | |
| 18 | ref refers to and outputs its path, relative to the `.git/` | |
| 19 | directory. Typically you would give `HEAD` as the <name> | |
| 75f492ac | 20 | argument to see which branch your working tree is on. |
| 12905637 | 21 | |
| 75f492ac | 22 | Given two arguments, creates or updates a symbolic ref <name> to |
| 12905637 JH |
23 | point at the given branch <ref>. |
| 24 | ||
| 9ab55daa JH |
25 | Given `--delete` and an additional argument, deletes the given |
| 26 | symbolic ref. | |
| 27 | ||
| 22b1c7ee AP |
28 | A symbolic ref is a regular file that stores a string that |
| 29 | begins with `ref: refs/`. For example, your `.git/HEAD` is | |
| ce14cc0b | 30 | a regular file whose content is `ref: refs/heads/master`. |
| 22b1c7ee | 31 | |
| a0f4280f JH |
32 | OPTIONS |
| 33 | ------- | |
| 34 | ||
| 9ab55daa JH |
35 | -d:: |
| 36 | --delete:: | |
| 37 | Delete the symbolic ref <name>. | |
| 38 | ||
| 3240240f SB |
39 | -q:: |
| 40 | --quiet:: | |
| a0f4280f JH |
41 | Do not issue an error message if the <name> is not a |
| 42 | symbolic ref but a detached HEAD; instead exit with | |
| 43 | non-zero status silently. | |
| 44 | ||
| 42b00599 JK |
45 | --short:: |
| 46 | When showing the value of <name> as a symbolic ref, try to shorten the | |
| 47 | value, e.g. from `refs/heads/master` to `master`. | |
| 48 | ||
| b77e3bdd JH |
49 | --recurse:: |
| 50 | --no-recurse:: | |
| 51 | When showing the value of <name> as a symbolic ref, if | |
| 52 | <name> refers to another symbolic ref, follow such a chain | |
| 53 | of symbolic refs until the result no longer points at a | |
| 54 | symbolic ref (`--recurse`, which is the default). | |
| 55 | `--no-recurse` stops after dereferencing only a single level | |
| 56 | of symbolic ref. | |
| 57 | ||
| 8b5157e4 NP |
58 | -m:: |
| 59 | Update the reflog for <name> with <reason>. This is valid only | |
| 60 | when creating or updating a symbolic ref. | |
| 61 | ||
| 22b1c7ee AP |
62 | NOTES |
| 63 | ----- | |
| 64 | In the past, `.git/HEAD` was a symbolic link pointing at | |
| 65 | `refs/heads/master`. When we wanted to switch to another branch, | |
| 66 | we did `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD`, and when we wanted | |
| 12905637 | 67 | to find out which branch we are on, we did `readlink .git/HEAD`. |
| a8d05d72 MH |
68 | But symbolic links are not entirely portable, so they are now |
| 69 | deprecated and symbolic refs (as described above) are used by | |
| 70 | default. | |
| 12905637 | 71 | |
| 0b444cdb | 72 | 'git symbolic-ref' will exit with status 0 if the contents of the |
| a74b1706 JK |
73 | symbolic ref were printed correctly, with status 1 if the requested |
| 74 | name is not a symbolic ref, or 128 if another error occurs. | |
| 75 | ||
| 12905637 JH |
76 | GIT |
| 77 | --- | |
| 9e1f0a85 | 78 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |