Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt

   1 git-symbolic-ref(1)
   2 ===================
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-symbolic-ref - Read and modify symbolic refs
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10 'git symbolic-ref' [-q] [-m <reason>] <name> [<ref>]
  11
  12 DESCRIPTION
  13 -----------
  14 Given one argument, reads which branch head the given symbolic
  15 ref refers to and outputs its path, relative to the `.git/`
  16 directory.  Typically you would give `HEAD` as the <name>
  17 argument to see on which branch your working tree is on.
  18
  19 Give two arguments, create or update a symbolic ref <name> to
  20 point at the given branch <ref>.
  21
  22 A symbolic ref is a regular file that stores a string that
  23 begins with `ref: refs/`.  For example, your `.git/HEAD` is
  24 a regular file whose contents is `ref: refs/heads/master`.
  25
  26 OPTIONS
  27 -------
  28
  29 -q::
  30 --quiet::
  31         Do not issue an error message if the <name> is not a
  32         symbolic ref but a detached HEAD; instead exit with
  33         non-zero status silently.
  34
  35 -m::
  36         Update the reflog for <name> with <reason>.  This is valid only
  37         when creating or updating a symbolic ref.
  38
  39 NOTES
  40 -----
  41 In the past, `.git/HEAD` was a symbolic link pointing at
  42 `refs/heads/master`.  When we wanted to switch to another branch,
  43 we did `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD`, and when we wanted
  44 to find out which branch we are on, we did `readlink .git/HEAD`.
  45 This was fine, and internally that is what still happens by
  46 default, but on platforms that do not have working symlinks,
  47 or that do not have the `readlink(1)` command, this was a bit
  48 cumbersome.  On some platforms, `ln -sf` does not even work as
  49 advertised (horrors).  Therefore symbolic links are now deprecated
  50 and symbolic refs are used by default.
  51
  52 git-symbolic-ref will exit with status 0 if the contents of the
  53 symbolic ref were printed correctly, with status 1 if the requested
  54 name is not a symbolic ref, or 128 if another error occurs.
  55
  56 Author
  57 ------
  58 Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
  59
  60 GIT
  61 ---
  62 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite