Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt

   1 git-symbolic-ref(1)
   2 ===================
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-symbolic-ref - Read, modify and delete symbolic refs
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10 [verse]
  11 'git symbolic-ref' [-m <reason>] <name> <ref>
  12 'git symbolic-ref' [-q] [--short] [--no-recurse] <name>
  13 'git symbolic-ref' --delete [-q] <name>
  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>
  20 argument to see which branch your working tree is on.
  21
  22 Given two arguments, creates or updates a symbolic ref <name> to
  23 point at the given branch <ref>.
  24
  25 Given `--delete` and an additional argument, deletes the given
  26 symbolic ref.
  27
  28 A symbolic ref is a regular file that stores a string that
  29 begins with `ref: refs/`.  For example, your `.git/HEAD` is
  30 a regular file whose content is `ref: refs/heads/master`.
  31
  32 OPTIONS
  33 -------
  34
  35 -d::
  36 --delete::
  37         Delete the symbolic ref <name>.
  38
  39 -q::
  40 --quiet::
  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
  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
  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
  58 -m::
  59         Update the reflog for <name> with <reason>.  This is valid only
  60         when creating or updating a symbolic ref.
  61
  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
  67 to find out which branch we are on, we did `readlink .git/HEAD`.
  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.
  71
  72 'git symbolic-ref' will exit with status 0 if the contents of the
  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
  76 GIT
  77 ---
  78 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite