| git-symbolic-ref(1) | |
| =================== | |
| NAME | |
| ---- | |
| git-symbolic-ref - Read, modify and delete symbolic refs | |
| SYNOPSIS | |
| -------- | |
| [verse] | |
| 'git symbolic-ref' [-m <reason>] <name> <ref> | |
| 'git symbolic-ref' [-q] [--short] [--no-recurse] <name> | |
| 'git symbolic-ref' --delete [-q] <name> | |
| DESCRIPTION | |
| ----------- | |
| Given one argument, reads which branch head the given symbolic | |
| ref refers to and outputs its path, relative to the `.git/` | |
| directory. Typically you would give `HEAD` as the <name> | |
| argument to see which branch your working tree is on. | |
| Given two arguments, creates or updates a symbolic ref <name> to | |
| point at the given branch <ref>. | |
| Given `--delete` and an additional argument, deletes the given | |
| symbolic ref. | |
| A symbolic ref is a regular file that stores a string that | |
| begins with `ref: refs/`. For example, your `.git/HEAD` is | |
| a regular file whose content is `ref: refs/heads/master`. | |
| OPTIONS | |
| ------- | |
| -d:: | |
| --delete:: | |
| Delete the symbolic ref <name>. | |
| -q:: | |
| --quiet:: | |
| Do not issue an error message if the <name> is not a | |
| symbolic ref but a detached HEAD; instead exit with | |
| non-zero status silently. | |
| --short:: | |
| When showing the value of <name> as a symbolic ref, try to shorten the | |
| value, e.g. from `refs/heads/master` to `master`. | |
| --recurse:: | |
| --no-recurse:: | |
| When showing the value of <name> as a symbolic ref, if | |
| <name> refers to another symbolic ref, follow such a chain | |
| of symbolic refs until the result no longer points at a | |
| symbolic ref (`--recurse`, which is the default). | |
| `--no-recurse` stops after dereferencing only a single level | |
| of symbolic ref. | |
| -m:: | |
| Update the reflog for <name> with <reason>. This is valid only | |
| when creating or updating a symbolic ref. | |
| NOTES | |
| ----- | |
| In the past, `.git/HEAD` was a symbolic link pointing at | |
| `refs/heads/master`. When we wanted to switch to another branch, | |
| we did `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD`, and when we wanted | |
| to find out which branch we are on, we did `readlink .git/HEAD`. | |
| But symbolic links are not entirely portable, so they are now | |
| deprecated and symbolic refs (as described above) are used by | |
| default. | |
| 'git symbolic-ref' will exit with status 0 if the contents of the | |
| symbolic ref were printed correctly, with status 1 if the requested | |
| name is not a symbolic ref, or 128 if another error occurs. | |
| SEE ALSO | |
| -------- | |
| linkgit:git-update-ref[1] | |
| GIT | |
| --- | |
| Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |