Edit File: git-symbolic-ref.txt
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] <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 contents 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`. -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. GIT --- Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite