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