Documentation / git-show-ref.txton commit Prepare for 2.8.2 (6a66362)
   1git-show-ref(1)
   2===============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-show-ref - List references in a local repository
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git show-ref' [-q|--quiet] [--verify] [--head] [-d|--dereference]
  12             [-s|--hash[=<n>]] [--abbrev[=<n>]] [--tags]
  13             [--heads] [--] [<pattern>...]
  14'git show-ref' --exclude-existing[=<pattern>]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18
  19Displays references available in a local repository along with the associated
  20commit IDs. Results can be filtered using a pattern and tags can be
  21dereferenced into object IDs. Additionally, it can be used to test whether a
  22particular ref exists.
  23
  24By default, shows the tags, heads, and remote refs.
  25
  26The --exclude-existing form is a filter that does the inverse. It reads
  27refs from stdin, one ref per line, and shows those that don't exist in
  28the local repository.
  29
  30Use of this utility is encouraged in favor of directly accessing files under
  31the `.git` directory.
  32
  33OPTIONS
  34-------
  35
  36--head::
  37
  38        Show the HEAD reference, even if it would normally be filtered out.
  39
  40--tags::
  41--heads::
  42
  43        Limit to "refs/heads" and "refs/tags", respectively.  These options
  44        are not mutually exclusive; when given both, references stored in
  45        "refs/heads" and "refs/tags" are displayed.
  46
  47-d::
  48--dereference::
  49
  50        Dereference tags into object IDs as well. They will be shown with "{caret}{}"
  51        appended.
  52
  53-s::
  54--hash[=<n>]::
  55
  56        Only show the SHA-1 hash, not the reference name. When combined with
  57        --dereference the dereferenced tag will still be shown after the SHA-1.
  58
  59--verify::
  60
  61        Enable stricter reference checking by requiring an exact ref path.
  62        Aside from returning an error code of 1, it will also print an error
  63        message if '--quiet' was not specified.
  64
  65--abbrev[=<n>]::
  66
  67        Abbreviate the object name.  When using `--hash`, you do
  68        not have to say `--hash --abbrev`; `--hash=n` would do.
  69
  70-q::
  71--quiet::
  72
  73        Do not print any results to stdout. When combined with '--verify' this
  74        can be used to silently check if a reference exists.
  75
  76--exclude-existing[=<pattern>]::
  77
  78        Make 'git show-ref' act as a filter that reads refs from stdin of the
  79        form "`^(?:<anything>\s)?<refname>(?:\^{})?$`"
  80        and performs the following actions on each:
  81        (1) strip "{caret}{}" at the end of line if any;
  82        (2) ignore if pattern is provided and does not head-match refname;
  83        (3) warn if refname is not a well-formed refname and skip;
  84        (4) ignore if refname is a ref that exists in the local repository;
  85        (5) otherwise output the line.
  86
  87
  88<pattern>...::
  89
  90        Show references matching one or more patterns. Patterns are matched from
  91        the end of the full name, and only complete parts are matched, e.g.
  92        'master' matches 'refs/heads/master', 'refs/remotes/origin/master',
  93        'refs/tags/jedi/master' but not 'refs/heads/mymaster' or
  94        'refs/remotes/master/jedi'.
  95
  96OUTPUT
  97------
  98
  99The output is in the format: '<SHA-1 ID>' '<space>' '<reference name>'.
 100
 101-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 102$ git show-ref --head --dereference
 103832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 HEAD
 104832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/master
 105832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/origin
 1063521017556c5de4159da4615a39fa4d5d2c279b5 refs/tags/v0.99.9c
 1076ddc0964034342519a87fe013781abf31c6db6ad refs/tags/v0.99.9c^{}
 108055e4ae3ae6eb344cbabf2a5256a49ea66040131 refs/tags/v1.0rc4
 109423325a2d24638ddcc82ce47be5e40be550f4507 refs/tags/v1.0rc4^{}
 110...
 111-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 112
 113When using --hash (and not --dereference) the output format is: '<SHA-1 ID>'
 114
 115-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 116$ git show-ref --heads --hash
 1172e3ba0114a1f52b47df29743d6915d056be13278
 118185008ae97960c8d551adcd9e23565194651b5d1
 11903adf42c988195b50e1a1935ba5fcbc39b2b029b
 120...
 121-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 122
 123EXAMPLE
 124-------
 125
 126To show all references called "master", whether tags or heads or anything
 127else, and regardless of how deep in the reference naming hierarchy they are,
 128use:
 129
 130-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 131        git show-ref master
 132-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 133
 134This will show "refs/heads/master" but also "refs/remote/other-repo/master",
 135if such references exists.
 136
 137When using the '--verify' flag, the command requires an exact path:
 138
 139-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 140        git show-ref --verify refs/heads/master
 141-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 142
 143will only match the exact branch called "master".
 144
 145If nothing matches, 'git show-ref' will return an error code of 1,
 146and in the case of verification, it will show an error message.
 147
 148For scripting, you can ask it to be quiet with the "--quiet" flag, which
 149allows you to do things like
 150
 151-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 152        git show-ref --quiet --verify -- "refs/heads/$headname" ||
 153                echo "$headname is not a valid branch"
 154-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 155
 156to check whether a particular branch exists or not (notice how we don't
 157actually want to show any results, and we want to use the full refname for it
 158in order to not trigger the problem with ambiguous partial matches).
 159
 160To show only tags, or only proper branch heads, use "--tags" and/or "--heads"
 161respectively (using both means that it shows tags and heads, but not other
 162random references under the refs/ subdirectory).
 163
 164To do automatic tag object dereferencing, use the "-d" or "--dereference"
 165flag, so you can do
 166
 167-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 168        git show-ref --tags --dereference
 169-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 170
 171to get a listing of all tags together with what they dereference.
 172
 173FILES
 174-----
 175`.git/refs/*`, `.git/packed-refs`
 176
 177SEE ALSO
 178--------
 179linkgit:git-for-each-ref[1],
 180linkgit:git-ls-remote[1],
 181linkgit:git-update-ref[1],
 182linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5]
 183
 184GIT
 185---
 186Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite