Documentation / git-show-ref.txton commit git-svn: clarify explanation of --destination argument (7d82b4a)
   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>] < ref-list
  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
  24The --exclude-existing form is a filter that does the inverse, it shows the
  25refs from stdin that don't exist in the local repository.
  26
  27Use of this utility is encouraged in favor of directly accessing files under
  28the `.git` directory.
  29
  30OPTIONS
  31-------
  32
  33--head::
  34
  35        Show the HEAD reference.
  36
  37--tags::
  38--heads::
  39
  40        Limit to only "refs/heads" and "refs/tags", respectively.  These
  41        options are not mutually exclusive; when given both, references stored
  42        in "refs/heads" and "refs/tags" are displayed.
  43
  44-d::
  45--dereference::
  46
  47        Dereference tags into object IDs as well. They will be shown with "{caret}{}"
  48        appended.
  49
  50-s::
  51--hash[=<n>]::
  52
  53        Only show the SHA-1 hash, not the reference name. When combined with
  54        --dereference the dereferenced tag will still be shown after the SHA-1.
  55
  56--verify::
  57
  58        Enable stricter reference checking by requiring an exact ref path.
  59        Aside from returning an error code of 1, it will also print an error
  60        message if '--quiet' was not specified.
  61
  62--abbrev[=<n>]::
  63
  64        Abbreviate the object name.  When using `--hash`, you do
  65        not have to say `--hash --abbrev`; `--hash=n` would do.
  66
  67-q::
  68--quiet::
  69
  70        Do not print any results to stdout. When combined with '--verify' this
  71        can be used to silently check if a reference exists.
  72
  73--exclude-existing[=<pattern>]::
  74
  75        Make 'git show-ref' act as a filter that reads refs from stdin of the
  76        form "`^(?:<anything>\s)?<refname>(?:\^{})?$`"
  77        and performs the following actions on each:
  78        (1) strip "{caret}{}" at the end of line if any;
  79        (2) ignore if pattern is provided and does not head-match refname;
  80        (3) warn if refname is not a well-formed refname and skip;
  81        (4) ignore if refname is a ref that exists in the local repository;
  82        (5) otherwise output the line.
  83
  84
  85<pattern>...::
  86
  87        Show references matching one or more patterns. Patterns are matched from
  88        the end of the full name, and only complete parts are matched, e.g.
  89        'master' matches 'refs/heads/master', 'refs/remotes/origin/master',
  90        'refs/tags/jedi/master' but not 'refs/heads/mymaster' nor
  91        'refs/remotes/master/jedi'.
  92
  93OUTPUT
  94------
  95
  96The output is in the format: '<SHA-1 ID>' '<space>' '<reference name>'.
  97
  98-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  99$ git show-ref --head --dereference
 100832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 HEAD
 101832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/master
 102832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/origin
 1033521017556c5de4159da4615a39fa4d5d2c279b5 refs/tags/v0.99.9c
 1046ddc0964034342519a87fe013781abf31c6db6ad refs/tags/v0.99.9c^{}
 105055e4ae3ae6eb344cbabf2a5256a49ea66040131 refs/tags/v1.0rc4
 106423325a2d24638ddcc82ce47be5e40be550f4507 refs/tags/v1.0rc4^{}
 107...
 108-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 109
 110When using --hash (and not --dereference) the output format is: '<SHA-1 ID>'
 111
 112-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 113$ git show-ref --heads --hash
 1142e3ba0114a1f52b47df29743d6915d056be13278
 115185008ae97960c8d551adcd9e23565194651b5d1
 11603adf42c988195b50e1a1935ba5fcbc39b2b029b
 117...
 118-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 119
 120EXAMPLE
 121-------
 122
 123To show all references called "master", whether tags or heads or anything
 124else, and regardless of how deep in the reference naming hierarchy they are,
 125use:
 126
 127-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 128        git show-ref master
 129-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 130
 131This will show "refs/heads/master" but also "refs/remote/other-repo/master",
 132if such references exists.
 133
 134When using the '--verify' flag, the command requires an exact path:
 135
 136-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 137        git show-ref --verify refs/heads/master
 138-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 139
 140will only match the exact branch called "master".
 141
 142If nothing matches, 'git show-ref' will return an error code of 1,
 143and in the case of verification, it will show an error message.
 144
 145For scripting, you can ask it to be quiet with the "--quiet" flag, which
 146allows you to do things like
 147
 148-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 149        git show-ref --quiet --verify -- "refs/heads/$headname" ||
 150                echo "$headname is not a valid branch"
 151-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 152
 153to check whether a particular branch exists or not (notice how we don't
 154actually want to show any results, and we want to use the full refname for it
 155in order to not trigger the problem with ambiguous partial matches).
 156
 157To show only tags, or only proper branch heads, use "--tags" and/or "--heads"
 158respectively (using both means that it shows tags and heads, but not other
 159random references under the refs/ subdirectory).
 160
 161To do automatic tag object dereferencing, use the "-d" or "--dereference"
 162flag, so you can do
 163
 164-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 165        git show-ref --tags --dereference
 166-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 167
 168to get a listing of all tags together with what they dereference.
 169
 170FILES
 171-----
 172`.git/refs/*`, `.git/packed-refs`
 173
 174SEE ALSO
 175--------
 176linkgit:git-ls-remote[1],
 177linkgit:git-update-ref[1],
 178linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5]
 179
 180GIT
 181---
 182Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite