1git-symbolic-ref(1) 2=================== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-symbolic-ref - read and modify symbolic refs 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10'git-symbolic-ref' <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 26NOTES 27----- 28In the past, `.git/HEAD` was a symbolic link pointing at 29`refs/heads/master`. When we wanted to switch to another branch, 30we did `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD`, and when we wanted 31to find out which branch we are on, we did `readlink .git/HEAD`. 32This was fine, and internally that is what still happens by 33default, but on platforms that do not have working symlinks, 34or that do not have the `readlink(1)` command, this was a bit 35cumbersome. On some platforms, `ln -sf` does not even work as 36advertised (horrors). Therefore symbolic links are now deprecated 37and symbolic refs are used by default. 38 39Author 40------ 41Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 42 43GIT 44--- 45Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite