Documentation / git-show-ref.txton commit t6200-fmt-merge-msg: Exercise 'merge.log' to configure shortlog length (b928cbf)
   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 "^{}"
  48        appended.
  49
  50-s::
  51--hash[=<n>]::
  52
  53        Only show the SHA1 hash, not the reference name. When combined with
  54        --dereference the dereferenced tag will still be shown after the SHA1.
  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>(?:\^\{\})?$" and performs the
  77        following actions on each:
  78        (1) strip "^{}" at the end of line if any;
  79        (2) ignore if pattern is provided and does not head-match refname;
  80        (3) warn if refname is not a well-formed refname and skip;
  81        (4) ignore if refname is a ref that exists in the local repository;
  82        (5) otherwise output the line.
  83
  84
  85<pattern>...::
  86
  87        Show references matching one or more patterns.
  88
  89OUTPUT
  90------
  91
  92The output is in the format: '<SHA-1 ID>' '<space>' '<reference name>'.
  93
  94-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  95$ git show-ref --head --dereference
  96832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 HEAD
  97832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/master
  98832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/origin
  993521017556c5de4159da4615a39fa4d5d2c279b5 refs/tags/v0.99.9c
 1006ddc0964034342519a87fe013781abf31c6db6ad refs/tags/v0.99.9c^{}
 101055e4ae3ae6eb344cbabf2a5256a49ea66040131 refs/tags/v1.0rc4
 102423325a2d24638ddcc82ce47be5e40be550f4507 refs/tags/v1.0rc4^{}
 103...
 104-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 105
 106When using --hash (and not --dereference) the output format is: '<SHA-1 ID>'
 107
 108-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 109$ git show-ref --heads --hash
 1102e3ba0114a1f52b47df29743d6915d056be13278
 111185008ae97960c8d551adcd9e23565194651b5d1
 11203adf42c988195b50e1a1935ba5fcbc39b2b029b
 113...
 114-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 115
 116EXAMPLE
 117-------
 118
 119To show all references called "master", whether tags or heads or anything
 120else, and regardless of how deep in the reference naming hierarchy they are,
 121use:
 122
 123-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 124        git show-ref master
 125-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 126
 127This will show "refs/heads/master" but also "refs/remote/other-repo/master",
 128if such references exists.
 129
 130When using the '--verify' flag, the command requires an exact path:
 131
 132-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 133        git show-ref --verify refs/heads/master
 134-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 135
 136will only match the exact branch called "master".
 137
 138If nothing matches, 'git show-ref' will return an error code of 1,
 139and in the case of verification, it will show an error message.
 140
 141For scripting, you can ask it to be quiet with the "--quiet" flag, which
 142allows you to do things like
 143
 144-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 145        git show-ref --quiet --verify -- "refs/heads/$headname" ||
 146                echo "$headname is not a valid branch"
 147-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 148
 149to check whether a particular branch exists or not (notice how we don't
 150actually want to show any results, and we want to use the full refname for it
 151in order to not trigger the problem with ambiguous partial matches).
 152
 153To show only tags, or only proper branch heads, use "--tags" and/or "--heads"
 154respectively (using both means that it shows tags and heads, but not other
 155random references under the refs/ subdirectory).
 156
 157To do automatic tag object dereferencing, use the "-d" or "--dereference"
 158flag, so you can do
 159
 160-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 161        git show-ref --tags --dereference
 162-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 163
 164to get a listing of all tags together with what they dereference.
 165
 166SEE ALSO
 167--------
 168linkgit:git-ls-remote[1]
 169
 170AUTHORS
 171-------
 172Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>.
 173Man page by Jonas Fonseca <fonseca@diku.dk>.
 174
 175GIT
 176---
 177Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite