NAME
----
-git-symbolic-ref - Read and modify symbolic refs
+git-symbolic-ref - Read, modify and delete symbolic refs
SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
-'git symbolic-ref' [-q] [-m <reason>] <name> [<ref>]
+'git symbolic-ref' [-m <reason>] <name> <ref>
+'git symbolic-ref' [-q] [--short] <name>
+'git symbolic-ref' --delete [-q] <name>
DESCRIPTION
-----------
Given two arguments, creates or updates a symbolic ref <name> to
point at the given branch <ref>.
+Given `--delete` and an additional argument, deletes the given
+symbolic ref.
+
A symbolic ref is a regular file that stores a string that
begins with `ref: refs/`. For example, your `.git/HEAD` is
a regular file whose contents is `ref: refs/heads/master`.
OPTIONS
-------
+-d::
+--delete::
+ Delete the symbolic ref <name>.
+
-q::
--quiet::
Do not issue an error message if the <name> is not a
symbolic ref but a detached HEAD; instead exit with
non-zero status silently.
+--short::
+ When showing the value of <name> as a symbolic ref, try to shorten the
+ value, e.g. from `refs/heads/master` to `master`.
+
-m::
Update the reflog for <name> with <reason>. This is valid only
when creating or updating a symbolic ref.
`refs/heads/master`. When we wanted to switch to another branch,
we did `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD`, and when we wanted
to find out which branch we are on, we did `readlink .git/HEAD`.
-This was fine, and internally that is what still happens by
-default, but on platforms that do not have working symlinks,
-or that do not have the `readlink(1)` command, this was a bit
-cumbersome. On some platforms, `ln -sf` does not even work as
-advertised (horrors). Therefore symbolic links are now deprecated
-and symbolic refs are used by default.
+But symbolic links are not entirely portable, so they are now
+deprecated and symbolic refs (as described above) are used by
+default.
'git symbolic-ref' will exit with status 0 if the contents of the
symbolic ref were printed correctly, with status 1 if the requested