'git show-ref' [-q|--quiet] [--verify] [--head] [-d|--dereference]
[-s|--hash[=<n>]] [--abbrev[=<n>]] [--tags]
[--heads] [--] [<pattern>...]
-'git show-ref' --exclude-existing[=<pattern>] < ref-list
+'git show-ref' --exclude-existing[=<pattern>]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
By default, shows the tags, heads, and remote refs.
-The --exclude-existing form is a filter that does the inverse, it shows the
-refs from stdin that don't exist in the local repository.
+The --exclude-existing form is a filter that does the inverse. It reads
+refs from stdin, one ref per line, and shows those that don't exist in
+the local repository.
Use of this utility is encouraged in favor of directly accessing files under
the `.git` directory.
Enable stricter reference checking by requiring an exact ref path.
Aside from returning an error code of 1, it will also print an error
- message if '--quiet' was not specified.
+ message if `--quiet` was not specified.
--abbrev[=<n>]::
-q::
--quiet::
- Do not print any results to stdout. When combined with '--verify' this
+ Do not print any results to stdout. When combined with `--verify` this
can be used to silently check if a reference exists.
--exclude-existing[=<pattern>]::
This will show "refs/heads/master" but also "refs/remote/other-repo/master",
if such references exists.
-When using the '--verify' flag, the command requires an exact path:
+When using the `--verify` flag, the command requires an exact path:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
git show-ref --verify refs/heads/master