Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help 
GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)		  Git Manual		   GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)

NAME
       git-symbolic-ref	- Read,	modify and delete symbolic refs

SYNOPSIS
       git symbolic-ref	[-m <reason>] <name> <ref>
       git symbolic-ref	[-q] [--short] <name>
       git symbolic-ref	--delete [-q] <name>

DESCRIPTION
       Given one argument, reads which branch head the given symbolic ref
       refers to and outputs its path, relative	to the .git/ directory.
       Typically you would give	HEAD as	the <name> argument to see which
       branch your working tree	is on.

       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.

NOTES
       In the past, .git/HEAD was a symbolic link pointing at
       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. 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
       name is not a symbolic ref, or 128 if another error occurs.

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite

Git 2.28.0			  07/26/2020		   GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | NOTES | GIT

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=git-symbolic-ref&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+12.1-RELEASE+and+Ports>

home | help