1GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1) Git Manual GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)
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6 git-symbolic-ref - Read, modify and delete symbolic refs
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9 git symbolic-ref [-m <reason>] <name> <ref>
10 git symbolic-ref [-q] [--short] <name>
11 git symbolic-ref --delete [-q] <name>
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14 Given one argument, reads which branch head the given symbolic ref
15 refers to and outputs its path, relative to the .git/ directory.
16 Typically you would give HEAD as the <name> argument to see which
17 branch your working tree is on.
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19 Given two arguments, creates or updates a symbolic ref <name> to point
20 at the given branch <ref>.
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22 Given --delete and an additional argument, deletes the given symbolic
23 ref.
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25 A symbolic ref is a regular file that stores a string that begins with
26 ref: refs/. For example, your .git/HEAD is a regular file whose
27 contents is ref: refs/heads/master.
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30 -d, --delete
31 Delete the symbolic ref <name>.
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33 -q, --quiet
34 Do not issue an error message if the <name> is not a symbolic ref
35 but a detached HEAD; instead exit with non-zero status silently.
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37 --short
38 When showing the value of <name> as a symbolic ref, try to shorten
39 the value, e.g. from refs/heads/master to master.
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41 -m
42 Update the reflog for <name> with <reason>. This is valid only when
43 creating or updating a symbolic ref.
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46 In the past, .git/HEAD was a symbolic link pointing at
47 refs/heads/master. When we wanted to switch to another branch, we did
48 ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD, and when we wanted to find out
49 which branch we are on, we did readlink .git/HEAD. But symbolic links
50 are not entirely portable, so they are now deprecated and symbolic refs
51 (as described above) are used by default.
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53 git symbolic-ref will exit with status 0 if the contents of the
54 symbolic ref were printed correctly, with status 1 if the requested
55 name is not a symbolic ref, or 128 if another error occurs.
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58 Part of the git(1) suite
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62Git 2.36.1 2022-05-05 GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)