git-show-ref(1)

NAME

   git-show-ref - List references in a local repository

SYNOPSIS

   git show-ref [-q|--quiet] [--verify] [--head] [-d|--dereference]
                [-s|--hash[=<n>]] [--abbrev[=<n>]] [--tags]
                [--heads] [--] [<pattern>...]
   git show-ref --exclude-existing[=<pattern>]

DESCRIPTION

   Displays references available in a local repository along with the
   associated commit IDs. Results can be filtered using a pattern and tags
   can be dereferenced into object IDs. Additionally, it can be used to
   test whether a particular ref exists.

   By default, shows the tags, heads, and remote refs.

   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.

OPTIONS

   --head
       Show the HEAD reference, even if it would normally be filtered out.

   --tags, --heads
       Limit to "refs/heads" and "refs/tags", respectively. These options
       are not mutually exclusive; when given both, references stored in
       "refs/heads" and "refs/tags" are displayed.

   -d, --dereference
       Dereference tags into object IDs as well. They will be shown with
       "^{}" appended.

   -s, --hash[=<n>]
       Only show the SHA-1 hash, not the reference name. When combined
       with --dereference the dereferenced tag will still be shown after
       the SHA-1.

   --verify
       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.

   --abbrev[=<n>]
       Abbreviate the object name. When using --hash, you do not have to
       say --hash --abbrev; --hash=n would do.

   -q, --quiet
       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>]
       Make git show-ref act as a filter that reads refs from stdin of the
       form "^(?:<anything>\s)?<refname>(?:\^{})?$" and performs the
       following actions on each: (1) strip "^{}" at the end of line if
       any; (2) ignore if pattern is provided and does not head-match
       refname; (3) warn if refname is not a well-formed refname and skip;
       (4) ignore if refname is a ref that exists in the local repository;
       (5) otherwise output the line.

   <pattern>...
       Show references matching one or more patterns. Patterns are matched
       from the end of the full name, and only complete parts are matched,
       e.g.  master matches refs/heads/master, refs/remotes/origin/master,
       refs/tags/jedi/master but not refs/heads/mymaster or
       refs/remotes/master/jedi.

OUTPUT

   The output is in the format: <SHA-1 ID> <space> <reference name>.

       $ git show-ref --head --dereference
       832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 HEAD
       832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/master
       832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/origin
       3521017556c5de4159da4615a39fa4d5d2c279b5 refs/tags/v0.99.9c
       6ddc0964034342519a87fe013781abf31c6db6ad refs/tags/v0.99.9c^{}
       055e4ae3ae6eb344cbabf2a5256a49ea66040131 refs/tags/v1.0rc4
       423325a2d24638ddcc82ce47be5e40be550f4507 refs/tags/v1.0rc4^{}
       ...

   When using --hash (and not --dereference) the output format is: <SHA-1
   ID>

       $ git show-ref --heads --hash
       2e3ba0114a1f52b47df29743d6915d056be13278
       185008ae97960c8d551adcd9e23565194651b5d1
       03adf42c988195b50e1a1935ba5fcbc39b2b029b
       ...

EXAMPLE

   To show all references called "master", whether tags or heads or
   anything else, and regardless of how deep in the reference naming
   hierarchy they are, use:

               git show-ref master

   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:

               git show-ref --verify refs/heads/master

   will only match the exact branch called "master".

   If nothing matches, git show-ref will return an error code of 1, and in
   the case of verification, it will show an error message.

   For scripting, you can ask it to be quiet with the "--quiet" flag,
   which allows you to do things like

               git show-ref --quiet --verify -- "refs/heads/$headname" ||
                       echo "$headname is not a valid branch"

   to check whether a particular branch exists or not (notice how we don't
   actually want to show any results, and we want to use the full refname
   for it in order to not trigger the problem with ambiguous partial
   matches).

   To show only tags, or only proper branch heads, use "--tags" and/or
   "--heads" respectively (using both means that it shows tags and heads,
   but not other random references under the refs/ subdirectory).

   To do automatic tag object dereferencing, use the "-d" or
   "--dereference" flag, so you can do

               git show-ref --tags --dereference

   to get a listing of all tags together with what they dereference.

FILES

   .git/refs/*, .git/packed-refs

SEE ALSO

   git-for-each-ref(1), git-ls-remote(1), git-update-ref(1),
   gitrepository-layout(5)

GIT

   Part of the git(1) suite

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Free and Open Source Software