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

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