diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt | 29 |
1 files changed, 14 insertions, 15 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt b/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt index 3d3a059c5e..981d3a8fc1 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt @@ -7,16 +7,18 @@ git-symbolic-ref - Read and modify symbolic refs SYNOPSIS -------- -'git-symbolic-ref' [-q] [-m <reason>] <name> [<ref>] +[verse] +'git symbolic-ref' [-m <reason>] <name> <ref> +'git symbolic-ref' [-q] [--short] <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 on which branch your working tree is on. +argument to see which branch your working tree is on. -Give two arguments, create or update a symbolic ref <name> to +Given two arguments, creates or updates a symbolic ref <name> to point at the given branch <ref>. A symbolic ref is a regular file that stores a string that @@ -32,6 +34,10 @@ OPTIONS 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. @@ -42,21 +48,14 @@ 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`. -This was fine, and internally that is what still happens by -default, but on platforms that do not have working symlinks, -or that do not have the `readlink(1)` command, this was a bit -cumbersome. On some platforms, `ln -sf` does not even work as -advertised (horrors). Therefore symbolic links are now deprecated -and symbolic refs are used by default. - -git-symbolic-ref will exit with status 0 if the contents of the +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. -Author ------- -Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> - GIT --- Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |