git-symbolic-ref(1) =================== NAME ---- git-symbolic-ref - read and modify symbolic refs SYNOPSIS -------- 'git-symbolic-ref' <name> [<ref>] 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. Give two arguments, create or update a symbolic ref <name> to point at the given branch <ref>. Traditionally, `.git/HEAD` is a symlink pointing at `refs/heads/master`. When we want to switch to another branch, we did `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD`, and when we want 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). A symbolic ref can be a regular file that stores a string that begins with `ref: refs/`. For example, your `.git/HEAD` *can* be a regular file whose contents is `ref: refs/heads/master`. This can be used on a filesystem that does not support symbolic links. Instead of doing `readlink .git/HEAD`, `git-symbolic-ref HEAD` can be used to find out which branch we are on. To point the HEAD to `newbranch`, instead of `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD`, `git-symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/newbranch` can be used. Currently, .git/HEAD uses a regular file symbolic ref on Cygwin, and everywhere else it is implemented as a symlink. This can be changed at compilation time. Author ------ Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> GIT --- Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite