GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)               Git Manual               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] [--no-recurse] <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 content
       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.

       --recurse, --no-recurse
           When showing the value of <name> as a symbolic ref, if <name>
           refers to another symbolic ref, follow such a chain of symbolic
           refs until the result no longer points at a symbolic ref
           (--recurse, which is the default).  --no-recurse stops after
           dereferencing only a single level of symbolic ref.

       -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

Git 2.44.0                        02/23/2024               GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)