# symbolic-ref 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 ] git symbolic-ref [-q] [--short] git symbolic-ref --delete [-q]

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 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 .

   -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

Git 2.18.2 01/03/2020 GIT-SYMBOLIC-REF(1)