# git-symbolic-ref

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.

SEE ALSO -------- linkgit:git-update-ref\[1\]

GIT --- Part of the linkgit:git\[1\] suite