CODEWITHSUNDEEP
git
thisismydesign
thisismydesign

Reputation: 25054

Get currently checked out full reference name in Git

I need a command which returns the full reference name of my currently checked out revision. Or as close to this as possible. Big plus if git-only (for cross-platform purposes).

By "full reference name" I mean e.g. refs/tags/my-tag, refs/heads/my-branch.

Examples:

git checkout master
magic command
# => /refs/heads/master

git checkout v1.0.0
magic command
# => /refs/tags/v1.0.0

git checkout 86742545e8152a8fbf31eafa55eb573042f61f5d
magic command
# =>

Few points of reference:

Related:

All I could find seemed too complicated for what I'm looking for.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1434

Answers (1)

torek
torek

Reputation: 487795

You probably want git describe, perhaps with some flags and perhaps with some post-processing. See details below.

I'm not entirely sure what actual problem you are trying to solve:

  • The hash ID is the permanent name for this commit. So just git rev-parse HEAD and you have it.

  • The current branch name is what git symbolic-ref HEAD gets. It produces an error if there is no current branch name, which is the case whenever you use git checkout to switch to a detached HEAD. That includes:

    • checking out a non-branch name (e.g., a tag name or remote-tracking name),
    • using --detach with a branch name, and
    • using a raw hash ID (of course).

Note that a branch name stores one commit hash ID, except for the somewhat special case of being on an "unborn branch", in which case, the branch name doesn't exist, even though it is the current branch name. This somewhat obnoxious state is necessary because a branch name must contain the hash ID of an existing commit, and in a new, totally-empty repository, there is no existing commit, yet you're started out on branch master.

If the problem you are trying to solve is: "Tell me what command the user typed in to get into the HEAD state I'm in now, whether that is detached or attached", Git does not save that for you. The closest you get are entries in the HEAD reflog. This reflog is not required to exist. One other place to look is in history saved by the shell (command line interpreter): if that history exists, it probably contains the exact command the user entered, even if that command is an alias.

If the problem you are trying to solve is: "Provide a name useful to / readable by humans, that will (always | currently) identify this exact commit", there is no right answer, but the closest you can come is to make your own new tag for the current commit hash ID. The second-closest you can come, which is pretty useful, is to use the output of git describe (which has lots of flags to tweak its output). Note that using a branch name will only identify the same commit until the branch name moves on to identify some other commit, which happens regularly.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions