GIT-SHOW-REF(1)                                                GIT-SHOW-REF(1)



NAME
       git-show-ref - List references in a local repository

SYNOPSIS
       git show-ref [-q|--quiet] [--verify] [--head] [-d|--dereference]
                    [-s|--hash[=<n>]] [--abbrev[=<n>]] [--tags]
                    [--heads] [--] [<pattern>...]
       git show-ref --exclude-existing[=<pattern>] < ref-list





DESCRIPTION
       Displays references available in a local repository along with the
       associated commit IDs. Results can be filtered using a pattern and tags
       can be dereferenced into object IDs. Additionally, it can be used to
       test whether a particular ref exists.


       The --exclude-existing form is a filter that does the inverse, it shows
       the refs from stdin that don&#8217;t exist in the local repository.


       Use of this utility is encouraged in favor of directly accessing files
       under the .git directory.


OPTIONS
       --head Show the HEAD reference.


       --tags, --heads
              Limit to only "refs/heads" and "refs/tags", respectively. These
              options are not mutually exclusive; when given both, references
              stored in "refs/heads" and "refs/tags" are displayed.


       -d, --dereference
              Dereference tags into object IDs as well. They will be shown
              with "^{}" appended.


       -s, --hash[=<n>]
              Only show the SHA1 hash, not the reference name. When combined
              with --dereference the dereferenced tag will still be shown
              after the SHA1.


       --verify
              Enable stricter reference checking by requiring an exact ref
              path. Aside from returning an error code of 1, it will also
              print an error message if --quiet was not specified.


       --abbrev[=<n>]
              Abbreviate the object name. When using --hash, you do not have
              to say --hash --abbrev; --hash=n would do.


       -q, --quiet
              Do not print any results to stdout. When combined with --verify
              this can be used to silently check if a reference exists.


       --exclude-existing[=<pattern>]
              Make git show-ref act as a filter that reads refs from stdin of
              the form "(?:<anything>\s)?<refname>(?:\^{})?$" and performs the
              following actions on each: (1) strip "{}" at the end of line if
              any; (2) ignore if pattern is provided and does not head-match
              refname; (3) warn if refname is not a well-formed refname and
              skip; (4) ignore if refname is a ref that exists in the local
              repository; (5) otherwise output the line.


       <pattern>...
              Show references matching one or more patterns. Patterns are
              matched from the end of the full name, and only complete parts
              are matched, e.g. master matches refs/heads/master,
              refs/remotes/origin/master, refs/tags/jedi/master but not
              refs/heads/mymaster nor refs/remotes/master/jedi.


OUTPUT
       The output is in the format: <SHA-1 ID> <space> <reference name>.

       $ git show-ref --head --dereference
       832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 HEAD
       832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/master
       832e76a9899f560a90ffd62ae2ce83bbeff58f54 refs/heads/origin
       3521017556c5de4159da4615a39fa4d5d2c279b5 refs/tags/v0.99.9c
       6ddc0964034342519a87fe013781abf31c6db6ad refs/tags/v0.99.9c^{}
       055e4ae3ae6eb344cbabf2a5256a49ea66040131 refs/tags/v1.0rc4
       423325a2d24638ddcc82ce47be5e40be550f4507 refs/tags/v1.0rc4^{}
       ...





       When using --hash (and not --dereference) the output format is: <SHA-1
       ID>

       $ git show-ref --heads --hash
       2e3ba0114a1f52b47df29743d6915d056be13278
       185008ae97960c8d551adcd9e23565194651b5d1
       03adf42c988195b50e1a1935ba5fcbc39b2b029b
       ...





EXAMPLE
       To show all references called "master", whether tags or heads or
       anything else, and regardless of how deep in the reference naming
       hierarchy they are, use:

               git show-ref master





       This will show "refs/heads/master" but also
       "refs/remote/other-repo/master", if such references exists.


       When using the --verify flag, the command requires an exact path:

               git show-ref --verify refs/heads/master





       will only match the exact branch called "master".


       If nothing matches, git show-ref will return an error code of 1, and in
       the case of verification, it will show an error message.


       For scripting, you can ask it to be quiet with the "--quiet" flag,
       which allows you to do things like

               git show-ref --quiet --verify -- "refs/heads/$headname" ||
                       echo "$headname is not a valid branch"





       to check whether a particular branch exists or not (notice how we
       don&#8217;t actually want to show any results, and we want to use the
       full refname for it in order to not trigger the problem with ambiguous
       partial matches).


       To show only tags, or only proper branch heads, use "--tags" and/or
       "--heads" respectively (using both means that it shows tags and heads,
       but not other random references under the refs/ subdirectory).


       To do automatic tag object dereferencing, use the "-d" or
       "--dereference" flag, so you can do

               git show-ref --tags --dereference





       to get a listing of all tags together with what they dereference.


FILES
       .git/refs/*, .git/packed-refs


SEE ALSO
       git-ls-remote(1), git-update-ref(1), gitrepository-layout(5)


GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite




                                                               GIT-SHOW-REF(1)
