Merge branch 'maint'

[git.git] / Documentation / git-symbolic-ref.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt b/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt
index a851ae24c4eb079eedec0b889baddf9911820c19..a88f7228605ee35002573123f3dbe63c3e405dc6 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt
@@ -3,11 +3,11 @@ git-symbolic-ref(1)
 
 NAME
 ----
-git-symbolic-ref - read and modify symbolic refs
+git-symbolic-ref - Read and modify symbolic refs
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-'git-symbolic-ref' <name> [<ref>]
+'git-symbolic-ref' [-q] [-m <reason>] <name> [<ref>]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
@@ -19,29 +19,38 @@ argument to see on which branch your working tree is on.
 Give two arguments, create or update a symbolic ref <name> to
 point at the given branch <ref>.
 
-Traditionally, `.git/HEAD` is a symlink pointing at
-`refs/heads/master`.  When we want to switch to another branch,
-we did `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD`, and when we want
+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
+-------
+
+-q::
+       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.
+
+-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`.
 This was fine, and internally that is what still happens by
-default, but on platforms that does not have working symlinks,
-or that does not have the `readlink(1)` command, this was a bit
+default, but on platforms that do not have working symlinks,
+or that do not have the `readlink(1)` command, this was a bit
 cumbersome.  On some platforms, `ln -sf` does not even work as
-advertised (horrors).
-
-A symbolic ref can be a regular file that stores a string that
-begins with `ref: refs/`.  For example, your `.git/HEAD` *can*
-be a regular file whose contents is `ref: refs/heads/master`.
-This can be used on a filesystem that does not support symbolic
-links.  Instead of doing `readlink .git/HEAD`, `git-symbolic-ref
-HEAD` can be used to find out which branch we are on.  To point
-the HEAD to `newbranch`, instead of `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch
-.git/HEAD`, `git-symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/newbranch` can be
-used.
-
-Currently, .git/HEAD uses a regular file symbolic ref on Cygwin,
-and everywhere else it is implemented as a symlink.  This can be
-changed at compilation time.
+advertised (horrors).  Therefore symbolic links are now deprecated
+and symbolic refs 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.
 
 Author
 ------