git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

git branch command is incompatible with bash

From
ARAnatol Rudolph <a.rudolph@2vizcon.com>
Date
Jul 27, 2015, 12:12 UTC
Message-ID
<20150727121253.GC17338@2vizcon.com>
Hello!

I hope posting this to this mailing list is okay, this is the first ever mail that I submit to a technical mailing list.

When using the git branch command, git uses a '*' to denote the current branch. Therefore, in bash this:

	$ branchName=$(git branch -q)
	$ echo $branchName

produces a directory listing, because the '*' is interpreded by the shell.

While an (unwieldly) workaround exists:
	$ branchName=$(git symbolic-ref -q HEAD)                                                                            
	$ branchName=${branch##refs/heads/}

it would still be nice, if there were a --current flag, that returned only the current branch name, omitting the star:

	$ branchName=$(git branch --current -q)
	$ echo $branchName
	master
Next: Johannes Sixt
Message 1 of 9 in “git branch command is incompatible with bash”
  1. Anatol RudolphJul 27, 2015
  2. Johannes SixtJul 27, 2015
  3. Junio C HamanoJul 27, 2015
  4. Johannes SixtJul 28, 2015
  5. Jakub NarębskiJul 28, 2015
  6. Junio C HamanoJul 28, 2015
  7. Jeff KingJul 28, 2015
  8. Johannes SixtJul 28, 2015
  9. Scott SchmitJul 29, 2015

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.