From: Johannes Sixt Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2015 21:11:04 GMT Subject: Re: git branch command is incompatible with bash Message-ID: <55B69E68.90306@kdbg.org> In-Reply-To: <20150727121253.GC17338@2vizcon.com> Am 27.07.2015 um 14:12 schrieb Anatol Rudolph: > When using the git branch command, git uses a '*' to denote the current > branch. Therefore, in bash this: > > $ branchName=$(git branch -q) > $ echo $branchName > > produces a directory listing, because the '*' is interpreded by the > shell. Of course. You would write the last line as echo "$branchName" These are shell fundamentals. > While an (unwieldly) workaround exists: > > $ branchName=$(git symbolic-ref -q HEAD) > $ branchName=${branch##refs/heads/} If you want to do that in a script, this is not a work-around, but it is how you should do it. But you may want to use option --short to save the second line. > 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 $branchName > master Try branchName=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD) -- Hannes