From: Junio C Hamano Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:12:49 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/2] checkout: fix attribute handling in checkout all Message-ID: <7vtzr3fb26.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net> In-Reply-To: <86eji7lww5.fsf@lola.quinscape.zz> David Kastrup writes: >> Junio C Hamano writes: >> >> $ git update-ref --no-deref HEAD $(git rev-parse v1.5.3-rc4^0) > > Is there a fundamental difference to using > > git-symbolic-ref HEAD $(git rev-parse v1.5.3-rc4^0) > > here? The symbolic-ref command is about setting the HEAD to "point at a(nother) ref". There is no point talking about "fundamental difference" here --- the latter is plain wrong, feeding rev-parse output (which is an object name) as its second parameter. Did you mean to ask about the difference between "git-update-ref HEAD $param" with or without --no-deref? With --no-deref, it makes the HEAD detached even when HEAD is a symref that points at a ref, e.g. "refs/heads/master". Without that option, it updates the ref that is pointed at by the HEAD symref.