fwiw,

jimc@frodo:~/prj-1/capnproto.git$ git branch -l
* master

I find the splat in the response unhelpful when wrapped in shell for loop, the splat expands into everything in current directory

jimc@frodo:~/prj-1/capnproto.git$ for b in `git branch -l`; do echo $b; done appveyor.yml c++ CMakeLists.txt CONTRIBUTORS ...

it would be nice if some flag combo would suppress that splat. save me from fugly brittle sh $IFS fiddlery and incomplete workarounds

git branch -l  # no splat
  master
git branch # splat ok for back-compat (if you think it necessary)
  * master

it appears that by convention, checked out branch is both 1st in list, and splatted, perhaps _DIRTY_, JUNK, or maybe "" would be good 1st line of response if not on a branch ?

also, I found no mention of the splat in the man page.