Re: Why git branch --show-current ignores -v?

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Dec 26, 2025, 02:09 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq8qeqm1tp.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <87h5tev918.fsf@osv.gnss.ru>

Sergey Organov <sorganov@gmail.com> writes:

> It looks useful and natural for "git branch --show-current -v[v]" to
> verbosely describe current branch, similar to what --list does. Is there
> sound reason why -v is not supported by --show-current?

The "--show-current" feature was invented merely for those who somehow found it ugly to use "git symbolic-ref HEAD" when a user wants to learn what the current branch was. If I have to guess, nobody thought about it as a way to get the same output as "--list" but restricted to the single current branch. Hence nobody felt the need to support any option that the "--list" operation supported, including "-v". IOW, nobody shared your "It looks useful" so far, especially among the people who knew where the "--show-current" option came from.

I do not think anybody terribly objects if somebody teaches "-v" to make "git branch --show-current" more verbose, and other "--list" operations in general, but I suspect that the exact contents in the verbose output may have to be different from that of "--list". For one thing, as "--show-current" limits its output to the current branch, the two-place indent "git branch --list" gives its output is not there, and "-v" would probably not want to add it.