Re: changed output in git branch -a

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 30, 2025, 13:31 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqsejh5pam.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <20250630121839.6252d9d9.olaf@aepfle.de>

Olaf Hering <olaf@aepfle.de> writes:

Show 8 quoted lines

> my dumb script parses the output of "git --git-dir=some/dir/.git branch -a".
> With git 2.43 it gets the expected list of "remote/branch".
> With git 2.50 it also gets something like "remote/HEAD -> remote/branch".
>
> The newer version runs on a different system. It might be that the repository
> was already cloned with a different format. For some reason it does have
> .git/refs/remotes/${remote}/HEAD, but the system with the older git lacks
> that entry.

I somehow do not think this is a version difference. Assuming that your default remote is called "origin", I suspect that you have refs/remotes/origin/HEAD symbolic ref in the repository you use with Git 2.50, while in the other repository you do not. Both versions are capable of showing that symbolic ref information.

You can try in the repository where you use Git 2.43

    $ git remote set-head origin -a
    $ git branch -a

to see if the difference indeed is coming from different versions.

> Is there a way to suppress such lines, or do I need to filter them manually?
> There is no obvious knob mentioned in git-branch(1).

Scripts should be reading "git for-each-ref" output in the first place. Output from "git branch" is meant for human consumption and is subject to change any time (even though in this case I suspect it has not changed.