Re: Q: ".git/HEAD" and ".git/refs/heads"

Hi!

I have a small question: After a "git gc" with last commit being "[shared 2679648]" I found this:

ref: refs/heads/shared

cat: .git/refs/heads/shared: No such file or directory

Is this intentional? How does Git find the numeric commit for HEAD? Using find, I found my commit in these files: .git/logs/HEAD .git/logs/refs/heads/shared .git/info/refs .git/packed-refs

Before "git gc" I found the commit ID in HEAD.

Why I'm worrying?: I tried to make a simple script that finds out the current HEAD-commit like this:
            if [ -d .git ]; then
                GIT_HEAD="$(<.git/HEAD)"
                GIT_BRANCH="${GIT_HEAD##*/}"
                GIT_HEAD="Git:$GIT_BRANCH-$(cut -c1-7 .git/${GIT_HEAD##*: })"
            fi

Then $GIT_HEAD was something like "Git:shared-863962c".

Should I use code like this:? awk '$2 == "refs/heads/shared" { print $1 }' .git/info/refs

Of course I'd be most pleased if there was some git builtin to get that (I read the manual without success).

Using an older version of Git (git-1.7.12)...

Regards, Ulrich Windl

"Ulrich Windl" <Ulrich.Windl@rz.uni-regensburg.de> writes:

Yes.

Yes, they are where the refs are stored. If you have many refs in your repository, having one file per ref is inefficient. It's more efficient for Git to have one big read-only file. When one ref is modified, the .git/refs/heads/$branch file is re-created, and the packed entry is ignored.

Don't access the filesystem. Ask Git.

GIT_FULL_BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --symbolic-full-name HEAD) GIT_BRANCH="${GIT_FULL_BRANCH##*/}" GIT_HEAD="Git:$GIT_BRANCH-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)"

(Perhaps there's a simpler way without $GIT_FULL_BRANCH)

Nachricht <vpqob0jwrbb.fsf@anie.imag.fr>:

Matthieu,

thanks for this (it not so abvious how to use "git --rev-parse")!

Ulrich