---
name: "git-symbolic-ref"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "git"
version: "2.56.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/git-symbolic-ref"
---

# git-symbolic-ref(1)

Read, modify and delete symbolic refs

## NAME

git-symbolic-ref - Read, modify and delete symbolic refs

## SYNOPSIS

```
git symbolic-ref [-m <reason>] <name> <ref>
git symbolic-ref [-q] [--short] [--no-recurse] <name>
git symbolic-ref --delete [-q] <name>
```

## DESCRIPTION

Given one argument, reads which branch head the given symbolic ref refers to and outputs its path, relative to the **.git/** directory. Typically you would give **HEAD** as the \<name\> argument to see which branch your working tree is on.

Given two arguments, creates or updates a symbolic ref \<name\> to point at the given branch \<ref\>.

Given **--delete** and an additional argument, deletes the given symbolic ref.

A symbolic ref is a regular file that stores a string that begins with **ref:** **refs/**. For example, your **.git/HEAD** is a regular file whose content is **ref:** **refs/heads/master**.

## OPTIONS

- \-d, --delete

  Delete the symbolic ref \<name\>.

- \-q, --quiet

  Do not issue an error message if the \<name\> is not a symbolic ref but a detached HEAD; instead exit with non-zero status silently.

- \--short

  When showing the value of \<name\> as a symbolic ref, try to shorten the value, e.g. from **refs/heads/master** to **master**.

- \--recurse, --no-recurse

  When showing the value of \<name\> as a symbolic ref, if \<name\> refers to another symbolic ref, follow such a chain of symbolic refs until the result no longer points at a symbolic ref (**--recurse**, which is the default). **--no-recurse** stops after dereferencing only a single level of symbolic ref.

- \-m

  Update the reflog for \<name\> with \<reason\>. This is valid only when creating or updating a symbolic ref.

## NOTES

In the past, **.git/HEAD** was a symbolic link pointing at **refs/heads/master**. When we wanted to switch to another branch, we did **ln** **-sf** **refs/heads/newbranch** **.git/HEAD**, and when we wanted to find out which branch we are on, we did **readlink** **.git/HEAD**. But symbolic links are not entirely portable, so they are now deprecated and symbolic refs (as described above) are used by default.

*git symbolic-ref* will exit with status 0 if the contents of the symbolic ref were printed correctly, with status 1 if the requested name is not a symbolic ref, or 128 if another error occurs.

## SEE ALSO

[**git-update-ref**(1)](/git-update-ref/1.md)

## GIT

Part of the [**git**(1)](/git/1.md) suite