Subject: Re: git branch command is incompatible with bash

From: Johannes Sixt <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2015 23:11:04 +0200

Am 27.07.2015 um 14:12 schrieb Anatol Rudolph:
> When using the git branch command, git uses a '*' to denote the current
> branch. Therefore, in bash this:
>
> 	$ branchName=$(git branch -q)
> 	$ echo $branchName
>
> produces a directory listing, because the '*' is interpreded by the
> shell.

Of course. You would write the last line as

   echo "$branchName"

These are shell fundamentals.

> While an (unwieldly) workaround exists:
>
> 	$ branchName=$(git symbolic-ref -q HEAD)
> 	$ branchName=${branch##refs/heads/}

If you want to do that in a script, this is not a work-around, but it is 
how you should do it. But you may want to use option --short to save the 
second line.

> it would still be nice, if there were a --current flag, that returned
> only the current branch name, omitting the star:
>
> 	$ branchName=$(git branch --current -q)
> 	$ echo $branchName
> 	master

Try

   branchName=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)

-- Hannes