The fact that git has previously used symbolic links for representing symbolic refs doesn't seem relevant to the current function of git-symbolic-ref. This patch makes less of a big deal about the symbolic link history and instead focuses on what git does now. Signed-off-by: Andy Parkins <andyparkins@xxxxxxxxx> --- I've not been using git long enough to have ever experienced the symbolic-link refs. It seems unnecessary that the man pages talk about something that doesn't happen in such strong terms. (Was also slightly inaccurate, as it's not just cygwin that uses symbolic refs) Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt | 29 +++++++++++------------------ 1 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt b/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt index 68ac6a6..4bc35a1 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-symbolic-ref.txt @@ -19,29 +19,22 @@ argument to see on which branch your working tree is on. Give two arguments, create or update a symbolic ref <name> to point at the given branch <ref>. -Traditionally, `.git/HEAD` is a symlink pointing at -`refs/heads/master`. When we want to switch to another branch, -we did `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD`, and when we want +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 contents is `ref: refs/heads/master`. + +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`. This was fine, and internally that is what still happens by default, but on platforms that do not have working symlinks, or that do not have the `readlink(1)` command, this was a bit cumbersome. On some platforms, `ln -sf` does not even work as -advertised (horrors). - -A symbolic ref can be a regular file that stores a string that -begins with `ref: refs/`. For example, your `.git/HEAD` *can* -be a regular file whose contents is `ref: refs/heads/master`. -This can be used on a filesystem that does not support symbolic -links. Instead of doing `readlink .git/HEAD`, `git-symbolic-ref -HEAD` can be used to find out which branch we are on. To point -the HEAD to `newbranch`, instead of `ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch -.git/HEAD`, `git-symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/newbranch` can be -used. - -Currently, .git/HEAD uses a regular file symbolic ref on Cygwin, -and everywhere else it is implemented as a symlink. This can be -changed at compilation time. +advertised (horrors). Therefore symbolic links are now deprecated +and symbolic refs are used by default. Author ------ -- 1.4.4.1 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html