The introductory text in "git help git" that describes HEAD called it "a special ref". It is special compared to the more regular refs like refs/heads/master and refs/tags/v1.0.0, but not that special, unlike truly special ones like FETCH_HEAD. Rewrite a few sentences to also introduce the distinction between a regular ref that contain the object name and a symbolic ref that contain the name of another ref. Update the description of HEAD that point at the current branch to use the more correct term, a "symbolic ref". This was found as part of auditing the documentation and in-code comments for uses of "special ref" that refer merely a "pseudo ref". Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> --- Documentation/git.txt | 7 ++++--- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/git.txt b/Documentation/git.txt index 2535a30194..880cdc5d7f 100644 --- a/Documentation/git.txt +++ b/Documentation/git.txt @@ -1025,10 +1025,11 @@ When first created, objects are stored in individual files, but for efficiency may later be compressed together into "pack files". Named pointers called refs mark interesting points in history. A ref -may contain the SHA-1 name of an object or the name of another ref. Refs -with names beginning `ref/head/` contain the SHA-1 name of the most +may contain the SHA-1 name of an object or the name of another ref (the +latter is called a "symbolic ref"). +Refs with names beginning `ref/head/` contain the SHA-1 name of the most recent commit (or "head") of a branch under development. SHA-1 names of -tags of interest are stored under `ref/tags/`. A special ref named +tags of interest are stored under `ref/tags/`. A symbolic ref named `HEAD` contains the name of the currently checked-out branch. The index file is initialized with a list of all paths and, for each -- 2.43.0-76-g1a87c842ec
