Autogenerated HTML docs for v1.4.4.1-g278f
diff --git a/git-symbolic-ref.html b/git-symbolic-ref.html index 2b13bae..ee6e8be 100644 --- a/git-symbolic-ref.html +++ b/git-symbolic-ref.html
@@ -282,27 +282,22 @@ argument to see on which branch your working tree is on.</p> <p>Give two arguments, create or update a symbolic ref <name> to point at the given branch <ref>.</p> -<p>Traditionally, <tt>.git/HEAD</tt> is a symlink pointing at -<tt>refs/heads/master</tt>. When we want to switch to another branch, -we did <tt>ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD</tt>, and when we want +<p>A symbolic ref is a regular file that stores a string that +begins with <tt>ref: refs/</tt>. For example, your <tt>.git/HEAD</tt> is +a regular file whose contents is <tt>ref: refs/heads/master</tt>.</p> +</div> +<h2>NOTES</h2> +<div class="sectionbody"> +<p>In the past, <tt>.git/HEAD</tt> was a symbolic link pointing at +<tt>refs/heads/master</tt>. When we wanted to switch to another branch, +we did <tt>ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch .git/HEAD</tt>, and when we wanted to find out which branch we are on, we did <tt>readlink .git/HEAD</tt>. 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 <tt>readlink(1)</tt> command, this was a bit cumbersome. On some platforms, <tt>ln -sf</tt> does not even work as -advertised (horrors).</p> -<p>A symbolic ref can be a regular file that stores a string that -begins with <tt>ref: refs/</tt>. For example, your <tt>.git/HEAD</tt> <strong>can</strong> -be a regular file whose contents is <tt>ref: refs/heads/master</tt>. -This can be used on a filesystem that does not support symbolic -links. Instead of doing <tt>readlink .git/HEAD</tt>, <tt>git-symbolic-ref -HEAD</tt> can be used to find out which branch we are on. To point -the HEAD to <tt>newbranch</tt>, instead of <tt>ln -sf refs/heads/newbranch -.git/HEAD</tt>, <tt>git-symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/newbranch</tt> can be -used.</p> -<p>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.</p> +advertised (horrors). Therefore symbolic links are now deprecated +and symbolic refs are used by default.</p> </div> <h2>Author</h2> <div class="sectionbody"> @@ -314,7 +309,7 @@ </div> <div id="footer"> <div id="footer-text"> -Last updated 03-Oct-2006 08:41:33 UTC +Last updated 03-Dec-2006 01:53:20 UTC </div> </div> </body>
