Git - Current / working / HEAD / active branch

About

The current or active branch is:

• the branch
• checked out
• actually in the working tree

When a index (ie next commit) is created (ie the changes are commited):

• the HEAD commit becomes the parent of the next commit (index).
• and the committed index becomes the HEAD.

Management

See

Get the current local branch name

• The starred branch is the current branch

git branch

* branch-2.3
  master

• Scripting: This command prints the last name of the ref of the current HEAD which is the branch name

git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD
# or 
git symbolic-ref HEAD --short
# or
git branch --show-current

• File System: In the repository, you can see the head value of the HEAD in the HEAD file (the output shows that HEAD is a ref to the HEAD of the current branch)

cat .git/HEAD

ref: refs/heads/branch-2.3

Remote Repository / Upstream

See Git - Upstream Branch (Tracking branch).

You can see the HEAD branch with the following command

Example: below the head branch is master

git remote show origin

* remote origin
  Fetch URL: https://github.com/ComboStrap/combo
  Push  URL: https://github.com/ComboStrap/combo
  HEAD branch: master

The HEAD file is located at refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD

With a remote called origin, you would get the remote HEAD branch (ie default branch)

cat refs/remotes/origin/HEAD

ref: refs/remotes/origin/main

Change branch

Local

You can change of active/current/working/HEAD branc with the checkout command

Remote

Sets or deletes the the default remote HEAD (ie local file refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD) with the command:

git remote set-head 

For instance:

• to a branch called main for a remote called origin

git remote set-head origin main
# then push

• to the remote default if it has changed

git remote set-head origin -a
# -a (or --auto) set the remote ''HEAD'' of the remote

Output:

origin/HEAD set to main