Autogenerated HTML docs for v1.4.4.1-g278f

1 files changed, 12 insertions, 17 deletions

diff --git a/git-symbolic-ref.html b/git-symbolic-ref.html
index 2b13baede..ee6e8be9c 100644
--- a/git-symbolic-ref.html
+++ b/git-symbolic-ref.html
@@ -282,27 +282,22 @@ directory.  Typically you would give <tt>HEAD</tt> as the &lt;name&gt;
 argument to see on which branch your working tree is on.</p>

 <p>Give two arguments, create or update a symbolic ref &lt;name&gt; to

 point at the given branch &lt;ref&gt;.</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 @@ changed at compilation time.</p>
 </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>