How to get the current git branch in shell

Question

I'm trying to write a shell script that should fail out if the current git branch doesn't match a pre-defined value.

if $gitBranch != 'my-branch'; then
   echo 'fail'
   exit 1
fi

Unfortunately, my shell scripting skills are not up to scratch: How do I get the current git branch in my variable?

This may be a duplicate, but it's certainly not a duplicate of the question linked. — William Pursell
– William Pursell, Commented May 26, 2015 at 19:17
For the posterity, my suggested duplicate was: How to compare strings in Bash script, since it looks like the thing is missing here. — fedorqui
– fedorqui, Commented May 26, 2015 at 19:20

William Pursell · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-26 19:20:25Z

13

To get the name of the current branch: git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD

So, to check:

if test "$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)" != my-branch; then
  echo Current branch is not my-branch >&2
  exit 1
fi

answered May 26, 2015 at 19:20

William Pursell

214k49 gold badges279 silver badges317 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Mort Over a year ago

Yup, although does anybody really use test rather than [? I would suggest if [ "$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)" != 'my-branch' ] ;

William Pursell Over a year ago

I may be the only one that prefers test, but I strongly suggest against [. The amount of confusion caused by people thinking that [ is a part of the grammar of the shell is very high. Using test makes it much clearer that it is a command. And who wants to have a final argument of ]? That's just weird.

Keith Thompson Over a year ago

Sure, it causes confusion -- but you only have to learn it once.

Gerd K Over a year ago

This fails in detached state.

statox · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-26 20:45:54Z

1

You can get the branch using git branch and a regex:

$gitBranch=$(git branch | sed -n -e 's/^\* \(.*\)/\1/p')

After that you just have to make your test.

answered May 26, 2015 at 20:45

statox

2,9261 gold badge24 silver badges44 bronze badges

2 Comments

Keith Thompson Over a year ago

The sed command can be written more simply as sed -n '/^\* /s///p'.

statox Over a year ago

@Keith You're right. I got this snippet from somewhere on the internet and as it worked I never tried to improve it but your simplification totally works.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to get the current git branch in shell

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related