git-head

#!/bin/bash

# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1417957/show-just-the-current-branch-in-git

# Hmm.  This is a good example of why people sometimes complain that
# the git porcelain is ugly.

set -o pipefail

# Parsing porcelain is an ugly approach because it couples the
# solution to the formatting which could change:
#git branch | awk '$1 == "*" { print $2 }'

# This one only works with git >= 1.6.3, but that's been around
# since Sept 2010 so it should be fine by now.
#ref=$( git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD )
#if [ "$ref" = HEAD ]; then
#    # detached branch
#    git rev-parse HEAD
#else
#    echo "$ref"
#fi

# The maintainer-approved solution:
# https://git-blame.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/checking-current-branch-programatically.html
# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1593051/how-to-programmatically-determine-the-current-checked-out-git-branch
if branch=$(git symbolic-ref --short -q HEAD); then
    echo "$branch"
else
    git rev-parse HEAD
fi