列出分支时，Git HEAD与主分支分离

Question

I thought I was understanding HEAD to be the 'current' branch, but when listing branches I see that my current and the remote HEAD are distinct for one of my repos. The other repository does not even list a remote head branch. Could someone please explain the following:

me@portalinux ~/edcourse $ git branch -va
* master                9de94d9 Work on week 3 stuff thursday 
  remotes/origin/HEAD   -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/master 9de94d9 Work on week 3 stuff thursday

As you can see, the origin/HEAD seems to be just pointing at master. But in the following repo it does not:

me@portalinux ~/cpp $ git branch -va
* master             f30bc16 End of chapter 2
  remotes/cpp/master f30bc16 End of chapter 2

The only point of difference between how I've handled the repositories is that the first repository was initialized and updated by two different clients, this second repository has only been updated by one computer. Will be interested to see whether this second repo gains a remote HEAD pointing at master once I start using a second computer for updates.

Answer 1

Your idea that HEAD points to the current branch is pretty close, but note that it might not always do so. For example, in a "detached head" state it might point at an arbitrary commit.

Shared Git repositories are often implemented as bare repositories , which means they lack a working copy. Essentially, they exist only as a .git/ directory. In the absence of a working copy the concept of a "current branch" lacks meaning, and as a result remotes often don't have a HEAD .

Some remotes do have a HEAD , for example a non-bare remote would. GitHub uses HEAD to identify the "default branch" , a GitHub-specific concept. Other vendors may follow suit, or use it for something entirely different.