Bash / Git - How to make a script using current git branch name

Question

New to bash scripting. Know enough to run something simple from intro videos via LinuxAcademy.

I'd like to pull my current Git branch name into the script as a variable and use that variable to make a directory.

From there, I think I can automate the rest of the process.

No script yet, but I do know what I'd like it to do; here it is in plain language.

1. cd somedir/dir
2. git branch (pull name as a variable)
3. mkdir (as branch name variable)
4. cd (newdir)
5. touch xyz.html
6. mkdir css img
7. cd css touch xyz.css reset.css
8. cd ../..

Answer 1

There are two different good ways to do this, and a number of bad ways.

The most common bad way that you'll find is a variation on this theme:

 branch=$(git branch | grep '\\*' | cut -d' ' -f2) # don't do this! 

Replace this with:

branch=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)

Note that if HEAD is detached (a normal enough state that means not on any branch at all , typically found, eg, when you're in the middle of a rebase that you have not yet finished), this just prints HEAD . Using this as the branch name often works and does the right thing, so that's OK as long as, well, that's OK. (The cut version of this prints (HEAD , which doesn't work.)

The other way to do it is:

branch=$(git symbolic-ref --short HEAD) || exit

(which you can make fancier if you like). With this variant, if you're not on a branch—if you're in that detached HEAD mode—the git symbolic-ref command will produce a complaint:

fatal: ref HEAD is not a symbolic ref

and the || exit || exit clause will make your script terminate immediately, rather than proceeding to use $branch as if it were a valid branch name when it's not. Use this code fragment if using the literal string HEAD instead of an actual branch name is the wrong thing to do.

Answer 2

In bash context, you would use a simple git command

git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD

to output current branch in its short form. ( doc )