Git Check Current Branch - Shell/Bash

When working with Git, it's important to be able to check what branch you're currently on. This information can be helpful for understanding which changes you're currently working on and whether you're working in the correct branch.

In this guide, we'll show you how to use Git commands in the Shell/Bash to check the current branch.

Checking the Current Branch

To check the current branch in Git, you can use the git branch command. With no arguments, this command will list all of the branches in your local repository and indicate the current branch with an asterisk (*).

$ git branch
  branch-1
  branch-2
* main

In the example above, we can see that the current branch is main.

If you want to check only the name of the current branch without a list of all branches, you can use the git rev-parse command with the --abbrev-ref flag:

$ git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD
main

This will output the current branch name, which is main in this case.

Conclusion

Now you know how to check the current branch in Git using Shell/Bash commands. Keeping track of your branches is an important part of using Git, and this information can help you stay organized and avoid mistakes when working with your code.