List all local git branches without an asterisk

Question

If I run git branch, I get something like:

* master
  dev
  foo

if I do git branch -r, it will show all branches on the remote, without an asterisk (where the asterisk shows my current checked-out branch).

How can I list all the local branches, without an asterisk showing up? I need a programmatic solution so I can read in the results line-by-line.

You can just trim the leading whitespaces and remove the asterisk by using regular expressions. I'm sure the programming language you are using makes this possible. — tangoal, Aug 05 '18 at 18:09
@tangoal: you *can* do this, but that's almost certainly not the best way. The Git authors divide their commands loosely into what they call *plumbing* and *porcelain*. A plumbing command is meant for other commands to use, while a porcelain command is meant for humans to use. Hence the output of a plumbing command is typically best-suited as input to another program, rather than for eyeballing. `git for-each-ref` is the plumbing command that implements `git branch --list`, `git tag --list`, and several others. — torek, Aug 05 '18 at 18:51

knittl · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-26T19:17:34.297

23

git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:short)' refs/heads/

edited Mar 26 '21 at 19:17

answered Aug 05 '18 at 18:09

knittl

23

you can pass `:short` or `lstrip=-1` to refname to get only the branch name. Like `git branch --format='%(refname:short)'` – Johnny Willer Aug 05 '18 at 22:54
1

@JohnnyWiller's suggestion of `git branch --format` also works with branch names that contain slashes, which the answer doesn't. – Miles Jan 13 '19 at 05:34
@Milles use more wildcards for heads. e.g.; `git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:short)' refs/heads/dev/* refs/heads/*` – Ярослав Рахматуллин Jul 31 '19 at 10:34
4

A quick and dirty solution `git branch | cut -c 3-`, who doesn't like a quick and dirty solution? – Vinicius Senna Dec 06 '19 at 12:58
3

Use `refs/heads/**` to include branch names with slashes. – Joey Adams Jul 20 '20 at 03:23
2

@JoeyAdams Just omitting any `*`s works for me too: `refs/heads` – Alec Sep 30 '20 at 15:42

1 Answers1