How branches are just files with hashes in Git - Interactive Practice

Practice - 5 Tasks

1fill in blank

easy

Complete the command to show the current branch's commit hash.

Git

cat .git/refs/heads/[1]

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

Aindex

BHEAD

Cmaster

Dorigin

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using HEAD instead of the branch name.

Trying to cat .git/HEAD directly.

The branch name is a file inside .git/refs/heads/. Reading it shows the commit hash it points to.

2fill in blank

medium

Complete the command to see what HEAD points to.

Git

cat [1]

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A.git/config

B.git/index

C.git/refs/heads/master

D.git/HEAD

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using the branch file instead of HEAD.

Trying to cat .git/index which is binary.

The .git/HEAD file contains a reference to the current branch or commit hash.

3fill in blank

hard

Fix the error in the command to read the commit hash of the 'develop' branch.

Git

cat .git/refs/heads/[1]

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

Adevelop

BHEAD

Cmaster

Dmain

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using HEAD instead of the branch name.

Using 'main' when the branch is 'develop'.

The branch name must be exactly the branch you want to read. 'develop' is a common branch name.

4fill in blank

hard

Fill both blanks to show the commit hash that HEAD points to by reading the branch file.

Git

branch=$(cat .git/[1] | cut -d' ' -f2)
cat .git/refs/heads/[2]

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

AHEAD

Brefs/heads/master

Cmaster

Drefs/heads/HEAD

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Trying to cat the full ref path in the first command.

Using wrong paths for the branch file.

The first command reads .git/HEAD to get the branch name. The second reads the branch file inside .git/refs/heads/.

5fill in blank

hard

Fill both blanks to create a dictionary-like output of branch names and their commit hashes.

Git

for branch in master develop feature; do
  echo "[1]: $(cat .git/refs/heads/[2])"
done

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

Abranch

Bmaster

Cdevelop

Dfeature

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Hardcoding branch names inside the cat command.

Not using the loop variable for the file path.

The loop variable is branch. To get each branch's hash, use the variable branch inside the path.