Sometimes it's useful to know the main branch of a git repository
without actually downloading the repository.  This can be done by
looking at the symrefs stored in the remote repository.  Currently git
doesn't provide a simple way to show the symrefs stored on the remote
repository, even though the information is available.  Add a --symref
command line argument to the ls-remote command, which shows the symrefs
in the remote repository.

While there, replace a literal tab in the format string with \t to make
it more obvious to the reader.

Suggested-by: pedro rijo <pedrorijo91@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gummerer <t.gummerer@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

git ls-remote takes an optional get-url argument, and specifying the
repository is optional.  Fix the synopsis in the documentation to
reflect this.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Gummerer <t.gummerer@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

The --refs option was originally introduced in 2718ff0 ("Improve
git-peek-remote").  The ls-remote command was first documented in
972b6fe ("ls-remote: drop storing operation and add documentation."),
but the --refs option was never documented.  Fix this.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Gummerer <t.gummerer@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

cefb2a5e3 ("ls-remote: print URL when no repo is specified") added a
quiet option to ls-remote, but didn't add it to the documentation.  Add
it.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Gummerer <t.gummerer@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

-u <exec> has never been supported, but it was mentioned since
0a2bb55 (git ls-remote: make usage string match manpage -
2008-11-11). Nobody has complained about it for seven years, it's
probably safe to say nobody cares. So let's remove "-u" in documents
instead of adding code to support it.

While at there, fix --upload-pack syntax too.

Signed-off-by: Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy <pclouds@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

One outdated example encourages the use of $GIT_DIR/branches files.
Replace it with an equivalent example using a remote.

Signed-off-by: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Replace the <repository> paragraph containing specific references to
$GIT_DIR/branches and "." with a generic urls-or-remotes paragraph
referencing the relevant sections in the git-fetch(1) manpage.

Signed-off-by: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Under the EXAMPLES section, there is one invocation on the git.git
repository that attempts to list the refs master, pu, and rc.  The ref
rc does not exist in today's repository, so remove it.  Among other
things, this example demonstrates that the "<refs>..." argument is
simply a filter; requesting a non-existent ref is not an error.

Signed-off-by: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

While looking for a way to expand the URL of a remote
that uses a 'url.<name>.insteadOf' config option I stumbled
over the undocumented '--get-url' option of 'git ls-remote'.
This adds some minimum documentation for that option.

And while at it, also add that option to the '-h' output.

Signed-off-by: Stefan Naewe <stefan.naewe@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

The "git ls-remote" uses its exit status to indicate if it successfully
talked with the remote repository. A new option "--exit-code" makes the
command exit with status "2" when there is no refs to be listed, even when
the command successfully talked with the remote repository.

This way, the caller can tell if we failed to contact the remote, or the
remote did not have what we wanted to see. Of course, you can inspect the
output from the command, which has been and will continue to be a valid
way to check the same thing.

Signed-off-by: Michael Schubert <mschub@elegosoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>