Read the upstream tracked by the current branch.

Git: The upstream shorthand resolves the configured remote-tracking branch.

Shell terminal
set -euo pipefail
git rev-parse --abbrev-ref --symbolic-full-name "@{upstream}"

Expected output EXAMPLE

origin/main

Details

Requires Git and Bash. Run in a disposable practice repository. The test setup below creates the starting files and commits. The upstream shorthand resolves the configured remote-tracking branch. The input setup creates a disposable practice repository with a fictional local author identity. Run these examples only in that repository.

✓ Verified

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · git version 2.43.0 · git 1:2.43.0-1ubuntu7.3

Test inputs, results and environment

The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Snippet process uid 65534 with a read-only root filesystem and temporary working files. Networking disabled. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.

Architecture / host kernel
x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Snippet identity / locale
uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged process) / C.UTF-8
Interpreter invocation
bash -euo pipefail -c <published code>
Container image ID
sha256:ec91410a8f6ec3e985830b5e3a0560306d36f8c1c5ccd91a6699abe707123fa3
Code SHA-256
220c3fb96e5467bb8d7e395a10a36e8673a83b18f1ca9d0850ee6be07380faa0
Dependencies
git 1:2.43.0-1ubuntu7.3

Test input setup

These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.

git init -q -b main
git config user.name 'Example Developer'
git config user.email 'developer@example.invalid'
git config commit.gpgsign false
git config tag.gpgsign false
git config color.ui false
printf 'first
' > note.txt
git add note.txt
git commit -qm 'Initial notes'
git init -q --bare --initial-branch=main remote.git
git remote add origin ./remote.git
git push -q -u origin main

Observed standard output

origin/main

Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.