Is there a table somewhere underlining the difference between these git commands?

Question

It seems there is some overlap in those git sub-commands:

• describe
• rev-parse
• name-rev
• symbolic-ref
• show-ref

Is there a nice table somewhere which underlines what some of them can not do? It should cover:

• failure indication
• reading/writing
• flexibility with output details
• listing all or one
• search around/exact

Answer 1

If a subcommand is not listed, it can’t do that operation.

• branch → sha1 (short)
  • git rev-parse (--short) [[refs/]heads/]branch
  • git show-ref --hash (--abbrev) [[refs/]heads/]branch
• tag → sha1 (of the first object in a possible chain)
  • same as branch → sha1, but ...
  • use [[refs/]tags/]tag
• tag → sha1 (of final commit object in a tag chain)
  • git rev-parse [[refs/]tags/]tag^{}
    • this is a general mechanism which works in most commands
  • git show-ref can be used with --dereference, but you still have to grep for the sha1

TBC

• sha1 → branch
  • exact
  • search

• sha1 → tag

  • exact
  • search

• HEAD→branch

• HEAD→sha1
• HEAD-alikes→branch
• HEAD-alikes→sha1
• sha1→HEAD-alike