the phrygian cap

All the credit to Steve Losh


A novice was learning at the feet of Master Git. At the end of the lesson he looked through his notes and said, “Master, I have a few questions. May I ask them?”

Master Git nodded.

“How can I view a list of all tags?”

“git tag“, replied Master Git.

“How can I view a list of all remotes?”

“git remote -v“, replied Master Git.

“How can I view a list of all branches?”

“git branch -a“, replied Master Git.

“And how can I view the current branch?”

“git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD“, replied Master Git.

“How can I delete a remote?”

“git remote rm“, replied Master Git.

“And how can I delete a branch?”

“git branch -d“, replied Master Git.

The novice thought for a few moments, then asked: “Surely some of these could be made more consistent, so as to be easier to remember in the heat of coding?”

Master Git snapped his fingers. A hobgoblin entered the room and ate the novice alive. In the afterlife, the novice was enlightened.