How to get SHA of the latest commit from remote git repository?

Question

Does anyone know how to get the latest SHA of a given branch from outside a git repository?

If you are inside a git repository, you can do:

git log origin/branch_X | head -1

However, I am not inside a git repository, and I would like to avoid having to clone a repository just to get the latest SHA of a tag/branch. Is there a clever way of doing this?

Do you have filesystem access to the repository you would like to query? — Greg Hewgill, Jul 21 '09 at 21:44
The correct way to do this is "git rev-parse origin/branch_X" or "git rev-parse refs/remotes/origin/branch_X", not git-log — Jakub Narębski, Jul 21 '09 at 23:52
What about doing this without having the repo cloned but having the url I could use to clone it? (To answer my own Q: https://stackoverflow.com/a/24750310/7945066) — pellucidcoder, Jan 10 '22 at 22:16

gprasant · Answer 1 · 2015-09-21T18:24:21.013

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Use rev-parse

git rev-parse origin/master # to get the latest commit on the remote

git rev-parse HEAD          # to get the latest commit on the local

edited Sep 21 '15 at 18:24

answered May 16 '13 at 05:49

gprasant

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+1 Proved most useful along with appending | clip to drop the sha onto the clipboard (windows). – Darren Lewis Oct 24 '13 at 09:31
And for those mac users `git rev-parse origin/master | pbcopy` will drop the commit sha (with a `\n`) on your clipboard for you to paste at your convenience. – Aaron Dec 27 '13 at 20:56
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`git rev-parse HEAD` returns the latest commit in the local copy, while `git rev-parse origin/master` returns the latest commit on remote, which is what's been asked here. This is my favorite answer, even if first command should be removed. – fedelibre Sep 20 '15 at 01:47
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The question notes "I would like to avoid having to clone a repository just to get the latest SHA of a tag/branch". Is it possible to use `git rev-parse` against a repository that you don't have any information for locally? – Nick Chammas Nov 25 '15 at 04:38
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I think git rev-parse origin/master only returns the correct answer if your local repo is up to date. To prove this, disconnect from the internet and try it; the command will succeed. In contrast, git ls-remote will fail because it tries to contact the remote repo. – Andy Stewart Feb 10 '16 at 12:16
Found this to be very useful if you only want to grab a specific branch such as master ```git rev-parse REMOTE_NAME BRANCH_NAME``` – CTS_AE Aug 18 '16 at 20:40
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uhhh, no, it's `git fetch origin; git rev-parse origin/master`, isn't the fetch extremely important? – Alexander Mills Dec 28 '17 at 22:01

score 81 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

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If you want to check SHA-1 of given branch in remote repository, then your answer is correct:

$ git ls-remote <URL>

However if you are on the same filesystem simpler solution (not requiring to extract SHA-1 from output) would be simply:

$ git --git-dir=/path/to/repo/.git rev-parse origin/branch_X

See git(1) manpage for description of '--git-dir' option.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

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answered Jul 21 '09 at 23:58

Jakub Narębski

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score 57 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 11 '20 at 00:06

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A colleague of mine answered this for me:

git ls-remote ssh://git.dev.pages/opt/git/repos/dev.git <branch>

edited Jan 11 '20 at 00:06

Kara

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answered Jul 21 '09 at 21:43

AdvilUser

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thanks. This should be upgraded as answer for this question. – Abhijeet Sep 01 '16 at 07:13

dch4pm4n · Answer 4 · 2013-07-31T20:46:47.237

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Using a git URL:

$ git ls-remote <URL> | head -1 | sed "s/HEAD//"

Using a directory on an accessible system:

$ git --git-dir=/path/to/repo/.git rev-parse origin/<targeted-banch>

edited Jul 31 '13 at 20:46

answered Jul 31 '13 at 20:37

dch4pm4n

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Use `sed "s/\tHEAD//"` to also remove the trailing tab. – Perseids Sep 14 '15 at 10:23
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Why not using `| awk '{ print $1 }'`? – devxoul Dec 18 '15 at 06:01

score 17 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 01 '16 at 12:03

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As mentioned in comments above this should be the best solution:

$ git ls-remote <URL> | head -1 | cut -f 1

answered Jun 01 '16 at 12:03

kitingChris

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This is the only option that worked (for me) for getting the commit from an upstream remote in a forked repo. – Jalakoo Nov 11 '16 at 16:57

score 15 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 03 '15 at 17:29

15

This should do the trick git ls-remote REMOTE | awk "/BRANCH/ {print \$1}"

Replace REMOTE with the name of the remote repository and BRANCH with the name of the branch.

edited Jan 03 '15 at 17:29

Neeme Praks

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answered Jan 18 '13 at 20:46

antonagestam

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score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 08 '09 at 23:04

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If you just want the SHA-1 from the currently checked out branch of your local repo, you can just specify HEAD instead of origin/branch_X:

git --git-dir=/path/to/repo/.git rev-parse --verify HEAD

answered Sep 08 '09 at 23:04

score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 18 '17 at 19:15

4

Heres a copy-paste solution which works inside the repository.

origin_head=$(git ls-remote --heads $(git config --get remote.origin.url) | grep "refs/heads/master" | cut -f 1)
if [ $origin_head != "$(git rev-parse HEAD)" ]; then
    echo >&2 "HEAD and origin/master differ."
    exit 1
fi

answered Sep 18 '17 at 19:15

skensell

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I would recommend `grep "refs/heads/master$"` so if anyone might asked for other branches than master or having an master2 branch this may break ;) – kitingChris Sep 20 '17 at 15:50

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 21 '09 at 21:44

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References to branch heads are stored in the .git/refs/ tree. So you should be able to find the hash of the latest commit at:

cat .git/refs/remotes/origin/branch_X

Your path may differ slightly.

answered Jul 21 '09 at 21:44

Greg Hewgill

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That wouldn't work if you have packed refs. Then you have to take a look at .git/packed-refs – Jakub Narębski Jul 21 '09 at 23:50
That's true, this solution is susceptible to any future changes in the Git on-disk repository format. – Greg Hewgill Jul 22 '09 at 00:12

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 07 '16 at 13:05

0

I recommend fetching info related only to a given branch, and then parse to get the latest sha:
git ls-remote <url> --tags <branch_name> | awk '{print $1;}'

answered Sep 07 '16 at 13:05

anamar

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Feb 20 '23 at 19:05

Use of the --short parameter to rev-parse removes the need for parsing the response via awk etc.

git rev-parse --short=7 HEAD

(from the repo root dir; examples above show how to use --git-dir and variants to reference other directories).

…produces just the sha to 7 digits (or however many you indicate):

5efca96

How to get SHA of the latest commit from remote git repository?

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