Shell script to check if specified Git branch exists? [duplicate]

Question

I need to create a Git branch using shell script, but since the branch may exist, I need to be aware of that. Currently I'm using:

if [ `git branch | grep $branch_name` ] then     echo "Branch named $branch_name already exists" else     echo "Branch named $branch_name does not exist" fi 

But the problem is the grep command finds branch name without matching the exact name, that is, if I grep name then branch with a name branch-name would be matched.

So is there a better way to do this?

Thanks!

Answer 1

NOTE: This always returns true. This is not the right answer to the question, even though it has been accepted....

You could always use word boundaries around the name like \< and \>, but instead let Git do the work for you:

if [ `git branch --list $branch_name` ] then    echo "Branch name $branch_name already exists." fi 

Answer 2

I like Heath's solution, but if you still want to pipe to grep, you can use regex anchors, similar to the following, to preclude matching a substring:

if [ `git branch | egrep "^[[:space:]]+${branchname}$"` ] then     echo "Branch exists" fi 

Note that you need to use the space character class because the output of the command is indented.