refsheads

Refsheads is not a formal term in Git; it is commonly shorthand for the refs/heads namespace, which stores local branch references. In Git, refs are lightweight pointers to commits, and they live in the repository under .git/refs. The local branch tips are kept in .git/refs/heads. Each file named after a local branch contains the commit hash of the tip of that branch. For example, .git/refs/heads/main would contain the SHA-1 of the commit at the tip of the main branch. If a branch name contains a slash, Git uses nested directories under .git/refs/heads.

When there are many refs, Git may store them in .git/packed-refs, a single file that maps ref names to commit SHAs to improve performance and reduce filesystem overhead. The current branch is tracked by HEAD, which usually stores a symbolic reference to refs/heads/<current-branch>. If HEAD points directly to a commit, the repository is in a detached HEAD state.

Remote-tracking branches use refs/remotes/<remote>/<branch>, separate from local refs. Creating, updating, or deleting a local branch updates the corresponding file under .git/refs/heads or, when using packed refs, the update applies to the packed-refs entry.

Common commands to interact with these refs include git branch, git checkout, git show-ref, and git update-ref. Although users typically manipulate branches with these commands, direct editing of .git/refs or packed-refs is discouraged unless necessary.

Note: The standard terminology is refs/heads for local branches, not a separate feature called refsheads; "refsheads" is likely a shorthand or misnomer for the refs/heads namespace.