How to programmatically determine the current checked out Git branch

Question

In a Unix or GNU scripting environment (e.g. a Linux distro, Cygwin, OSX), what is the best way to determine which Git branch is currently checked out in a working directory?

One use of this technique would be automatically labeling a release (like svnversion would do with Subversion).

Please also see my related question: How to programmatically determine whether a Git checkout is a tag, and if so what is the tag name?

user_5270177 · Answer

Same results as accepted answer in a one-line variable assignment:

branch_name=$((git symbolic-ref HEAD 2>/dev/null || echo "(unnamed branch)")|cut -d/ -f3-)

How to programmatically determine the current checked out Git branch

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