Finding what branch a Git commit came from

Question

Is there a way to find out what branch a commit comes from given its SHA-1 hash value?

Bonus points if you can tell me how to accomplish this using Ruby Grit.

Answer 1

git branch --contains is the most obvious "porcelain" command to do this. If you want to do something similar with only "plumbing" commands:

COMMIT=$(git rev-parse ) # expands hash if needed
for BRANCH in $(git for-each-ref --format "%(refname)" refs/heads); do
  if $(git rev-list $BRANCH | fgrep -q $COMMIT); then
    echo $BRANCH
  fi
done

(crosspost from this SO answer)