diff --git a/zshrc.org b/zshrc.org
index 08b9dff..aa9cc76 100644
--- a/zshrc.org
+++ b/zshrc.org
@@ -439,7 +439,10 @@ This needs to be diff'd among the versions
   }
 
   function git-current-branch () {
-    git status -b | head -n 1 | awk {'print $3'}
+      # do I want to give up on revision numbers in detached-head state?
+      git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD | grep -v HEAD || \
+      git describe --exact-match HEAD 2> /dev/null || \
+      git rev-parse HEAD
   }
 #+end_src