diff --git a/ChangeLog.md b/ChangeLog.md
--- a/ChangeLog.md
+++ b/ChangeLog.md
@@ -1,5 +1,13 @@
 # ChangeLog for githash
 
+## 0.1.6.2
+
+* Fixed bugs; now this library's Template Haskell functions are much more
+  likely on recompilation to detect Git update that doesn't affect workspace:
+  e.g. `git switch -c <new_branch>` (equivalently
+  `git checkout -b <new_branch>`) and `git commit --amend --only`.
+  Implemented in [#23](https://github.com/snoyberg/githash/pull/23).
+
 ## 0.1.6.1
 
 * [Support template-haskell 2.17](https://github.com/snoyberg/githash/pull/22)
diff --git a/githash.cabal b/githash.cabal
--- a/githash.cabal
+++ b/githash.cabal
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 -- see: https://github.com/sol/hpack
 
 name:           githash
-version:        0.1.6.1
+version:        0.1.6.2
 synopsis:       Compile git revision info into Haskell projects
 description:    Please see the README and documentation at <https://www.stackage.org/package/githash>
 category:       Development
diff --git a/src/GitHash.hs b/src/GitHash.hs
--- a/src/GitHash.hs
+++ b/src/GitHash.hs
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@
 import qualified Data.ByteString as B
 import qualified Data.ByteString.Char8 as B8
 import Data.Typeable (Typeable)
+import Data.Word (Word8)
 import Language.Haskell.TH
 import Language.Haskell.TH.Syntax
 import Language.Haskell.TH.Syntax.Compat
@@ -130,6 +131,23 @@
 
 -- | Get a list of files from within a @.git@ directory.
 getGitFilesRegular :: FilePath -> IO [FilePath]
+-- [Note: Current implementation's limitation]
+-- the current implementation doesn't work right if:
+-- 1. the current branch's name contains Non-ASCII character (due to @B8.unpack@),
+-- 2. the current branch is only in .git/packed-refs, or
+-- 3. the current branch is a symbolic ref to another reference.
+-- In these cases, the file with the name `ref` in the following
+-- code cannot be found in the filesystem (in the cases 1 & 2),
+-- or can be found but will not be updated on commit (in the case 3).
+-- As a result, if a module uses @tGitInfo@ as TH macro
+-- and the target git repo is in one of the conditions 1--3
+-- at the time of compilation, content-change-free commits will fail to
+-- trigger recompilation.
+--
+-- [Note: reftable]
+-- In the near future, the technology called reftable may replace the
+-- Git's reference management. This function's implementation does not
+-- work with reftable, and therefore will need to be updated.
 getGitFilesRegular git = do
   -- a lot of bookkeeping to record the right dependencies
   let hd         = git </> "HEAD"
@@ -144,12 +162,12 @@
       Right hdRef -> do
         -- the HEAD file either contains the hash of a detached head
         -- or a pointer to the file that contains the hash of the head
-        case B.splitAt 5 hdRef of
+        case B.splitAt 5 $ B.takeWhile (not . isSmallASCIIControl) hdRef of
           -- pointer to ref
           ("ref: ", relRef) -> do
             let ref = git </> B8.unpack relRef
             refExists <- doesFileExist ref
-            return $ if refExists then [ref] else []
+            return $ if refExists then [hd,ref] else [hd]
           -- detached head
           _hash -> return [hd]
   -- add the index if it exists to set the dirty flag
@@ -162,6 +180,15 @@
   let files3 = if packedExists then [packedRefs] else []
 
   return $ concat [files1, files2, files3]
+  where
+    -- This is to quickly strip newline characters
+    -- from the content of .git/HEAD.
+    -- Git references don't include ASCII control char bytes:
+    -- 0x00 -- 0x1F and 0x7F.
+    -- .git/HEAD may contain some ASCII control bytes LF (0xA) and
+    -- CR (0xD) before EOF, which should be ignored.
+    isSmallASCIIControl :: Word8 -> Bool
+    isSmallASCIIControl = (<0x20)
 
 -- | Get a list of dependent files from a @.git@ file representing a
 -- git-worktree.