'git check-ref-format' checks for the presence of at least one '/', the idea being that there should be no refs directly below 'refs/', so there should be a category like 'heads/' or 'tags/' in a refname. Try and make this clearer in the man page. Signed-off-by: Michael J Gruber <git@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- Daniel Barkalow venit, vidit, dixit 13.05.2009 17:03: > On Wed, 13 May 2009, Michael J Gruber wrote: > >> Geoff Russell venit, vidit, dixit 13.05.2009 02:09: >>> 1 $ git --version >>> git version 1.6.2.3 >>> 2 $ git check-ref-format xxxx && echo OK >>> 3 $ git-check-ref-format --branch xxxx && echo OK >>> xxxx >>> OK >>> 4 $ git check-ref-format --branch xxxx && echo OK >>> usage: git check-ref-format refname >>> >>> >>> 2 seems wrong, >>> I tried 3 after looking at builtin-check-ref-format.c >>> I couldn't find any test cases in the git/t directory >>> >>> From the documenation, I expect "git check-ref-format xxx" to return 0 if xxx is >>> a valid branch or ref name. git version 1.6.3 gives the same results. >> >> There are several things going on: >> >> A) In 3 you use a different git than in 1,2,4. You told us the latter is >> 1.6.2.3, and I'm telling you the former contains v1.6.2.1-310-ga31dca0 >> (which has the new --branch option). >> This simply checks whether refs/heads/xxxx is sane. (It also resolves >> @{-1} and such, which is what makes it useful at all.) >> >> B) "master" certainly looks like a valid refname, the doc seems to imply >> that it should pass the check. >> >> C) Looking at the code, check-ref-format checks explicitly for the >> presence of at least 2 levels: foo/bar is good, foo is bad. So, master >> always had been bad, as well (or bad) as full sha1s! >> >> The code has always behaved like C since its inception but I don't know >> the rationale behind the 2 level requirement. Daniel, Junio? > > In general, it's because you use it right before trying to use git > update-ref $name, and you probably don't really want to change > refs/master. Unless you know exactly what you're going (in which case, > you're unlikely to check whether it's okay), you want to have a first > level that specifies the type of ref and one or more additional levels > that specify which ref of that type it is. > > I believe that, if you've got "master", and you want to do the sensible > thing with it (i.e., the file you care about is .git/refs/heads/master), > you want to use rev-parse with some option or other, not check-ref-format, > but I don't know the plumbing-level shell API very well. > > -Daniel > *This .sig left intentionally blank* Thanks Daniel and Sverre for the clarification, this makes a lot of sense. Michael Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt | 4 ++++ 1 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt b/Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt index bf43454..0b7982e 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt @@ -25,6 +25,10 @@ imposes the following rules on how references are named: grouping, but no slash-separated component can begin with a dot `.`. +. They must contain at least one `/`. This enforces the presence of a + category like `heads/`, `tags/` etc. but the actual names are not + restricted. + . They cannot have two consecutive dots `..` anywhere. . They cannot have ASCII control characters (i.e. bytes whose -- 1.6.3.195.gad816 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html