I wanted to be able to syntax check lots of proposed refs quickly (please don't ask why - it's complicated!) So I added a --stdin option to git-check-ref-format. Also it has --report-errors now too so you can get some kind of useful error message if it complains. It's still not really a good batch mode but it's good enough for my use case. To improve it would involve a new command line option to offer a suitable stdout output format. There are three small refactoring patches and the two patches with new options and corresponding docs. Thanks for your attention. FYI I am not likely to need this again in the near future: it's a one-off use case. So my effort for rework is probably limited. I thought I'd share what I'd done in what I hope is a useful form, anyway. Regards, Ian.