This was previously [PATCH v4 2/2] of this thread. It has now been detached from 1/2 as it got merged to 'master'. This patch applies on top of 'master'. As this is almost a v2 of the v4 2/2 I'm comparing the changes with v3 2/2 of the series. Apart from the changes shown by the below interdiff the commit message got changed, --- a/Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt @@ -78,20 +78,22 @@ reference name expressions (see linkgit:gitrevisions[7]): . at-open-brace `@{` is used as a notation to access a reflog entry. With the `--branch` option, the command takes a name and checks if -it can be used as a valid branch name e.g. when creating a new branch -(except for one exception related to the previous checkout syntax -noted below). The rule `git check-ref-format --branch $name` implements +it can be used as a valid branch name (e.g. when creating a new +branch). But be cautious when using the +previous checkout syntax that may refer to a detached HEAD state. +The rule `git check-ref-format --branch $name` implements may be stricter than what `git check-ref-format refs/heads/$name` says (e.g. a dash may appear at the beginning of a ref component, but it is explicitly forbidden at the beginning of a branch name). When run with `--branch` option in a repository, the input is first expanded for the ``previous checkout syntax'' `@{-n}`. For example, `@{-1}` is a way to refer the last thing that -was checkout using "git checkout" operation. This option should be +was checked out using "git checkout" operation. This option should be used by porcelains to accept this syntax anywhere a branch name is expected, so they can act as if you typed the branch name. As an exception note that, the ``previous checkout operation'' might result -in a commit hash when the N-th last thing checked out was not a branch. +in a commit object name when the N-th last thing checked out was not +a branch. OPTIONS ------- Kaartic Sivaraam (1): Doc/check-ref-format: clarify information about @{-N} syntax Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt | 19 ++++++++++++------- 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) -- 2.15.0.531.g2ccb3012c