GIT-CHECK-REF-FORMAT(1) Git Manual GIT-CHECK-REF-FORMAT(1)
NAME
git-check-ref-format - Make sure ref name is well formed
SYNOPSIS
git-check-ref-format <refname>
DESCRIPTION
Checks if a given refname is acceptable, and exits non-zero if it is
not.
A reference is used in git to specify branches and tags. A branch head
is stored under $GIT_DIR/refs/heads directory, and a tag is stored
under $GIT_DIR/refs/tags directory. git imposes the following rules on
how refs are named:
1. It can include slash / for hierarchical (directory) grouping, but no
slash-separated component can begin with a dot .;
2. It cannot have two consecutive dots .. anywhere;
3. It cannot have ASCII control character (i.e. bytes whose values are
lower than \040, or \177 DEL), space, tilde ~, caret ^, colon :,
question-mark ?, asterisk *, or open bracket [ anywhere;
4. It cannot end with a slash /.
These rules makes it easy for shell script based tools to parse
refnames, pathname expansion by the shell when a refname is used
unquoted (by mistake), and also avoids ambiguities in certain
refname expressions (see git-rev-parse(1)). Namely:
1. double-dot .. are often used as in ref1..ref2, and in some context
this notation means ^ref1 ref2 (i.e. not in ref1 and in ref2).
2. tilde ~ and caret ^ are used to introduce postfix nth parent and
peel onion operation.
3. colon : is used as in srcref:dstref to mean "use srcref’s value and
store it in dstref" in fetch and push operations. It may also be
used to select a specific object such as with git-cat-file(1)
"git-cat-file blob v1.3.3:refs.c".
GIT
Part of the git(7) suite
Git 1.5.5.6 01/12/2009 GIT-CHECK-REF-FORMAT(1)
