SYNOPSIS
git check-ref-format [--normalize]
[--[no-]allow-onelevel] [--refspec-pattern]
<refname>
git check-ref-format --branch <branchname-shorthand>
DESCRIPTION
Checks if a given refname is acceptable, and exits with a non-zero status if it is not.
A reference is used in Git to specify branches and tags. A branch head is stored in the refs/heads hierarchy, while a tag is stored in the refs/tags hierarchy of the ref namespace (typically in $GIT_DIR/refs/heads and $GIT_DIR/refs/tags directories or, as entries in file $GIT_DIR/packed-refs if refs are packed by git gc).
Git imposes the following rules on how references are named:
- 1. They can include slash / for hierarchical (directory) grouping, but no slash-separated component can begin with a dot . or end with the sequence .lock.
- 2. They must contain at least one /. This enforces the presence of a category like heads/, tags/ etc. but the actual names are not restricted. If the --allow-onelevel option is used, this rule is waived.
- 3. They cannot have two consecutive dots .. anywhere.
- 4. They cannot have ASCII control characters (i.e. bytes whose values are lower than \040, or \177 DEL), space, tilde ~, caret ^, or colon : anywhere.
- 5. They cannot have question-mark ?, asterisk *, or open bracket [ anywhere. See the --refspec-pattern option below for an exception to this rule.
- 6. They cannot begin or end with a slash / or contain multiple consecutive slashes (see the --normalize option below for an exception to this rule)
- 7. They cannot end with a dot ..
- 8. They cannot contain a sequence @{.
- 9. They cannot be the single character @.
- 10. They cannot contain a \.
These rules make it easy for shell script based tools to parse reference names, pathname expansion by the shell when a reference name is used unquoted (by mistake), and also avoid ambiguities in certain reference name expressions (see gitrevisions(7)):
- 1. A double-dot .. is often used as in ref1..ref2, and in some contexts this notation means ^ref1 ref2 (i.e. not in ref1 and in ref2).
- 2. A tilde ~ and caret ^ are used to introduce the postfix nth parent and peel onion operation.
- 3. A 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: "git cat-file blob v1.3.3:refs.c".
- 4. at-open-brace @{ is used as a notation to access a reflog entry.
With the --branch option, it expands the "previous branch syntax" @{-n}. For example, @{-1} is a way to refer the last branch you were on. 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.
OPTIONS
--[no-]allow-onelevel
- Controls whether one-level refnames are accepted (i.e., refnames that do not contain multiple /-separated components). The default is --no-allow-onelevel.
--refspec-pattern
- Interpret <refname> as a reference name pattern for a refspec (as used with remote repositories). If this option is enabled, <refname> is allowed to contain a single * in the refspec (e.g., foo/bar*/baz or foo/bar*baz/ but not foo/bar*/baz*).
--normalize
- Normalize refname by removing any leading slash (/) characters and collapsing runs of adjacent slashes between name components into a single slash. Iff the normalized refname is valid then print it to standard output and exit with a status of 0. (--print is a deprecated way to spell --normalize.)
EXAMPLES
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•
Print the name of the previous branch:
-
$ git check-ref-format --branch @{-1}
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-
•
Determine the reference name to use for a new branch:
-
$ ref=$(git check-ref-format --normalize "refs/heads/$newbranch") || die "we do not like '$newbranch' as a branch name."
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