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:
\h'-04' 1.\h'+02'It can include slash / for hierarchical (directory) grouping, but no slash-separated component can begin with a dot .;
\h'-04' 2.\h'+02'It cannot have two consecutive dots .. anywhere;
\h'-04' 3.\h'+02'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;
\h'-04' 4.\h'+02'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:
\h'-04' 1.\h'+02'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).
\h'-04' 2.\h'+02'tilde ~ and caret ^ are used to introduce postfix
nth parent and peel onion operation.
\h'-04' 3.\h'+02'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