GIT-CHECK-REF-FOR(1) Git Manual GIT-CHECK-REF-FOR(1)
NAME
git-check-ref-format - Ensures that a reference name is well formed
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 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 avoids 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.
option is enabled, <refname> is allowed to contain a single * in place of a one full pathname component
(e.g., foo/*/bar but not foo/bar*).
--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
· Print the name of the previous branch:
$ git check-ref-format --branch @{-1}
· 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."
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 1.8.3.1 03/23/2016 GIT-CHECK-REF-FOR(1)
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