1GIT-CHECK-REF-FOR(1) Git Manual GIT-CHECK-REF-FOR(1)
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6 git-check-ref-format - Ensures that a reference name is well formed
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9 git check-ref-format [--normalize]
10 [--[no-]allow-onelevel] [--refspec-pattern]
11 <refname>
12 git check-ref-format --branch <branchname-shorthand>
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16 Checks if a given refname is acceptable, and exits with a non-zero
17 status if it is not.
18 A reference is used in Git to specify branches and tags. A branch head
20 is stored in the refs/heads hierarchy, while a tag is stored in the
21 refs/tags hierarchy of the ref namespace (typically in
22 $GIT_DIR/refs/heads and $GIT_DIR/refs/tags directories or, as entries
23 in file $GIT_DIR/packed-refs if refs are packed by git gc).
24 Git imposes the following rules on how references are named:
26 1. They can include slash / for hierarchical (directory) grouping, but
28 no slash-separated component can begin with a dot . or end with
29 the sequence .lock.
30 2. They must contain at least one /. This enforces the presence of a
32 category like heads/, tags/ etc. but the actual names are not
33 restricted. If the --allow-onelevel option is used, this rule is
34 waived.
35 3. They cannot have two consecutive dots .. anywhere.
37 4. They cannot have ASCII control characters (i.e. bytes whose values
39 are lower than \040, or \177 DEL), space, tilde ~, caret ^, or
40 colon : anywhere.
41 5. They cannot have question-mark ?, asterisk *, or open bracket [
43 anywhere. See the --refspec-pattern option below for an exception
44 to this rule.
45 6. They cannot begin or end with a slash / or contain multiple
47 consecutive slashes (see the --normalize option below for an
48 exception to this rule)
49 7. They cannot end with a dot ..
51 8. They cannot contain a sequence @{.
53 9. They cannot contain a \.
55 These rules make it easy for shell script based tools to parse
57 reference names, pathname expansion by the shell when a reference name
58 is used unquoted (by mistake), and also avoids ambiguities in certain
59 reference name expressions (see gitrevisions(7)):
60 1. A double-dot .. is often used as in ref1..ref2, and in some
62 contexts this notation means ^ref1 ref2 (i.e. not in ref1 and in
63 ref2).
64 2. A tilde ~ and caret ^ are used to introduce the postfix nth parent
66 and peel onion operation.
67 3. A colon : is used as in srcref:dstref to mean "use srcref’s value
69 and store it in dstref" in fetch and push operations. It may also
70 be used to select a specific object such as with git cat-file: "git
71 cat-file blob v1.3.3:refs.c".
72 4. at-open-brace @{ is used as a notation to access a reflog entry.
74 With the --branch option, it expands the “previous branch syntax”
76 @{-n}. For example, @{-1} is a way to refer the last branch you were
77 on. This option should be used by porcelains to accept this syntax
78 anywhere a branch name is expected, so they can act as if you typed the
79 branch name.
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82 --[no-]allow-onelevel
83 Controls whether one-level refnames are accepted (i.e., refnames
84 that do not contain multiple /-separated components). The default
85 is --no-allow-onelevel.
86 --refspec-pattern
88 Interpret <refname> as a reference name pattern for a refspec (as
89 used with remote repositories). If this option is enabled,
90 <refname> is allowed to contain a single * in place of a one full
91 pathname component (e.g., foo/*/bar but not foo/bar*).
92 --normalize
94 Normalize refname by removing any leading slash (/) characters and
95 collapsing runs of adjacent slashes between name components into a
96 single slash. Iff the normalized refname is valid then print it to
97 standard output and exit with a status of 0. (--print is a
98 deprecated way to spell --normalize.)
99
101 · Print the name of the previous branch:
102 $ git check-ref-format --branch @{-1}
104 · Determine the reference name to use for a new branch:
107 $ ref=$(git check-ref-format --normalize "refs/heads/$newbranch") ||
109 die "we do not like '$newbranch' as a branch name."
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113 Part of the git(1) suite
114Git 1.8.3.1 11/19/2018 GIT-CHECK-REF-FOR(1)