1GIT-CHECK-REF-FOR(1)              Git Manual              GIT-CHECK-REF-FOR(1)
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NAME

6       git-check-ref-format - Ensures that a reference name is well formed
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SYNOPSIS

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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DESCRIPTION

16       Checks if a given refname is acceptable, and exits with a non-zero
17       status if it is not.
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19       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).
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25       Git imposes the following rules on how references are named:
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27        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.
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31        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.
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36        3. They cannot have two consecutive dots ..  anywhere.
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38        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.
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42        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.
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46        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)
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50        7. They cannot end with a dot ..
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52        8. They cannot contain a sequence @{.
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54        9. They cannot be the single character @.
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56       10. They cannot contain a \.
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58       These rules make it easy for shell script based tools to parse
59       reference names, pathname expansion by the shell when a reference name
60       is used unquoted (by mistake), and also avoid ambiguities in certain
61       reference name expressions (see gitrevisions(7)):
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63        1. A double-dot ..  is often used as in ref1..ref2, and in some
64           contexts this notation means ^ref1 ref2 (i.e. not in ref1 and in
65           ref2).
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67        2. A tilde ~ and caret ^ are used to introduce the postfix nth parent
68           and peel onion operation.
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70        3. A colon : is used as in srcref:dstref to mean "use srcref’s value
71           and store it in dstref" in fetch and push operations. It may also
72           be used to select a specific object such as with git cat-file: "git
73           cat-file blob v1.3.3:refs.c".
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75        4. at-open-brace @{ is used as a notation to access a reflog entry.
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77       With the --branch option, the command takes a name and checks if it can
78       be used as a valid branch name (e.g. when creating a new branch). But
79       be cautious when using the previous checkout syntax that may refer to a
80       detached HEAD state. The rule git check-ref-format --branch $name
81       implements may be stricter than what git check-ref-format
82       refs/heads/$name says (e.g. a dash may appear at the beginning of a ref
83       component, but it is explicitly forbidden at the beginning of a branch
84       name). When run with --branch option in a repository, the input is
85       first expanded for the “previous checkout syntax” @{-n}. For example,
86       @{-1} is a way to refer the last thing that was checked out using "git
87       checkout" operation. This option should be used by porcelains to accept
88       this syntax anywhere a branch name is expected, so they can act as if
89       you typed the branch name. As an exception note that, the “previous
90       checkout operation” might result in a commit object name when the N-th
91       last thing checked out was not a branch.
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OPTIONS

94       --[no-]allow-onelevel
95           Controls whether one-level refnames are accepted (i.e., refnames
96           that do not contain multiple /-separated components). The default
97           is --no-allow-onelevel.
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99       --refspec-pattern
100           Interpret <refname> as a reference name pattern for a refspec (as
101           used with remote repositories). If this option is enabled,
102           <refname> is allowed to contain a single * in the refspec (e.g.,
103           foo/bar*/baz or foo/bar*baz/ but not foo/bar*/baz*).
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105       --normalize
106           Normalize refname by removing any leading slash (/) characters and
107           collapsing runs of adjacent slashes between name components into a
108           single slash. If the normalized refname is valid then print it to
109           standard output and exit with a status of 0, otherwise exit with a
110           non-zero status. (--print is a deprecated way to spell
111           --normalize.)
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EXAMPLES

114       ·   Print the name of the previous thing checked out:
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116               $ git check-ref-format --branch @{-1}
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119       ·   Determine the reference name to use for a new branch:
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121               $ ref=$(git check-ref-format --normalize "refs/heads/$newbranch")||
122               { echo "we do not like '$newbranch' as a branch name." >&2 ; exit 1 ; }
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GIT

126       Part of the git(1) suite
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130Git 2.21.0                        02/24/2019              GIT-CHECK-REF-FOR(1)
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