Re: [PATCH] Improve error message: not a valid branch name

Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@cante.net> writes:

I think you meant to say "see git-check-ref-format(1)" as you meant the manual page.

I am a bit torn on this. git-check-ref-format.1 is where we currently _happen_ to describe what valid refnames should look like, but it could be argued that it is a bug in the manual.

Two possible improvements that are mutually incompatible would be:

 - refactor that part of the manual to be included in the pages
   for any and all commands that can take refname from the user;
   this is inpractical as almost all command would be affected.

 - move that to more central place, say git(7), and everybody
   refer to that page;

I'd personally prefer the latter, as "naming things" is such a central thing for the use of the system (this applies to the description of "SHA-1 expression" that we curently have in git-rev-parse(1) as well) and it is better for users to have understanding of such fundamental syntaxes and concepts before even using any individual commands.