Re: [PATCH] git-symbolic-ref: fix error message when ref doesn't exist

From: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date: Mar 19, 2007, 08:47 UTC
Message-ID: <7vslc1iprn.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <20070318020645.2444.75365.julian@quantumfyre.co.uk>

Julian Phillips <julian@quantumfyre.co.uk> writes:

> When calling resolve_ref from check_symref set reading to 1, since we
> do want to know if the given ref doesn't exist.  This means that
> "git symbolic-ref foo" will now print "fatal: No such ref: foo" as
> expected.

Hmmmm.  That would break:

	$ rm -fr a; mkdir a; cd a
	$ git init-db
        $ git symbolic-ref HEAD
        refs/heads/master

wouldn't it? We do want it not to fail and tell us that the commit we are going to create will be on refs/heads/master (i.e. "the master branch").

And the command errors out as expected when given a non-existent symbolic ref:

	$ git symbolic-ref no-such; echo $?
	fatal: ref no-such is not a symbolic ref
	128