[PATCH] t1401: test symbolic-ref exit codes on a non-symbolic ref

From: Nikolaus Schuetz via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 13, 2026, 21:12 UTC
Message-ID: <pull.2204.git.1786655554197.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

From: Nikolaus Schuetz <nikolauspschuetz@gmail.com>

git-symbolic-ref(1) documents that reading a name that is not a symbolic ref exits with a non-zero status, and that --quiet does so silently rather than printing a diagnostic. This was not tested.

Check that querying a non-symbolic ref exits 128 with the usual "is not a symbolic ref" message, and that --quiet instead exits 1 with no output.

Signed-off-by: Nikolaus Schuetz <nikolauspschuetz@gmail.com>
---
    t1401: test symbolic-ref exit codes on a non-symbolic ref
    
    git-symbolic-ref(1) documents that reading a name that is not a symbolic
    ref exits with a non-zero status, and that --quiet does so silently
    rather than printing a diagnostic. This exit-code contract was untested.
    
    This adds two tests: querying a non-symbolic ref exits 128 with the
    usual "is not a symbolic ref" message, and --quiet instead exits 1 with
    no output.
    
    Test-only; documents existing behaviour, in the spirit of 919eb8ace
    (t1402: check for refs ending with a dot).

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2204%2Fnikolauspschuetz%2Fns%2Ft1401-symbolic-ref-quiet-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2204/nikolauspschuetz/ns/t1401-symbolic-ref-quiet-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2204

 t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh | 10 ++++++++++
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+)

diff --git a/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh b/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh
index a2a7e94716..602db6d080 100755
--- a/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh
+++ b/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh
@@ -38,6 +38,16 @@ test_expect_success 'symbolic-ref refuses bare sha1' '
 
 reset_to_sane
 
+test_expect_success 'symbolic-ref reports a non-symbolic ref with exit code 128' '
+	test_expect_code 128 git symbolic-ref refs/heads/foo 2>err &&
+	test_grep "is not a symbolic ref" err
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'symbolic-ref -q is silent and exits 1 on a non-symbolic ref' '
+	test_expect_code 1 git symbolic-ref -q refs/heads/foo 2>err &&
+	test_must_be_empty err
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'HEAD cannot be removed' '
 	test_must_fail git symbolic-ref -d HEAD
 '

base-commit: 745601a9a94110d74769ab605ccd4f61339758d2

-- 
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