Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] Doc/check-ref-format: clarify information about @{-N} syntax

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Nov 28, 2017, 02:40 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqd14386sw.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <20171127172834.6396-2-kaartic.sivaraam@gmail.com>

Kaartic Sivaraam <kaartic.sivaraam@gmail.com> writes:

> When the N-th previous thing checked out sytax is used with
> '--branch' option of check-ref-format the results might not
> always be a valid branch name

I wonder if you want to rephrase this, because 40-hex object name is syntactically a valid branch name. It's (1) cumbersome to type and (2) may not be what the user expects.

I have a mild suspicion that "git checkout -B @{-1}" would want to error out instead of creating a valid new branch whose name is 40-hex that happen to be the name of the commit object you were detached at previously.

I am not sure if "check-ref-format --branch" should the same; it is more about the syntax and the 40-hex _is_ valid there, so...