From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 17:20:46 GMT
Subject: Re: Surprising 'git-describe --all --match' behavior.
Message-ID: <xmqqr42khl3l.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <87ionxxbz8.fsf@osv.gnss.ru>

Sergei Organov <osv@javad.com> writes:

> Just playing with it, got some surprises:
>
> $ git --version
> git version 1.9.3
>
> $ git describe --all
> heads/v3.5
> $ git describe --all --match 'v*'
> tags/v3.5.6b2-4-gab4bf78
> $ git describe --all --match 'heads/v*'
> fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.

I think

$ git describe --help

       ...
       --match <pattern>
           Only consider tags matching the given glob(7) pattern,
           excluding the "refs/tags/" prefix. This can be used to
           avoid leaking private tags from the repository.
       ...

is poorly phrased, especially its "excluding" part.  What it wants
to say is "You give <pattern> but without refs/tags/, because the
program helpfully always prepend refs/tags/ to your pattern and
limit the output to those that match".  Hence you gave 'v*' as
<pattern> and limited the output to those that match 'refs/tags/v*'
(or you gave 'heads/v*' and limited to 'refs/tags/heads/v*').