threads / discuss / 13549

partial globbing in fetch refspecs broken in v1.5.5

Subject: partial globbing in fetch refspecs broken in v1.5.5

## tl;dr

3 messages between May 16, 2008 and May 17, 2008.

replies: 2people: 2as markdown or json

Nikolaus Schulz· May 16, 2008, 21:28 UTC · lore
Hi, 
the new refspec parser in v1.5.5 has also broken fetch uses like
    git fetch <url> +refs/heads/<foo>*:refs/remotes/<bar>*.

Such a refspec works like a charm with git 1.5.4. In case the usefulness of such a refspec isn't obvious, here's my use case. I want to track several remotes, and in particular a selection of branches from one remote repository, which has the following branches[1]: 

  HEAD
  candidate
  candidate+patches
  debian-experimental
  debian-sarge
  debian-sid
  maint
  master
  release
  release+patches
With git 1.5.4, I can add the following to .git/config
[remote "debian"]
        url = http://smarden.org/git/git.git
        fetch = +refs/heads/debian-*:refs/remotes/debian/*

...and it will work just like '%'-style pattern matching in Makefiles, e.g. the remote branch debian-sid becomes remotes/debian/sid. I find that very natural; but git v1.5.5 rejects this refspec as invalid.

I am just a beginner with git, and I do not know if there is any problem with such a use of refspecs. But if not, I would like to beg the maintainers to consider restoring this functionality.

Nikolaus
Jeff King· May 17, 2008, 05:22 UTC · re: Nikolaus Schulz · lore

Re: partial globbing in fetch refspecs broken in v1.5.5

On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 11:28:34PM +0200, Nikolaus Schulz wrote:
> the new refspec parser in v1.5.5 has also broken fetch uses like
> 
>     git fetch <url> +refs/heads/<foo>*:refs/remotes/<bar>*.

This was intentionally changed in ef00d150 (Tighten refspec processing). There is some associated discussion in this thread:

  http://mid.gmane.org/7vwso2ieuu.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org

But I don't see any particular reason why this syntax should not be allowed (besides, "it was never meant to be supported, so it was causing other breakage").

-Peff
Nikolaus Schulz· May 17, 2008, 12:23 UTC · re: Jeff King · lore

Re: partial globbing in fetch refspecs broken in v1.5.5

On Sat, May 17, 2008 at 01:22:12AM -0400, Jeff King wrote:
Show 10 quoted lines
> On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 11:28:34PM +0200, Nikolaus Schulz wrote:
> 
> > the new refspec parser in v1.5.5 has also broken fetch uses like
> > 
> >     git fetch <url> +refs/heads/<foo>*:refs/remotes/<bar>*. 
> 
> This was intentionally changed in ef00d150 (Tighten refspec processing).
> There is some associated discussion in this thread:
> 
>   http://mid.gmane.org/7vwso2ieuu.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org

Ah. I had found that commit, but not this discussion, thanks. I don't understand what the problem with packing the OP ran into with his setup, though (see [1]).

> But I don't see any particular reason why this syntax should not be
> allowed (besides, "it was never meant to be supported, so it was causing
> other breakage").
Which breakage?
Nikolaus
[1] http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/77381

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