# Ambiguous ref names 6 messages from 2009-11-20 to 2009-12-11. Participants: Jeenu V, Junio C Hamano. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/21683 ## Jeenu V, 2009-11-20 10:18 Subject: Ambiguous ref names Message-ID: <5195c8760911200218v5b75d690hbaaf00b44c8df6af@mail.gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/5195c8760911200218v5b75d690hbaaf00b44c8df6af%40mail.gmail.com ``` Hi, I'm re-posting this from the git-users Google Groups: If I've two branches a.b.c and a.b.c.d, why does 'git checkout' complains about ambiguous ref names? For example, if I'm in a.b.c.d, 896 $ git checkout a.b.c warning: refname 'a.b.c' is ambiguous. Switched to branch "a.b.c" Is this some kind of a side effect of commit abbreviation? If so is this kind of branch naming considered unsafe? Is there a way to make git accept ref names verbatim, even if there's potential operation that'd fail because of ambiguity? -- :J ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2009-11-20 10:26 Subject: Re: Ambiguous ref names Message-ID: <7vzl6h3319.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7vzl6h3319.fsf%40alter.siamese.dyndns.org In-Reply-To: <5195c8760911200218v5b75d690hbaaf00b44c8df6af@mail.gmail.com> ``` Jeenu V writes: > If I've two branches a.b.c and a.b.c.d, why does 'git checkout' > complains about ambiguous ref names? Because it doesn't??? : demo; git init Initialized empty Git repository in /var/tmp/gomi/twelve/.git/ : demo/master; >f : demo/master; git add f : demo/master; git commit -a -m 'initial' [master (root-commit) cb1d5f2] initial 0 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) create mode 100644 f : demo/master; git branch a.b.c : demo/master; git branch a.b.c.d : demo/master; git checkout a.b.c Switched to branch 'a.b.c' It could be that you have a tag and a branch that are both named a.b.c, though. ``` ## Jeenu V, 2009-11-20 10:48 Subject: Re: Ambiguous ref names Message-ID: <5195c8760911200248v1f3d6b56q78987edfceae5541@mail.gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/5195c8760911200248v1f3d6b56q78987edfceae5541%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <7vzl6h3319.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> ``` On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 3:56 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote: > [...] > It could be that you have a tag and a branch that are both named a.b.c, > though. Hm, right. But I'm getting this from an existing local repo of mine. I can't see any tags; 'git tag -l' is empty. Is there any more info that I can provide? FWIW, I'm running Git under Cygwin. -- :J ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2009-11-20 10:59 Subject: Re: Ambiguous ref names Message-ID: <7vpr7dzckl.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7vpr7dzckl.fsf%40alter.siamese.dyndns.org In-Reply-To: <5195c8760911200248v1f3d6b56q78987edfceae5541@mail.gmail.com> ``` Jeenu V writes: > On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 3:56 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote: >> [...] >> It could be that you have a tag and a branch that are both named a.b.c, >> though. > > Hm, right. But I'm getting this from an existing local repo of mine. I > can't see any tags; 'git tag -l' is empty. Is there any more info that > I can provide? man git-for-each-ref? ``` ## Jeenu V, 2009-11-20 11:55 Subject: Re: Ambiguous ref names Message-ID: <5195c8760911200355x1aff9781l848f974c9f09f416@mail.gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/5195c8760911200355x1aff9781l848f974c9f09f416%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <7vpr7dzckl.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> ``` On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 4:29 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote: > Jeenu V writes: > >> On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 3:56 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote: >>> [...] >>> It could be that you have a tag and a branch that are both named a.b.c, >>> though. >> >> Hm, right. But I'm getting this from an existing local repo of mine. I >> can't see any tags; 'git tag -l' is empty. Is there any more info that >> I can provide? > > man git-for-each-ref? It does list all refs that I know of, but I don't see any duplicate entries. -- :J ``` ## Jeenu V, 2009-12-11 08:03 Subject: Re: Ambiguous ref names Message-ID: <5195c8760912110003u6deabf7ey44b1f2dd448ce7fe@mail.gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/5195c8760912110003u6deabf7ey44b1f2dd448ce7fe%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <5195c8760911200355x1aff9781l848f974c9f09f416@mail.gmail.com> ``` On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 5:25 PM, Jeenu V wrote: > > On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 4:29 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote: > > Jeenu V writes: > > > >> On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 3:56 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote: > >>> [...] > >>> It could be that you have a tag and a branch that are both named a.b.c, > >>> though. > >> > >> Hm, right. But I'm getting this from an existing local repo of mine. I > >> can't see any tags; 'git tag -l' is empty. Is there any more info that > >> I can provide? > > > > man git-for-each-ref? > > It does list all refs that I know of, but I don't see any duplicate entries. Ah, I think I get what happened here: I had used git update-ref, which turned out to be used wrongly. My intention was to update a.b.c to a new ref, but I used it 'git update-ref XXXXXX', rather than 'git update-ref refs/heads/a.b.c XXXXXX'. The wrong usage created .git/a.b.c and I guess this was causing the warning. -- :J ```