# benefits of "/" in branch names other than the obvious?

2 messages from 2017-11-06 to 2017-11-06. Participants: Robert P. J. Day, Stefan Beller.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/47124

## Robert P. J. Day, 2017-11-06 05:36

Subject: benefits of "/" in branch names other than the obvious?
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.2.21.1711060733510.13383@localhost.localdomain>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/alpine.LFD.2.21.1711060733510.13383%40localhost.localdomain

```

  another picky question ... are there any other benefits of
supporting slashes in branch names other than the obvious ones i know
about?

1) visually, let's you *imagine* a branch hierarchy, and
2) allows wildcarding on a full "component" basis

  are there any other benefits of the above? thank you kindly.

rday

-- 

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                                 Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
========================================================================

```

## Stefan Beller, 2017-11-06 17:50

Subject: Re: benefits of "/" in branch names other than the obvious?
Message-ID: <CAGZ79kZqRV2Sui5-XRcukZiucKzv+DvRr3x3-=dHaxB5ZC6LyQ@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAGZ79kZqRV2Sui5-XRcukZiucKzv%2BDvRr3x3-%3DdHaxB5ZC6LyQ%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LFD.2.21.1711060733510.13383@localhost.localdomain>

```
On Sun, Nov 5, 2017 at 9:36 PM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:
>
>   another picky question ... are there any other benefits of
> supporting slashes in branch names other than the obvious ones i know
> about?
>
> 1) visually, let's you *imagine* a branch hierarchy, and
> 2) allows wildcarding on a full "component" basis
>
>   are there any other benefits of the above? thank you kindly.
>
> rday

Currently refs are stored either in .git/packed_refs,
or the refs are taken as a literal filename (refs/heads/master
is found in .git/refs/heads/master).

When stored as literal files on disk there are interesting implications:
* File System speed when there are *lots* of refs
  (a lot of files in one dir vs sharding or a tree like structure)
*  Directory/conflicts in the data model:
    What if you want to have a ref foo/bar as well as foo?
    This is not possible as 'foo' must be either a directory
    or a file. This spawns occasional issues such as
https://public-inbox.org/git/20171024082409.smwsd6pla64jjlua@sigill.intra.peff.net/

```