# question re: git show-ref and matching ref patterns from the front 3 messages from 2021-04-11 to 2021-04-11. Participants: Chris Jerdonek, brian m. carlson. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/55474 ## Chris Jerdonek, 2021-04-11 01:24 Subject: question re: git show-ref and matching ref patterns from the front Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAOTb1wef2w_H4mwMMwR4En8665GduAMoceL45%2BOYC4DSBPtozQ%40mail.gmail.com ``` Hi, I noticed that git-show-ref only seems to permit matching patterns from the end of a ref name: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-show-ref#Documentation/git-show-ref.txt-ltpatterngt82308203 For example, "git show-ref master" will include both "refs/heads/master" and "refs/remotes/origin/master". However, is there a way to limit Git to showing refs starting with a prefix, and that doesn't also require Git to iterate over all refs? It seems like that would be natural and useful e.g. for repos with many refs and/or repos with namespaces. Am I missing something, or would that be a useful addition? Thanks, --Chris ``` ## brian m. carlson, 2021-04-11 01:54 Subject: Re: question re: git show-ref and matching ref patterns from the front Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/YHJW4xCgw6GN0Rag%40camp.crustytoothpaste.net In-Reply-To: ``` On 2021-04-11 at 01:24:57, Chris Jerdonek wrote: > Hi, I noticed that git-show-ref only seems to permit matching patterns > from the end of a ref name: > https://git-scm.com/docs/git-show-ref#Documentation/git-show-ref.txt-ltpatterngt82308203 > For example, "git show-ref master" will include both > "refs/heads/master" and "refs/remotes/origin/master". > > However, is there a way to limit Git to showing refs starting with a > prefix, and that doesn't also require Git to iterate over all refs? > > It seems like that would be natural and useful e.g. for repos with > many refs and/or repos with namespaces. Am I missing something, or > would that be a useful addition? I believe you can do this with git for-each-ref. It accepts prefixes, and assuming you don't use a case-insensitive comparison, it will restrict itself to iterating over only those prefixes you specify, not all refs. -- brian m. carlson (he/him or they/them) Houston, Texas, US ``` ## Chris Jerdonek, 2021-04-11 02:09 Subject: Re: question re: git show-ref and matching ref patterns from the front Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAOTb1wftqhQSZ8KRyh0hXBE7enM8KG85H-UyxBObnsx8Ff8vvA%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` On Sat, Apr 10, 2021 at 6:54 PM brian m. carlson wrote: > > On 2021-04-11 at 01:24:57, Chris Jerdonek wrote: > > However, is there a way to limit Git to showing refs starting with a > > prefix, and that doesn't also require Git to iterate over all refs? > > I believe you can do this with git for-each-ref. It accepts prefixes, > and assuming you don't use a case-insensitive comparison, it will > restrict itself to iterating over only those prefixes you specify, not > all refs. Thanks. One minor difference, though, seems to be that git for-each-ref doesn't support including the HEAD ref, which you can do with git-show-ref by passing ---head. --Chris ```