# git-check-ref-format returns 1 for valid branch names 5 messages from 2007-03-22 to 2007-03-22. Participants: Nikolai Weibull, Junio C Hamano, Linus Torvalds. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/7356 ## Nikolai Weibull, 2007-03-22 20:24 Subject: git-check-ref-format returns 1 for valid branch names Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/dbfc82860703221324k48690833g6731ef75562839d6%40mail.gmail.com ``` I'm obviously doing something wrong, but in git 1.5.0.4 % git check-ref-format abc % echo $? 1 What am I missing here? nikolai ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2007-03-22 20:32 Subject: Re: git-check-ref-format returns 1 for valid branch names Message-ID: <7vejnht3x2.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7vejnht3x2.fsf%40assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net In-Reply-To: ``` "Nikolai Weibull" writes: > I'm obviously doing something wrong, but in git 1.5.0.4 > > % git check-ref-format abc > % echo $? > 1 > > What am I missing here? If you are trying to see if abc is a valid branch name, try refs/heads/abc. ``` ## Nikolai Weibull, 2007-03-22 20:42 Subject: Re: git-check-ref-format returns 1 for valid branch names Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/dbfc82860703221342h4e1ade1am2961a0a996d7d20c%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <7vejnht3x2.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net> ``` On 3/22/07, Junio C Hamano wrote: > "Nikolai Weibull" writes: > > > I'm obviously doing something wrong, but in git 1.5.0.4 > > > > % git check-ref-format abc > > % echo $? > > 1 > > > > What am I missing here? > > If you are trying to see if abc is a valid branch name, try refs/heads/abc. Thanks. I just saw an example in git-checkout (where it's testing "heads/$newbranch"). nikolai ``` ## Linus Torvalds, 2007-03-22 21:03 Subject: Re: git-check-ref-format returns 1 for valid branch names Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/Pine.LNX.4.64.0703221358420.6730%40woody.linux-foundation.org In-Reply-To: <7vejnht3x2.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net> ``` On Thu, 22 Mar 2007, Junio C Hamano wrote: > "Nikolai Weibull" writes: > > > I'm obviously doing something wrong, but in git 1.5.0.4 > > > > % git check-ref-format abc > > % echo $? > > 1 > > > > What am I missing here? > > If you are trying to see if abc is a valid branch name, try refs/heads/abc. .. and before anybody wonders why it wants the "fully qualified" name, it's because "abc" on its own is ambiguous. Is it a _tag_ called "abc", or a branch, or what? That explains why - if you really want to verify a ref-name, you need to give the full name.. On the other hand, if you don't care, and you just want "is this a valid commit name", use sha1=$(git rev-parse --verify "$name"^0) || exit or similar. It won't care if "name" is ambiguous or not, it will just try to parse it as a revision expression (with the "^0" there to force a tag to be converted to a commit-name, or force an error if the SHA1 is not a valid commit). Linus ``` ## Nikolai Weibull, 2007-03-22 21:58 Subject: Re: git-check-ref-format returns 1 for valid branch names Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/dbfc82860703221458j690d1cafve01174eda8f149ee%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` On 3/22/07, Linus Torvalds wrote: > > > On Thu, 22 Mar 2007, Junio C Hamano wrote: > > > "Nikolai Weibull" writes: > > > > > I'm obviously doing something wrong, but in git 1.5.0.4 > > > > > > % git check-ref-format abc > > > % echo $? > > > 1 > > > > > > What am I missing here? > > > > If you are trying to see if abc is a valid branch name, try refs/heads/abc. > > .. and before anybody wonders why it wants the "fully qualified" name, > it's because "abc" on its own is ambiguous. Is it a _tag_ called "abc", or > a branch, or what? That explains why - if you really want to verify a > ref-name, you need to give the full name.. > > On the other hand, if you don't care, and you just want "is this a valid > commit name", use > > sha1=$(git rev-parse --verify "$name"^0) || exit Thanks for the clarification. What I was after was a way to verify that a name is a valid new name of a branch, for the Zsh completion definition in the context of git-checkout -b . [1] After posting I realized that perhaps checking out the sources for git-checkout would enlighten me, which it did, as it uses git-check-ref-format "heads/$newbranch" to verify that the new branch's name is valid. [1] It's not really going to try to complete anything here, but verify that the new branch's name is valid while the user types it in. [2] [2] Hm, perhaps completing existing branch-names makes more sense, allowing the user to create a new branch-name based on an old one. ```