1git-check-ref-format(1) 2======================= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-check-ref-format - Ensures that a reference name is well formed 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'git check-ref-format' <refname> 12'git check-ref-format' [--branch] <branchname-shorthand> 13 14DESCRIPTION 15----------- 16Checks if a given 'refname' is acceptable, and exits with a non-zero 17status if it is not. 18 19A reference is used in git to specify branches and tags. A 20branch head is stored under the `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads` directory, and 21a tag is stored under the `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags` directory. git 22imposes the following rules on how references are named: 23 24. They can include slash `/` for hierarchical (directory) 25 grouping, but no slash-separated component can begin with a 26 dot `.`. 27 28. They cannot have two consecutive dots `..` anywhere. 29 30. They cannot have ASCII control characters (i.e. bytes whose 31 values are lower than \040, or \177 `DEL`), space, tilde `~`, 32 caret `{caret}`, colon `:`, question-mark `?`, asterisk `*`, 33 or open bracket `[` anywhere. 34 35. They cannot end with a slash `/` nor a dot `.`. 36 37. They cannot end with the sequence `.lock`. 38 39. They cannot contain a sequence `@{`. 40 41These rules make it easy for shell script based tools to parse 42reference names, pathname expansion by the shell when a reference name is used 43unquoted (by mistake), and also avoids ambiguities in certain 44reference name expressions (see linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]): 45 46. A double-dot `..` is often used as in `ref1..ref2`, and in some 47 contexts this notation means `{caret}ref1 ref2` (i.e. not in 48 `ref1` and in `ref2`). 49 50. A tilde `~` and caret `{caret}` are used to introduce the postfix 51 'nth parent' and 'peel onion' operation. 52 53. A colon `:` is used as in `srcref:dstref` to mean "use srcref\'s 54 value and store it in dstref" in fetch and push operations. 55 It may also be used to select a specific object such as with 56 'git-cat-file': "git cat-file blob v1.3.3:refs.c". 57 58. at-open-brace `@{` is used as a notation to access a reflog entry. 59 60With the `--branch` option, it expands a branch name shorthand and 61prints the name of the branch the shorthand refers to. 62 63EXAMPLE 64------- 65 66git check-ref-format --branch @{-1}:: 67 68Print the name of the previous branch. 69 70 71GIT 72--- 73Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite