1git-check-ref-format(1) 2======================= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-check-ref-format - Make sure ref name is well formed 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10'git check-ref-format' <refname> 11 12DESCRIPTION 13----------- 14Checks if a given 'refname' is acceptable, and exits non-zero if 15it is not. 16 17A reference is used in git to specify branches and tags. A 18branch head is stored under `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads` directory, and 19a tag is stored under `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags` directory. git 20imposes the following rules on how refs are named: 21 22. It can include slash `/` for hierarchical (directory) 23 grouping, but no slash-separated component can begin with a 24 dot `.`; 25 26. It cannot have two consecutive dots `..` anywhere; 27 28. It cannot have ASCII control character (i.e. bytes whose 29 values are lower than \040, or \177 `DEL`), space, tilde `~`, 30 caret `{caret}`, colon `:`, question-mark `?`, asterisk `*`, 31 or open bracket `[` anywhere; 32 33. It cannot end with a slash `/`. 34 35These rules makes it easy for shell script based tools to parse 36refnames, pathname expansion by the shell when a refname is used 37unquoted (by mistake), and also avoids ambiguities in certain 38refname expressions (see linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]). Namely: 39 40. double-dot `..` are often used as in `ref1..ref2`, and in some 41 context this notation means `{caret}ref1 ref2` (i.e. not in 42 ref1 and in ref2). 43 44. tilde `~` and caret `{caret}` are used to introduce postfix 45 'nth parent' and 'peel onion' operation. 46 47. colon `:` is used as in `srcref:dstref` to mean "use srcref\'s 48 value and store it in dstref" in fetch and push operations. 49 It may also be used to select a specific object such as with 50 'git-cat-file': "git cat-file blob v1.3.3:refs.c". 51 52 53GIT 54--- 55Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite