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 could be named hierarchically (i.e. separated with slash 23 `/`), but each of its component cannot begin with a dot `.`; 24 25. It cannot have two consecutive dots `..` anywhere; 26 27. It cannot have ASCII control character (i.e. bytes whose 28 values are lower than \040, or \177 `DEL`), space, tilde `~`, 29 caret `{caret}`, colon `:`, question-mark `?`, asterisk `*`, 30 or open bracket `[` anywhere; 31 32. It cannot end with a slash `/`. 33 34These rules makes it easy for shell script based tools to parse 35refnames, pathname expansion by the shell when a refname is used 36unquoted (by mistake), and also avoids ambiguities in certain 37refname expressions (see gitlink:git-rev-parse[1]). Namely: 38 39. double-dot `..` are often used as in `ref1..ref2`, and in some 40 context this notation means `{caret}ref1 ref2` (i.e. not in 41 ref1 and in ref2). 42 43. tilde `~` and caret `{caret}` are used to introduce postfix 44 'nth parent' and 'peel onion' operation. 45 46. colon `:` is used as in `srcref:dstref` to mean "use srcref\'s 47 value and store it in dstref" in fetch and push operations. 48 49 50GIT 51--- 52Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite