While the ref name encoding is unspecified, UTF-8 is preferred as
some output processing may assume ref names in UTF-8.
+'@'::
+ '@' alone is a shortcut for 'HEAD'.
+
'<refname>@\{<date>\}', e.g. 'master@\{yesterday\}', 'HEAD@\{5 minutes ago\}'::
A ref followed by the suffix '@' with a date specification
enclosed in a brace
'<rev>{caret}\{<type>\}', e.g. 'v0.99.8{caret}\{commit\}'::
A suffix '{caret}' followed by an object type name enclosed in
- brace pair means the object
- could be a tag, and dereference the tag recursively until an
- object of that type is found or the object cannot be
- dereferenced anymore (in which case, barf). '<rev>{caret}0'
+ brace pair means dereference the object at '<rev>' recursively until
+ an object of type '<type>' is found or the object cannot be
+ dereferenced anymore (in which case, barf).
+ For example, if '<rev>' is a commit-ish, '<rev>{caret}\{commit\}'
+ describes the corresponding commit object.
+ Similarly, if '<rev>' is a tree-ish, '<rev>{caret}\{tree\}'
+ describes the corresponding tree object.
+ '<rev>{caret}0'
is a short-hand for '<rev>{caret}\{commit\}'.
+
'rev{caret}\{object\}' can be used to make sure 'rev' names an
object that exists, without requiring 'rev' to be a tag, and
without dereferencing 'rev'; because a tag is already an object,
it does not have to be dereferenced even once to get to an object.
++
+'rev{caret}\{tag\}' can be used to ensure that 'rev' identifies an
+existing tag object.
'<rev>{caret}\{\}', e.g. 'v0.99.8{caret}\{\}'::
A suffix '{caret}' followed by an empty brace pair