From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2013 22:24:12 +0000 (-0700)
Subject: peel_onion(): teach $foo^{object} peeler
X-Git-Tag: v1.8.3-rc0~118^2
X-Git-Url: https://git.lorimer.id.au/gitweb.git/diff_plain/a6a3f2cc0761a347e8796280a1544e2a0d08cb51?hp=a6a3f2cc0761a347e8796280a1544e2a0d08cb51

peel_onion(): teach $foo^{object} peeler

A string that names an object can be suffixed with ^{type} peeler to
say "I have this object name; peel it until you get this type. If
you cannot do so, it is an error".  v1.8.2^{commit} asks for a commit
that is pointed at an annotated tag v1.8.2; v1.8.2^{tree} unwraps it
further to the top-level tree object.  A special suffix ^{} (i.e. no
type specified) means "I do not care what it unwraps to; just peel
annotated tag until you get something that is not a tag".

When you have a random user-supplied string, you can turn it to a
bare 40-hex object name, and cause it to error out if such an object
does not exist, with:

git rev-parse --verify "$userstring^{}"

for most objects, but this does not yield the tag object name when
$userstring refers to an annotated tag.

Introduce a new suffix, ^{object}, that only makes sure the given
name refers to an existing object.  Then

git rev-parse --verify "$userstring^{object}"

becomes a way to make sure $userstring refers to an existing object.

This is necessary because the plumbing "rev-parse --verify" is only
about "make sure the argument is something we can feed to get_sha1()
and turn it into a raw 20-byte object name SHA-1" and is not about
"make sure that 20-byte object name SHA-1 refers to an object that
exists in our object store".  When the given $userstring is already
a 40-hex, by definition "rev-parse --verify $userstring" can turn it
into a raw 20-byte object name.  With "$userstring^{object}", we can
make sure that the 40-hex string names an object that exists in our
object store before "--verify" kicks in.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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