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 41- They cannot contain a `\\`. 42 43These rules make it easy for shell script based tools to parse 44reference names, pathname expansion by the shell when a reference name is used 45unquoted (by mistake), and also avoids ambiguities in certain 46reference name expressions (see linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]): 47 48. A double-dot `..` is often used as in `ref1..ref2`, and in some 49 contexts this notation means `{caret}ref1 ref2` (i.e. not in 50 `ref1` and in `ref2`). 51 52. A tilde `~` and caret `{caret}` are used to introduce the postfix 53 'nth parent' and 'peel onion' operation. 54 55. A colon `:` is used as in `srcref:dstref` to mean "use srcref\'s 56 value and store it in dstref" in fetch and push operations. 57 It may also be used to select a specific object such as with 58 'git-cat-file': "git cat-file blob v1.3.3:refs.c". 59 60. at-open-brace `@{` is used as a notation to access a reflog entry. 61 62With the `--branch` option, it expands a branch name shorthand and 63prints the name of the branch the shorthand refers to. 64 65EXAMPLE 66------- 67 68git check-ref-format --branch @{-1}:: 69 70Print the name of the previous branch. 71 72 73GIT 74--- 75Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite