Re: Should `@` be really a valid git tag name?

I was in fact the commenter, and I wasn't saying
that it is a bug in check-ref-format, but rather that
since `@` by itself is forbidden, perhaps the creation
of a tag or branch named `@` should be forbidden.
Maybe it should even be forbidden as any component
part, in new names, although obviously we would
have to allow deleting existing names!

I knew this would be a bit of a hornet's nest though,

Chris

On Fri, Sep 17, 2021 at 9:37 PM Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] wrote:

Carlo Arenas [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

On Fri, Sep 17, 2021 at 7:12 AM [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

A SO commenter pointed out, that git-check-ref-format forbids @ and
maybe I should report this as a potential bug. Is it?

a reference that is named "@" only is invalid, but refs/tags/@ is not.

;-)

"git check-ref-format master ; echo $?" would show that any single
level name is "forbidden", so probably the SO commenter (whatever
that is) was confused---it is not about @ at all.

In any case, a tag whose name is @ may be another source of
confusion in the modern world, after we added @ as a synonym to
HEAD.  I do not know, for example, offhand which between the HEAD or
that tag "git show @" would choose.  It makes sense to avoid it.