Re: [GSoC][RFC PATCH v4 3/5] builtin/refs: add list subcommand

Phillip Wood [off-list ref] writes:

On 01/08/2025 16:49, Phillip Wood wrote:

quoted

On 01/08/2025 15:43, Junio C Hamano wrote:

quoted

Phillip Wood [off-list ref] writes:

What does a double-asterisk currently do in these patterns?

refs/heads/m** seems to behave like refs/heads/m*. I'm a bit
surprised by that as for-each-ref seems to set WM_PATHNAME and I
thought that our wildmatch code used '**' to match any character in
that case.

I'd forgotten the rules for '**' - it must come after a slash and be
followed by a slash if it is not at the end of a pattern otherwise it
is silently converted to '*'. I wish our wildmatch code at least
warned when it did that. So one can query all the branches beginning
with "m" by passing

    'refs/heads/m*' 'refs/heads/m*/**'

which isn't as convenient as it could be but it is possible.

As long as the rules are consistent and understandable (once you
understand it, that is), then I am perfectly fine.  And "** is
written as /**/ (but you can omit slashes at either ends)" I find
acceptable.

quoted

quoted

  - "refs/heads/m*" matches all local branches whose name starts with
    'm' like 'morning', but not the ones inside subhierarchies that
    start with 'm' like 'mid/night'.

  - "refs/heads/m**" matches all local branches whose name starts
    with 'm' and in the ones inside subhierarchies that start with
    'm'.

That sounds like a good idea

Now I'm not so sure.

As long as the existing rule is serviceable (and you seem to have
found that it is), we do not need to make such a change.

Thanks for thinking it through.