[PATCH] t1401: test symbolic-ref exit codes on a non-symbolic ref

[PATCH] t1401: test symbolic-ref exit codes on a non-symbolic ref

[Nikolaus Schuetz via GitGitGadget]

From: Nikolaus Schuetz <nikolauspschuetz@gmail.com>

git-symbolic-ref(1) documents that reading a name that is not a
symbolic ref exits with a non-zero status, and that --quiet does so
silently rather than printing a diagnostic.  This was not tested.

Check that querying a non-symbolic ref exits 128 with the usual
"is not a symbolic ref" message, and that --quiet instead exits 1
with no output.

Signed-off-by: Nikolaus Schuetz <nikolauspschuetz@gmail.com>
---
    t1401: test symbolic-ref exit codes on a non-symbolic ref
    
    git-symbolic-ref(1) documents that reading a name that is not a symbolic
    ref exits with a non-zero status, and that --quiet does so silently
    rather than printing a diagnostic. This exit-code contract was untested.
    
    This adds two tests: querying a non-symbolic ref exits 128 with the
    usual "is not a symbolic ref" message, and --quiet instead exits 1 with
    no output.
    
    Test-only; documents existing behaviour, in the spirit of 919eb8ace
    (t1402: check for refs ending with a dot).

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2204%2Fnikolauspschuetz%2Fns%2Ft1401-symbolic-ref-quiet-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2204/nikolauspschuetz/ns/t1401-symbolic-ref-quiet-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2204

 t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh | 10 ++++++++++
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+)

diff --git a/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh b/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh
index a2a7e94716..602db6d080 100755
--- a/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh
+++ b/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh
@@ -38,6 +38,16 @@ test_expect_success 'symbolic-ref refuses bare sha1' '
 
 reset_to_sane
 
+test_expect_success 'symbolic-ref reports a non-symbolic ref with exit code 128' '
+	test_expect_code 128 git symbolic-ref refs/heads/foo 2>err &&
+	test_grep "is not a symbolic ref" err
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'symbolic-ref -q is silent and exits 1 on a non-symbolic ref' '
+	test_expect_code 1 git symbolic-ref -q refs/heads/foo 2>err &&
+	test_must_be_empty err
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'HEAD cannot be removed' '
 	test_must_fail git symbolic-ref -d HEAD
 '

base-commit: 745601a9a94110d74769ab605ccd4f61339758d2
-- 
gitgitgadget

Re: [PATCH] t1401: test symbolic-ref exit codes on a non-symbolic ref

[Patrick Steinhardt]

On Thu, Aug 13, 2026 at 09:12:33PM +0000, Nikolaus Schuetz via GitGitGadget wrote:
> From: Nikolaus Schuetz <nikolauspschuetz@gmail.com>
> 
> git-symbolic-ref(1) documents that reading a name that is not a
> symbolic ref exits with a non-zero status, and that --quiet does so
> silently rather than printing a diagnostic.  This was not tested.

Out of curiosity, what made you address these gaps in particular? Is
there any motivation, or are you just picking random things to work on?

> Check that querying a non-symbolic ref exits 128 with the usual
> "is not a symbolic ref" message, and that --quiet instead exits 1
> with no output.

This is testing the status quo, but what I think would be good to
research in this context is why the error codes are different in the
first place. I personally find that quite a bit puzzling, as my
expectation would be that "--quiet" really only impacts whether we print
anything or not. That it also changes the error code is weird.

> diff --git a/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh b/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh
> index a2a7e94716..602db6d080 100755
> --- a/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh
> +++ b/t/t1401-symbolic-ref.sh
> @@ -38,6 +38,16 @@ test_expect_success 'symbolic-ref refuses bare sha1' '
>  
>  reset_to_sane
>  
> +test_expect_success 'symbolic-ref reports a non-symbolic ref with exit code 128' '
> +	test_expect_code 128 git symbolic-ref refs/heads/foo 2>err &&
> +	test_grep "is not a symbolic ref" err
> +'
> +
> +test_expect_success 'symbolic-ref -q is silent and exits 1 on a non-symbolic ref' '
> +	test_expect_code 1 git symbolic-ref -q refs/heads/foo 2>err &&
> +	test_must_be_empty err
> +'

Do we also want to verify that stdout is empty in both cases?

Thanks!

Patrick