Re: [PATCH] git: add optional support for full pattern in fetch refspecs

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Jacob Keller <jacob.e.keller@intel.com> writes:

> +remote.<name>.arbitrarypattern::
> +	When set to true, fetching from this remote will allow arbitrary complex
> +	patterns for the fetch refspecs. For example,
> +	refs/tags/prefix-*:refs/tags/prefix-* will work as expected. Care should be
> +	taken as you could fetch refs into names that don't exist on the remote and
> +	may end up pushing them again later by accident.

Bad name and explanation, unless you truly mean "arbitrary", like
taking something like "refs/ta*/prefix-*-*-foo:refs/*".

More importantly, this is not "pattern"; you are talking about
refspec, I think.

But that probably does not matter.  I do not think this even needs
to exist as an option.

People's existing settings would not have anything other than an
asterisk as a whole path component on each side (or no asterisk
anywhere), and if they had an asterisk anywhere else they would have
gotten an error and wouldn't have made any progress until they fixed
it.  So if you loosen the current rule sligntly and tell them "If
your refspec has an asterisk in it, then you must have one asterisk
on each side of it. That rule hasn't changed. But your asterisks no
longer have to be a whole path component", such a change would not
hurt them.  Their existing setting that work would not notice, and
existing users would not be relying on a refspec with an asterisk as
part of a path component to error out.