Re: Git completion not using ls-remote to auto-complete during push

["SZEDER Gábor" <szeder@ira.uka.de>]

Quoting Robert Dailey <rcdailey.lists@gmail.com>:

> On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 6:29 AM, SZEDER Gábor <szeder@ira.uka.de> wrote:
>> Quoting Robert Dailey <rcdailey.lists@gmail.com>
>>> I do the following:
>>>
>>> $ git push origin :topic
>>>
>>> If I stop halfway through typing 'topic' and hit TAB, auto-completion
>>> does not work if I do not have a local branch by that name (sometimes
>>> I delete my local branch first, then I push to delete it remotely). I
>>> thought that git completion code was supposed to use ls-remote to auto
>>> complete refs used in push operations. Is this supposed to work?
>>
>> It's intentional.  Running 'git ls-remote' with a far away remote can
>> take ages, so instead we grab the refs on the remote from the locally
>> stored refs under 'refs/remotes/<remote>/'.
>>
>> See e832f5c096 (completion: avoid ls-remote in certain scenarios,
>> 2013-05-28).  The commit message mentions that you can "force"
>> completion of remote refs via 'git ls-remote' by starting with the full
>> refname, i.e.  'refs/<TAB>', however, that seems to work only on the
>> left hand side of the colon in the push refspec.
>>
>> Gábor
>>
>
> If that's indeed the case, then completion should work. I have a
> 'refs/remotes/origin/topic'. Why will auto complete not work even
> though this exists? Do multiple remotes cause issues (in theory there
> is no reason why it should cause problems, since it should know I'm
> auto-completing a ref on 'origin')?

The number of remotes doesn't matter.
What matters is which side of the colon the ref to be completed is.

You can complete

   git push origin refs/<TAB>

and

   git fetch origin refs/<TAB>

will even list you refs freshly queried via 'git ls-remote'.
However,

   git push origin :refs/<TAB>
   git push origin branch:refs/<TAB>

don't work, because there are no refs starting with the prefix  
':refs/' or 'branch:refs/'.

Gábor