The fix for #599 seems good but I'd like to see the following test added to test/units/test_branch.rb. This is a slightly simplified version of the problem you mentioned in #599.

  def test_branch_update_ref
    in_temp_dir do |path|
      git = Git.init
      File.write('foo','rev 1')
      git.add('foo')
      git.commit('rev 1')
      git.branch('testing').create
      File.write('foo','rev 2')
      git.add('foo')
      git.commit('rev 2')
      git.branch('testing').update_ref(git.revparse('HEAD'))

      # Expect the call to Branch#update_ref to pass the full ref name for the
      # of the testing branch to Lib#update_ref
      assert_equal(git.revparse('HEAD'), git.revparse('refs/heads/testing'))
    end
  end

I think that the fix for #600 in Git::Branch#parse_name is something that I'd like to discuss further.

First off, #600 fails to note the externally visible issue caused by the insufficient implementation of this private method. Having a failing test would be very helpful in discussing this problem.

parse_name is only used by Git::Branch#initialize.

Git::Branch.new is only called from:

• Git::Branches#initialize: the branch name is taken from git branch -a. e.g. master for a local branch or remotes/{remote-name}/{branch-name} for a remote branch
• Git::Remote#branch: the branch name is given as {remote-name}/{branch-name}
• Git::Base#branch: the branch name is only a name i.e. a local branch

The problem you ran into is easily duplicated for other cases that your fix does not solve. For example, what happens when you create a (perfectly valid) local branch named refs/remotes/origin/master?

I am thinking that Git::Branch#initialize should probably be changed to have this signature: def initialize(base, remote_name, branch_name) to avoid this ambiguity. We would have to figure out how this impacts Git::Base#branch which is the only of these methods that should be used externally. Maybe document that it should only be used to create local branches (vs. remote) and have it add the "refs/heads/" prefix to the branch name before calling Git::Branch.new.

@mblythe86 I have added your change plus the test I suggested in #626.