What is the format for valid Git repo names?

Question

I'm a Git noob and using GitExtensions (GE) I'm constantly having problems with "{name} is not a valid remote name". One minute GE will not allow me to add the name, then if I try to re-add it without a single name/path change GE accepts it, then later I have the above error message again randomly. One minute I'll be able to commit/push to the repo with that name, the next I can't.

I've done a bit of Google-Fu and can't seem to find anything on this.

Answer 1

Git repository name can be logically anything, but it's slug (how it is stored to disk and how it's cone URL can be formed) can differ from the name. However, this is totally tool specific.

I've seen some Git hosting tools that allow wide set of characters to be used as repo name but many of them are converted into dash when forming the slug. That causes the original name to have a role of "display name" in the web UI, and most of the developers won't enjoy that when working at the shell side.

In GitHub, the name may have

• letters,
• numbers,
• dash (-)
• _
• .

In GitLab, it is similar. I've seen an error Path can contain only letters, digits, '_', '-' and '.'. Feature request to change this in GitLab