peel_onion(): teach $foo^{object} peeler
A string that names an object can be suffixed with ^{type} peeler to
say "I have this object name; peel it until you get this type. If
you cannot do so, it is an error". v1.8.2^{commit} asks for a commit
that is pointed at an annotated tag v1.8.2; v1.8.2^{tree} unwraps it
further to the top-level tree object. A special suffix ^{} (i.e. no
type specified) means "I do not care what it unwraps to; just peel
annotated tag until you get something that is not a tag".
When you have a random user-supplied string, you can turn it to a
bare 40-hex object name, and cause it to error out if such an object
does not exist, with:
git rev-parse --verify "$userstring^{}"
for most objects, but this does not yield the tag object name when
$userstring refers to an annotated tag.
Introduce a new suffix, ^{object}, that only makes sure the given
name refers to an existing object. Then
git rev-parse --verify "$userstring^{object}"
becomes a way to make sure $userstring refers to an existing object.
This is necessary because the plumbing "rev-parse --verify" is only
about "make sure the argument is something we can feed to get_sha1()
and turn it into a raw 20-byte object name SHA-1" and is not about
"make sure that 20-byte object name SHA-1 refers to an object that
exists in our object store". When the given $userstring is already
a 40-hex, by definition "rev-parse --verify $userstring" can turn it
into a raw 20-byte object name. With "$userstring^{object}", we can
make sure that the 40-hex string names an object that exists in our
object store before "--verify" kicks in.
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>