family.py: the NEXT push line is a forced refspec for a branch beginning with + and fails for a branch named like a tag, and a tracking branch of 251-255 characters passes --dry-run, dies at the first commit once every remote exists #689

Goal: the push line family.py prints names the branch by its full refname so it pushes what it says, and a tracking branch git cannot lock is refused before anything exists.

Filed by lane openRepoShape-5 on Brett Heap's word of 2026-10-16T12:17:02Z ("#459's family lines (~38)"), from lane 4's R421 lines on #459 (comment 6214566134, R421 O1, O2 and O4). Lane 4 judged each OPEN on 95780dd (clusters T6 and T17); re-read and probed on d4a7fab. #643 (landed, f1d71aa8) made init's own push use HEAD:refs/heads/<branch> (scripts/family.py:1920-1929); it left the NEXT line.

Lines (line numbers at d4a7fab)

• R421 O1, family.py's NEXT push line is a forced refspec for a holder branch that begins with +. _print_next (scripts/family.py:1180-1187, the push at :1184) prints git -C <holder> push -u origin <branch> with the bare branch. Probed on main: a holder on branch +x, a real add ends NEXT git -C <holder> push -u origin +x. R421 measured what pasting it does where an older local x exists and origin's x holds somebody's commit: + 77de599...261789e x -> x (forced update), overwriting origin's x and never pushing the add commit; without a local x it fails src refspec x does not match any (not re-run; the printed line is what was probed). Direction: print refs/heads/<b>:refs/heads/<b> (R421 measured that it pushes the named branch whatever is checked out, sets branch.<b>.merge and is immune to a same-name tag). The tests that read the line's last word move with it: tests/test_family_switch_branch_exists.py:195 and :504 (push[-1] == branch), tests/test_family_tracking_branch.py:158 and :308, tests/test_family_printed_quoting.py:167.
• R421 O4, the NEXT push line, a bare git push -u origin <branch>, fails for a branch that shares its name with a TAG. Probed through the tool: a holder on branch v1 with a tag v1, remove ends NEXT git -C <holder> push -u origin v1, and pasted, error: src refspec v1 matches more than one, exit 1. Same fix as the line above; one change to _print_next. The update-shape.py and bump-leg.py halves (the same bare push) are lane 5's Tracking: update-shape.py and bump-leg.py, keeping a project's shape copies and leg pins current #458 lines.
• R421 O2, a tracking branch of 251 to 255 characters passes checked_value (up to 255) and branch_problem, then the real run dies at the first commit with every remote already made. Probed on main with family.py init --tracking-branch <251 a's> --local-remote-dir ... --work-dir ...: --dry-run exits 0; the real run exits 2 with fatal: cannot lock ref 'HEAD': Unable to create '.../refs/heads/aaa….lock': File name too long, and r/Orbit.git and w/Orbit exist (R421: 250 characters works; the scaffold is the same). SAFE_ARG_RE allows 255 (scripts/repo_shape.py:106) and _branch_verdict / branch_problem (scripts/shape_materialize.py:1214-1275) ask git check-ref-format --branch, which has no length limit for this. Direction: have _branch_verdict refuse a branch with a /-separated component over 250 bytes (the name's file is <component>.lock, within the 255-byte file name limit NAME_MAX, :4392), so both tools refuse before anything exists through the one helper, refuse_bad_branch; a row with 250 (accepted) and 251 (refused) characters. This is the same class as scaffold-project.py and family.py init push the tracking branch as a bare refspec (git push -q -u origin <branch>), so --tracking-branch +x, a name git check-ref-format --branch accepts, passes --dry-run and then dies at git push -q -u origin +x (src refspec x does not match any, because a leading + in a refspec means force) after every remote exists #421's "after every remote exists".

Overlaps: none with an open PR. scripts/family.py and scripts/shape_materialize.py are not pinned copies. The bump-leg.py and update-shape.py NEXT lines are #458's.

Mark the three lines → this issue on #459, and tick them there when this closes.

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