“Too many revisions” git message

Question

On git version 1.7.9.5, when trying

git stash show -p stash@{"Friday Smarch 13 13:13:13 2013"}

(from Is it possible to choose a git stash when they're described by the date stashed? )

I get the error message

Too many revisions specified: stash@{Friday Smarch 13 13:13:13 2013}

I also get the same error message when trying the following

git stash show "stash@{Friday Smarch 13 13:13:13 2013}"
git stash show -p stash@{Friday\ Smarch\ 13\ 13:13:13\ 2013}

I don't think escaping is the cause. If I do

git stash show -p stash@{Friday\ Smarch\ 13\ 13:13:13 2013}

Then I get a different error message:

fatal: ambiguous argument 'stash@{Friday Smarch 13 13:13:13': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
Use '--' to separate paths from revisions

By contrast, doing

git stash show -p stash@{42}

Works.

What does the error message mean, and what should I do?

Answer 1

This does not answer the OP's specific situation but I don't have enough reputation to add this as a comment... This page is one of the top search results for the error message Too many revisions specified

If you are using Posh Git or some other powershell command line then you get the above error message when you enter a command like

git stash show -p stash@{2}

Powershell doesn't like the curly braces.

git stash show -p stash@'{'2'}'

should do the trick.

Similarly:

git stash show -p "stash@{2}" 

also avoids the error.