On 02/18/2017 02:33 PM, Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy wrote: > Since submodule or not is irrelevant to files-backend after the last > patch, remove the parameter from files_downcast() and kill > files_assert_main_repository(). > > PS. This implies that all ref operations are allowed for submodules. But > we may need to look more closely to see if that's really true... I think you are jumping the gun here. Even after your changes, there is still a significant difference between the main repository and submodules: we have access to the object database for the main repository, but not for submodules. So, for example, the following don't work for submodules: * `parse_object()` is used to ensure that references are only pointed at valid objects, and that branches are only pointed at commit objects. * `peel_object()` is used to write the peeled version of references in `packed-refs`, and to peel references while they are being iterated over. Since this doesn't work, I think you can't write `packed-refs` in a submodule. These limitations, I think, imply that submodule references have to be treated as read-only. When I was working on a patch series similar to yours, I introduced a boolean "main_repository" flag in `struct ref_store`, and use that member to implement `files_assert_main_repository()`. That way `files_ref_store::submodule` can still be removed, which is the more important goal from a design standpoint. Michael