"Han-Wen Nienhuys via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@xxxxxxxxx> writes: > Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] Modify pseudo refs through ref backend storage > From: Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@xxxxxxxxxx> With what definition of "pseudo refs" has this change been made? Those things like HEAD, CHERRY_PICK_HEAD, FETCH_HEAD etc. that have traditionally been written as a plain text file in $GIT_DIR and are used to name objects by having a full object name in it? Or the entities that behave like refs and stored in ref backends, with all-uppercase-names but do not sit inside refs/ hierarchy? I think it is OK (and possibly a good move in the longer term, but that is just my gut feeling) to make ref backends resopnsible for enumerating, reading and writing them (i.e. I think we want to use the latter definition for the longer term health of the project). And we would want to ... > The previous behavior was introduced in commit 74ec19d4be > ("pseudorefs: create and use pseudoref update and delete functions", > Jul 31, 2015), with the justification "alternate ref backends still > need to store pseudorefs in GIT_DIR". ... declare that justification invalid for that purpose. Is that what is going on? I just want to make sure I am following your flow of thought. > Refs such as REBASE_HEAD are read through the ref backend. This can > only work consistently if they are written through the ref backend as > well. Tooling that works directly on files under .git should be > updated to use git commands to read refs instead. OK. > diff --git a/refs/files-backend.c b/refs/files-backend.c > index 6516c7bc8c..9951c2e403 100644 > --- a/refs/files-backend.c > +++ b/refs/files-backend.c > @@ -1228,7 +1228,6 @@ static int files_delete_refs(struct ref_store *ref_store, const char *msg, > > for (i = 0; i < refnames->nr; i++) { > const char *refname = refnames->items[i].string; > - > if (refs_delete_ref(&refs->base, msg, refname, NULL, flags)) > result |= error(_("could not remove reference %s"), refname); > } Unreleated change? > @@ -2436,7 +2435,9 @@ static int lock_ref_for_update(struct files_ref_store *refs, > update->backend_data = lock; > > if (update->type & REF_ISSYMREF) { > - if (update->flags & REF_NO_DEREF) { > + if (update->flags & REF_NO_DEREF || > + (ref_type(update->refname) == REF_TYPE_PSEUDOREF && > + strcmp(update->refname, "HEAD"))) { > /* > * We won't be reading the referent as part of > * the transaction, so we have to read it here The old "if we are not dereferencing" condition in if() exactly matched the comment, but the condition in if() after this change is not "if we are not dereferencing". Even if we are dereferencing, under some new condition, we would still drop into this block and do not follow the "else" side that creates a new update for the referent. Is this part of "modify pseudo refs via backend" topic, or should it be a separate modification? Why is this change needed? It seems that no matter where in the refs/ hierarchy (or even outside) a symbolic ref resides, the way to update itself (not the referent through the symbolic ref) should be the same, which is what the original says, and we want to change that reasoning here, but it is not quite clear to me why. > @@ -2782,8 +2783,10 @@ static int files_transaction_finish(struct ref_store *ref_store, > struct ref_update *update = transaction->updates[i]; > struct ref_lock *lock = update->backend_data; > > - if (update->flags & REF_NEEDS_COMMIT || > - update->flags & REF_LOG_ONLY) { > + if ((ref_type(lock->ref_name) != REF_TYPE_PSEUDOREF || > + !strcmp(lock->ref_name, "HEAD")) && > + (update->flags & REF_NEEDS_COMMIT || > + update->flags & REF_LOG_ONLY)) { And this one stops the files backend from touching all pseudorefs other than HEAD with this codepath. That somehow feels totally opposite from what the log message explained above---weren't we updating the code to write these pseudorefs through the individual backends, which the files backend is one example of? Isn't this change stopping the backend from writing the pseudorefs other than HEAD instead? Puzzled. > if (files_log_ref_write(refs, > lock->ref_name, > &lock->old_oid, > diff --git a/t/t1400-update-ref.sh b/t/t1400-update-ref.sh > index 27171f8261..6b8030e8fe 100755 > --- a/t/t1400-update-ref.sh > +++ b/t/t1400-update-ref.sh > @@ -476,7 +476,7 @@ test_expect_success 'git cat-file blob master@{2005-05-26 23:42}:F (expect OTHER > test_expect_success 'given old value for missing pseudoref, do not create' ' > test_must_fail git update-ref PSEUDOREF $A $B 2>err && > test_path_is_missing .git/PSEUDOREF && The reason why I asked what this patch thinks the definition of pseudoref is is because of this thing. Shouldn't this line be fixed not to depend on the files backend? Likewise for $(cat .git/PSEUDOREF) in the remaining two hunks. > - test_i18ngrep "could not read ref" err > + test_i18ngrep "unable to resolve reference" err > ' > > test_expect_success 'create pseudoref' ' > @@ -497,7 +497,7 @@ test_expect_success 'overwrite pseudoref with correct old value' ' > test_expect_success 'do not overwrite pseudoref with wrong old value' ' > test_must_fail git update-ref PSEUDOREF $D $E 2>err && > test $C = $(cat .git/PSEUDOREF) && > - test_i18ngrep "unexpected object ID" err > + test_i18ngrep "cannot lock ref.*expected" err > ' > > test_expect_success 'delete pseudoref' ' > @@ -509,7 +509,7 @@ test_expect_success 'do not delete pseudoref with wrong old value' ' > git update-ref PSEUDOREF $A && > test_must_fail git update-ref -d PSEUDOREF $B 2>err && > test $A = $(cat .git/PSEUDOREF) && > - test_i18ngrep "unexpected object ID" err > + test_i18ngrep "cannot lock ref.*expected" err > ' > > test_expect_success 'delete pseudoref with correct old value' '