And that was true for packed-refs, too, before 59c35fac54 (refs/packed-backend.c: implement jump lists to avoid excluded pattern(s), 2023-07-10). After that, packed-refs exclude both. So probably the solution is for the jump list in 59c35fac54 to be pickier about finding its start/end points. It should insist on a trailing "/" (I think end-of-string would also be valid, but it may be easier to ignore that, and it is OK to err on the side of inclusion, since the caller is supposed to do their own filtering). Probably the logic needs to go into cmp_record_to_refname(), but I lack sufficient brain power at this time of night to even attempt a fix. The smallest reproduction for me is: git init git commit --allow-empty -m foo git pack-refs --all git -c transfer.hiderefs=refs/he upload-pack . which shows "refs/heads/main" (or "master") before 59c35fac54, but not after. -Peff
