Re: Creation of a branch named that has a directory prefix equal to the name of another branch fail.

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Fri, Jul 24, 2020 at 12:00:45PM -0400, Taylor Blau wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 24, 2020 at 10:26:14AM +0000, Tommaso Ercole wrote:
> > As per compiled bug report, creation of a branch that has a prefix that map to a folder, when that prefix is just an existing branch in the repo fails.
> >
> > I.E. 'a/b/c' when 'a/b' just exists.
> 
> This is a known limitation of loose references, since each reference is
> stored in a file in $GITDIR/refs.
> 
> Reftable support within Git will lift this limitation. In the meantime,
> if your references aren't updated you can store them as packed refs
> which don't have this limitation, but note that they will be expanded
> loose if you touch them again (i.e., this is a good solution for tags,
> but not development branches).

Note that even though packed-refs does not have this limitation, we
still enforce it in order to avoid headaches when moving between loose
and packed refs.

Likewise, we'll probably[1] continue to enforce it with reftables, at
least for a while, to make things less confusing when pushing and
pulling between repositories with different storage. If reftables become
the widespread default, then I imagine we'd consider loosening it then
(or alternatively, adding a config option for people who want the
flexibility and don't mind the interoperability cost).

-Peff

[1] I didn't actually check what the current reftable patches do, but
    that's my recollection from discussions long ago.