Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] show-ref: add --symbolic-name option

[Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com>]

Hi John

On 08/04/2024 18:38, John Cai via GitGitGadget wrote:
 > +--symbolic-name::
 > +
 > +	Print out the value the reference points to without dereferencing. This
 > +	is useful to know the reference that a symbolic ref is pointing to.

It would be helpful to clarify that this prints the contents of the 
symbolic ref without dereferencing but also prints the OID after 
dereferencing the given ref.

 > +When using `--symbolic-name`, the output is in the format:
 > +
 > +-----------
 > +<oid> SP <ref> SP <symbolic-name>
 > +-----------
 > +
 > +For example,
 > +
 > 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 > +$ git show-ref --symbolic-name
 > +b75428bae1d090f60bdd4b67185f814bc8f0819d refs/heads/SYMBOLIC_REF 
ref:refs/heads/main

Do we really need the "ref:" prefix? It is not specified above and I 
think anyone calling this would have to remove the prefix before they 
could use the value.


> +test_expect_success '--symbolic-name with symbolic ref' '
> +	test_when_finished "git symbolic-ref -d refs/heads/SYMBOLIC_REF_A" &&
> +	commit_oid=$(git rev-parse refs/heads/$GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_INITIAL_BRANCH_NAME) &&
> +	cat >expect <<-EOF &&
> +	$commit_oid refs/heads/SYMBOLIC_REF_A ref:refs/heads/$GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_INITIAL_BRANCH_NAME
> +	EOF
> +	git symbolic-ref refs/heads/SYMBOLIC_REF_A refs/heads/$GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_INITIAL_BRANCH_NAME &&
> +	git show-ref --symbolic-name SYMBOLIC_REF_A >actual &&
> +	test_cmp expect actual
> +'

I think it would be nice to see a test along the lines of

	git symbolic-ref refs/symref-c refs/heads/master
	git symbolic-ref refs/symref-b refs/symref-c &&
	git symbolic-ref refs/symref-a refs/symref-b &&
	git show-ref --symbolic-name refs/symref-a >actual &&
	cat >expect <<\EOF &&
	$(git show-ref -s --verify refs/heads/master) refs/heads/symref-a 
refs/heads/symref-b
	EOF
	test_cmp expect actual

to show what this command is expected to return when there is a chain of 
symbolic references.

Best Wishes

Phillip