From: Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com>
To: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>, phillip.wood@dunelm.org.uk
Cc: git@vger.kernel.org, Jeff King <peff@peff.net>,
Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/3] refs: do not label special refs as pseudo refs
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2024 10:59:36 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <e9c70778-3414-48ae-8a7d-6b6f0dfaad63@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <ZjCd_drNT6kyjNa6@tanuki>
Hi Patrick
On 30/04/2024 08:30, Patrick Steinhardt wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 29, 2024 at 04:12:37PM +0100, Phillip Wood wrote:
>
>> This changes the definition to allow pseudorefs to by symbolic refs. When
>> is_pseudoref() was introduced Junio and I had a brief discussion about this
>> restriction and he was not in favor of allowing pseudorefs to be symbolic
>> refs [1].
>
> So the reason why pseudorefs exist is that some refs behave like a ref
> sometimes, but not always. And in my book that really only applies to
> MERGE_HEAD and FETCH_HEAD, because those contain additional metadata
> that makes them not-a-ref. And for those I very much see that they
> should not ever be a symref.
>
> But everyhing else living in the root of the ref hierarchy is not
> special in any way, at least not in my opinion. We have never enforced
> that those cannot be symrefs, and it makes our terminology needlessly
> confusing.
I agree HEAD not being a pseudoref and having special refs as well as
pseudorefs refs is confusing. I do have some sympathy for the argument
that pseudorefs should not be symbolic refs though as AUTO_MERGE,
CHERRY_PICK_HEAD, ORIG_HEAD etc. are all pointers to a commit and it
would be a bug for them to be a symbolic ref. It is unfortunate that in
the move away from assessing those refs as files we lost the check that
they are not symbolic refs.
> I think I'm going to reroll this patch series and go down the nuclear
> path that I've hinted at in the cover letter:
>
> - Pseudo refs can only be either FETCH_HEAD or MERGE_HEAD.
>
> - Refs starting with "refs/" are just plain normal refs.
>
> - Refs living in the root of the ref hierarchy need to conform to a
> set of strict rules, as Peff is starting to enforce in a separate
> patch series. These are just normal refs, as well, even though we
> may call them "root ref" in our tooling as they live in the root of
> the ref hierarchy.
That would certainly be simpler.
> I just don't think that the current state makes sense to anybody. It's
> majorly confusing -- I've spent the last 8 months working in our refs
> code almost exclusively and still forget what's what. How are our users
> expected to understand this?
The current state is confusing but arguably there is a logic to the
various distinctions - whether those distinctions are useful in practice
is open to debate though. I wonder how much users really care about
these distinctions and whether it affects their use of git. I was
unaware of the distinction between HEAD and pseudorefs until I reviewed
Karthik's for-each-ref series a couple of months ago and I don't think
that lack of knowledge had caused me any trouble when using git.
>> Are there any practical implications of the changes in this patch for users
>> running commands like "git log FETCH_HEAD" (I can't think of any off the top
>> of my head but it would be good to have some reassurance on that point in
>> the commit message)
>
> Not really, no. We have never been doing a good job at enforcing the
> difference between pseudo refs or normal refs anyway. Pseudo refs can be
> symrefs just fine, and our tooling won't complain. The only exception
> where I want us to become stricter is in how we enforce the syntax rules
> for root refs (which is handled by Peff in a separate patch series), and
> that we start to not treat FETCH_HEAD and MERGE_HEAD as proper refs.
> They should still resolve when you ask git-rev-parse(1), but when you
> iterate through refs they should not be surfaced as they _aren't_ refs.
That's good
Thanks
Phillip
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2024-04-30 10:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 93+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2024-04-29 13:41 [PATCH 0/3] Clarify pseudo-ref terminology Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-29 13:41 ` [PATCH 1/3] refs: move `is_special_ref()` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-29 13:41 ` [PATCH 2/3] refs: do not label special refs as pseudo refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-29 15:12 ` Phillip Wood
2024-04-30 7:30 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 9:59 ` Phillip Wood [this message]
2024-04-30 12:11 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 10:23 ` Jeff King
2024-04-30 12:07 ` Karthik Nayak
2024-04-30 12:33 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 12:16 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-29 16:24 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-04-29 22:52 ` Justin Tobler
2024-04-30 7:29 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-09 17:29 ` Jean-Noël AVILA
2024-05-10 8:33 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-29 13:41 ` [PATCH 3/3] refs: fix segfault in `is_pseudoref()` when ref cannot be resolved Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-29 15:25 ` Phillip Wood
2024-04-29 18:57 ` Karthik Nayak
2024-04-29 19:47 ` Phillip Wood
2024-04-29 20:44 ` Karthik Nayak
2024-04-30 7:30 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 12:26 ` [PATCH v2 00/10] Clarify pseudo-ref terminology Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 12:26 ` [PATCH v2 01/10] Documentation/glossary: redefine pseudorefs as special refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 12:49 ` Karthik Nayak
2024-04-30 17:17 ` Justin Tobler
2024-04-30 20:12 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-05-02 8:07 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 12:26 ` [PATCH v2 02/10] Documentation/glossary: clarify limitations of pseudorefs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 13:35 ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2024-04-30 12:26 ` [PATCH v2 03/10] Documentation/glossary: define root refs as refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 12:56 ` Karthik Nayak
2024-04-30 12:26 ` [PATCH v2 04/10] refs: rename `is_pseudoref()` to `is_root_ref()` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 20:20 ` Junio C Hamano
2024-04-30 12:26 ` [PATCH v2 05/10] refs: refname `is_special_ref()` to `is_pseudo_ref()` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 12:58 ` Karthik Nayak
2024-04-30 12:26 ` [PATCH v2 06/10] refs: classify HEAD as a root ref Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 12:26 ` [PATCH v2 07/10] refs: root refs can be symbolic refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 17:09 ` Justin Tobler
2024-05-02 8:07 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-03 20:49 ` Justin Tobler
2024-05-07 10:32 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 12:26 ` [PATCH v2 08/10] refs: pseudorefs are no refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 12:27 ` [PATCH v2 09/10] ref-filter: properly distinuish pseudo and root refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-04-30 13:11 ` Karthik Nayak
2024-05-02 8:08 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-02 10:03 ` Karthik Nayak
2024-04-30 12:27 ` [PATCH v2 10/10] refs: refuse to write pseudorefs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-02 8:17 ` [PATCH v3 00/10] Clarify pseudo-ref terminology Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-02 8:17 ` [PATCH v3 01/10] Documentation/glossary: redefine pseudorefs as special refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-02 8:17 ` [PATCH v3 02/10] Documentation/glossary: clarify limitations of pseudorefs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-02 8:17 ` [PATCH v3 03/10] Documentation/glossary: define root refs as refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-02 8:17 ` [PATCH v3 04/10] refs: rename `is_pseudoref()` to `is_root_ref()` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-02 8:17 ` [PATCH v3 05/10] refs: refname `is_special_ref()` to `is_pseudo_ref()` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-02 8:17 ` [PATCH v3 06/10] refs: classify HEAD as a root ref Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-02 8:17 ` [PATCH v3 07/10] refs: root refs can be symbolic refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-03 18:13 ` Jeff King
2024-05-15 4:16 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 4:39 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:22 ` Jeff King
2024-05-15 6:35 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:49 ` Jeff King
2024-05-15 6:59 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:20 ` Jeff King
2024-05-02 8:17 ` [PATCH v3 08/10] refs: pseudorefs are no refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-02 8:17 ` [PATCH v3 09/10] ref-filter: properly distinuish pseudo and root refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-02 8:17 ` [PATCH v3 10/10] refs: refuse to write pseudorefs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 8:48 ` [PATCH v4 00/10] Clarify pseudo-ref terminology Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 8:48 ` [PATCH v4 01/10] Documentation/glossary: redefine pseudorefs as special refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 8:48 ` [PATCH v4 02/10] Documentation/glossary: clarify limitations of pseudorefs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 8:48 ` [PATCH v4 03/10] Documentation/glossary: define root refs as refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 8:48 ` [PATCH v4 04/10] refs: rename `is_pseudoref()` to `is_root_ref()` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 8:48 ` [PATCH v4 05/10] refs: refname `is_special_ref()` to `is_pseudo_ref()` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 8:48 ` [PATCH v4 06/10] refs: root refs can be symbolic refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 8:48 ` [PATCH v4 07/10] refs: classify HEAD as a root ref Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 8:48 ` [PATCH v4 08/10] refs: pseudorefs are no refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 8:48 ` [PATCH v4 09/10] ref-filter: properly distinuish pseudo and root refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 8:48 ` [PATCH v4 10/10] refs: refuse to write pseudorefs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-10 18:59 ` [PATCH v4 00/10] Clarify pseudo-ref terminology Junio C Hamano
2024-05-15 6:50 ` [PATCH v5 " Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:50 ` [PATCH v5 01/10] Documentation/glossary: redefine pseudorefs as special refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:50 ` [PATCH v5 02/10] Documentation/glossary: clarify limitations of pseudorefs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:50 ` [PATCH v5 03/10] Documentation/glossary: define root refs as refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:50 ` [PATCH v5 04/10] refs: rename `is_pseudoref()` to `is_root_ref()` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:50 ` [PATCH v5 05/10] refs: rename `is_special_ref()` to `is_pseudo_ref()` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:50 ` [PATCH v5 06/10] refs: do not check ref existence in `is_root_ref()` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 20:38 ` Justin Tobler
2024-05-16 4:13 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:50 ` [PATCH v5 07/10] refs: classify HEAD as a root ref Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 20:44 ` Justin Tobler
2024-05-15 6:51 ` [PATCH v5 08/10] refs: pseudorefs are no refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:51 ` [PATCH v5 09/10] ref-filter: properly distinuish pseudo and root refs Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15 6:51 ` [PATCH v5 10/10] refs: refuse to write pseudorefs Patrick Steinhardt
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