Re: [PATCH 3/5] refs.h: HEAD is not that special

From: Andy Koppe <andy.koppe@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 16, 2023, 10:03 UTC
Message-ID: <1bcd61c3-567f-4b3d-aaee-d29a6091a28d@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20231215203245.3622299-4-gitster@pobox.com>

On 15/12/2023 20:32, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 21 quoted lines

> In-code comment explains pseudorefs but used a wrong nomenclature
> "special ref".
> 
> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
> ---
>   refs.h | 2 +-
>   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/refs.h b/refs.h
> index 23211a5ea1..ff113bb12a 100644
> --- a/refs.h
> +++ b/refs.h
> @@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ struct worktree;
>    * Even with RESOLVE_REF_ALLOW_BAD_NAME, names that escape the refs/
>    * directory and do not consist of all caps and underscores cannot be
>    * resolved. The function returns NULL for such ref names.
> - * Caps and underscores refers to the special refs, such as HEAD,
> + * Caps and underscores refers to the pseudorefs, such as HEAD,
>    * FETCH_HEAD and friends, that all live outside of the refs/ directory.
>    */
>   #define RESOLVE_REF_READING 0x01

gitglossary thinks that HEAD is not a pseudoref:

"Pseudorefs are a class of files under $GIT_DIR which behave like refs for the purposes of rev-parse, but which are treated specially by git. Pseudorefs both have names that are all-caps, and always start with a line consisting of a SHA‐1 followed by whitespace. So, HEAD is not a pseudoref, because it is sometimes a symbolic ref."

(Also, the "sometimes" there actually is "whenever you're on a branch", which is most of the time for most people.)

Regards, Andy