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Truncating HEAD reflog on branch move

From
brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Date
Jun 21, 2017, 21:40 UTC
Message-ID
<20170621213924.wh43i2h7v2zwihq3@genre.crustytoothpaste.net>

In Git 2.11.0, using git branch -m caused an empty entry to be logged to the reflog, but it preserved the previous history of the default (HEAD) reflog. In Git 2.13.1 (and in next and pu), we write a valid entry into the reflog, but truncate it.

So for the following commands:
  git clone https://git.crustytoothpaste.net/git/bmc/homedir.git
  cd homedir
  git checkout cPanel
  git checkout master
  git branch -m master new
I get the following on 2.11.0:

2cbfbd5 HEAD@{0}: 2cbfbd5 HEAD@{1}: checkout: moving from cPanel to master eaf8db2 HEAD@{2}: checkout: moving from master to cPanel 2cbfbd5 HEAD@{3}: clone: from https://bmc@git.crustytoothpaste.net/git/bmc/homedir.git

and this on a recent next:
2cbfbd5 HEAD@{0}: Branch: renamed refs/heads/master to refs/heads/new

For this test, any repo will work; I just picked this one because it had two branches I could use to generate dummy reflog entries.

A colleague reported this to me as a bug. I don't see anything in the release notes about this as a desired behavior change, and it does seem undesirable to truncate the reflog this way. If this isn't intentional, I'm happy to work up a patch.

-- 
brian m. carlson / brian with sandals: Houston, Texas, US
https://www.crustytoothpaste.net/~bmc | My opinion only
OpenPGP: https://keybase.io/bk2204
Next: Junio C Hamano
Message 1 of 69 in “Truncating HEAD reflog on branch move”
  1. brian m. carlsonJun 21, 2017
  2. Junio C HamanoJun 21, 2017
  3. Kyle MeyerJun 21, 2017
  4. Kyle MeyerJun 21, 2017
  5. Jeff KingJun 22, 2017
  6. Junio C HamanoJun 22, 2017
  7. Jeff KingJun 22, 2017
  8. Junio C HamanoJun 22, 2017
  9. Jeff KingJun 22, 2017
  10. Junio C HamanoJun 22, 2017
  11. Jeff KingJun 22, 2017
  12. Jeff KingJun 22, 2017
  13. Jeff KingJun 23, 2017
  14. brian m. carlsonJul 4, 2017
  15. Jeff KingJul 4, 2017
  16. brian m. carlsonJul 4, 2017
  17. Jeff KingJul 4, 2017
  18. Junio C HamanoJul 5, 2017
  19. 0/6 fixing reflog-walk odditiesJeff King, Jul 5, 2017
  20. 1/6 reflog-walk: skip over double-null oid due to HEAD renameJeff King, Jul 5, 2017
  21. Junio C HamanoJul 5, 2017
  22. Jeff KingJul 5, 2017
  23. 2/6 t1414: document some reflog-walk odditiesJeff King, Jul 5, 2017
  24. Junio C HamanoJul 5, 2017
  25. Jeff KingJul 5, 2017
  26. Junio C HamanoJul 5, 2017
  27. Jeff KingJul 6, 2017
  28. Jeff KingJul 6, 2017
  29. Junio C HamanoJul 6, 2017
  30. Jeff KingJul 7, 2017
  31. Junio C HamanoJul 7, 2017
  32. Jeff KingJul 7, 2017
  33. Ramsay JonesJul 5, 2017
  34. Jeff KingJul 5, 2017
  35. 3/6 log: do not free parents when walking reflogJeff King, Jul 5, 2017
  36. 4/6 get_revision_1(): replace do-while with an early returnJeff King, Jul 5, 2017
  37. 5/6 rev-list: check reflog_info before showing usageJeff King, Jul 5, 2017
  38. Junio C HamanoJul 5, 2017
  39. Jeff KingJul 5, 2017
  40. 6/6 reflog-walk: stop using fake parentsJeff King, Jul 5, 2017
  41. Eric WongJul 7, 2017
  42. Jeff KingJul 7, 2017
  43. Jeff KingJul 7, 2017
  44. Eric WongJul 10, 2017
  45. Jeff KingJul 10, 2017
  46. Junio C HamanoJul 10, 2017
  47. 0/4 reflog-walk fixes for maintJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  48. 1/4 reflog-walk: skip over double-null oid due to HEAD renameJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  49. 2/4 reflog-walk: duplicate strings in complete_reflogs listJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  50. 3/4 reflog-walk: don't free reflogs added to cacheJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  51. 4/4 reflog-walk: include all fields when freeing complete_reflogsJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  52. 0/7 fixing reflog-walk odditiesJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  53. 1/7 t1414: document some reflog-walk odditiesJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  54. Jeff KingJul 7, 2017
  55. Kyle MeyerJul 7, 2017
  56. 2/7 revision: disallow reflog walking with revs->limitedJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  57. 4/7 get_revision_1(): replace do-while with an early returnJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  58. 5/7 rev-list: check reflog_info before showing usageJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  59. 3/7 log: do not free parents when walking reflogJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  60. Junio C HamanoJul 7, 2017
  61. Jeff KingJul 9, 2017
  62. Junio C HamanoJul 9, 2017
  63. Jeff KingJul 10, 2017
  64. 6/7 reflog-walk: stop using fake parentsJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  65. Jeff KingJul 7, 2017
  66. Kyle MeyerJul 7, 2017
  67. Jeff KingJul 9, 2017
  68. 7/7 reflog-walk: apply --since/--until to reflog datesJeff King, Jul 7, 2017
  69. Junio C HamanoJul 7, 2017

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