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[PATCH v2 09/17] refs: generalize `refs_for_each_fullref_in_prefixes()`

From
Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Date
Feb 23, 2026, 11:59 UTC
Message-ID
<20260223-pks-refs-for-each-unification-v2-9-515d48c8087b@pks.im>
In-Reply-To
<20260223-pks-refs-for-each-unification-v2-0-515d48c8087b@pks.im>

The function `refs_for_each_fullref_in_prefixes()` can be used to iterate over all references part of any of the user-provided prefixes. In contrast to the `prefix` parameter of `refs_for_each_ref_ext()` it knows to handle the case well where multiple of the passed-in prefixes start with a common prefix by computing longest common prefixes and then iterating over those.

While we could move this logic into `refs_for_each_ref_ext()`, this one feels somewhat special as we perform multiple iterations. But what we _can_ do is to generalize how this function works: instead of accepting only a small handful of parameters, we can have it accept the full options structure.

One obvious exception is that the caller must not provide a prefix via the options. But this case can be easily detected.

Refactor the code accordingly.
Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
---
 ls-refs.c    | 11 +++++++----
 ref-filter.c | 11 +++++++----
 refs.c       | 39 +++++++++++++++------------------------
 refs.h       | 16 +++++-----------
 4 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 43 deletions(-)
diff --git a/ls-refs.c b/ls-refs.c
index 8641281b86..9759826ca7 100644
--- a/ls-refs.c
+++ b/ls-refs.c
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ static int ls_refs_config(const char *var, const char *value,
 
 int ls_refs(struct repository *r, struct packet_reader *request)
 {
+	struct refs_for_each_ref_options opts = { 0 };
 	struct ls_refs_data data;
 
 	memset(&data, 0, sizeof(data));
@@ -201,10 +202,12 @@ int ls_refs(struct repository *r, struct packet_reader *request)
 	send_possibly_unborn_head(&data);
 	if (!data.prefixes.nr)
 		strvec_push(&data.prefixes, "");
-	refs_for_each_fullref_in_prefixes(get_main_ref_store(r),
-					  get_git_namespace(), data.prefixes.v,
-					  hidden_refs_to_excludes(&data.hidden_refs),
-					  send_ref, &data);
+
+	opts.exclude_patterns = hidden_refs_to_excludes(&data.hidden_refs);
+	opts.namespace = get_git_namespace();
+
+	refs_for_each_ref_in_prefixes(get_main_ref_store(r), data.prefixes.v,
+				      &opts, send_ref, &data);
 	packet_fflush(stdout);
 	strvec_clear(&data.prefixes);
 	strbuf_release(&data.buf);
diff --git a/ref-filter.c b/ref-filter.c
index 049e845a19..7c682e0a33 100644
--- a/ref-filter.c
+++ b/ref-filter.c
@@ -2807,6 +2807,10 @@ static int for_each_fullref_in_pattern(struct ref_filter *filter,
 				       refs_for_each_cb cb,
 				       void *cb_data)
 {
+	struct refs_for_each_ref_options opts = {
+		.exclude_patterns = filter->exclude.v,
+	};
+
 	if (filter->kind & FILTER_REFS_ROOT_REFS) {
 		/* In this case, we want to print all refs including root refs. */
 		return for_each_fullref_with_seek(filter, cb, cb_data,
@@ -2836,10 +2840,9 @@ static int for_each_fullref_in_pattern(struct ref_filter *filter,
 		return for_each_fullref_with_seek(filter, cb, cb_data, 0);
 	}
 
-	return refs_for_each_fullref_in_prefixes(get_main_ref_store(the_repository),
-						 NULL, filter->name_patterns,
-						 filter->exclude.v,
-						 cb, cb_data);
+	return refs_for_each_ref_in_prefixes(get_main_ref_store(the_repository),
+					     filter->name_patterns, &opts,
+					     cb, cb_data);
 }
 
 /*
diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index 0d0f0edbfb..0aa3b68dd9 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -2039,40 +2039,31 @@ static void find_longest_prefixes(struct string_list *out,
 	strbuf_release(&prefix);
 }
 
-int refs_for_each_fullref_in_prefixes(struct ref_store *ref_store,
-				      const char *namespace,
-				      const char **patterns,
-				      const char **exclude_patterns,
-				      refs_for_each_cb fn, void *cb_data)
+int refs_for_each_ref_in_prefixes(struct ref_store *ref_store,
+				  const char **prefixes,
+				  const struct refs_for_each_ref_options *opts,
+				  refs_for_each_cb cb, void *cb_data)
 {
-	struct strvec namespaced_exclude_patterns = STRVEC_INIT;
-	struct string_list prefixes = STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP;
+	struct string_list longest_prefixes = STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP;
 	struct string_list_item *prefix;
-	struct strbuf buf = STRBUF_INIT;
-	int ret = 0, namespace_len;
+	int ret = 0;
 
-	find_longest_prefixes(&prefixes, patterns);
+	if (opts->prefix)
+		BUG("refs_for_each_ref_in_prefixes called with specific prefix");
 
-	if (namespace)
-		strbuf_addstr(&buf, namespace);
-	namespace_len = buf.len;
+	find_longest_prefixes(&longest_prefixes, prefixes);
 
-	exclude_patterns = get_namespaced_exclude_patterns(exclude_patterns,
-							   namespace,
-							   &namespaced_exclude_patterns);
+	for_each_string_list_item(prefix, &longest_prefixes) {
+		struct refs_for_each_ref_options prefix_opts = *opts;
+		prefix_opts.prefix = prefix->string;
 
-	for_each_string_list_item(prefix, &prefixes) {
-		strbuf_addstr(&buf, prefix->string);
-		ret = refs_for_each_fullref_in(ref_store, buf.buf,
-					       exclude_patterns, fn, cb_data);
+		ret = refs_for_each_ref_ext(ref_store, cb, cb_data,
+					    &prefix_opts);
 		if (ret)
 			break;
-		strbuf_setlen(&buf, namespace_len);
 	}
 
-	strvec_clear(&namespaced_exclude_patterns);
-	string_list_clear(&prefixes, 0);
-	strbuf_release(&buf);
+	string_list_clear(&longest_prefixes, 0);
 	return ret;
 }
 
diff --git a/refs.h b/refs.h
index 5a5fb4e1e4..faed63aa81 100644
--- a/refs.h
+++ b/refs.h
@@ -521,19 +521,13 @@ int refs_for_each_fullref_in(struct ref_store *refs, const char *prefix,
 			     refs_for_each_cb fn, void *cb_data);
 
 /**
- * iterate all refs in "patterns" by partitioning patterns into disjoint sets
+ * Iterate all refs in "prefixes" by partitioning prefixes into disjoint sets
  * and iterating the longest-common prefix of each set.
- *
- * references matching any pattern in "exclude_patterns" are omitted from the
- * result set on a best-effort basis.
- *
- * callers should be prepared to ignore references that they did not ask for.
  */
-int refs_for_each_fullref_in_prefixes(struct ref_store *refs,
-				      const char *namespace,
-				      const char **patterns,
-				      const char **exclude_patterns,
-				      refs_for_each_cb fn, void *cb_data);
+int refs_for_each_ref_in_prefixes(struct ref_store *refs,
+				  const char **prefixes,
+				  const struct refs_for_each_ref_options *opts,
+				  refs_for_each_cb cb, void *cb_data);
 
 /* iterates all refs that match the specified glob pattern. */
 int refs_for_each_glob_ref(struct ref_store *refs, refs_for_each_cb fn,

-- 
2.53.0.536.g309c995771.dirty
Previous: Patrick SteinhardtNext: Patrick Steinhardt
Message 10 of 19 in “refs: unify `refs_for_each_*()` functions”
  1. 00/17 refs: unify `refs_for_each_*()` functionsPatrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  2. 01/17 refs: remove unused `refs_for_each_include_root_ref()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  3. 02/17 refs: move `refs_head_ref_namespaced()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  4. 03/17 refs: move `do_for_each_ref_flags` further upPatrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  5. 04/17 refs: rename `do_for_each_ref_flags`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  6. 05/17 refs: rename `each_ref_fn`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  7. 06/17 refs: introduce `refs_for_each_ref_ext`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  8. 07/17 refs: speed up `refs_for_each_glob_ref_in()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  9. 08/17 refs: generalize `refs_for_each_namespaced_ref()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  10. 09/17 refs: generalize `refs_for_each_fullref_in_prefixes()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  11. 10/17 refs: improve verification for-each-ref optionsPatrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  12. 11/17 refs: replace `refs_for_each_ref_in()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  13. 12/17 refs: replace `refs_for_each_rawref()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  14. 13/17 refs: replace `refs_for_each_rawref_in()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  15. 14/17 refs: replace `refs_for_each_glob_ref_in()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  16. 15/17 refs: replace `refs_for_each_glob_ref()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  17. 16/17 refs: replace `refs_for_each_namespaced_ref()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  18. 17/17 refs: replace `refs_for_each_fullref_in()`Patrick Steinhardt, Feb 23, 2026
  19. Karthik NayakFeb 24, 2026

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