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[PATCH] builtin/reflog: say "would prune" for named refs with --dry-run

From
LBLaveesh Bansal <laveeshb@laveeshbansal.com>
Date
Oct 24, 2026, 01:38 UTC
Message-ID
<20261024013850.66448-1-laveeshb@laveeshbansal.com>

With --dry-run --verbose, "git reflog expire --all" reports the entries it would remove as "would prune", but when refs are named on the command line it reports them as "prune", which looks as if they were removed:

    $ git reflog expire --dry-run --verbose --expire=now HEAD
    prune commit (initial): first

Nothing is removed in either case, only the label is wrong. This was reported at [1].

fcd2c3d9d8 (reflog + refs-backend: move "verbose" out of the backend, 2021-12-22) added dry_run to struct expire_reflog_policy_cb and set it in the --all loop, but not in the loop for named refs. Set it there too.

Add tests for named refs and --all. No test checked the keep/prune wording before.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/b46cbce8-d2bb-46d2-bdd3-545422813d6b@tngtech.com/
Reported-by: Sven Weiland <sven.weiland@tngtech.com>
Assisted-by: Claude Sonnet 5.5
Signed-off-by: Laveesh Bansal <laveeshb@laveeshbansal.com>
---
Notes:
    The dry_run bit just duplicates what is already in flags, so every
    caller has to copy it, and one got missed. Dropping it would mean
    changing the callback signature, so I left that alone.
 builtin/reflog.c  |  5 ++++-
 t/t1410-reflog.sh | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/builtin/reflog.c b/builtin/reflog.c
index 1211c58fa4..49e5453dd9 100644
--- a/builtin/reflog.c
+++ b/builtin/reflog.c
@@ -279,7 +279,10 @@ static int cmd_reflog_expire(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix,
 
 	for (i = 0; i < argc; i++) {
 		char *ref;
-		struct expire_reflog_policy_cb cb = { .opts = opts };
+		struct expire_reflog_policy_cb cb = {
+			.opts = opts,
+			.dry_run = !!(flags & EXPIRE_REFLOGS_DRY_RUN),
+		};
 
 		if (!repo_dwim_log(the_repository, argv[i], strlen(argv[i]), NULL, &ref)) {
 			status |= error(_("reflog could not be found: '%s'"), argv[i]);
diff --git a/t/t1410-reflog.sh b/t/t1410-reflog.sh
index 93b5b49e1d..998a7e8667 100755
--- a/t/t1410-reflog.sh
+++ b/t/t1410-reflog.sh
@@ -240,6 +240,40 @@ test_expect_success 'reflog expire --dry-run should not touch reflog' '
 	check_fsck "missing blob $F"
 '
 
+# A dry run only ever says "keep" or "would prune".
+check_dry_run_output () {
+	test_grep "^would prune " "$1" &&
+	sed -e "/^keep /d" -e "/^would prune /d" \
+		-e "/^Marking reachable objects/d" "$1" >unexpected &&
+	test_must_be_empty unexpected
+}
+
+test_expect_success 'reflog expire --dry-run --verbose with a named ref' '
+	git reflog refs/heads/main >before &&
+	git reflog expire --dry-run --verbose \
+		--expire=$(($test_tick - 10000)) \
+		--expire-unreachable=$(($test_tick - 10000)) \
+		--stale-fix \
+		refs/heads/main >output &&
+	check_dry_run_output output &&
+
+	git reflog refs/heads/main >after &&
+	test_cmp before after
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'reflog expire --dry-run --verbose --all' '
+	git reflog refs/heads/main >before &&
+	git reflog expire --dry-run --verbose \
+		--expire=$(($test_tick - 10000)) \
+		--expire-unreachable=$(($test_tick - 10000)) \
+		--stale-fix \
+		--all >output &&
+	check_dry_run_output output &&
+
+	git reflog refs/heads/main >after &&
+	test_cmp before after
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'reflog expire' '
 
 	git reflog expire --verbose \
-- 
2.54.0
Next: Junio C Hamano
Message 1 of 5 in “builtin/reflog: say "would prune" for named refs with --dry-run”
  1. builtin/reflog: say "would prune" for named refs with --dry-runLaveesh Bansal, Oct 24, 2026
  2. Junio C HamanoOct 25, 2026
  3. Laveesh BansalOct 25, 2026
  4. Junio C HamanoOct 26, 2026
  5. Patrick SteinhardtOct 29, 2026

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