From: Andy Koppe <andy.koppe@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 01 Nov 2026 23:03:22 GMT
Subject: [PATCH v2 4/5] refs: stop calling root refs pseudorefs
Message-ID: <20261101230326.3675597-5-andy.koppe@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20261022212903.177261-1-andy.koppe@gmail.com>

Some messages and comments in the code still use "pseudoref" in its old
sense of any ref outside of "refs/", whereas the glossary now calls
those root refs and restricts pseudorefs to FETCH_HEAD and MERGE_HEAD,
so update them.

Bash completion function __git_pseudoref_exists() is not renamed, as
there is no obvious term covering both root refs and pseudorefs, and
third-party completion scripts might depend on the name.

Signed-off-by: Andy Koppe <andy.koppe@gmail.com>
---
 builtin/for-each-ref.c                 |  2 +-
 contrib/completion/git-completion.bash |  7 ++++---
 refs.h                                 | 13 ++++++-------
 revision.c                             |  2 +-
 4 files changed, 12 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/builtin/for-each-ref.c b/builtin/for-each-ref.c
index 4a2fc421db..6ff32e919c 100644
--- a/builtin/for-each-ref.c
+++ b/builtin/for-each-ref.c
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ int for_each_ref_core(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix, struct re
 		OPT_NO_CONTAINS(&filter.no_commit, N_("print only refs which don't contain the commit")),
 		OPT_BOOL(0, "ignore-case", &icase, N_("sorting and filtering are case insensitive")),
 		OPT_BOOL(0, "stdin", &from_stdin, N_("read reference patterns from stdin")),
-		OPT_BOOL(0, "include-root-refs", &include_root_refs, N_("also include HEAD ref and pseudorefs")),
+		OPT_BOOL(0, "include-root-refs", &include_root_refs, N_("also include root refs")),
 		OPT_END(),
 	};
 
diff --git a/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash b/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
index c3a49e2e22..e12ac0359c 100644
--- a/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
+++ b/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
@@ -147,8 +147,9 @@ __git_eread ()
 	test -r "$1" && IFS=$'\r\n' read -r "$2" <"$1"
 }
 
-# Runs git in $__git_repo_path to determine whether a pseudoref exists.
-# 1: The pseudo-ref to search
+# Runs git in $__git_repo_path to determine whether a root ref or
+# pseudoref exists.
+# 1: The ref to check
 __git_pseudoref_exists ()
 {
 	local ref=$1
@@ -954,7 +955,7 @@ __git_refs ()
 	esac
 }
 
-# Completes refs, short and long, local and remote, symbolic and pseudo.
+# Completes refs, short and long, local and remote, symbolic, root and pseudo.
 #
 # Usage: __git_complete_refs [<option>]...
 # --remote=<remote>: The remote to list refs from, can be the name of a
diff --git a/refs.h b/refs.h
index ee3b8a62ef..3be7ef3b0e 100644
--- a/refs.h
+++ b/refs.h
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ enum ref_transaction_error {
  * 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 pseudorefs, such as HEAD,
+ * Caps and underscores refers to root refs and pseudorefs, such as HEAD,
  * FETCH_HEAD and friends, that all live outside of the refs/ directory.
  */
 #define RESOLVE_REF_READING 0x01
@@ -448,8 +448,8 @@ enum refs_for_each_flag {
 	REFS_FOR_EACH_OMIT_DANGLING_SYMREFS = (1 << 2),
 
 	/*
-	 * Include root refs i.e. HEAD and pseudorefs along with the regular
-	 * refs.
+	 * Include root refs, such as HEAD and ORIG_HEAD, along with the
+	 * regular refs.
 	 */
 	REFS_FOR_EACH_INCLUDE_ROOT_REFS = (1 << 3),
 };
@@ -1306,10 +1306,9 @@ void update_ref_namespace(enum ref_namespace namespace, char *ref);
 int is_root_ref(const char *refname);
 
 /*
- * Pseudorefs are refs that have different semantics compared to
- * "normal" refs. These refs can thus not be stored in the ref backend,
- * but must always be accessed via the filesystem. The following refs
- * are pseudorefs:
+ * Pseudorefs are names that can be used like refs, but have different
+ * semantics. They cannot be stored in the ref backend, but must always
+ * be accessed via the filesystem. The following are pseudorefs:
  *
  * - FETCH_HEAD may contain multiple object IDs, and each one of them
  *   carries additional metadata like where it came from.
diff --git a/revision.c b/revision.c
index a83e499047..d6dd56faf1 100644
--- a/revision.c
+++ b/revision.c
@@ -2000,7 +2000,7 @@ static const char *lookup_other_head(struct object_id *oid)
 			return other_head[i];
 		}
 
-	die(_("--merge requires one of the pseudorefs MERGE_HEAD, CHERRY_PICK_HEAD, REVERT_HEAD or REBASE_HEAD"));
+	die(_("--merge requires one of MERGE_HEAD, CHERRY_PICK_HEAD, REVERT_HEAD or REBASE_HEAD"));
 }
 
 static void prepare_show_merge(struct rev_info *revs)
-- 
2.56.0