Re: [PATCH v15 04/27] bisect--helper: `bisect_clean_state` shell function in C

>
> Stephan Beyer <s-beyer@gmx.net> writes:
>
> >> +int bisect_clean_state(void)
> >> +{
> >> +    int result = 0;
> >> +
> >> +    /* There may be some refs packed during bisection */
> >> +    struct string_list refs_for_removal = STRING_LIST_INIT_NODUP;
> >> +    for_each_ref_in("refs/bisect", mark_for_removal, (void *) &refs_for_removal);
> >> +    string_list_append(&refs_for_removal, xstrdup("BISECT_HEAD"));
> >> +    result = delete_refs(&refs_for_removal, REF_NODEREF);
> >> +    refs_for_removal.strdup_strings = 1;
> >> +    string_list_clear(&refs_for_removal, 0);
> >
> > Does it have advantages to populate a list (with duplicated strings),
> > hand it to delete_refs(), and clear the list (and strings), instead of
> > just doing a single delete_ref() (or whatever name the singular function
> > has) in the callback?
>
> Depending on ref backends, removing multiple refs may be a lot more
> efficient than calling a single ref removal for the same set of
> refs, and the comment upfront I think hints that the code was
> written in the way exactly with that in mind.  Removing N refs from
> a packed refs file will involve a loop that runs N times, each
> iteration loading the file, locating an entry among possibly 100s of
> refs to remove, and then rewriting the file.
>
> Besides, it is bad taste to delete each individual item being
> iterated over in an interator in general, isn't it?
>