Re: rebase -i --update-refs can lead to deletion of branches

From: herr.kaste <herr.kaste@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 3, 2022, 15:25 UTC
Message-ID: <CAFzd1+58MCXC9XZ+R7QFUdtw99KV2mHUHGgQUYvoa0USuYSLog@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <16a8a331-f012-7dae-de1e-f03da95ecb6e@dunelm.org.uk>

I have the following reproduction

``` git init && git commit --allow-empty -m "Init" && git commit --allow-empty -m "A" && git checkout -b feature && git commit --allow-empty -m "B" && git commit --allow-empty -m "C" && GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR="sed -i -e '/^update-ref/d'" git rebase --update-refs master^ --interactive ```

After that

```
$ git branch -l
* feature
```

and `master` is gone. Is that reproduction/test-case sane, even? I *think* that's what I originally described.

Regards Caspar Duregger

Am Do., 3. Nov. 2022 um 10:32 Uhr schrieb Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com>:

Show 49 quoted lines

>
> Hi Caspar
>
> On 20/10/2022 18:01, herr.kaste wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have the following:
> >
> > While doing a
> >
> > `$ git rebase --interactive  --update-refs X`
> >
> > I *removed* the "update-ref" lines from the todo list.  The rebase runs
> > as expected and prints e.g.
> >
> > ```
> > Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/test.
> > Updated the following refs with --update-refs:
> > refs/heads/master
> > refs/heads/permissive-interactive-rebase
> > refs/heads/variable-annotations-meta-block
> > ```
> >
> > After that all refs have been removed/deleted.
> >
> > ```
> > $ git branch  --list
> > * test
> > ```
> >
> > Now, I should just have not used `--update-refs` in the first place but anyway
> > I decide late that I rather don't want to update "master" etc. and it should
> > probably not delete the local refs.
> >
> > Actually, I so love the new feature that I switched it *on* by default, and just
> > wanted to overwrite the behavior in the todo editor.
>
> Sorry for the slow reply, I'm afraid I still haven't found time to look
> at this. As far as I can remember deleting the "update-ref" lines should
> leave the ref unchanged. I've cc'd the author to see if they have any
> insight into what is going on
>
> Best Wishes
>
> Phillip
>
>
> > Regards
> > Caspar Duregger