Re: [PATCH 7/8] refs: add 'update-symref' command to 'update-ref'

From: Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com>
Date: Apr 1, 2024, 10:38 UTC
Message-ID: <CAOLa=ZRiTVGs9k5O0+RcNSnu=yyVVS8F2TF+VZOtPGg6EaDDLQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAPx1GvdXdH3OdY1nC2ijVSdpWfg8jn5=j0KB+Wgv70wWeCNH5g@mail.gmail.com>

Chris Torek <chris.torek@gmail.com> writes:

Show 13 quoted lines

> Meanwhile, for testing purposes I was curious as to what happens
> if you ask `git update-ref` to delete an existing symref, so after
> creating a test repository:
>
> $ git branch
> * main
>   symref -> main
> $ git update-ref --stdin
> delete refs/heads/symref
> $ git branch
>
> Whoops, this doesn't look good...
>

This is expected though. Remember that `git-update-ref(1)` by default does dereferencing of symlinks. So in your case, 'refs/heads/symref' is dereferenced to 'refs/heads/main' and when a delete command is issued, 'main' is deleted.

Try the same with the `git update-ref --no-deref --stdin` instead.

Show 11 quoted lines

> Restoring the branch name (I had saved the hash ID Just In Case):
>
> $ echo d88ee82e6a5c29c95f712030f5efc9d43116ae79 > .git/refs/heads/main
>
> brings things back, after which this works properly:
>
> $ git branch -d symref
> Deleted branch symref (was refs/heads/main).
> $ git branch
> * main
>

Here you switch to using 'git-branch(1)' and that doesn't dereference by default. So there is a difference in the two attempts.