From: Karthik Nayak Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2025 15:08:56 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH 9/9] refs: add a '--required' flag to 'git refs optimize' Message-ID: In-Reply-To: Junio C Hamano writes: > Junio C Hamano writes: > >> Perhaps "--check-" followed by a word specific to what we are trying >> to achieve (e.g., if we are trying to see if auto-compaction is >> necessary, "--check-for-auto" "check for auto compaction")? I >> dunno. > > After reading what you did in the previou step, I am reasonably sure > "required" is a wrong word to use, with or without other words like > "check". Semantically it is similar to the should_pack_refs() check > that we use for pack-refs even before "optimize" came. We expect it > to answer this question cheaply: are we better off if we repacked, > or can we go on without repacking for now? It is not about "are we > performing so poorly that we MUST optimize now?" I agree '--required' isn't the best name, and like we discussed '--dry-run' wouldn't be either since that would imply that the work is being done but not persisted. I was leaning towards '--check', which is simple. But It might be nicer to be verbose here and simply add something like '--is-worthwhile'. Being verbose here is okay, since it will only be used sparingly and specifically by those who require such a use case.