[PATCH v3 2/6] Documentation/git-update-ref.txt: remove safety paragraphs

From: kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com <kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com>
Date: Oct 21, 2024, 20:47 UTC
Message-ID: <bb14c427f81bbbdf6d6bb80e1bfd39e80f1d1c40.1729543007.git.code@khaugsbakk.name>
In-Reply-To: <cover.1729543007.git.code@khaugsbakk.name>

From: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>

Remove paragraphs which explain that using this command is safer than echoing the branch name into `HEAD`.

Evoking the echo strategy is wrong now under the reftable backend since this file does not exist. And the ref file backend majority user base use porcelain commands to manage `HEAD` unless they are intentionally poking at the implementation.

Maybe this warning was relevant for the usage patterns when it was added[1] but now it just takes up space.

† 1: 129056370ab (Add missing documentation., 2005-10-04)

Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name>
---

Notes (series):
    v3:
    • Change commit message: ref backends
    
      Link: https://lore.kernel.org/git/bcb0e2d8-ebee-4835-aa43-05107199ee62@app.fastmail.com/#t

 Documentation/git-update-ref.txt | 15 ---------------
 1 file changed, 15 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-update-ref.txt b/Documentation/git-update-ref.txt
index a2bee2ea24a..1a0aec041ea 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-update-ref.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-update-ref.txt
@@ -40,21 +40,6 @@ somewhere else with a regular filename).
 If --no-deref is given, <ref> itself is overwritten, rather than
 the result of following the symbolic pointers.
 
-In general, using
-
-	git update-ref HEAD "$head"
-
-should be a _lot_ safer than doing
-
-	echo "$head" > "$GIT_DIR/HEAD"
-
-both from a symlink following standpoint *and* an error checking
-standpoint.  The "refs/" rule for symlinks means that symlinks
-that point to "outside" the tree are safe: they'll be followed
-for reading but not for writing (so we'll never write through a
-ref symlink to some other tree, if you have copied a whole
-archive by creating a symlink tree).
-
 With `-d`, it deletes the named <ref> after verifying that it
 still contains <old-oid>.

-- 
2.46.1.641.g54e7913fcb6