Re: [PATCH v3 09/11] technical/shallow: describe the relationship with replace refs

> "Philip Oakley" <philipoakley@iee.org> writes:
> 
> > Perhaps something like:
> > +$GIT_DIR/shallow, and handle its contents similar to replace
> > +refs (with the difference that shallow does not actually
> > +create those replace refs) with the difference that shallow commits will
> > +always have their parents not present.
> 
> I am not sure if there is enough similarity to replace mechanism to
> mention that.  It has lines of text, each of which records a commit
> object for which Git is told to pretend that it has no parent.
> 
> To those who are familiar with "graft" format, it is possible to
> explain the format as "it is similar to graft", as a line with a
> single commit object name tells Git to pretend that it has no parent
> in the "graft" format, but because we are getting rid of graft, it
> probably makes sense to just explain it without reference to replace
> (which may serve a similar purpose, but is certainly very far from
> "similar" as a mechanism when you explain how the contents of shallow
> is handled).
> 
>     $GIT_DIR/shallow lists commit object names and tells Git to
>     pretend as if they are root commits (e.g. "git log" traversal
>     stops after showing them; "git fsck" does not complain saying
>     the commits listed on their "parent" lines do not exist).