Hmmmm. Do you mean this sequence will break?
: gitster x; git init lo
Initialized empty Git repository in /var/tmp/x/lo/.git/
: gitster x; cd lo
: gitster lo/master; git commit --allow-empty -m initial
[master (root-commit) db2b430] initial
: gitster lo/master; git branch nextNow we have two branches, master and next, and we are on master.
: gitster lo/master; git pack-refs --all
: gitster lo/master; ls .git/refs/heads
./ ../
: gitster lo/master; cat .git/packed-refs
# pack-refs with: peeled fully-peeled
db2b43072749258d1e3c119c9570349d77c26b3a refs/heads/master
db2b43072749258d1e3c119c9570349d77c26b3a refs/heads/nextAnd loose refs are fully packed.
: gitster lo/master; git checkout next
Switched to branch 'next'
: gitster lo/next; ls .git/refs/heads
./ ../