Re: [PATCH v3 0/8] refs: add symref support to 'git-update-ref'

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Apr 25, 2024, 18:01 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq4jbpgw32.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <CAOLa=ZRk8QR4qkbkRm6AirapdrAqz6bG-tXfY3zRQU_9XkJM1Q@mail.gmail.com>

Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> 2. We change the syntax to something like
>
>     symref-update SP <ref> SP <new-ref> [SP (ref <old-target> | oid
> <old-oid>)] LF
>
> this would remove any ambiguity since the user specifies the data type
> they're providing.

Yup. Being explicit helps, especially if you are only dealing with programs that do not complain "that's too many keystrokes" like pesky humans ;-).

When the topic's overall title is to add support for symbolic refs to the update-ref command, a natural expectation is that in a far enough future everything that can be done with "git symbolic-ref" can be done with "git update-ref" and we can, if we wanted to, depreate "git symbolic-ref". Is that really what is going on here?

IOW, we should add support for operation modes other than "--stdin" as well, shouldn't we?

Thanks.