Re: [PATCH 1/3] refs: make sha1 output parameter of refs_resolve_ref_unsafe() optional

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sep 24, 2017, 01:26 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq60c8j38t.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <b89d36b5-0996-829b-a267-7ee4da9673dc@web.de>

René Scharfe <l.s.r@web.de> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> Allow callers of refs_resolve_ref_unsafe() to pass NULL if they don't
> need the resolved hash value.  We already allow the same for the flags
> parameter.  This new leniency is inherited by the various wrappers like
> resolve_ref_unsafe().
>
> Signed-off-by: Rene Scharfe <l.s.r@web.de>
> ---

The patches all make sense, and I'd expect them to be something a competent contributor would write after coming to this realization: it seems that many many callers, when they have a ref that could be a symbolic ref, want to learn (1) if it is a symref and (2) where it points at, and nothing else, most notably they do not care what the object pointed by the (symbolic) ref is.

I wonder if we want a dedicated helper for them (perhaps about a dozen callers we have that fall into this pattern?) to call for the exact purpose, implemented as a thin-wrapper around the resolve_ref_unsafe() function, though.

Thanks.