Re: [PATCH v2] doc: add a explanation of Git's data model

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 14, 2025, 13:39 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqa51tzjpm.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <46c6ca15-c1d2-4dd9-a6d3-2538f482b475@app.fastmail.com>

"Julia Evans" <julia@jvns.ca> writes:

Show 14 quoted lines

>> Yeah, I don't necessarily think that we need to mention root refs here.
>> But what I think we need to avoid is the following sentence, as it is
>> misleading:
>>
>>     References are stored in a hierarchy, and Git handles references
>>     differently based on where they are in the hierarchy.
>>
>
> Why do you say that it’s misleading? (what do you think it’s
> implying that is not true?)
>
> What i’m trying to communicate is that branches, tags, etc are
> treated differently from each other and that Git knows how to
> handle them based on where they are in the hierarchy.

FWIW, I had the same reaction to what response you are responding to said. I think Patrick assumes that our target audiences would assume the "hierarchy" begins at "refs/" and "root" things are outside the hierarchy, but my mental model saw that the hierarchy began at the root level, most of things are in "refs/", but one level above it lives things like HEAD and ORIG_HEAD. I think both can be valid, but I do not know which views are more common.

Thanks.