From: Junio C Hamano Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2025 20:54:10 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] refs/files: deprecate writing symrefs as symbolic links Message-ID: In-Reply-To: Junio C Hamano writes: > Patrick Steinhardt writes: > >> The "files" backend has the ability to store symbolic refs as symbolic >> links, which can be configured via "core.preferSymlinkRefs". This >> feature stems back from the early days: the initial implementation of >> symbolic refs used symlinks exclusively. The symref format was only >> introduced in 9b143c6e15 (Teach update-ref about a symbolic ref stored >> in a textfile., 2005-09-25) and made the default in 9f0bb90d16 >> (core.prefersymlinkrefs: use symlinks for .git/HEAD, 2006-05-02). >> >> This is all about 20 years ago, and there are no known reasons nowadays >> why one would want to use symlinks instead of symrefs. Mark the feature >> for deprecation in Git 3.0. >> >> Note that this only deprecates _writing_ symrefs as symbolic links. >> Reading such symrefs is still supported for now. >> >> Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt >> --- >> Hi, >> >> as discussed in [1], this small patch deprecates >> "core.preferSymlinkRefs". Thanks! >> >> Changes in v2: >> - Tweaks for the deprecation announcement. >> - Use "textual symref format" instead of "symref format". >> - Warn after having created the symlink so that we don't drown out >> messages from `die()` that may have happened in >> `get_locked_file_path()`. >> - Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20251014-pks-ref-files-deprecate-symbolic-links-v1-1-4bcd6a4ef6f5@pks.im > > Looking good. Will replace. Let me mark it for 'next'. Thanks.