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Thu, 19 Feb 2026 01:38:29 -0800 (PST) Received: from [127.0.0.2] ([2a02:8109:d906:4e00:1ea7:2b8f:9148:411a]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id 5b1f17b1804b1-4834d5ebd34sm694274985e9.7.2026.02.19.01.38.29 (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256/256); Thu, 19 Feb 2026 01:38:29 -0800 (PST) From: Karthik Nayak Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:38:21 +0100 Subject: [PATCH v7 2/6] refs: extract out `refs_create_refdir_stubs()` Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <20260219-kn-alternate-ref-dir-v7-2-16f27860dbdf@gmail.com> References: <20260219-kn-alternate-ref-dir-v7-0-16f27860dbdf@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20260219-kn-alternate-ref-dir-v7-0-16f27860dbdf@gmail.com> To: git@vger.kernel.org Cc: Karthik Nayak , gitster@pobox.com, ps@pks.im, toon@iotcl.com X-Mailer: b4 0.15-dev X-Developer-Signature: v=1; a=openpgp-sha256; l=4490; i=karthik.188@gmail.com; h=from:subject:message-id; bh=aVVimAxQnXEvoKwM7HBg4GCwFAV+lY4LIvEgckb8BJA=; b=owJ4nAHtARL+kA0DAAoBPtWfJI5GjH8ByyZiAGmW2hIU/tAQpYL33fmq0C4lCCfJAij8gU2aO BR4yZezsiuxw4kBswQAAQoAHRYhBFfOTH9jdXEPy2XGBj7VnySORox/BQJpltoSAAoJED7VnySO Rox/L94MAImL1zeexpfqW20iV3GeiHmABk2JpwghblGk254flf2EpP59Rs0HOxWWwRlE0Q/jJus PO5vYbJ2JlUYmU8d9G47Z/V2oqDBpIMQV7Osoii1GCo2zj5KuL3+prxGamie9QfFjRPdG04lCv8 lfCyyf7T9orRRv+Yw0m8C/I66FC47v4i0ktjAHXFcma/L4B/PKe6MtRjsTqVMsfZ4/EMXh1nnBM r0lPAyQB8XyewBV1no8jnW8YVkSW13pQ8TDyBeUqJoHrd0oSsnIuhukW226otb2+BR2FSmStDvi 7c2xDHozmiuD8DS9wxuBpZJ7c77XqvwYbgcgklmdNKitlbmZ+QYE7zG/B0VfEjbpvn/2YWQ5qLE 6ScpPaNA2pdugjhm2ZdT+xViQxeoA5S068W+JKY0Bn4zrDb+1GUi7po9ruFV1anEV5Bgf5qvQIK 8g1G1ja+CLIblgl6K4eLOQH5sNARnTQSpCO/RqBi7wQmN63Xk8X8gcXe3lThbf01avqMYcI9Y+5 Jg= X-Developer-Key: i=karthik.188@gmail.com; a=openpgp; fpr=57CE4C7F6375710FCB65C6063ED59F248E468C7F For Git to recognize a directory as a Git directory, it requires the directory to contain: 1. 'HEAD' file 2. 'objects/' directory 3. 'refs/' directory Here, #1 and #3 are part of the reference storage mechanism, specifically the files backend. Since then, newer backends such as the reftable backend have moved to using their own path ('reftable/') for storing references. But to ensure Git still recognizes the directory as a Git directory, we create stubs. There are two locations where we create stubs: - In 'refs/reftable-backend.c' when creating the reftable backend. - In 'clone.c' before spawning transport helpers. In a following commit, we'll add another instance. So instead of repeating the code, let's extract out this code to `refs_create_refdir_stubs()` and use it. Signed-off-by: Karthik Nayak --- builtin/clone.c | 7 +------ refs.c | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++ refs.h | 13 +++++++++++++ refs/reftable-backend.c | 14 ++------------ 4 files changed, 39 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-) diff --git a/builtin/clone.c b/builtin/clone.c index cd43bb5aa2..697c5bb5cb 100644 --- a/builtin/clone.c +++ b/builtin/clone.c @@ -1225,12 +1225,7 @@ int cmd_clone(int argc, initialize_repository_version(GIT_HASH_UNKNOWN, the_repository->ref_storage_format, 1); - strbuf_addf(&buf, "%s/HEAD", git_dir); - write_file(buf.buf, "ref: refs/heads/.invalid"); - - strbuf_reset(&buf); - strbuf_addf(&buf, "%s/refs", git_dir); - safe_create_dir(the_repository, buf.buf, 1); + refs_create_refdir_stubs(the_repository, git_dir, NULL); /* * additional config can be injected with -c, make sure it's included diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c index 627b7f8698..77b93d655b 100644 --- a/refs.c +++ b/refs.c @@ -2163,6 +2163,29 @@ const char *refs_resolve_ref_unsafe(struct ref_store *refs, return NULL; } +void refs_create_refdir_stubs(struct repository *repo, const char *refdir, + const char *refs_heads_content) +{ + struct strbuf path = STRBUF_INIT; + + strbuf_addf(&path, "%s/HEAD", refdir); + write_file(path.buf, "ref: refs/heads/.invalid"); + adjust_shared_perm(repo, path.buf); + + strbuf_reset(&path); + strbuf_addf(&path, "%s/refs", refdir); + safe_create_dir(repo, path.buf, 1); + + if (refs_heads_content) { + strbuf_reset(&path); + strbuf_addf(&path, "%s/refs/heads", refdir); + write_file(path.buf, "%s", refs_heads_content); + adjust_shared_perm(repo, path.buf); + } + + strbuf_release(&path); +} + /* backend functions */ int ref_store_create_on_disk(struct ref_store *refs, int flags, struct strbuf *err) { diff --git a/refs.h b/refs.h index f0abfa1d93..9d8890fdff 100644 --- a/refs.h +++ b/refs.h @@ -1427,4 +1427,17 @@ void ref_iterator_free(struct ref_iterator *ref_iterator); int do_for_each_ref_iterator(struct ref_iterator *iter, each_ref_fn fn, void *cb_data); +/* + * Git only recognizes a directory as a repository if it contains: + * - HEAD file + * - refs/ folder + * While it is necessary within the files backend, newer backends may not + * follow the same structure. To go around this, we create stubs as necessary. + * + * If provided with a 'refs_heads_msg', we create the 'refs/heads/head' file + * with the provided message. + */ +void refs_create_refdir_stubs(struct repository *repo, const char *refdir, + const char *refs_heads_msg); + #endif /* REFS_H */ diff --git a/refs/reftable-backend.c b/refs/reftable-backend.c index fe74af73af..d8651fe779 100644 --- a/refs/reftable-backend.c +++ b/refs/reftable-backend.c @@ -491,18 +491,8 @@ static int reftable_be_create_on_disk(struct ref_store *ref_store, safe_create_dir(the_repository, sb.buf, 1); strbuf_reset(&sb); - strbuf_addf(&sb, "%s/HEAD", refs->base.gitdir); - write_file(sb.buf, "ref: refs/heads/.invalid"); - adjust_shared_perm(the_repository, sb.buf); - strbuf_reset(&sb); - - strbuf_addf(&sb, "%s/refs", refs->base.gitdir); - safe_create_dir(the_repository, sb.buf, 1); - strbuf_reset(&sb); - - strbuf_addf(&sb, "%s/refs/heads", refs->base.gitdir); - write_file(sb.buf, "this repository uses the reftable format"); - adjust_shared_perm(the_repository, sb.buf); + refs_create_refdir_stubs(the_repository, refs->base.gitdir, + "this repository uses the reftable format"); strbuf_release(&sb); return 0; -- 2.53.GIT