[PATCH v5 00/10] Clarify pseudo-ref terminology

Patrick Steinhardt
2024-05-15T06:50:23Z

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Hi,

this is the fifth version of my patch series that aims to clarify the
pseudo-ref terminology. Changes compared to v4:

- Dropped a now-unneeded comment in `is_head_ref_syntax()` which
claims that "HEAD is not a pseudoref". Due to the rename of the
function this comment no longer applies.

- Adapted `is_root_ref()` so that it does not check the ref for
existence at all anymore, as proposed by Peff. This makes the
function's behaviour way less confusing overall. I also added some
explanations to the commit message to explain why this is okay to
do.

- Adapted the commit message of `is_headref()` to explain some of the
subtleties that result from the removed ref existence check.

Thanks!

Patrick Steinhardt (10):
Documentation/glossary: redefine pseudorefs as special refs
Documentation/glossary: clarify limitations of pseudorefs
Documentation/glossary: define root refs as refs
refs: rename `is_pseudoref()` to `is_root_ref()`
refs: rename `is_special_ref()` to `is_pseudo_ref()`
refs: do not check ref existence in `is_root_ref()`
refs: classify HEAD as a root ref
refs: pseudorefs are no refs
ref-filter: properly distinuish pseudo and root refs
refs: refuse to write pseudorefs

Documentation/glossary-content.txt | 72 +++++++++++-----------
builtin/for-each-ref.c | 2 +-
ref-filter.c | 16 ++---
ref-filter.h | 4 +-
refs.c | 98 +++++++++++-------------------
refs.h | 48 ++++++++++++++-
refs/files-backend.c | 3 +-
refs/reftable-backend.c | 3 +-
t/t5510-fetch.sh | 6 +-
t/t6302-for-each-ref-filter.sh | 34 +++++++++++
10 files changed, 169 insertions(+), 117 deletions(-)

Range-diff against v4:
1: b1fc4c1ac7 = 1: 1f2445b95b Documentation/glossary: redefine pseudorefs as special refs
2: dce3a0fa7e = 2: d328081c52 Documentation/glossary: clarify limitations of pseudorefs
3: 79249962f5 = 3: 0d185e6479 Documentation/glossary: define root refs as refs
4: ee2b090f75 ! 4: 33b221b248 refs: rename `is_pseudoref()` to `is_root_ref()`
@@ refs.c: int is_per_worktree_ref(const char *refname)
const char *c;

@@ refs.c: static int is_pseudoref_syntax(const char *refname)
+ return 0;
+ }
+
+- /*
+- * HEAD is not a pseudoref, but it certainly uses the
+- * pseudoref syntax.
+- */
return 1;
}

5: 2c09bc7690 ! 5: 9087696d82 refs: refname `is_special_ref()` to `is_pseudo_ref()`
@@ Metadata
Author: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>

## Commit message ##
- refs: refname `is_special_ref()` to `is_pseudo_ref()`
+ refs: rename `is_special_ref()` to `is_pseudo_ref()`

Rename `is_special_ref()` to `is_pseudo_ref()` to adapt to the newly
defined terminology in our gitglossary(7). Note that in the preceding
6: 5e402811a6 ! 6: af22581c22 refs: root refs can be symbolic refs
@@ Metadata
Author: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>

## Commit message ##
- refs: root refs can be symbolic refs
+ refs: do not check ref existence in `is_root_ref()`

Before this patch series, root refs except for "HEAD" and our special
refs were classified as pseudorefs. Furthermore, our terminology
@@ Commit message

Last but not least, the current behaviour can actually lead to a
segfault when calling `is_root_ref()` with a reference that either does
- not exist or that is a symbolic ref because we never initialized `oid`.
+ not exist or that is a symbolic ref because we never initialized `oid`,
+ but then read it via `is_null_oid()`.

- Let's loosen the restrictions in accordance to the new definition of
- root refs, which are simply plain refs that may as well be a symbolic
- ref. Consequently, we can just check for the ref to exist instead of
- requiring it to be a regular ref.
+ We have now changed terminology to clarify that pseudorefs are really
+ only "MERGE_HEAD" and "FETCH_HEAD", whereas all the other refs that live
+ in the root of the ref hierarchy are just plain refs. Thus, we do not
+ need to check whether the ref is symbolic or not. In fact, we can now
+ avoid looking up the ref completely as the name is sufficient for us to
+ figure out whether something would be a root ref or not.
+
+ This change of course changes semantics for our callers. As there are
+ only three of them we can assess each of them individually:
+
+ - "ref-filter.c:ref_kind_from_refname()" uses it to classify refs.
+ It's clear that the intent is to classify based on the ref name,
+ only.
+
+ - "refs/reftable_backend.c:reftable_ref_iterator_advance()" uses it to
+ filter root refs. Again, using existence checks is pointless here as
+ the iterator has just surfaced the ref, so we know it does exist.
+
+ - "refs/files_backend.c:add_pseudoref_and_head_entries()" uses it to
+ determine whether it should add a ref to the root directory of its
+ iterator. This had the effect that we skipped over any files that
+ are either a symbolic ref, or which are not a ref at all.
+
+ The new behaviour is to include symbolic refs know, which aligns us
+ with the adapted terminology. Furthermore, files which look like
+ root refs but aren't are now mark those as "broken". As broken refs
+ are not surfaced by our tooling, this should not lead to a change in
+ user-visible behaviour, but may cause us to emit warnings. This
+ feels like the right thing to do as we would otherwise just silently
+ ignore corrupted root refs completely.
+
+ So in all cases the existence check was either superfluous, not in line
+ with the adapted terminology or masked potential issues. This commit
+ thus changes the behaviour as proposed and drops the existence check
+ altogether.

Add a test that verifies that this does not change user-visible
behaviour. Namely, we still don't want to show broken refs to the user
@@ Commit message

Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>

+ ## ref-filter.c ##
+@@ ref-filter.c: static int ref_kind_from_refname(const char *refname)
+ return ref_kind[i].kind;
+ }
+
+- if (is_root_ref(get_main_ref_store(the_repository), refname))
++ if (is_root_ref(refname))
+ return FILTER_REFS_PSEUDOREFS;
+
+ return FILTER_REFS_OTHERS;
+
## refs.c ##
+@@ refs.c: static int is_root_ref_syntax(const char *refname)
+ return 1;
+ }
+
+-int is_root_ref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname)
++int is_root_ref(const char *refname)
+ {
+ static const char *const irregular_root_refs[] = {
+ "AUTO_MERGE",
@@ refs.c: int is_root_ref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname)
"NOTES_MERGE_REF",
"MERGE_AUTOSTASH",
};
- struct object_id oid;
-+ struct strbuf referent = STRBUF_INIT;
-+ struct object_id oid = { 0 };
-+ int failure_errno, ret = 0;
-+ unsigned int flags;
size_t i;

if (!is_root_ref_syntax(refname))
return 0;

-+ /*
-+ * Note that we cannot use `refs_ref_exists()` here because that also
-+ * checks whether its target ref exists in case refname is a symbolic
-+ * ref.
-+ */
- if (ends_with(refname, "_HEAD")) {
+- if (ends_with(refname, "_HEAD")) {
- refs_resolve_ref_unsafe(refs, refname,
- RESOLVE_REF_READING | RESOLVE_REF_NO_RECURSE,
- &oid, NULL);
- return !is_null_oid(&oid);
-+ ret = !refs_read_raw_ref(refs, refname, &oid, &referent,
-+ &flags, &failure_errno);
-+ goto done;
- }
+- }
++ if (ends_with(refname, "_HEAD"))
++ return 1;

-- for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(irregular_root_refs); i++)
-+ for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(irregular_root_refs); i++) {
- if (!strcmp(refname, irregular_root_refs[i])) {
+ for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(irregular_root_refs); i++)
+- if (!strcmp(refname, irregular_root_refs[i])) {
- refs_resolve_ref_unsafe(refs, refname,
- RESOLVE_REF_READING | RESOLVE_REF_NO_RECURSE,
- &oid, NULL);
- return !is_null_oid(&oid);
-+ ret = !refs_read_raw_ref(refs, refname, &oid, &referent,
-+ &flags, &failure_errno);
-+ goto done;
- }
-+ }
+- }
++ if (!strcmp(refname, irregular_root_refs[i]))
++ return 1;

-- return 0;
-+done:
-+ strbuf_release(&referent);
-+ return ret;
+ return 0;
}
-
- int is_headref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname)

## refs.h ##
@@ refs.h: extern struct ref_namespace_info ref_namespace[NAMESPACE__COUNT];
@@ refs.h: extern struct ref_namespace_info ref_namespace[NAMESPACE__COUNT];

/*
- * Check whether the reference is an existing root reference.
-+ * Check whether the reference is an existing root reference. A root reference
-+ * that is a dangling symbolic ref is considered to exist.
++ * Check whether the provided name names a root reference. This function only
++ * performs a syntactic check.
*
* A root ref is a reference that lives in the root of the reference hierarchy.
* These references must conform to special syntax:
+@@ refs.h: void update_ref_namespace(enum ref_namespace namespace, char *ref);
+ *
+ * - MERGE_AUTOSTASH
+ */
+-int is_root_ref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname);
++int is_root_ref(const char *refname);
+
+ int is_headref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname);
+
+
+ ## refs/files-backend.c ##
+@@ refs/files-backend.c: static void add_pseudoref_and_head_entries(struct ref_store *ref_store,
+ strbuf_addstr(&refname, de->d_name);
+
+ dtype = get_dtype(de, &path, 1);
+- if (dtype == DT_REG && (is_root_ref(ref_store, de->d_name) ||
+- is_headref(ref_store, de->d_name)))
++ if (dtype == DT_REG && (is_root_ref(de->d_name) ||
++ is_headref(ref_store, de->d_name)))
+ loose_fill_ref_dir_regular_file(refs, refname.buf, dir);
+
+ strbuf_setlen(&refname, dirnamelen);
+
+ ## refs/reftable-backend.c ##
+@@ refs/reftable-backend.c: static int reftable_ref_iterator_advance(struct ref_iterator *ref_iterator)
+ */
+ if (!starts_with(iter->ref.refname, "refs/") &&
+ !(iter->flags & DO_FOR_EACH_INCLUDE_ROOT_REFS &&
+- (is_root_ref(&iter->refs->base, iter->ref.refname) ||
++ (is_root_ref(iter->ref.refname) ||
+ is_headref(&iter->refs->base, iter->ref.refname)))) {
+ continue;
+ }

## t/t6302-for-each-ref-filter.sh ##
@@ t/t6302-for-each-ref-filter.sh: test_expect_success '--include-root-refs with other patterns' '
7: b32c56afcb ! 7: b719fb7110 refs: classify HEAD as a root ref
@@ Commit message
Adapt the function to also treat "HEAD" as a root ref. This change is
safe to do for all current callers:

- - `ref_kind_from_refname()` already handles "HEAD" explicitly before
- calling `is_root_ref()`.
+ - `ref_kind_from_refname()` already handles "HEAD" explicitly before
+ calling `is_root_ref()`.

- - The "files" and "reftable" backends explicitly called both
- `is_root_ref()` and `is_headref()`.
+ - The "files" and "reftable" backends explicitly call both
+ `is_root_ref()` and `is_headref()` together.

This also aligns behaviour or `is_root_ref()` and `is_headref()` such
- that we also return a trueish value when the ref is a dangling symbolic
- ref. As there are no callers of `is_headref()` left afer the refactoring
- we absorb it completely into `is_root_ref()`.
+ that we stop checking for ref existence. This changes semantics for our
+ backends:
+
+ - In the reftable backend we already know that the ref must exist
+ because `is_headref()` is called as part of the ref iterator. The
+ existence check is thus redundant, and the change is safe to do.
+
+ - In the files backend we use it when populating root refs, where we
+ would skip adding the "HEAD" file if it was not possible to resolve
+ it. The new behaviour is to instead mark "HEAD" as broken, which
+ will cause us to emit warnings in various places.
+
+ As there are no callers of `is_headref()` left afer the refactoring, we
+ can absorb it completely into `is_root_ref()`.

Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>

## refs.c ##
@@ refs.c: static int is_root_ref_syntax(const char *refname)
- int is_root_ref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname)
+ int is_root_ref(const char *refname)
{
static const char *const irregular_root_refs[] = {
+ "HEAD",
"AUTO_MERGE",
"BISECT_EXPECTED_REV",
"NOTES_MERGE_PARTIAL",
-@@ refs.c: int is_root_ref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname)
- return ret;
+@@ refs.c: int is_root_ref(const char *refname)
+ return 0;
}

-int is_headref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname)
@@ refs.h: void update_ref_namespace(enum ref_namespace namespace, char *ref);
*
@@ refs.h: void update_ref_namespace(enum ref_namespace namespace, char *ref);
*/
- int is_root_ref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname);
+ int is_root_ref(const char *refname);

-int is_headref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname);
-
@@ refs/files-backend.c: static void add_pseudoref_and_head_entries(struct ref_stor
strbuf_addstr(&refname, de->d_name);

dtype = get_dtype(de, &path, 1);
-- if (dtype == DT_REG && (is_root_ref(ref_store, de->d_name) ||
-- is_headref(ref_store, de->d_name)))
-+ if (dtype == DT_REG && is_root_ref(ref_store, de->d_name))
+- if (dtype == DT_REG && (is_root_ref(de->d_name) ||
+- is_headref(ref_store, de->d_name)))
++ if (dtype == DT_REG && is_root_ref(de->d_name))
loose_fill_ref_dir_regular_file(refs, refname.buf, dir);

strbuf_setlen(&refname, dirnamelen);
@@ refs/reftable-backend.c: static int reftable_ref_iterator_advance(struct ref_ite
*/
if (!starts_with(iter->ref.refname, "refs/") &&
!(iter->flags & DO_FOR_EACH_INCLUDE_ROOT_REFS &&
-- (is_root_ref(&iter->refs->base, iter->ref.refname) ||
+- (is_root_ref(iter->ref.refname) ||
- is_headref(&iter->refs->base, iter->ref.refname)))) {
-+ is_root_ref(&iter->refs->base, iter->ref.refname))) {
++ is_root_ref(iter->ref.refname))) {
continue;
}

8: 19af8c754c ! 8: 5709d7f780 refs: pseudorefs are no refs
@@ refs.c: int is_per_worktree_ref(const char *refname)
static int is_root_ref_syntax(const char *refname)
{
const char *c;
-@@ refs.c: int is_root_ref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname)
- unsigned int flags;
+@@ refs.c: int is_root_ref(const char *refname)
+ };
size_t i;

- if (!is_root_ref_syntax(refname))
@@ refs.c: int is_root_ref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname)
+ is_pseudo_ref(refname))
return 0;

- /*
+ if (ends_with(refname, "_HEAD"))
@@ refs.c: static int refs_read_special_head(struct ref_store *ref_store,
return result;
}
9: 86f7f2d2d8 ! 9: c7e90e3170 ref-filter: properly distinuish pseudo and root refs
@@ ref-filter.c: static int ref_kind_from_refname(const char *refname)
return ref_kind[i].kind;
}

-- if (is_root_ref(get_main_ref_store(the_repository), refname))
+- if (is_root_ref(refname))
+ if (is_pseudo_ref(refname))
return FILTER_REFS_PSEUDOREFS;
-+ if (is_root_ref(get_main_ref_store(the_repository), refname))
++ if (is_root_ref(refname))
+ return FILTER_REFS_ROOT_REFS;

return FILTER_REFS_OTHERS;
@@ refs.c: int is_per_worktree_ref(const char *refname)
## refs.h ##
@@ refs.h: void update_ref_namespace(enum ref_namespace namespace, char *ref);
*/
- int is_root_ref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *refname);
+ int is_root_ref(const char *refname);

+/*
+ * Pseudorefs are refs that have different semantics compared to
10: 640d3b169f = 10: 15595991dc refs: refuse to write pseudorefs

base-commit: 83f1add914c6b4682de1e944ec0d1ac043d53d78
--
2.45.GIT