Re: [PATCH 3/9] setup: don't apply "GIT_REFERENCE_BACKEND" without a repository

[Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>]

On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 10:32:46AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> writes:
> 
> > When discovering a repository we eventually also apply the
> > "GIT_REFERENCE_BACKEND" environment variable to the repository. There's
> > two problems with that:
> >
> >   - We do this unconditionally, which is rather pointless: we really
> >     only have to configure the repository when we have found one.
> >
> >   - We have already applied the repository format at that point in time,
> >     so we need to manually reapply it.
> 
> Does the second point have a small typo, i.e., "if we have a
> repository, we have already applied the ref backend to it when we
> discovered it, so NO need to manually reapply"?

No, this is correct as-is. At the point in time where we handle
GIT_REFERENCE_BACKEND we have already discovered the repository format,
applied it to the repository, configured the reference database format
et al. So because we handle GIT_REFERENCE_BACKEND _after_ that whole
dance we basically have to re-configure the reference database format,
which is awkward.

Patrick