Re: [PATCH] gitk: new option to hide prefetch refs

[Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>]

On 8/24/2021 2:46 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> On 8/24/2021 8:18 AM, Tal Kelrich via GitGitGadget wrote:
>>> From: Tal Kelrich <hasturkun@gmail.com>
>>>
>>> The maintenance 'prefetch' task creates refs that mirror remote refs,
>>> and in repositories with many branches this can clutter the commit list.
>>>
>>> Add a new option to ignore any prefetch refs, enabled by default.
>>
>> This seems like a sensible feature to add. Thank you for contributing!
...> I would usually say that defaulting this to 'on' would be a biased
> choice [*1*], but in this case I tend to think it is a good idea to
> hide these by default, as 'prefetch' came way after people started
> using Git, and users did not ask for 'prefetch' refs.  The prefetching
> may help users but the refs used to anchor the prefetched objects are
> implementation detail that the users would rather not to see.
...
> *1* Whenever the inventor of a feature says "I expect users would
> want this!", it needs to be taken with a moderate amount of salt, as
> the inventor is self selected specimen who wanted it (after all, the
> feature motivated the inventor enough to write the patch).

I agree with both points. As the inventor of prefetch refs, my opinion
should also be taken with similar salt.

I do want to add at least that Git itself hides these refs by modifying
log.excludeDecoration during 'git maintenance start', so there is
precedent. Git is hiding them, but user can become confused when they
appear in gitk.

Thanks,
-Stolee