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refs/files: deprecate writing symrefs as symbolic links

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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 <ps@pks.im>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
This commit is contained in:
Patrick Steinhardt
2025-10-15 08:26:08 +02:00
committed by Junio C Hamano
parent ac7d021f06
commit f570bd91b3
4 changed files with 63 additions and 5 deletions
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20
Documentation/BreakingChanges.adoc
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@@ -295,6 +295,26 @@ The command will be removed.
+
cf. <xmqqa59i45wc.fsf@gitster.g>
* Support for `core.preferSymlinkRefs=true` has been deprecated and will be
removed in Git 3.0. Writing symbolic refs as symbolic links will be phased
out in favor of using plain files using the textual representation of
symbolic refs.
+
Symbolic references were initially always stored as a symbolic link. This was
changed in 9b143c6e15 (Teach update-ref about a symbolic ref stored in a
textfile., 2005-09-25), where a new textual symref format was introduced to
store those symbolic refs in a plain file. In 9f0bb90d16
(core.prefersymlinkrefs: use symlinks for .git/HEAD, 2006-05-02), the Git
project switched the default to use the textual symrefs in favor of symbolic
links.
+
The migration away from symbolic links has happened almost 20 years ago by now,
and there is no known reason why one should prefer them nowadays. Furthermore,
symbolic links are not supported on some platforms.
+
Note that only the writing side for such symbolic links is deprecated. Reading
such symbolic links is still supported for now.
== Superseded features that will not be deprecated
Some features have gained newer replacements that aim to improve the design in

3
Documentation/config/core.adoc
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@@ -290,6 +290,9 @@ core.preferSymlinkRefs::
and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links.
This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that
expect HEAD to be a symbolic link.
+
This configuration is deprecated and will be removed in Git 3.0. Symbolic refs
will always be written as textual symrefs.
core.alternateRefsCommand::
When advertising tips of available history from an alternate, use the shell to