Hi Karthik

On 23/01/2024 12:49, Karthik Nayak wrote:

Hello Phillip,

Phillip Wood [off-list ref] writes:
[...]
So there is no way to make `is_pseudoref_syntax()` stricter without
breaking backward compatibility. While we do want to reach that goal, we
have to go about in the other way around, that i.e.
1. Fix all pseudorefs to have the '_HEAD' suffix.

I'm wary of renaming user facing pseudorefs like AUTO_MERGE. In the 
future we should try and avoid adding any without a "_HEAD" suffix

2. Move bisect files to '$GIT_DIR/bisect-state' (see [1] for more
details).
After this, we can safely make `is_pseudoref_syntax()` stricter.

Given this, I think for the next version, I'll do the following changes:
1. keep `is_pseudoref_syntax()` as is.
2. introduce `is_pseudoref()` which calls `is_pseudoref_syntax()` and
also checks the content of the file.

We could perhaps make is_pseudoref() stricter from the start as we're 
adding a new function, it could have a list of exceptions to the "a 
pseudoref must end with '_HEAD'" rule like this patch. Being strict 
about the pseudorefs we list with "git for-each-ref" might encourage 
users to update any scripts they have that create "pseudorefs" that do 
not match the new rules without us making any changes that actually 
break those scripts.

3. replace use of `is_pseudoref_syntax()` with `is_pseudoref()` in this
patch series.

That sounds like a good way forward to me, lets see if Junio agrees.

Best Wishes

Phillip

[1]: https://public-inbox.org/git/20240119142705.139374-1-karthik.188@gmail.com/T/#m6e3790e30613fd68349708faaf5f4d9c704ba677