Patrick Steinhardt [off-list ref] writes:

On Thu, May 30, 2024 at 03:09:37PM +0300, Karthik Nayak wrote:

quoted

diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index cdc4d25557..e29abebe1d 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c

@@ -950,7 +950,7 @@ int refs_delete_ref(struct ref_store *refs, const char *msg,
 	transaction = ref_store_transaction_begin(refs, &err);
 	if (!transaction ||
 	    ref_transaction_delete(transaction, refname, old_oid,
-				   flags, msg, &err) ||
+				   flags, NULL, msg, &err) ||
 	    ref_transaction_commit(transaction, &err)) {
 		error("%s", err.buf);
 		ref_transaction_free(transaction);

@@ -1283,14 +1283,20 @@ int ref_transaction_create(struct ref_transaction *transaction,
 int ref_transaction_delete(struct ref_transaction *transaction,
 			   const char *refname,
 			   const struct object_id *old_oid,
-			   unsigned int flags, const char *msg,
+			   unsigned int flags,
+			   const char *old_target,

The old target is somewhat weirdly placed here, as I'd have expected it
to live next to `old_oid`. That's only a minor nit, nothing that's worth
a reroll in my opinion.

This is a good point.

quoted

diff --git a/t/t1400-update-ref.sh b/t/t1400-update-ref.sh
index 52801be07d..848d6fc42e 100755
--- a/t/t1400-update-ref.sh
+++ b/t/t1400-update-ref.sh

@@ -1731,6 +1731,60 @@ do
 		test_cmp expect actual
 	'

+	test_expect_success "stdin $type symref-delete fails without --no-deref" '
+		git symbolic-ref refs/heads/symref $a &&
+		format_command $type "symref-delete refs/heads/symref" "$a" >stdin &&
+		test_must_fail git update-ref --stdin $type <stdin 2>err &&
+		grep "fatal: symref-delete: cannot operate with deref mode" err
+	'
+
+	test_expect_success "stdin $type symref-delete fails with no ref" '
+		format_command $type "symref-delete " >stdin &&
+		test_must_fail git update-ref --stdin $type --no-deref <stdin 2>err &&
+		grep "fatal: symref-delete: missing <ref>" err
+	'
+
+	test_expect_success "stdin $type symref-delete fails with too many arguments" '
+		format_command $type "symref-delete refs/heads/symref" "$a" "$a" >stdin &&
+		test_must_fail git update-ref --stdin $type --no-deref <stdin 2>err &&
+		if test "$type" = "-z"
+		then
+			grep "fatal: unknown command: $a" err
+		else
+			grep "fatal: symref-delete refs/heads/symref: extra input:  $a" err
+		fi
+	'
+
+	test_expect_success "stdin $type symref-delete fails with wrong old value" '
+		format_command $type "symref-delete refs/heads/symref" "$m" >stdin &&
+		test_must_fail git update-ref --stdin $type --no-deref <stdin 2>err &&
+		grep "fatal: verifying symref target: ${SQ}refs/heads/symref${SQ}: is at $a but expected refs/heads/main" err &&
+		git symbolic-ref refs/heads/symref >expect &&
+		echo $a >actual &&
+		test_cmp expect actual
+	'
+
+	test_expect_success "stdin $type symref-delete works with right old value" '
+		format_command $type "symref-delete refs/heads/symref" "$a" >stdin &&
+		git update-ref --stdin $type --no-deref <stdin &&
+		test_must_fail git rev-parse --verify -q refs/heads/symref
+	'
+
+	test_expect_success "stdin $type symref-delete works with empty old value" '
+		git symbolic-ref refs/heads/symref $a >stdin &&
+		format_command $type "symref-delete refs/heads/symref" "" >stdin &&
+		git update-ref --stdin $type --no-deref <stdin &&
+		test_must_fail git rev-parse --verify -q $b
+	'
+
+	test_expect_success "stdin $type symref-delete succeeds for dangling reference" '
+		test_must_fail git symbolic-ref refs/heads/nonexistent &&
+		git symbolic-ref refs/heads/symref2 refs/heads/nonexistent &&
+		format_command $type "symref-delete refs/heads/symref2" "refs/heads/nonexistent" >stdin &&
+		git update-ref --stdin $type --no-deref <stdin &&
+		test_must_fail git symbolic-ref -d refs/heads/symref2
+	'
+

Not sure whether I overlooked it, but one test I missed was when trying
to delete a non-symbolic-ref.

Patrick

I think this point is worthwhile of a reroll, not because of the test
itself, but because while testing it, I realized that currently when we
try to delete a regular ref using `symref-delete` and providing an
`old_target`, the error message is quite generic. I've added a new
commit to make this more specific and will send in a new version today.