Re: [PATCH v2 0/4] add ref content check for files backend

On Wed, Aug 28, 2024 at 02:28:47PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

By the way, Peff, do we have MAYBE_UNUSED that can be used in a case
like this one?  Platforms without symbolic links supported may well
define NO_SYMLINK_HEAD, which makes the incoming parameters unused.

Yes, it would be fine to use MAYBE_UNUSED in a case like this.

The other option, and what I did for a conditional compilation in
imap-send.c, is to just mention the variable like:

  /* mark as used to appease -Wunused-parameter with NO_SYMLINK_HEAD */
  (void)lock;
  (void)target;

In retrospect I think MAYBE_UNUSED is probably a little less magical,
and I perhaps should have used it there.

In this particular case, though, where there's no actual code in one
half of the #ifdef, I think just defining two separate functions is
cleaner. I.e., what you did with a macro below, though I'd probably have
just used a real function with UNUSED markers.

As an aside, I wonder if we should consider deprecating and eventually
dropping support for core.prefersymlinkrefs. I can't think of a reason
anybody would want to use it, and of course it makes no sense as we move
on to alternate backends like reftables. I sent patches ages ago:

  https://lore.kernel.org/git/20151229060055.GA17047@sigill.intra.peff.net/ (local)

but I think it may have just gotten lost in the shuffle, and I've
somehow been meaning to re-submit them for 9 years. :-/

-Peff