Patrick Steinhardt [off-list ref] writes:

On Mon, Feb 02, 2026 at 01:26:31PM +0100, Karthik Nayak wrote:

quoted

For Git to recognize a directory as a Git directory, it requires the
directory to contain:

  1. 'HEAD' file
  2. object/ directory

s|object/|objects/|

quoted

  3. 'refs/' directory

Here, #1 and #3 are part of the reference storage mechanism,
specifically the files backend. Since then, newer backends such as the
reftable backend have moved to using their own path ('reftable/') for
storing references. But to ensure git still recognizes the directory as

s/git/Git/

quoted

a Git directory, we create stubs.

There are two locations we create stubs:

s/we/where &/

quoted

diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index 627b7f8698..32b4edaf2d 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c

@@ -3402,3 +3402,27 @@ const char *ref_transaction_error_msg(enum ref_transaction_error err)
 		return "unknown failure";
 	}
 }
+
+void refs_create_refdir_stubs(struct repository *repo, const char *refdir,
+			      const char *refs_heads_msg)

It's not really a message, but much rather its content, right?

Patrick

Indeed, will also patch up the typos. Thanks,

Karthik