refs: redefine special refs

[thirdparty/git.git] / refs.c

diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index 047c81b1c1d992f1b77bccde402d9add6c2f551a..08a900a04736b23189f30d63d04d4b0d171d1c6d 100644 (file)
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -1839,13 +1839,10 @@ done:
 static int is_special_ref(const char *refname)
 {
        /*
-        * Special references get written and read directly via the filesystem
-        * by the subsystems that create them. Thus, they must not go through
-        * the reference backend but must instead be read directly. It is
-        * arguable whether this behaviour is sensible, or whether it's simply
-        * a leaky abstraction enabled by us only having a single reference
-        * backend implementation. But at least for a subset of references it
-        * indeed does make sense to treat them specially:
+        * Special references are refs that have different semantics compared
+        * to "normal" refs. These refs can thus not be stored in the ref
+        * backend, but must always be accessed via the filesystem. The
+        * following refs are special:
         *
         * - FETCH_HEAD may contain multiple object IDs, and each one of them
         *   carries additional metadata like where it came from.
@@ -1853,25 +1850,9 @@ static int is_special_ref(const char *refname)
         * - MERGE_HEAD may contain multiple object IDs when merging multiple
         *   heads.
         *
-        * There are some exceptions that you might expect to see on this list
-        * but which are handled exclusively via the reference backend:
-        *
-        * - BISECT_EXPECTED_REV
-        *
-        * - CHERRY_PICK_HEAD
-        *
-        * - HEAD
-        *
-        * - ORIG_HEAD
-        *
-        * - "rebase-apply/" and "rebase-merge/" contain all of the state for
-        *   rebases, including some reference-like files. These are
-        *   exclusively read and written via the filesystem and never go
-        *   through the refdb.
-        *
-        * Writing or deleting references must consistently go either through
-        * the filesystem (special refs) or through the reference backend
-        * (normal ones).
+        * Reading, writing or deleting references must consistently go either
+        * through the filesystem (special refs) or through the reference
+        * backend (normal ones).
         */
        static const char * const special_refs[] = {
                "FETCH_HEAD",