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2025-10-15refs/files: deprecate writing symrefs as symbolic linksPatrick Steinhardt
The "files" backend has the ability to store symbolic refs as symbolic links, which can be configured via "core.preferSymlinkRefs". This feature stems back from the early days: the initial implementation of symbolic refs used symlinks exclusively. The symref format was only introduced in 9b143c6e15 (Teach update-ref about a symbolic ref stored in a textfile., 2005-09-25) and made the default in 9f0bb90d16 (core.prefersymlinkrefs: use symlinks for .git/HEAD, 2006-05-02). This is all about 20 years ago, and there are no known reasons nowadays why one would want to use symlinks instead of symrefs. Mark the feature for deprecation in Git 3.0. Note that this only deprecates _writing_ symrefs as symbolic links. Reading such symrefs is still supported for now. Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-10-08Merge branch 'ps/rust-balloon'Junio C Hamano
Dip our toes a bit to (optionally) use Rust implemented helper called from our C code. * ps/rust-balloon: ci: enable Rust for breaking-changes jobs ci: convert "pedantic" job into full build with breaking changes BreakingChanges: announce Rust becoming mandatory varint: reimplement as test balloon for Rust varint: use explicit width for integers help: report on whether or not Rust is enabled Makefile: introduce infrastructure to build internal Rust library Makefile: reorder sources after includes meson: add infrastructure to build internal Rust library
2025-10-02Merge branch 'kh/you-still-use-whatchanged-fix'Junio C Hamano
The "do you still use it?" message given by a command that is deeply deprecated and allow us to suggest alternatives has been updated. * kh/you-still-use-whatchanged-fix: BreakingChanges: remove claim about whatchanged reports whatchanged: remove not-even-shorter clause whatchanged: hint about git-log(1) and aliasing you-still-use-that??: help the user help themselves t0014: test shadowing of aliases for a sample of builtins git: allow alias-shadowing deprecated builtins git: move seen-alias bookkeeping into handle_alias(...) git: add `deprecated` category to --list-cmds Makefile: don’t add whatchanged after it has been removed
2025-10-02BreakingChanges: announce Rust becoming mandatoryPatrick Steinhardt
Over the last couple of years the appetite for bringing Rust into the codebase has grown significantly across the developer base. Introducing Rust is a major change though and has ramifications for the whole ecosystem: - Some platforms have a Rust toolchain available, but have not yet integrated it into their build infrastructure. - Some platforms don't have any support for Rust at all. - Some platforms may have to figure out how to fit Rust into their bootstrapping sequence. Due to this, and given that Git is a critical piece of infrastructure for the whole industry, we cannot just introduce such a heavyweight dependency without doing our due diligence. Instead, preceding commits have introduced a test balloon into our build infrastructure that convert one tiny subsystem to use Rust. For now, using Rust to build that subsystem is entirely optional -- if no Rust support is available, we continue to use the C implementation. This test balloon has the intention to give distributions time and let them ease into our adoption of Rust. Having multiple implementations of the same subsystem is not sustainable though, and the plan is to eventually be able to use Rust freely all across our codebase. As such, there is the intent to make Rust become a mandatory part of our build process. Add an announcement to our breaking changes that Rust will become mandatory in Git 3.0. A (very careful and non-binding) estimate might be that this major release might be released in the second half of next year, which should give distributors enough time to prepare for the change. Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-09-29Merge branch 'pw/3.0-default-initial-branch-to-main'Junio C Hamano
Declare that "git init" that is not otherwise configured uses 'main' as the initial branch, not 'master', starting Git 3.0. * pw/3.0-default-initial-branch-to-main: t0613: stop setting default initial branch t9902: switch default branch name to main t4013: switch default branch name to main breaking-changes: switch default branch to main
2025-09-17BreakingChanges: remove claim about whatchanged reportsKristoffer Haugsbakk
This was written in e836757e14b (whatschanged: list it in BreakingChanges document, 2025-05-12) which was on the same topic that added the `--i-still-use-this` requirement.[1] Maybe it was a work-in-progress comment/status. [1]: jc/you-still-use-whatchanged Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <code@khaugsbakk.name> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-09-10breaking-changes: switch default branch to mainPhillip Wood
Since 1296cbe4b46 (init: document `init.defaultBranch` better, 2020-12-11) "git-init.adoc" has advertised that the default name of the initial branch may change in the future. The name "main" is chosen to match the default used by the big Git forge web sites. The advice printed when init.defaultBranch is not set is updated to say that the default will change to "main" in Git 3.0. Building with WITH_BREAKING_CHANGES enabled removes the advice and changes the default branch name to "main". The code in guess_remote_head() that looks for "refs/heads/master" is left unchanged as that is only called when the remote server does not support the symref capability in the v0 protocol or the symref extension to the ls-refs list in the v2 protocol. Such an old server is more likely to be using "master" as the default branch name. With the exception of the "git-init.adoc" the documentation is left unchanged. I had hoped to parameterize the name of the default branch by using an asciidoc attribute. Unfortunately attribute expansion is inhibited by backticks and we use backticks to mark up ref names so that idea does not work. As the changes to git-init.adoc show inserting ifdef's around each instance of the branch name "master" is cumbersome and makes the documentation sources harder to read. Apart from "git-init.adoc" there are some other files where "master" is used as the name of the initial branch rather than as an example of a branch name such as "user-manual.adoc" and "gitcore-tutorial.adoc". The name appears a lot in those so updating it with ifdef's is not really practical. We can update that document in the 3.0 release cycle. The other documentation where master is used as an example branch name can be gradually converted over time. Signed-off-by: Phillip Wood <phillip.wood@dunelm.org.uk> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-08-26breaking-changes: deprecate support for core.commentString=autoPhillip Wood
When "core.commentString" is set to "auto" then "git commit" will automatically select the comment character ensuring that it is not the first character on any of the lines in the commit message. This was introduced by commit 84c9dc2c5a2 (commit: allow core.commentChar=auto for character auto selection, 2014-05-17). The motivation seems to be to avoid commenting out lines from the existing message when amending a commit that was created with a message from a file. Unfortunately this feature does not work with: * commit message templates that contain comments. * prepare-commit-msg hooks that introduce comments. * "git commit --cleanup=strip --edit -F <file>" which means that it is incompatible with - the "fixup" and "squash" commands of "git rebase -i" as the comments added by those commands are then treated as part of the commit message. - the conflict comments added to the commit message by "git cherry-pick", "git rebase" etc. as these comments are then treated as part of the commit message. It is also ignored by "git notes" when amending a note. The issues with comments coming from a template, hook or file are a consequence of the design of this feature and are therefore hard to fix. As the costs of this feature outweigh the benefits, deprecate it and remove it in Git 3.0. If someone comes up with some patches that fix all the issues in a maintainable way then I'd be happy to see this change reverted. The next commits will add a warning and some advice for users on how they can update their config settings. Signed-off-by: Phillip Wood <phillip.wood@dunelm.org.uk> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-07-07BreakingChanges: announce switch to "reftable" formatPatrick Steinhardt
The "reftable" format has come a long way and has matured nicely since it has been merged into git via 57db2a094d5 (refs: introduce reftable backend, 2024-02-07). It fixes longstanding issues that cannot be fixed with the "files" format in a backwards-compatible way and performs significantly better in many use cases. Announce that we will switch to the "reftable" format in Git 3.0 for newly created repositories and wire up the change, hidden behind the WITH_BREAKING_CHANGES preprocessor define. This switch is dependent on support in the larger Git ecosystem. Most importantly, libraries like JGit, libgit2 and Gitoxide should support the reftable backend so that we don't break all applications and tools built on top of those libraries. Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-06-25Merge branch 'jc/you-still-use-whatchanged'Junio C Hamano
"git whatchanged" that is longer to type than "git log --raw" which is its modern rough equivalent has outlived its usefulness more than 10 years ago. Plan to deprecate and remove it. * jc/you-still-use-whatchanged: whatschanged: list it in BreakingChanges document whatchanged: remove when built with WITH_BREAKING_CHANGES whatchanged: require --i-still-use-this tests: prepare for a world without whatchanged doc: prepare for a world without whatchanged you-still-use-that??: help deprecating commands for removal
2025-05-12whatschanged: list it in BreakingChanges documentJunio C Hamano
This can be squashed into the previous step. That is how our "git pack-redundant" conversion did. Theoretically, however, those who want to gauge the need to keep the command by exposing their users to patches before this one may want to wait until their experiment finishes before they formally say "this will go away". This change is made into a separate patch from the previous step precisely to help those folks. While at it, update the documentation page to use the new [synopsis] facility to mark-up the SYNOPSIS part. Helped-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> [en: typofix] Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-03-12name-rev: remove "--stdin" supportJunio C Hamano
As part of Git 3.0, remove the hidden synonym for "--annotate-stdin" for real. As this does not change the fact that it used to be called "--stdin" in older version of Git, keep that passage in the documentation for "--annotate-stdin". Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-03-05Merge branch 'jc/breaking-changes-early-adopter-option'Junio C Hamano
Doc update. * jc/breaking-changes-early-adopter-option: BreakingChanges: clarify the procedure
2025-02-27Merge branch 'jc/3.0-branches-remotes-update'Junio C Hamano
Removal of ".git/branches" and ".git/remotes" support in the BreakingChanges document has been further clarified. * jc/3.0-branches-remotes-update: BreakingChanges: clarify branches/ and remotes/
2025-02-14Merge branch 'bc/doc-adoc-not-txt'Junio C Hamano
All the documentation .txt files have been renamed to .adoc to help content aware editors. * bc/doc-adoc-not-txt: Remove obsolete ".txt" extensions for AsciiDoc files doc: use .adoc extension for AsciiDoc files gitattributes: mark AsciiDoc files as LF-only editorconfig: add .adoc extension doc: update gitignore for .adoc extension
2025-01-21doc: use .adoc extension for AsciiDoc filesbrian m. carlson
We presently use the ".txt" extension for our AsciiDoc files. While not wrong, most editors do not associate this extension with AsciiDoc, meaning that contributors don't get automatic editor functionality that could be useful, such as syntax highlighting and prose linting. It is much more common to use the ".adoc" extension for AsciiDoc files, since this helps editors automatically detect files and also allows various forges to provide rich (HTML-like) rendering. Let's do that here, renaming all of the files and updating the includes where relevant. Adjust the various build scripts and makefiles to use the new extension as well. Note that this should not result in any user-visible changes to the documentation. Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>