On 2008-06-02 22:51:33 -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

quoted text
> Karl Hasselström <kha@treskal.com> writes:
>
> > Giving the old sha1 is already optional when changing a ref, and
> > it's quite handy when running update-ref manually. So make it
> > optional for deleting a ref too.
>
> "Handy" is not a very good reason when talking about plumbing
> command like update-ref that takes an extra parameter for safety of
> the last step in read, operate, verify-and-update sequence.
>
> Although it is not a reason _bad enough_ to make your patch a bad
> idea, perhaps you should rethink the problem at the same time?
> Whatever you are trying to do cannot be done without manually
> invoking update-ref directly by the end user, perhaps that needs to
> be addressed?

I need this from time to time when experimenting with StGit -- or,
more precisely, when cleaning up afterwards in case it didn't go so
well. Packed refs means I can't safely just edit/delete files under
.git/refs anymore, so I use update-ref instead. And having to use the
safety belt every time is just plain tedious. I'd say this is a
perfect example of when using the plumbing by hand is really what you
want.

(In this kind of situation, branch -D often doesn't work since my ref
isn't under refs/heads, and besides I really don't want any of it's
smarts right then -- I want to delete a ref, nothing more.)

Better suggestions welcome, of course.

-- 
Karl Hasselström, kha@treskal.com
      www.treskal.com/kalle
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