initial_ref_transaction_commit(): function for initial ref creation

"git clone" uses shortcuts when creating the initial set of
references:

* It writes them directly to packed-refs.

* It doesn't lock the individual references (though it does lock the
  packed-refs file).

* It doesn't check for refname conflicts between two new references or
  between one new reference and any hypothetical old ones.

* It doesn't create reflog entries for the reference creations.

This functionality was implemented in builtin/clone.c. But really that
file shouldn't have such intimate knowledge of how references are
stored. So provide a new function in the refs API,
initial_ref_transaction_commit(), which can be used for initial
reference creation. The new function is based on the ref_transaction
interface.

This means that we can make some other functions private to the refs
module. That will be done in a followup commit.

It would seem to make sense to add a test here that there are no
existing references, because that is how the function *should* be
used. But in fact, the "testgit" remote helper appears to call it
*after* having set up refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD and
refs/remotes/<name>/master, so we can't be so strict. For now, the
function trusts its caller to only call it when it makes sense. Future
commits will add some more limited sanity checks.

Signed-off-by: Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 14 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/refs.h b/refs.h
index 5f3bea7a42..9602889c3c 100644
--- a/refs.h
+++ b/refs.h
@@ -366,6 +366,20 @@ int ref_transaction_commit(struct ref_transaction *transaction,
 			   struct strbuf *err);
 
 /*
+ * Like ref_transaction_commit(), but optimized for creating
+ * references when originally initializing a repository (e.g., by "git
+ * clone"). It writes the new references directly to packed-refs
+ * without locking the individual references.
+ *
+ * It is a bug to call this function when there might be other
+ * processes accessing the repository or if there are existing
+ * references that might conflict with the ones being created. All
+ * old_sha1 values must either be absent or NULL_SHA1.
+ */
+int initial_ref_transaction_commit(struct ref_transaction *transaction,
+				   struct strbuf *err);
+
+/*
  * Free an existing transaction and all associated data.
  */
 void ref_transaction_free(struct ref_transaction *transaction);