rebase: skip branch symref aliases
git rebase --update-refs can finish rewriting the current branch and then fail while updating a local branch that is a symbolic ref. This can happen during a default-branch rename where refs/heads/main points at refs/heads/master while users migrate. The problem is a partially applied ref update: the main rebase has already succeeded when the later ref update fails. The sequencer queues updates from local branch decorations. Commit 106b6885c7 (rebase: ignore non-branch update-refs) filters out decorations such as HEAD and tags. A branch symref is still a local branch decoration, but refs_update_ref() dereferences it, so an alias to another branch duplicates the concrete branch update. Resolve local branch decorations before queuing them. Skip symrefs whose targets are under refs/heads/ so that only the concrete branch update is queued. Keep an owned copy of the resolved HEAD and skip the current branch before checked-out handling so later ref resolution cannot change the comparison. This prevents a successful rebase from being followed by a failed, partially applied ref update while preserving each alias as a symref. Signed-off-by: Son Luong Ngoc <sluongng@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Son Luong Ngoc committed
Jul 22, 2026 at 08:15 UTC
9c82ba86a0c5e630d5defbe8118612fd5c5e4612
3 files changed
+49
-13
sequencer.c
+32
-12
@@ -6445,32 +6445,50 @@ static int add_decorations_to_list(const struct commit *commit,
6445
struct todo_add_branch_context *ctx)
6446
{
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const struct name_decoration *decoration = get_name_decoration(&commit->object);
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- const char *head_ref = refs_resolve_ref_unsafe(get_main_ref_store(the_repository),
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- "HEAD",
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- RESOLVE_REF_READING,
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- NULL,
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- NULL);
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+ struct ref_store *refs = get_main_ref_store(the_repository);
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+ char *head_ref = refs_resolve_refdup(refs, "HEAD",
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+ RESOLVE_REF_READING,
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+ NULL, NULL);
6452
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while (decoration) {
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struct todo_item *item;
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const char *path;
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+ char *resolved_ref;
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+ int flags = 0;
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size_t base_offset = ctx->buf->len;
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/*
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- * If the branch is the current HEAD, then it will be
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- * updated by the default rebase behavior.
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- * Exclude it from the list of refs to update,
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- * as well as any non-branch decorations.
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* Non-branch decorations may be present if the pretty format
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* includes "%d", which would have loaded all refs
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* into the global decoration table.
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*/
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- if ((head_ref && !strcmp(head_ref, decoration->name)) ||
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- (decoration->type != DECORATION_REF_LOCAL)) {
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+ if (decoration->type != DECORATION_REF_LOCAL) {
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+ decoration = decoration->next;
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+ continue;
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+ }
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+
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+ resolved_ref = refs_resolve_refdup(refs, decoration->name,
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+ RESOLVE_REF_READING,
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+ NULL, &flags);
6473
+ if (resolved_ref && (flags & REF_ISSYMREF) &&
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+ starts_with(resolved_ref, "refs/heads/")) {
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+ free(resolved_ref);
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+ decoration = decoration->next;
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+ continue;
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+ }
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+
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+ /*
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+ * If the branch is the current HEAD, then it will be
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+ * updated by the default rebase behavior.
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+ */
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+ if (head_ref && !strcmp(head_ref, decoration->name)) {
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+ free(resolved_ref);
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decoration = decoration->next;
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continue;
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}
6489
6490
+ path = branch_checked_out(decoration->name);
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+
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ALLOC_GROW(ctx->items,
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ctx->items_nr + 1,
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ctx->items_alloc);
@@ -6478,7 +6496,7 @@ static int add_decorations_to_list(const struct commit *commit,
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memset(item, 0, sizeof(*item));
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6498
/* If the branch is checked out, then leave a comment instead. */
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- if ((path = branch_checked_out(decoration->name))) {
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+ if (path) {
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item->command = TODO_COMMENT;
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strbuf_commented_addf(ctx->buf, comment_line_str,
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"Ref %s checked out at '%s'\n",
@@ -6498,9 +6516,11 @@ static int add_decorations_to_list(const struct commit *commit,
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item->arg_len = ctx->buf->len - base_offset;
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ctx->items_nr++;
6518
6519
+ free(resolved_ref);
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decoration = decoration->next;
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}
6522
6523
+ free(head_ref);
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return 0;
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}
6526
t/t3400-rebase.sh
+1
-1
@@ -471,7 +471,7 @@ test_expect_success 'git rebase --update-ref with core.commentChar and branch on
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GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR="cat >actual" git -c core.commentChar=% \
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rebase -i --update-refs base &&
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test_grep "% Ref refs/heads/wt-topic checked out at" actual &&
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- test_grep "% Ref refs/heads/topic2 checked out at" actual
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+ test_grep ! "% Ref refs/heads/topic2 checked out at" actual
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'
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477
test_done
t/t3404-rebase-interactive.sh
+16
@@ -1975,15 +1975,23 @@ test_expect_success '--update-refs ignores non-branch decorations' '
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) &&
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grep ^update-ref todo >actual &&
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test_write_lines "update-ref refs/heads/no-conflict-branch" >expect &&
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+ test_grep ! "^# Ref refs/heads/update-refs checked out" todo &&
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test_cmp expect actual
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'
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test_expect_success '--update-refs updates refs correctly' '
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+ test_when_finished "
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+ test_might_fail git symbolic-ref -d refs/heads/no-conflict-branch-alias &&
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+ test_might_fail git symbolic-ref -d refs/heads/second-alias
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+ " &&
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git checkout -B update-refs no-conflict-branch &&
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git branch -f base HEAD~4 &&
1989
git branch -f first HEAD~3 &&
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git branch -f second HEAD~3 &&
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git branch -f third HEAD~1 &&
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+ git symbolic-ref refs/heads/no-conflict-branch-alias \
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+ refs/heads/no-conflict-branch &&
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+ git symbolic-ref refs/heads/second-alias refs/heads/second &&
1995
test_commit extra2 fileX &&
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git commit --amend --fixup=L &&
1997
@@ -1991,8 +1999,16 @@ test_expect_success '--update-refs updates refs correctly' '
1999
2000
test_cmp_rev HEAD~3 refs/heads/first &&
2001
test_cmp_rev HEAD~3 refs/heads/second &&
2002
+ test_cmp_rev HEAD~3 refs/heads/second-alias &&
2003
test_cmp_rev HEAD~1 refs/heads/third &&
2004
test_cmp_rev HEAD refs/heads/no-conflict-branch &&
2005
+ test_cmp_rev HEAD refs/heads/no-conflict-branch-alias &&
2006
+ test_write_lines refs/heads/no-conflict-branch >expect &&
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+ git symbolic-ref refs/heads/no-conflict-branch-alias >actual &&
2008
+ test_cmp expect actual &&
2009
+ test_write_lines refs/heads/second >expect &&
2010
+ git symbolic-ref refs/heads/second-alias >actual &&
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+ test_cmp expect actual &&
2012
2013
q_to_tab >expect <<-\EOF &&
2014
Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/update-refs.