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-rw-r--r--Documentation/BreakingChanges.adoc20
-rw-r--r--Documentation/config/core.adoc3
2 files changed, 23 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/BreakingChanges.adoc b/Documentation/BreakingChanges.adoc
index 90b53abcea..f814450d2f 100644
--- a/Documentation/BreakingChanges.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/BreakingChanges.adoc
@@ -295,6 +295,26 @@ The command will be removed.
+
cf. <xmqqa59i45wc.fsf@gitster.g>
+* Support for `core.preferSymlinkRefs=true` has been deprecated and will be
+ removed in Git 3.0. Writing symbolic refs as symbolic links will be phased
+ out in favor of using plain files using the textual representation of
+ symbolic refs.
++
+Symbolic references were initially always stored as a symbolic link. This was
+changed in 9b143c6e15 (Teach update-ref about a symbolic ref stored in a
+textfile., 2005-09-25), where a new textual symref format was introduced to
+store those symbolic refs in a plain file. In 9f0bb90d16
+(core.prefersymlinkrefs: use symlinks for .git/HEAD, 2006-05-02), the Git
+project switched the default to use the textual symrefs in favor of symbolic
+links.
++
+The migration away from symbolic links has happened almost 20 years ago by now,
+and there is no known reason why one should prefer them nowadays. Furthermore,
+symbolic links are not supported on some platforms.
++
+Note that only the writing side for such symbolic links is deprecated. Reading
+such symbolic links is still supported for now.
+
== Superseded features that will not be deprecated
Some features have gained newer replacements that aim to improve the design in
diff --git a/Documentation/config/core.adoc b/Documentation/config/core.adoc
index 08739bb9d4..406d7029d9 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/core.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/config/core.adoc
@@ -290,6 +290,9 @@ core.preferSymlinkRefs::
and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links.
This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that
expect HEAD to be a symbolic link.
++
+This configuration is deprecated and will be removed in Git 3.0. Symbolic refs
+will always be written as textual symrefs.
core.alternateRefsCommand::
When advertising tips of available history from an alternate, use the shell to