ls-remote: introduce --branches and deprecate --heads

We call the tips of branches "heads", but this command calls the
option to show only branches "--heads", which confuses the branches
themselves and the tips of branches.

Straighten the terminology by introducing "--branches" option that
limits the output to branches, and deprecate "--heads" option used
that way.

We do not plan to remove "--heads" or "-h" yet; we may want to do so
at Git 3.0, in which case, we may need to start advertising upcoming
removal with an extra warning when they are used.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Author: gitster

Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ git-ls-remote - List references in a remote repository
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git ls-remote' [--heads] [--tags] [--refs] [--upload-pack=<exec>]
+'git ls-remote' [--branches] [--tags] [--refs] [--upload-pack=<exec>]
 	      [-q | --quiet] [--exit-code] [--get-url] [--sort=<key>]
 	      [--symref] [<repository> [<patterns>...]]
 
@@ -21,14 +21,16 @@ commit IDs.
 
 OPTIONS
 -------
--h::
---heads::
+-b::
+--branches::
 -t::
 --tags::
-	Limit to only refs/heads and refs/tags, respectively.
+	Limit to only local branches and local tags, respectively.
 	These options are _not_ mutually exclusive; when given
 	both, references stored in refs/heads and refs/tags are
-	displayed.  Note that `git ls-remote -h` used without
+	displayed.  Note that `--heads` and `-h` are deprecated
+	synonyms for `--branches` and `-b` and may be removed in
+	the future.  Also note that `git ls-remote -h` used without
 	anything else on the command line gives help, consistent
 	with other git subcommands.
 

builtin/ls-remote.c

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 #include "wildmatch.h"
 
 static const char * const ls_remote_usage[] = {
-	N_("git ls-remote [--heads] [--tags] [--refs] [--upload-pack=<exec>]\n"
+	N_("git ls-remote [--branches] [--tags] [--refs] [--upload-pack=<exec>]\n"
 	   "              [-q | --quiet] [--exit-code] [--get-url] [--sort=<key>]\n"
 	   "              [--symref] [<repository> [<patterns>...]]"),
 	NULL
@@ -68,7 +68,10 @@ int cmd_ls_remote(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 			   N_("path of git-upload-pack on the remote host"),
 			   PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN },
 		OPT_BIT('t', "tags", &flags, N_("limit to tags"), REF_TAGS),
-		OPT_BIT('h', "heads", &flags, N_("limit to heads"), REF_BRANCHES),
+		OPT_BIT('b', "branches", &flags, N_("limit to branches"), REF_BRANCHES),
+		OPT_BIT_F('h', "heads", &flags,
+			  N_("deprecated synonym for --branches"), REF_BRANCHES,
+			  PARSE_OPT_HIDDEN),
 		OPT_BIT(0, "refs", &flags, N_("do not show peeled tags"), REF_NORMAL),
 		OPT_BOOL(0, "get-url", &get_url,
 			 N_("take url.<base>.insteadOf into account")),

t/t5512-ls-remote.sh

@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ test_expect_success setup '
 	git show-ref -d	>refs &&
 	sed -e "s/ /	/" refs >>expected.all &&
 
+	grep refs/heads/ expected.all >expected.branches &&
 	git remote add self "$(pwd)/.git" &&
 	git remote add self2 "."
 '
@@ -71,6 +72,27 @@ test_expect_success 'ls-remote self' '
 	test_cmp expected.all actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'ls-remote --branches self' '
+	git ls-remote --branches self >actual &&
+	test_cmp expected.branches actual &&
+	git ls-remote -b self >actual &&
+	test_cmp expected.branches actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'ls-remote -h is deprecated w/o warning' '
+	git ls-remote -h self >actual 2>warning &&
+	test_cmp expected.branches actual &&
+	test_grep ! deprecated warning
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'ls-remote --heads is deprecated and hidden w/o warning' '
+	test_expect_code 129 git ls-remote -h >short-help &&
+	test_grep ! -e --head short-help &&
+	git ls-remote --heads self >actual 2>warning &&
+	test_cmp expected.branches actual &&
+	test_grep ! deprecated warning
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'ls-remote --sort="version:refname" --tags self' '
 	generate_references \
 		refs/tags/mark \
@@ -275,17 +297,17 @@ test_expect_success 'ls-remote with filtered symref (refname)' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
-test_expect_success 'ls-remote with filtered symref (--heads)' '
+test_expect_success 'ls-remote with filtered symref (--branches)' '
 	git symbolic-ref refs/heads/foo refs/tags/mark &&
 	cat >expect.v2 <<-EOF &&
 	ref: refs/tags/mark	refs/heads/foo
 	$rev	refs/heads/foo
 	$rev	refs/heads/main
 	EOF
 	grep -v "^ref: refs/tags/" <expect.v2 >expect.v0 &&
-	git -c protocol.version=0 ls-remote --symref --heads . >actual.v0 &&
+	git -c protocol.version=0 ls-remote --symref --branches . >actual.v0 &&
 	test_cmp expect.v0 actual.v0 &&
-	git -c protocol.version=2 ls-remote --symref --heads . >actual.v2 &&
+	git -c protocol.version=2 ls-remote --symref --branches . >actual.v2 &&
 	test_cmp expect.v2 actual.v2
 '
 
@@ -335,9 +357,9 @@ test_expect_success 'ls-remote patterns work with all protocol versions' '
 test_expect_success 'ls-remote prefixes work with all protocol versions' '
 	git for-each-ref --format="%(objectname)	%(refname)" \
 		refs/heads/ refs/tags/ >expect &&
-	git -c protocol.version=0 ls-remote --heads --tags . >actual.v0 &&
+	git -c protocol.version=0 ls-remote --branches --tags . >actual.v0 &&
 	test_cmp expect actual.v0 &&
-	git -c protocol.version=2 ls-remote --heads --tags . >actual.v2 &&
+	git -c protocol.version=2 ls-remote --branches --tags . >actual.v2 &&
 	test_cmp expect actual.v2
 '