Git Deprecations and Removals

its removal, 2020-08-25) whenever the command is executed. + So far there was a single complaint about somebody still using the command, but that complaint did not cause us to reverse course. On the contrary, we have doubled down on the deprecation and starting with 4406522b76 (pack-redundant: escalate deprecation warning to an error, 2023-03-23), the command dies unless the user passes the `--i-still-use-this` option. + There have not been any subsequent complaints, so this command will finally be removed. + Cf. <xmqq1rjuz6n3.fsf_-_@gitster.c.googlers.com>, <CAKvOHKAFXQwt4D8yUCCkf_TQL79mYaJ=KAKhtpDNTvHJFuX1NA@mail.gmail.com>, <20230323204047.GA9290@coredump.intra.peff.net>, * Support for storing shorthands for remote URLs in "$GIT_COMMON_DIR/branches/" and "$GIT_COMMON_DIR/remotes/" has been long superseded by storing remotes in the repository configuration. + The mechanism has originally been introduced in f170e4b39d ([PATCH] fetch/pull: short-hand notation for remote repositories., 2005-07-16) and was superseded by 6687f8fea2 ([PATCH] Use .git/remote/origin, not .git/branches/origin., 2005-08-20), where we switched from ".git/branches/" to ".git/remotes/". That commit already mentions an upcoming deprecation of the ".git/branches/" directory, and starting with a1d4aa7424 (Add repository-layout document., 2005-09-01) we have also marked this layout as deprecated. Eventually we also started to migrate away from ".git/remotes/" in favor of config-based remotes, and we have marked the directory as legacy in 3d3d282146 (Documentation: Grammar correction, wording fixes and cleanup, 2011-08-23) + As our documentation mentions, these directories are unlikely to be used in modern repositories and most users aren't even aware of these mechanisms. They have been deprecated for almost 20 years and 14 years respectively, and we are not aware of any active users that have complained about this deprecation. Furthermore, the ".git/branches/" directory is nowadays misleadingly named and may cause confusion as "branches" are almost exclusively used in the context of references. + These features will be removed. * Support for "--stdin" option in the "name-rev" command was deprecated (and hidden from the documentation) in the Git 2.40 timeframe, in preference to its synonym "--annotate-stdin". Git 3.0 removes the support for "--stdin" altogether. == Superseded features that will not be deprecated Some features have gained newer replacements that aim to improve the design in certain ways. The fact that there is a replacement does not automatically mean that the old way of doing things will eventually be removed. This section tracks those features with newer alternatives. * The features git-checkout(1) offers are covered by the pair of commands git-restore(1) and git-switch(1). Because the use of git-checkout(1) is still widespread, and it is not expected that this will change anytime soon, all three commands will stay. + This decision may get revisited in case we ever figure out that there are almost no users of any of the commands anymore. + Cf. <xmqqttjazwwa.fsf@gitster.g>, <xmqqleeubork.fsf@gitster.g>, <112b6568912a6de6672bf5592c3a718e@manjaro.org>.

The Git project is removing or deprecating several features, including the git-pack-redundant command, support for storing shorthands for remote URLs in certain directories, and the --stdin option in the name-rev command, as they have been superseded by alternative mechanisms or are no longer widely used, while other features like git-checkout will remain due to their continued widespread use.