[RFC] gitweb: use HEAD as primary sort key in git_get_heads_list()

Commit Message

Greg Hurrell June 6, 2021, 8:51 a.m. UTC

Prior to this commit, the "heads" section on a gitweb summary page would
list the heads in `-committerdate` order (ie. the most recently-modified
ones at the top).

In my own repos I have started to move from "master" towards "main", but
I keep "master" around and in sync with "main" so as not to break
existing clones. As such, they always point at the same commit.

This means that in the "heads" listing of a gitweb instance, the display
order ends up being determined by how `git for-each-ref` decides to
tie-break "master" and "main"

For example, right now on a sample repo, gitweb shows the heads in this
order, even though "master" and "main" reference the same commit. The
tie-breaking evidently isn't happening lexicographically:

- master
- main
- pu
- next

So, this commit adds another `--sort` parameter to the `git
for-each-ref` invocation in `git_get_heads_list()`, ensuring that the
`HEAD` ref always ends up getting sorted to the top:

- main
- master
- pu
- next

This seems to be a useful change, because I can't see anywhere else in
the gitweb UI where we actually indicate to the user what the "default"
branch is (ie. what they'll checkout if they run `git clone`).
---
 gitweb/gitweb.perl | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

Patch

diff --git a/gitweb/gitweb.perl b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
index e09e024a09..e5270b0291 100755
--- a/gitweb/gitweb.perl
+++ b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
@@ -3796,7 +3796,8 @@  sub git_get_heads_list {
 	my @headslist;
 
 	open my $fd, '-|', git_cmd(), 'for-each-ref',
-		($limit ? '--count='.($limit+1) : ()), '--sort=-committerdate',
+		($limit ? '--count='.($limit+1) : ()),
+		'--sort=-committerdate', '--sort=-HEAD',
 		'--format=%(objectname) %(refname) %(subject)%00%(committer)',
 		@patterns
 		or return;