docs: don't talk about $GIT_DIR/refs/ everywhere

It is misleading to say that we pull refs from $GIT_DIR/refs/*, because we
may also consult the packed refs mechanism. These days we tend to treat
the "refs hierarchy" as more of an abstract namespace that happens to be
represented as $GIT_DIR/refs. At best, this is a minor inaccuracy, but at
worst it can confuse users who then look in $GIT_DIR/refs and find that it
is missing some of the refs they expected to see.

This patch drops most uses of "$GIT_DIR/refs/*", changing them into just
"refs/*", under the assumption that users can handle the concept of an
abstract refs namespace. There are a few things to note:

  - most cases just dropped the $GIT_DIR/ portion. But for cases where
    that left _just_ the word "refs", I changed it to "refs/" to help
    indicate that it was a hierarchy.  I didn't do the same for longer
    paths (e.g., "refs/heads" remained, instead of becoming
    "refs/heads/").

  - in some cases, no change was made, as the text was explicitly about
    unpacked refs (e.g., the discussion in git-pack-refs).

  - In some cases it made sense instead to note the existence of packed
    refs (e.g., in check-ref-format and rev-parse).

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt

@@ -19,8 +19,9 @@ status if it is not.
 
 A reference is used in git to specify branches and tags.  A
 branch head is stored under the `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads` directory, and
-a tag is stored under the `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags` directory.  git
+a tag is stored under the `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags` directory (or, if refs
-imposes the following rules on how references are named:
+are packed by `git gc`, as entries in the `$GIT_DIR/packed-refs` file).
+git imposes the following rules on how references are named:
 
 . They can include slash `/` for hierarchical (directory)
   grouping, but no slash-separated component can begin with a

Documentation/git-clone.txt

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the
 current master branch, if any.
 
 This default configuration is achieved by creating references to
-the remote branch heads under `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin` and
+the remote branch heads under `refs/remotes/origin` and
 by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch`
 configuration variables.
 

Documentation/git-fetch-pack.txt

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ higher level wrapper of this command, instead.
 Invokes 'git-upload-pack' on a possibly remote repository
 and asks it to send objects missing from this repository, to
 update the named heads.  The list of commits available locally
-is found out by scanning local $GIT_DIR/refs/ and sent to
+is found out by scanning the local refs/ hierarchy and sent to
 'git-upload-pack' running on the other end.
 
 This command degenerates to download everything to complete the

Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt

@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ base-name::
 --all::
 	This implies `--revs`.  In addition to the list of
 	revision arguments read from the standard input, pretend
-	as if all refs under `$GIT_DIR/refs` are specified to be
+	as if all refs under `refs/` are specified to be
 	included.
 
 --include-tag::

Documentation/git-prune.txt

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ NOTE: In most cases, users should run 'git gc', which calls
 'git prune'. See the section "NOTES", below.
 
 This runs 'git fsck --unreachable' using all the refs
-available in `$GIT_DIR/refs`, optionally with additional set of
+available in `refs/`, optionally with additional set of
 objects specified on the command line, and prunes all unpacked
 objects unreachable from any of these head objects from the object database.
 In addition, it

Documentation/git-push.txt

@@ -69,11 +69,11 @@ nor in any Push line of the corresponding remotes file---see below).
 
 --all::
 	Instead of naming each ref to push, specifies that all
-	refs under `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/` be pushed.
+	refs under `refs/heads/` be pushed.
 
 --mirror::
 	Instead of naming each ref to push, specifies that all
-	refs under `$GIT_DIR/refs/` (which includes but is not
+	refs under `refs/` (which includes but is not
 	limited to `refs/heads/`, `refs/remotes/`, and `refs/tags/`)
 	be mirrored to the remote repository.  Newly created local
 	refs will be pushed to the remote end, locally updated refs
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ nor in any Push line of the corresponding remotes file---see below).
 	the same as prefixing all refs with a colon.
 
 --tags::
-	All refs under `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags` are pushed, in
+	All refs under `refs/tags` are pushed, in
 	addition to refspecs explicitly listed on the command
 	line.
 

Documentation/git-rev-parse.txt

@@ -101,15 +101,14 @@ OPTIONS
 	abbreviation mode.
 
 --all::
-	Show all refs found in `$GIT_DIR/refs`.
+	Show all refs found in `refs/`.
 
 --branches[=pattern]::
 --tags[=pattern]::
 --remotes[=pattern]::
 	Show all branches, tags, or remote-tracking branches,
-	respectively (i.e., refs found in `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads`,
+	respectively (i.e., refs found in `refs/heads`,
-	`$GIT_DIR/refs/tags`, or `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes`,
+	`refs/tags`, or `refs/remotes`, respectively).
-	respectively).
 +
 If a `pattern` is given, only refs matching the given shell glob are
 shown.  If the pattern does not contain a globbing character (`?`,
@@ -189,7 +188,7 @@ blobs contained in a commit.
   `g`, and an abbreviated object name.
 
 * A symbolic ref name.  E.g. 'master' typically means the commit
-  object referenced by $GIT_DIR/refs/heads/master.  If you
+  object referenced by refs/heads/master.  If you
   happen to have both heads/master and tags/master, you can
   explicitly say 'heads/master' to tell git which one you mean.
   When ambiguous, a `<name>` is disambiguated by taking the
@@ -198,15 +197,15 @@ blobs contained in a commit.
   . if `$GIT_DIR/<name>` exists, that is what you mean (this is usually
     useful only for `HEAD`, `FETCH_HEAD`, `ORIG_HEAD` and `MERGE_HEAD`);
 
-  . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/<name>` if exists;
+  . otherwise, `refs/<name>` if exists;
 
-  . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags/<name>` if exists;
+  . otherwise, `refs/tags/<name>` if exists;
 
-  . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/<name>` if exists;
+  . otherwise, `refs/heads/<name>` if exists;
 
-  . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/<name>` if exists;
+  . otherwise, `refs/remotes/<name>` if exists;
 
-  . otherwise, `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD` if exists.
+  . otherwise, `refs/remotes/<name>/HEAD` if exists.
 +
 HEAD names the commit your changes in the working tree is based on.
 FETCH_HEAD records the branch you fetched from a remote repository
@@ -217,6 +216,9 @@ you can change the tip of the branch back to the state before you ran
 them easily.
 MERGE_HEAD records the commit(s) you are merging into your branch
 when you run 'git merge'.
++
+Note that any of the `refs/*` cases above may come either from
+the `$GIT_DIR/refs` directory or from the `$GIT_DIR/packed-refs` file.
 
 * A ref followed by the suffix '@' with a date specification
   enclosed in a brace

Documentation/git-show-branch.txt

@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@ DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 
 Shows the commit ancestry graph starting from the commits named
-with <rev>s or <globs>s (or all refs under $GIT_DIR/refs/heads
+with <rev>s or <globs>s (or all refs under refs/heads
-and/or $GIT_DIR/refs/tags) semi-visually.
+and/or refs/tags) semi-visually.
 
 It cannot show more than 29 branches and commits at a time.
 
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@ OPTIONS
 
 <glob>::
 	A glob pattern that matches branch or tag names under
-	$GIT_DIR/refs.  For example, if you have many topic
+	refs/.  For example, if you have many topic
-	branches under $GIT_DIR/refs/heads/topic, giving
+	branches under refs/heads/topic, giving
 	`topic/*` would show all of them.
 
 -r::
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ EXAMPLE
 -------
 
 If you keep your primary branches immediately under
-`$GIT_DIR/refs/heads`, and topic branches in subdirectories of
+`refs/heads`, and topic branches in subdirectories of
 it, having the following in the configuration file may help:
 
 ------------

Documentation/git-stash.txt

@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ A stash is by default listed as "WIP on 'branchname' ...", but
 you can give a more descriptive message on the command line when
 you create one.
 
-The latest stash you created is stored in `$GIT_DIR/refs/stash`; older
+The latest stash you created is stored in `refs/stash`; older
 stashes are found in the reflog of this reference and can be named using
 the usual reflog syntax (e.g. `stash@\{0}` is the most recently
 created stash, `stash@\{1}` is the one before it, `stash@\{2.hours.ago}`

Documentation/rev-list-options.txt

@@ -225,26 +225,26 @@ endif::git-rev-list[]
 
 --all::
 
-	Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/` are listed on the
+	Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/` are listed on the
 	command line as '<commit>'.
 
 --branches[=pattern]::
 
-	Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads` are listed
+	Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/heads` are listed
 	on the command line as '<commit>'. If `pattern` is given, limit
 	branches to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?',
 	'*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
 
 --tags[=pattern]::
 
-	Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/tags` are listed
+	Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/tags` are listed
 	on the command line as '<commit>'. If `pattern` is given, limit
 	tags to ones matching given shell glob. If pattern lacks '?', '*',
 	or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
 
 --remotes[=pattern]::
 
-	Pretend as if all the refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes` are listed
+	Pretend as if all the refs in `refs/remotes` are listed
 	on the command line as '<commit>'. If `pattern`is given, limit
 	remote tracking branches to ones matching given shell glob.
 	If pattern lacks '?', '*', or '[', '/*' at the end is implied.
@@ -259,9 +259,9 @@ endif::git-rev-list[]
 ifndef::git-rev-list[]
 --bisect::
 
-	Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `$GIT_DIR/refs/bisect/bad`
+	Pretend as if the bad bisection ref `refs/bisect/bad`
 	was listed and as if it was followed by `--not` and the good
-	bisection refs `$GIT_DIR/refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
+	bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` on the command
 	line.
 endif::git-rev-list[]
 
@@ -561,10 +561,10 @@ Bisection Helpers
 
 Limit output to the one commit object which is roughly halfway between
 included and excluded commits. Note that the bad bisection ref
-`$GIT_DIR/refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
+`refs/bisect/bad` is added to the included commits (if it
-exists) and the good bisection refs `$GIT_DIR/refs/bisect/good-*` are
+exists) and the good bisection refs `refs/bisect/good-*` are
 added to the excluded commits (if they exist). Thus, supposing there
-are no refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/bisect/`, if
+are no refs in `refs/bisect/`, if
 
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 	$ git rev-list --bisect foo ^bar ^baz
@@ -585,7 +585,7 @@ one.
 --bisect-vars::
 
 This calculates the same as `--bisect`, except that refs in
-`$GIT_DIR/refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
+`refs/bisect/` are not used, and except that this outputs
 text ready to be eval'ed by the shell. These lines will assign the
 name of the midpoint revision to the variable `bisect_rev`, and the
 expected number of commits to be tested after `bisect_rev` is tested
@@ -599,7 +599,7 @@ number of commits to be tested if `bisect_rev` turns out to be bad to
 
 This outputs all the commit objects between the included and excluded
 commits, ordered by their distance to the included and excluded
-commits. Refs in `$GIT_DIR/refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
+commits. Refs in `refs/bisect/` are not used. The farthest
 from them is displayed first. (This is the only one displayed by
 `--bisect`.)
 +