Subject: [PATCH 1/4] remote: return non-const pointer from error_buf()

From: Jeff King <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:19:45 -0500

We have an error_buf() helper that functions a bit like our error()
helper, but returns NULL instead of -1. Its return type is "const char
*", but this is overly restrictive. If we use the helper in a function
that returns non-const "char *", the compiler will complain about
the implicit cast from const to non-const.

Meanwhile, the const in the helper is doing nothing useful, as it only
ever returns NULL. Let's drop the const, which will let us use it in
both types of function.

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <[email-masked]>
---
 remote.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/remote.c b/remote.c
index b756ff6f15..3dc100be83 100644
--- a/remote.c
+++ b/remote.c
@@ -1831,7 +1831,7 @@ int branch_merge_matches(struct branch *branch,
 }
 
 __attribute__((format (printf,2,3)))
-static const char *error_buf(struct strbuf *err, const char *fmt, ...)
+static char *error_buf(struct strbuf *err, const char *fmt, ...)
 {
 	if (err) {
 		va_list ap;
-- 
2.53.0.rc0.338.g08aa8a9473