[Vote] Should manifests with a refers field that points to something that doesn't exist in the repository be accepted by a registry? #340
Description
Follow up from #339.
A registry MAY reject a manifest of any type uploaded to the manifest endpoint if it references manifests or blobs that do not exist in the registry. A registry SHOULD accept a manifest with a refers field that references a manifest that does not exist. When a manifest is rejected for these reasons, it MUST result in one or more MANIFEST_BLOB_UNKNOWN errors code-1.
from spec.md.
In the community meeting on 8/25, we talked about changing this to "A registry MUST accept a manifest with a refers field that references a manifest that does not exist."
I'm concerned that this will open users up to accidentally pushing reference artifacts to the wrong repository and not getting feedback about it. I'd like to hear about the scenarios we're trying to support / will be blocked if we don't do this.