[PATCH v2 1/3] http-backend: fix die recursion with custom handler

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: May 20, 2015, 07:36 UTC
Message-ID: <20150520073635.GA9818@peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <20150520073526.GA16784@peff.net>

When we die() in http-backend, we call a custom handler that writes an HTTP 500 response to stdout, then reports the error to stderr. Our routines for writing out the HTTP response may themselves die, leading to us entering die() again.

When it was originally written, that was OK; our custom handler keeps a variable to notice this and does not recurse. However, since cd163d4 (usage.c: detect recursion in die routines and bail out immediately, 2012-11-14), the main die() implementation detects recursion before we even get to our custom handler, and bails without printing anything useful.

We can handle this case by doing two things:

  1. Installing a custom die_is_recursing handler that
     allows us to enter up to one level of recursion. Only
     the first call to our custom handler will try to write
     out the error response. So if we die again, that is OK.
     If we end up dying more than that, it is a sign that we
     are in an infinite recursion.

  2. Reporting the error to stderr before trying to write
     out the HTTP response. In the current code, if we do
     die() trying to write out the response, we'll exit
     immediately from this second die(), and never get a
     chance to output the original error (which is almost
     certainly the more interesting one; the second die is
     just going to be along the lines of "I tried to write
     to stdout but it was closed").

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
---
 http-backend.c | 14 +++++++++-----
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/http-backend.c b/http-backend.c
index b6c0484..3ad82a8 100644
--- a/http-backend.c
+++ b/http-backend.c
@@ -500,21 +500,24 @@ static void service_rpc(char *service_name)
 	strbuf_release(&buf);
 }
 
+static int dead;
 static NORETURN void die_webcgi(const char *err, va_list params)
 {
-	static int dead;
+	if (dead <= 1) {
+		vreportf("fatal: ", err, params);
 
-	if (!dead) {
-		dead = 1;
 		http_status(500, "Internal Server Error");
 		hdr_nocache();
 		end_headers();
-
-		vreportf("fatal: ", err, params);
 	}
 	exit(0); /* we successfully reported a failure ;-) */
 }
 
+static int die_webcgi_recursing(void)
+{
+	return dead++ > 1;
+}
+
 static char* getdir(void)
 {
 	struct strbuf buf = STRBUF_INIT;
@@ -569,6 +572,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 
 	git_extract_argv0_path(argv[0]);
 	set_die_routine(die_webcgi);
+	set_die_is_recursing_routine(die_webcgi_recursing);
 
 	if (!method)
 		die("No REQUEST_METHOD from server");

-- 
2.4.1.396.g7ba6d7b