Re: fast-import fails in read-only tree

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Jan 29, 2016, 06:08 UTC
Message-ID: <20160129060802.GA23106@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <jwvfuxhz72e.fsf-monnier+gmane.comp.version-control.git@gnu.org>

On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 05:17:36PM -0500, Stefan Monnier wrote:

Show 10 quoted lines

> I recently discovered that "git fast-import" signals an error if used in
> a tree to which we do not have write-access, because it tries to create
> a "objects/pack/tmp_pack_XXX" file even before starting to process
> the commands.
> 
> Usually this is not a problem (we'll create new commits and such, so
> write-access is indeed necessary), but in my case I was using
> fast-import only for its "reading" operations (in order to combine
> several inter-dependent "cat-file" operations into a single git
> session).

The primary goal of fast-import is to write that packfile. It kind of sounds like you are using the wrong tool for the job.

Can you elaborate on what you are sending to fast-import (preferably with a concrete example)? There may be a way to accomplish the same thing with read-only tools like cat-file.

-Peff