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Re: `git update-ref` fails to set reflog old_oid in 2.48

From
Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date
Jan 21, 2025, 21:52 UTC
Message-ID
<20250121215235.GA2753621@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To
<CACwGqKixQEGau8CZuLwJx02F4h8hxrf9e_7N1tHMU=Wvy8ViyQ@mail.gmail.com>
On Tue, Jan 21, 2025 at 03:40:06PM -0500, Nika Layzell wrote:
Show 18 quoted lines
> In git 2.48.1, the `git update-ref` subcommand no longer correctly
> updates the reflog in some cases. Specifically, it appears that the
> `old_oid` field will not be updated when modifying a branch referenced
> by another symbolic ref (e.g. HEAD). This doesn't break the `git
> reflog` subcommand, but does break references like `HEAD@{1}`, which
> appear to read the `old_oid` field.
> 
> STR (in a fresh directory):
> ```
> git init -b main
> git commit --allow-empty -m "A"
> git commit --allow-empty -m "B"
> git update-ref -m "reason" refs/heads/main HEAD~ HEAD
> ```
> [...]
> The `old_oid` field is empty (all zeroes). This is only the case in
> derived reflogs (in this case .git/logs/HEAD). The reflog for
> refs/heads/main appears to be updated correctly.

Thanks for an easy reproduction recipe. Looks like it bisects to 297c09eabb (refs: allow multiple reflog entries for the same refname, 2024-12-16). Author cc'd.

Just looking at the diff, the early return from lock_ref_for_update() seems suspicious to me. Doing this:

diff --git a/refs/files-backend.c b/refs/files-backend.c
index 8953d1c6d3..1c0e24a855 100644
--- a/refs/files-backend.c
+++ b/refs/files-backend.c
@@ -2611,9 +2611,6 @@ static int lock_ref_for_update(struct files_ref_store *refs,
 
 	update->backend_data = lock;
 
-	if (update->flags & REF_LOG_ONLY)
-		goto out;
-
 	if (update->type & REF_ISSYMREF) {
 		if (update->flags & REF_NO_DEREF) {
 			/*

makes the problem go away, and doesn't fail any tests. But that is just
me poking at it without understanding why those lines were there in the
first place.

-Peff
Previous: Nika LayzellNext: Karthik Nayak
Message 2 of 13 in “`git update-ref` fails to set reflog old_oid in 2.48”
  1. Nika LayzellJan 21, 2025
  2. Jeff KingJan 21, 2025
  3. Karthik NayakJan 22, 2025
  4. refs: fix creation of corrupted reflogs for symrefsKarthik Nayak, Jan 22, 2025
  5. Patrick SteinhardtJan 22, 2025
  6. Junio C HamanoJan 22, 2025
  7. Karthik NayakJan 23, 2025
  8. Jeff KingJan 22, 2025
  9. Karthik NayakJan 23, 2025
  10. Jeff KingJan 23, 2025
  11. refs: fix creation of corrupted reflogs for symrefsKarthik Nayak, Jan 23, 2025
  12. Junio C HamanoJan 23, 2025
  13. Karthik NayakJan 24, 2025

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