[PATCH v3 8/9] refs: stop unsetting REF_HAVE_OLD for log-only updates

From: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Date: Jul 29, 2025, 08:55 UTC
Message-ID: <20250729-pks-reflog-append-v3-8-9614d310f073@pks.im>
In-Reply-To: <20250729-pks-reflog-append-v3-0-9614d310f073@pks.im>

The `REF_HAVE_OLD` flag indicates whether a given ref update has its old object ID set. If so, the value of that field is used to verify whether the current state of the reference matches this expected state. It is thus an important part of mitigating races with a concurrent process that updates the same set of references.

When writing reflogs though we explicitly unset that flag. This is a sensible thing to do: the old state of reflog entry updates may not necessarily match the current on-disk state of its accompanying ref, but it's only intended to signal what old object ID we want to write into the new reflog entry. For example when migrating refs we end up writing many reflog entries for a single reference, and most likely those reflog entries will have many different old object IDs.

But unsetting this flag also removes a useful signal, namely that the caller _did_ provide an old object ID for a given reflog entry. This signal will become useful in a subsequent commit, where we add a new flag that tells the transaction to use the provided old and new object IDs to write a reflog entry. The `REF_HAVE_OLD` flag is then used as a signal to verify that the caller really did provide an old object ID.

Stop unsetting the flag so that we can use it as this described signal in a subsequent commit. Skip checking the old object ID for log-only updates so that we don't expect it to match the current on-disk state.

Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
---
 refs.c                  |  8 +++-----
 refs/files-backend.c    |  9 +++++----
 refs/refs-internal.h    |  3 ++-
 refs/reftable-backend.c | 12 +++---------
 4 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)

diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index a5f9ffaa45d..f88928de746 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -1393,11 +1393,6 @@ int ref_transaction_update_reflog(struct ref_transaction *transaction,
 	update = ref_transaction_add_update(transaction, refname, flags,
 					    new_oid, old_oid, NULL, NULL,
 					    committer_info, msg);
-	/*
-	 * While we do set the old_oid value, we unset the flag to skip
-	 * old_oid verification which only makes sense for refs.
-	 */
-	update->flags &= ~REF_HAVE_OLD;
 	update->index = index;
 
 	/*
@@ -3318,6 +3313,9 @@ int repo_migrate_ref_storage_format(struct repository *repo,
 
 int ref_update_expects_existing_old_ref(struct ref_update *update)
 {
+	if (update->flags & REF_LOG_ONLY)
+		return 0;
+
 	return (update->flags & REF_HAVE_OLD) &&
 		(!is_null_oid(&update->old_oid) || update->old_target);
 }
diff --git a/refs/files-backend.c b/refs/files-backend.c
index ba018b0984a..85ab2ef2b94 100644
--- a/refs/files-backend.c
+++ b/refs/files-backend.c
@@ -2500,7 +2500,6 @@ static enum ref_transaction_error split_symref_update(struct ref_update *update,
 	 * done when new_update is processed.
 	 */
 	update->flags |= REF_LOG_ONLY | REF_NO_DEREF;
-	update->flags &= ~REF_HAVE_OLD;
 
 	return 0;
 }
@@ -2515,8 +2514,9 @@ static enum ref_transaction_error check_old_oid(struct ref_update *update,
 						struct object_id *oid,
 						struct strbuf *err)
 {
-	if (!(update->flags & REF_HAVE_OLD) ||
-		   oideq(oid, &update->old_oid))
+	if (update->flags & REF_LOG_ONLY ||
+	    !(update->flags & REF_HAVE_OLD) ||
+	    oideq(oid, &update->old_oid))
 		return 0;
 
 	if (is_null_oid(&update->old_oid)) {
@@ -3095,7 +3095,8 @@ static int files_transaction_finish_initial(struct files_ref_store *refs,
 	for (i = 0; i < transaction->nr; i++) {
 		struct ref_update *update = transaction->updates[i];
 
-		if ((update->flags & REF_HAVE_OLD) &&
+		if (!(update->flags & REF_LOG_ONLY) &&
+		    (update->flags & REF_HAVE_OLD) &&
 		    !is_null_oid(&update->old_oid))
 			BUG("initial ref transaction with old_sha1 set");
 
diff --git a/refs/refs-internal.h b/refs/refs-internal.h
index f8688708519..95a4dc3902f 100644
--- a/refs/refs-internal.h
+++ b/refs/refs-internal.h
@@ -802,7 +802,8 @@ enum ref_transaction_error ref_update_check_old_target(const char *referent,
 
 /*
  * Check if the ref must exist, this means that the old_oid or
- * old_target is non NULL.
+ * old_target is non NULL. Log-only updates never require the old state to
+ * match.
  */
 int ref_update_expects_existing_old_ref(struct ref_update *update);
 
diff --git a/refs/reftable-backend.c b/refs/reftable-backend.c
index 4c3817f4ec1..44af58ac50b 100644
--- a/refs/reftable-backend.c
+++ b/refs/reftable-backend.c
@@ -1180,8 +1180,6 @@ static enum ref_transaction_error prepare_single_update(struct reftable_ref_stor
 	if (ret > 0) {
 		/* The reference does not exist, but we expected it to. */
 		strbuf_addf(err, _("cannot lock ref '%s': "
-
-
 				   "unable to resolve reference '%s'"),
 			    ref_update_original_update_refname(u), u->refname);
 		return REF_TRANSACTION_ERROR_NONEXISTENT_REF;
@@ -1235,13 +1233,8 @@ static enum ref_transaction_error prepare_single_update(struct reftable_ref_stor
 
 			new_update->parent_update = u;
 
-			/*
-			 * Change the symbolic ref update to log only. Also, it
-			 * doesn't need to check its old OID value, as that will be
-			 * done when new_update is processed.
-			 */
+			/* Change the symbolic ref update to log only. */
 			u->flags |= REF_LOG_ONLY | REF_NO_DEREF;
-			u->flags &= ~REF_HAVE_OLD;
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -1265,7 +1258,8 @@ static enum ref_transaction_error prepare_single_update(struct reftable_ref_stor
 		ret = ref_update_check_old_target(referent->buf, u, err);
 		if (ret)
 			return ret;
-	} else if ((u->flags & REF_HAVE_OLD) && !oideq(&current_oid, &u->old_oid)) {
+	} else if ((u->flags & (REF_LOG_ONLY | REF_HAVE_OLD)) == REF_HAVE_OLD &&
+		   !oideq(&current_oid, &u->old_oid)) {
 		if (is_null_oid(&u->old_oid)) {
 			strbuf_addf(err, _("cannot lock ref '%s': "
 					   "reference already exists"),

-- 
2.50.1.619.g074bbf1d35.dirty