From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2026 03:14:39 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] odb: ignore refs of shallow and grafted alternates
Message-ID: <20261016031439.GA3437448@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <20261014181134.56220-3-iwiedler@gitlab.com>

On Wed, Oct 14, 2026 at 08:11:34PM +0200, Igor Wiedler wrote:

> +test_expect_success 'refs of a shallow alternate are ignored' '
> +	git clone --depth=1 "file://$TRASH_DIRECTORY" "$TRASH_DIRECTORY/shallow" &&
> +	test_commit -C "$TRASH_DIRECTORY/shallow" shallow-only &&
> +	git -C "$TRASH_DIRECTORY/shallow" rev-parse HEAD >shallow-tip &&
> +	cp .git/objects/info/alternates alternates.bak &&
> +	test_when_finished "mv alternates.bak .git/objects/info/alternates" &&
> +	echo "$TRASH_DIRECTORY/shallow/.git/objects" >>.git/objects/info/alternates &&
> +	git cat-file -e $(cat shallow-tip) &&
> +	git rev-list --remotes=origin >expect &&
> +	git rev-list --alternate-refs >actual &&
> +	test_cmp expect actual
> +'

This seemed to fail the windows ci job with cat-file reporting:

  error: unable to normalize alternate object path: /d/a/git/git/t/trash directory.t5618-alternate-refs/shallow/.git/objects

Just a guess, but it might be the Windows vs POSIX path thing? So
perhaps something like this would work, but I didn't test it:

diff --git a/t/t5618-alternate-refs.sh b/t/t5618-alternate-refs.sh
index 9c3862709a..e5dce85cff 100755
--- a/t/t5618-alternate-refs.sh
+++ b/t/t5618-alternate-refs.sh
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ test_expect_success 'refs of a shallow alternate are ignored' '
 	git -C "$TRASH_DIRECTORY/shallow" rev-parse HEAD >shallow-tip &&
 	cp .git/objects/info/alternates alternates.bak &&
 	test_when_finished "mv alternates.bak .git/objects/info/alternates" &&
-	echo "$TRASH_DIRECTORY/shallow/.git/objects" >>.git/objects/info/alternates &&
+	echo "$(pwd)/shallow/.git/objects" >>.git/objects/info/alternates &&
 	git cat-file -e $(cat shallow-tip) &&
 	git rev-list --remotes=origin >expect &&
 	git rev-list --alternate-refs >actual &&

Alternatively, we could actually clone "shallow" with --reference or
--shared, which would let Git write the alternates file itself (but
would mean running rev-list, etc, in a subrepo).

We also mention $TRASH_DIRECTORY in some other spots. I think they are
not a problem, but usually we assume that tests start in the trash
directory and don't change directory (at least not outside of a
subshell). So as a matter of style, we can probably make all of those
relative paths.

Also, a very minor style nit, but we tend to use environment variables
instead of files for holding values. So all together, perhaps (again,
only lightly tested):

diff --git a/t/t5618-alternate-refs.sh b/t/t5618-alternate-refs.sh
index 9c3862709a..5ac981c5a0 100755
--- a/t/t5618-alternate-refs.sh
+++ b/t/t5618-alternate-refs.sh
@@ -71,13 +71,13 @@ test_expect_success 'connectivity check of a deepening fetch excludes alternate
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'refs of a shallow alternate are ignored' '
-	git clone --depth=1 "file://$TRASH_DIRECTORY" "$TRASH_DIRECTORY/shallow" &&
-	test_commit -C "$TRASH_DIRECTORY/shallow" shallow-only &&
-	git -C "$TRASH_DIRECTORY/shallow" rev-parse HEAD >shallow-tip &&
+	git clone --depth=1 --no-local . shallow &&
+	test_commit -C shallow shallow-only &&
+	shallow_tip=$(git -C shallow rev-parse HEAD) &&
 	cp .git/objects/info/alternates alternates.bak &&
 	test_when_finished "mv alternates.bak .git/objects/info/alternates" &&
-	echo "$TRASH_DIRECTORY/shallow/.git/objects" >>.git/objects/info/alternates &&
-	git cat-file -e $(cat shallow-tip) &&
+	echo "$(pwd)/shallow/.git/objects" >>.git/objects/info/alternates &&
+	git cat-file -e $shallow_tip &&
 	git rev-list --remotes=origin >expect &&
 	git rev-list --alternate-refs >actual &&
 	test_cmp expect actual

-Peff