git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

Re: [PATCH v2 08/51] is_dup_ref(): extract function from sort_ref_array()

From
Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
Date
Dec 12, 2011, 11:44 UTC
Message-ID
<4EE5E918.8090104@alum.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To
<20111212083345.GA16106@sigill.intra.peff.net>
On 12/12/2011 09:33 AM, Jeff King wrote:
Show 24 quoted lines
> On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 06:38:15AM +0100, mhagger@alum.mit.edu wrote:
> 
>> +/*
>> + * Emit a warning and return true iff ref1 and ref2 have the same name
>> + * and the same sha1.  Die if they have the same name but different
>> + * sha1s.
>> + */
>> +static int is_dup_ref(const struct ref_entry *ref1, const struct ref_entry *ref2)
>> +{
>> +	if (!strcmp(ref1->name, ref2->name)) {
>> +		/* Duplicate name; make sure that the SHA1s match: */
>> +		if (hashcmp(ref1->sha1, ref2->sha1))
>> +			die("Duplicated ref, and SHA1s don't match: %s",
>> +			    ref1->name);
>> +		warning("Duplicated ref: %s", ref1->name);
>> +		return 1;
>> +	} else {
>> +		return 0;
>> +	}
>> +}
> 
> As a user, I'm not sure what this message means. If I understand the
> context right, this happens when you have duplicate entries in your
> packed-refs file?

It could be caused by dups in any of the three ref caches: packed refs, loose refs, or extra refs.

Duplicates in the packed-refs file could be caused by any garden-variety data corruption external to git. Or they could be caused by a bug in git that caused it to write duplicates. But the code that writes packed refs iterates over the refs right after they are sorted, and sorting eliminates duplicates, so this would be an unlikely bug the way the code is currently organized. I suppose they could also be caused by the simultaneous writing of the packed-refs file by another process that doesn't respect git's lock file; perhaps an ill-timed rsync or something.

Normally there should be no duplicate loose refs, because their names are taken directly from the filesystem and duplicate filenames are not allowed. (Though I don't know if readdir() guarantees an atomic snapshot of a directory; if not, then a dup could perhaps be created by having another process add and remove files while git is reading a loose ref directory.)

Extra refs are created locally by other git code that I am not familiar with, so duplicate extra refs could only be created by a bug in git.

So in summary, duplicates could be caused by a git bug, by a corrupt packed-refs file, or conceivably by a race condition with another process that is mutating the packed-refs file or the loose reference directories.

Show 11 quoted lines
> This would indicate a bug in git, so should this perhaps say "BUG:" in
> front, or maybe give some more context so that a user understands it is
> not their error, or even a random error on this run, but that git has
> accidentally corrupted the packed-refs file (and their best bet is
> probably to report the bug to us).
> 
> This is obviously not an issue introduced by your patch, as you are
> just moving these error messages around. But maybe while the topic is
> fresh in your mind it is a good time to improve it. I dunno. AFAICT
> nobody has ever actually hit this message, so maybe it doesn't matter.
> :)

The first of Google search results for the fatal error message only shows one instance where the error was observed [1]. This was a case of cloning using the rsync protocol, which I believe is now deprecated (probably for exactly this reason).

I think that the gold-plated way to improve the error message would be to pass the error back to the caller, who would have more context to decide the most likely cause of the duplicate and give an appropriate warning or error message. But I think we can afford to wait until more error reports appear before bothering with this.

Michael
[1] http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/git/2008/12/17/4438764
-- 
Michael Haggerty
mhagger@alum.mit.edu
http://softwareswirl.blogspot.com/
Previous: Jeff KingNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 12 of 79 in “ref-api-C and ref-api-D re-roll”
  1. 00/51 ref-api-C and ref-api-D re-rollmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  2. 01/51 struct ref_entry: document name membermhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  3. 02/51 refs: rename "refname" variablesmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  4. Junio C HamanoDec 13, 2011
  5. 03/51 refs: rename parameters result -> sha1mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  6. 04/51 clear_ref_array(): rename from free_ref_array()mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  7. 05/51 is_refname_available(): remove the "quiet" argumentmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  8. 06/51 parse_ref_line(): add docstringmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  9. 07/51 add_ref(): add docstringmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  10. 08/51 is_dup_ref(): extract function from sort_ref_array()mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  11. Jeff KingDec 12, 2011
  12. Michael HaggertyDec 12, 2011
  13. Junio C HamanoDec 12, 2011
  14. Junio C HamanoDec 12, 2011
  15. Michael HaggertyDec 13, 2011
  16. Michael HaggertyDec 13, 2011
  17. 09/51 refs: change signatures of get_packed_refs() and get_loose_refs()mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  18. 10/51 get_ref_dir(): change signaturemhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  19. 11/51 resolve_gitlink_ref(): improve docstringmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  20. 12/51 Pass a (ref_cache *) to the resolve_gitlink_*() helper functionsmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  21. 13/51 resolve_gitlink_ref_recursive(): change to work with struct ref_cachemhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  22. 14/51 repack_without_ref(): remove temporarymhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  23. 15/51 create_ref_entry(): extract function from add_ref()mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  24. 16/51 add_ref(): take a (struct ref_entry *) parametermhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  25. 17/51 do_for_each_ref(): correctly terminate while processesing extra_refsmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  26. Junio C HamanoDec 12, 2011
  27. 18/51 do_for_each_ref_in_array(): new functionmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  28. 19/51 do_for_each_ref_in_arrays(): new functionmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  29. 20/51 repack_without_ref(): reimplement using do_for_each_ref_in_array()mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  30. Junio C HamanoDec 12, 2011
  31. 21/51 names_conflict(): new function, extracted from is_refname_available()mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  32. 22/51 names_conflict(): simplify implementationmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  33. 23/51 is_refname_available(): reimplement using do_for_each_ref_in_array()mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  34. 24/51 refs.c: reorder definitions more logicallymhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  35. 25/51 free_ref_entry(): new functionmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  36. 26/51 check_refname_component(): return 0 for zero-length componentsmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  37. 27/51 struct ref_entry: nest the value part in a unionmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  38. 28/51 refs.c: rename ref_array -> ref_dirmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  39. Junio C HamanoDec 13, 2011
  40. Michael HaggertyDec 13, 2011
  41. Junio C HamanoDec 13, 2011
  42. Michael HaggertyDec 13, 2011
  43. Junio C HamanoDec 13, 2011
  44. Michael HaggertyDec 13, 2011
  45. Junio C HamanoDec 13, 2011
  46. Junio C HamanoDec 14, 2011
  47. Jeff KingDec 14, 2011
  48. Michael HaggertyDec 15, 2011
  49. Jeff KingDec 15, 2011
  50. Michael HaggertyJan 17, 2012
  51. Michael HaggertyFeb 10, 2012
  52. Jeff KingFeb 10, 2012
  53. Junio C HamanoFeb 10, 2012
  54. Michael HaggertyFeb 11, 2012
  55. 29/51 refs: store references hierarchicallymhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  56. 30/51 sort_ref_dir(): do not sort if already sortedmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  57. Junio C HamanoDec 12, 2011
  58. 31/51 refs: sort ref_dirs lazilymhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  59. 32/51 do_for_each_ref(): only iterate over the subtree that was requestedmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  60. 33/51 get_ref_dir(): keep track of the current ref_dirmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  61. 34/51 refs: wrap top-level ref_dirs in ref_entriesmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  62. 35/51 get_packed_refs(): return (ref_entry *) instead of (ref_dir *)mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  63. 36/51 get_loose_refs(): return (ref_entry *) instead of (ref_dir *)mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  64. 37/51 is_refname_available(): take (ref_entry *) instead of (ref_dir *)mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  65. 38/51 find_ref(): take (ref_entry *) instead of (ref_dir *)mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  66. 39/51 read_packed_refs(): take (ref_entry *) instead of (ref_dir *)mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  67. 40/51 add_ref(): take (ref_entry *) instead of (ref_dir *)mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  68. 41/51 find_containing_direntry(): use (ref_entry *) instead of (ref_dir *)mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  69. 42/51 search_ref_dir(): take (ref_entry *) instead of (ref_dir *)mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  70. 43/51 add_entry(): take (ref_entry *) instead of (ref_dir *)mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  71. 44/51 do_for_each_ref_in_dir*(): take (ref_entry *) instead of (ref_dir *)mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  72. 45/51 sort_ref_dir(): take (ref_entry *) instead of (ref_dir *)mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  73. 46/51 struct ref_dir: store a reference to the enclosing ref_cachemhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  74. 47/51 read_loose_refs(): take a (ref_entry *) as argumentmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  75. 48/51 refs: read loose references lazilymhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  76. 49/51 is_refname_available(): query only possibly-conflicting referencesmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  77. 50/51 read_packed_refs(): keep track of the directory being worked inmhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  78. 51/51 repack_without_ref(): call clear_packed_ref_cache()mhagger@alum.mit.edu, Dec 12, 2011
  79. Junio C HamanoDec 12, 2011

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.