Re: [PATCH 4/5] merge-ort: prevent the_repository from coming back

From: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
Date: Feb 19, 2026, 18:42 UTC
Message-ID: <CABPp-BF5jLfsndbinaPO_18fxvdUuVOYC8j31==jMXwK6iP0QA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <aZcr7DiIteTS9udR@pks.im>

On Thu, Feb 19, 2026 at 7:27 AM Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> wrote:

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>
> On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 09:15:14AM +0000, Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget wrote:
> > From: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
> >
> > There are two things preventing us from removing our usage of
> > USE_THE_REPOSITORY_VARIABLE: one necessary use of the_repository in
> > prefetch_for_content_merges(), and the use of DEFAULT_ABBREV.  We have
> > removed all other uses of the_repository in merge-ort before (multiple
> > times), but without removing that definition, they keep coming back.
>
> Unfortunate, but I think it's okay to be pragmatic here.

Yeah, also full disclosure: I do not know why prefetch_for_content_merges() needs to use the_repository. When I introduced it back in 2bff554b23e8 (merge-ort: add prefetching for content merges, 2021-06-22), I was just looking at diffcore_std() and trying to mimic how it did the prefetch. I don't actually understand why the comparison against the_repository is there for either of these functions. Maybe someone else knows and could shed some light? (cc: Jonathan Tan for the diffcore_std() case I was copying from...)

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> > diff --git a/merge-ort.c b/merge-ort.c
> > index 40a11dca73..ae19118550 100644
> > --- a/merge-ort.c
> > +++ b/merge-ort.c
> > @@ -53,6 +53,8 @@
> >  #include "unpack-trees.h"
> >  #include "xdiff-interface.h"
> >
> > +#define the_repository DO_NOT_USE_THE_REPOSITORY
>
> Do we want to have a comment here that explains why we do this dance?

Sure, will do.