From: Colin Hinton <colinlewishinton@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2026 20:30:54 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] fetch.c: defer fetch.followRemoteHEAD validation
Message-ID: <CAHeTm9Pb-fb-ZS_m4UVNZxfp+ENQwBUGDvP1E24dEDTZy5RFFw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqo6dlt906.fsf@gitster.g>

On Fri, Sep 25, 2026 at 12:40 PM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>
> Colin Hinton <colinlewishinton@gmail.com> writes:
>
> >  struct fetch_config {
> >       enum display_format display_format;
> > -     enum follow_remote_head_settings follow_remote_head;
> > +     char *follow_remote_head_raw;
> >       int all;
> >       int prune;
> >       int prune_tags;
> > @@ -176,24 +176,31 @@ static int git_fetch_config(const char *k, const char *v,
> >       }
> >
> >       if (!strcmp(k, "fetch.followremotehead")) {
> > -             if (!v)
> > -                     return config_error_nonbool(k);
> > -             else if (!strcmp(v, "never"))
> > -                     fetch_config->follow_remote_head = FOLLOW_REMOTE_NEVER;
> > -             else if (!strcmp(v, "create"))
> > -                     fetch_config->follow_remote_head = FOLLOW_REMOTE_CREATE;
> > -             else if (!strcmp(v, "warn"))
> > -                     fetch_config->follow_remote_head = FOLLOW_REMOTE_WARN;
> > -             else if (!strcmp(v, "always"))
> > -                     fetch_config->follow_remote_head = FOLLOW_REMOTE_ALWAYS;
> > -             else
> > -                     warning(_("unrecognized fetch.followRemoteHEAD value '%s' ignored"), v);
> > +             free(fetch_config->follow_remote_head_raw);
> > +             fetch_config->follow_remote_head_raw = xstrdup(v);
>
> This will segfault when !v, so
>
>         fetch_config->follow_remote_head_raw = xstrdup_or_null(v);

Will change shortly.
>
> With that change,
>
> > +static enum follow_remote_head_settings get_follow_remote_head(const char *setting)
> > +{
> > +     if (!setting)
> > +             die(_("missing value for 'fetch.followRemoteHEAD'"));
> > +     else if (!strcmp(setting, "never"))
> > +             return FOLLOW_REMOTE_NEVER;
> > +     else if (!strcmp(setting, "create"))
> > +             return FOLLOW_REMOTE_CREATE;
> > +     else if (!strcmp(setting, "warn"))
> > +             return FOLLOW_REMOTE_WARN;
> > +     else if (!strcmp(setting, "always"))
> > +             return FOLLOW_REMOTE_ALWAYS;
> > +     warning(_("unrecognized fetch.followRemoteHEAD value '%s' ignored"), setting);
> > +     return FOLLOW_REMOTE_UNCONFIGURED;
> > +}
>
> This would do a reasonable job.
>
> We should do something similar to what remote.c parses for
> consistency, but other than that, it seems this topic is moving in
> the right direction.
>
> Thanks.

The only critical difference I see in the configuration parse between
remote.c and fetch.c is the case for "warn-if-not-$branch". From
reading the git-config manpage, this is only a setting for a remote
and not for fetch directly so I do not see a reason to check this in
fetch.c. Perhaps I am missing something else to make this more
consistent, or perhaps there is an argument to support the
configuration for fetch to "warn-if-not-$branch" in which case can be
added to this patch.

-Colin Hinton