Add "git-update-ref" to update the HEAD (or other) ref

From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Date: Sep 25, 2005, 18:43 UTC
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.58.0509251134480.3308@g5.osdl.org>

This is a careful version of the script stuff that currently just blindly writes HEAD with a new value.

You can use

	git-update-ref HEAD <newhead>

or

	git-update-ref HEAD <newhead> <oldhead>

where the latter version verifies that the old value of HEAD matches oldhead.

It basically allows a "ref" file to be a symbolic pointer to another ref file by starting with the four-byte header sequence of "ref:".

More importantly, it allows the update of a ref file to follow these symbolic pointers, whether they are symlinks or these "regular file symbolic refs".

NOTE! It follows _real_ symlinks only if they start with "refs/": otherwise it will just try to read them and update them as a regular file (ie it will allow the filesystem to follow them, but will overwrite such a symlink to somewhere else with a regular filename).

In general, using

	git-update-ref HEAD "$head"

should be a _lot_ safer than doing

	echo "$head" > "$GIT_DIR/HEAD"

both from a symlink following standpoint _and_ an error checking standpoint. The "refs/" rule for symlinks means that symlinks that point to "outside" the tree are safe: they'll be followed for reading but not for writing (so we'll never write through a ref symlink to some other tree, if you have copied a whole archive by creating a symlink tree).

Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
---

This is independent of my previous patch, but in the same basic series. It is useful regardless of whether you use the new symbolic refs or not because of the much improved error checking.

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -114,6 +114,7 @@ PROGRAMS = \
 	git-ssh-upload git-tar-tree git-unpack-file \
 	git-unpack-objects git-update-index git-update-server-info \
 	git-upload-pack git-verify-pack git-write-tree \
+	git-update-ref \
 	$(SIMPLE_PROGRAMS)
 
 # Backward compatibility -- to be removed in 0.99.8
diff --git a/update-ref.c b/update-ref.c
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/update-ref.c
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+#include "cache.h"
+#include "refs.h"
+
+static const char git_update_ref_usage[] = "git-update-ref <refname> <value> [<oldval>]";
+
+#define MAXDEPTH 5
+
+const char *resolve_ref(const char *path, unsigned char *sha1)
+{
+	int depth = MAXDEPTH, len;
+	char buffer[256];
+
+	for (;;) {
+		struct stat st;
+		char *buf;
+		int fd;
+
+		if (--depth < 0)
+			return NULL;
+
+		/* Special case: non-existing file */
+		if (lstat(path, &st) < 0) {
+			if (errno != ENOENT)
+				return NULL;
+			memset(sha1, 0, 20);
+			return path;
+		}
+
+		/* Follow "normalized" - ie "refs/.." symlinks by hand */
+		if (S_ISLNK(st.st_mode)) {
+			len = readlink(path, buffer, sizeof(buffer)-1);
+			if (len >= 5 && !memcmp("refs/", buffer, 5)) {
+				path = git_path("%.*s", len, buffer);
+				continue;
+			}
+		}
+
+		/*
+		 * Anything else, just open it and try to use it as
+		 * a ref
+		 */
+		fd = open(path, O_RDONLY);
+		if (fd < 0)
+			return NULL;
+		len = read(fd, buffer, sizeof(buffer)-1);
+		close(fd);
+
+		/*
+		 * Is it a symbolic ref?
+		 */
+		if (len < 4 || memcmp("ref:", buffer, 4))
+			break;
+		buf = buffer + 4;
+		len -= 4;
+		while (len && isspace(*buf))
+			buf++, len--;
+		while (len && isspace(buf[len-1]))
+			buf[--len] = 0;
+		path = git_path("%.*s", len, buf);
+	}
+	if (len < 40 || get_sha1_hex(buffer, sha1))
+		return NULL;
+	return path;
+}
+
+int main(int argc, char **argv)
+{
+	char *hex;
+	const char *refname, *value, *oldval, *path, *lockpath;
+	unsigned char sha1[20], oldsha1[20], currsha1[20];
+	int fd, written;
+
+	setup_git_directory();
+	if (argc < 3 || argc > 4)
+		usage(git_update_ref_usage);
+
+	refname = argv[1];
+	value = argv[2];
+	oldval = argv[3];
+	if (get_sha1(value, sha1) < 0)
+		die("%s: not a valid SHA1", value);
+	memset(oldsha1, 0, 20);
+	if (oldval && get_sha1(oldval, oldsha1) < 0)
+		die("%s: not a valid old SHA1", oldval);
+
+	path = resolve_ref(git_path("%s", refname), currsha1);
+	if (!path)
+		die("No such ref: %s", refname);
+
+	if (oldval) {
+		if (memcmp(currsha1, oldsha1, 20))
+			die("Ref %s changed to %s", refname, sha1_to_hex(currsha1));
+		/* Nothing to do? */
+		if (!memcmp(oldsha1, sha1, 20))
+			exit(0);
+	}
+	path = strdup(path);
+	lockpath = mkpath("%s.lock", path);
+
+	fd = open(lockpath, O_CREAT | O_EXCL | O_WRONLY, 0666);
+	if (fd < 0)
+		die("Unable to create %s", lockpath);
+	hex = sha1_to_hex(sha1);
+	hex[40] = '\n';
+	written = write(fd, hex, 41);
+	close(fd);
+	if (written != 41) {
+		unlink(lockpath);
+		die("Unable to write to %s", lockpath);
+	}
+		
+	/*
+	 * FIXME!
+	 *
+	 * We should re-read the old ref here, and re-verify that it
+	 * matches "oldsha1". Otherwise there's a small race.
+	 */
+
+	if (rename(lockpath, path) < 0) {
+		unlink(lockpath);
+		die("Unable to create %s", path);
+	}
+	return 0;
+}