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Re: [PATCH v3] filter-branch: fix commit map init from state branch

From
Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Date
Oct 5, 2026, 06:11 UTC
Message-ID
<asM_dqY2aSdplISU@pks.im>
In-Reply-To
<20261003010128.256757-1-dev@grantmoyer.com>
On Fri, Oct 02, 2026 at 09:01:27PM -0400, Grant Moyer wrote:
Show 43 quoted lines
> The "--state-branch" option asks git-filter-branch(1) to write a
> mapping from old to new objects into a branch to enable incremental
> processing of large histories. This object mapping is stored as
> a simple blob at "$state_branch:filter.map" with one object pair
> per line in the format "$from_commit:$to_commit". Before processing
> commits in a subsequent run, the state branch is used to populate an
> object mapping directory, where each file is named "map/$from_commit"
> and has contents "$to_commit".
> 
> In f6d855091e (filter-branch: stop depending on Perl, 2025-04-16),
> we refactored git-filter-branch(1) to no longer require Perl,
> but accidentally started to interpret object pairs in reverse (as
> "$to_commit:$from_commit") when populating the map directory from
> the state branch. This can cause all kinds of bad behavior from the
> state-branch being effectively ignored to previously filtered objects
> accidentally being mapped back to unfiltered objects. One especially
> evident case occurs when "git filter-branch --prune-empty ..." maps
> some commits to nothing, then on subsequent runs outputs many errors
> while trying to create files with empty names, like:
> 
> > /usr/lib/git-core/git-filter-branch: line 305: ../map/: Is a directory
> 
> This regression went unnoticed because, since the introduction of
> the only test for "--state-branch" in 709cfe848a (filter-branch: skip
> commits present on --state-branch, 2018-06-26), the test accidentally
> passes even if commits are not skipped. The test checks that after
> populating a state branch with git-filter-branch(1), then running
> it again with that state branch, the resulting filtered commits for
> the first run and second run match. However since the filter used is
> deterministic, the commits always match, even if the commits in the
> state branch are re-filtered.
> 
> Fix the population of the object mapping dir by interpreting
> object pairs as "$from_commit:$to_commit". Also fix the existing
> "--state-branch" test by directly exiting with a non-zero code if
> any commits from the state branch aren't skipped. Finally, add a new
> "--state-branch" test which directly checks that a commit from the
> state branch is used when incrementally filtering a repo.
> 
> Tested-by: Michele Locati <michele@locati.it>
> Co-authored-by: Michele Locati <michele@locati.it>
> Signed-off-by: Michele Locati <michele@locati.it>
> Signed-off-by: Grant Moyer <dev@grantmoyer.com>
Thanks, I'm happy with this version.
Patrick
Previous: Grant Moyer
Message 12 of 12 in “fiter-branch: fix commit map init from state branch”
  1. fiter-branch: fix commit map init from state branchGrant Moyer, Aug 1, 2026
  2. Michele LocatiSep 29, 2026
  3. Patrick SteinhardtSep 30, 2026
  4. Grant MoyerSep 30, 2026
  5. Patrick SteinhardtSep 30, 2026
  6. Michele LocatiSep 30, 2026
  7. filter-branch: fix commit map init from state branchGrant Moyer, Oct 1, 2026
  8. Patrick SteinhardtOct 1, 2026
  9. Michele LocatiOct 1, 2026
  10. Junio C HamanoOct 1, 2026
  11. filter-branch: fix commit map init from state branchGrant Moyer, Oct 3, 2026
  12. Patrick SteinhardtOct 5, 2026

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