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

[PATCH 0/2] Objects treated as missing despite being present, due to race with geometric repacking

From
Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
Date
Aug 18, 2026, 22:34 UTC
Message-ID
<pull.2207.git.1787092446.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

When an object is found in multiple packs that are in a multi-pack-index, and a subsequent geometric repacking creates a new multi-pack-index and removes the pack that was considered the owner of the object in the old multi-pack-index, then an already-running process that had opened the old multi-pack-index and hadn't yet opened the removed packfile will not be able to access the object -- lookups will return it as missing. Additionally, replay has a separate bug where a missing object causes a SIGSEGV rather than an error message.

This appears to affect a very small percentage of git operations in production since it is a tiny window, but I've found evidence of it occurring in at least eight distinct server-side operations, covering seven different git commands:

git operation                        symptom
-----------------------------------  -----------------------------
git replay (server-side rebase)      SIGSEGV (this series, 1/2)
git merge-tree                       spurious read-miss failure
git diff (raw and tree-vs-tree)      spurious read-miss failure
git rev-list --count                 spurious read-miss failure
git merge-base                       spurious read-miss failure
object/rev resolution (rev-parse,    spurious read-miss failure
  cat-file)
repository repair (fsck/repack)      spurious read-miss failure

There are also commands that could be changing behavior without throwing an error -- e.g. object negotiation thinking an object doesn't exist and instead negotiating based on an older common commit, or cat-file --batch reporting that some objects don't exist.

This series fixes the replay bug first, since it's simpler; investigating it, together with my other recent repacking work, is what led me to the underlying multi-pack-index issue that 2/2 addresses.

Elijah Newren (2):
  replay: fail gracefully when a merge input is unreadable
  packfile: recover when a multi-pack-index names a removed pack
 odb/source-packed.c         | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 replay.c                    |  7 +++++++
 t/t3650-replay-basics.sh    | 35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 t/t5319-multi-pack-index.sh | 40 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 4 files changed, 111 insertions(+)
base-commit: 18e66859d87fb4b76599f73460b54f0848c76b16
Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2207%2Fnewren%2Fmidx-removed-pack-recovery-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2207/newren/midx-removed-pack-recovery-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2207
-- 
gitgitgadget
Next: Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
Message 1 of 49 in “Objects treated as missing despite being present, due to race with geometric repacking”
  1. 0/2 Objects treated as missing despite being present, due to race with geometric repackingElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 18, 2026
  2. 1/2 replay: fail gracefully when a merge input is unreadableElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 18, 2026
  3. Junio C HamanoAug 19, 2026
  4. Elijah NewrenAug 21, 2026
  5. Junio C HamanoAug 21, 2026
  6. 2/2 packfile: recover when a multi-pack-index names a removed packElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 18, 2026
  7. Junio C HamanoAug 19, 2026
  8. Patrick SteinhardtAug 20, 2026
  9. Elijah NewrenAug 21, 2026
  10. Jeff KingAug 24, 2026
  11. Patrick SteinhardtAug 24, 2026
  12. Jeff KingAug 24, 2026
  13. Jeff KingAug 24, 2026
  14. Jeff KingAug 24, 2026
  15. Elijah NewrenAug 25, 2026
  16. Jeff KingAug 24, 2026
  17. Patrick SteinhardtAug 24, 2026
  18. Jeff KingAug 24, 2026
  19. Elijah NewrenAug 25, 2026
  20. Derrick StoleeAug 24, 2026
  21. Elijah NewrenAug 25, 2026
  22. Derrick StoleeAug 24, 2026
  23. 0/4 Objects treated as missing despite being present, due to race with geometric repackingElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 25, 2026
  24. 1/4 replay: fail gracefully when a merge input is unreadableElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 25, 2026
  25. 2/4 mktree: plug per-tree leak in --batch modeElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 25, 2026
  26. Jeff KingAug 27, 2026
  27. 3/4 packfile: recover object lookups racing a concurrent repackElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 25, 2026
  28. Jeff KingAug 27, 2026
  29. Elijah NewrenAug 27, 2026
  30. Jeff KingAug 29, 2026
  31. 4/4 packfile: recover when a multi-pack-index names a removed packElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 25, 2026
  32. Jeff KingAug 27, 2026
  33. Elijah NewrenAug 28, 2026
  34. Jeff KingAug 29, 2026
  35. 0/4 Objects treated as missing despite being present, due to race with geometric repackingElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 29, 2026
  36. 1/4 replay: fail gracefully when a merge input is unreadableElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 29, 2026
  37. 2/4 mktree: plug per-tree leak in --batch modeElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 29, 2026
  38. 3/4 mktree: do not use OBJECT_INFO_QUICK when checking objectsElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 29, 2026
  39. Jeff KingAug 29, 2026
  40. 4/4 packfile: recover when a multi-pack-index names a removed packElijah Newren via GitGitGadget, Aug 29, 2026
  41. Jeff KingAug 29, 2026
  42. Junio C HamanoAug 30, 2026
  43. Patrick SteinhardtAug 31, 2026
  44. Jeff KingAug 31, 2026
  45. Derrick StoleeSep 1, 2026
  46. Junio C HamanoSep 1, 2026
  47. Derrick StoleeSep 1, 2026
  48. Elijah NewrenSep 1, 2026
  49. Derrick StoleeSep 1, 2026

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.