Re: [PATCH] odb: do not list our own refs as alternate refs in the quarantine

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 30, 2026, 16:05 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqjymzxjgz.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <CAL71e4PXZ8-T3RgLQQLtL2ASQMLbRrChfV6wAqxFSd_Tw7-2Sg@mail.gmail.com>

Kristofer Karlsson <krka@spotify.com> writes:

Show 10 quoted lines

> Then I started adding a second env variable.  That worked
> and it was not _too_ messy though I realized it was a bit
> redundant.  We can simply deduce the real object directory
> from the quarantine directory -- it's the parent, based on
> how tmp_objdir_create() works today -- so I built my preliminary
> v2 on that.
>
> It feels like a slightly icky assumption to make, but it
> feels safe since I added tests to cover it, and does not seem
> possible to override outside of git itself.

Well, as Patrick said elsewhere recently, the entire "since we are borrowing from this alternate object store, it would be nice if we can assume there is some ref storage that tells us which objects in it are 'complete', but because the alternate object store interface does not define such a set of refs associated with it, let's just assume the refs/ directory sitting immediately next to the objects/ directory is such a hierarchy" is an icky hack that is crumbling, given that the alternate object store may be a part of a repository that uses reftable. It also is troublesome to "borrow" from a shallow clone where their grafts are part of the mechanism they use to avoid stepping outside the set of available objects, which the alternate object store mechanism does not "borrow", as far as I recall.

So until we figure out how to fix these icky points, it probably is not a huge deal to pile on another icky assumption as a short-term measure.