Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] mv: check for missing destination directory before renaming

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jul 23, 2026, 18:30 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqo6fximn2.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <1a790e001610d3324ec45d86ac67ca5720678cb8.1784812390.git.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

"Lucas Zamboni Orioli via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:

> +		/*
> +		* If we are going to move SRC to DST on disk, DST's leading
> +		* directories must already exist.
> +		*/

	/*
	 * Our multi-line comment is formatted like this.  The
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> +		if (!(modes[i] & (INDEX | SPARSE | SKIP_WORKTREE_DIR)) &&
> +		    !(dst_mode & (SKIP_WORKTREE_DIR | SPARSE))) {
> +			char *dst_dir = xstrdup(dst);
> +			char *slash = strrchr(dst_dir, '/');
> +
> +			if (slash) {
> +				struct stat dir_st;
> +				*slash = '\0';
> +				if (lstat(dst_dir, &dir_st) < 0 && errno == ENOENT) {
> +					free(dst_dir);
> +					bad = _("destination directory does not exist");
> +					goto act_on_entry;
> +				}
> +			}
> +			free(dst_dir);
> +		}

lstat() can succeed and 'dir_st' may indicate something other than a directory (for example, a symbolic link or a regular file). Alternatively, it can fail with ENOTDIR when, for example, 'dst_dir' is 'a/b/c' and 'a/b' is a file rather than a directory.

Both cases will cause 'git mv' into a path assumed to be a directory to fail. Shouldn't we handle these conditions as well?