threads / discuss / 2192

git and gitweb inconsistencies

Subject: git and gitweb inconsistencies

## tl;dr

4 messages between Oct 23, 2005 and Oct 23, 2005.

replies: 3people: 2as markdown or json

Chris Shoemaker· Oct 23, 2005, 00:14 UTC · lore

I've been experimenting with git and gitweb, but I've reached deadend. Maybe someone can help?

Short Version:

In sub git_get_type in gitweb.cgi, this line:
  open my $fd, "-|", "$gitbin/git-cat-file -t $hash" or return;

results in: error: unable to find e71b869f3333ad10a492251e099ed9176248a420 fatal: git-cat-file e71b869f3333ad10a492251e099ed9176248a420: bad file

BUT, from the shell: $ git-cat-file -t e71b869f3333ad10a492251e099ed9176248a420 commit

Longer explanation:

Initially I created the git repository using git-cvsimport as described in the cvs-migration document. I also installed gitweb.cgi and everything seemed to be fine. In particular the refs/heads/* files referred to the tips of current branches in cvs. I was quite pleased.

A few days later, I ran git-cvsimport again, with -i. This imported just the recent changes, but the view from gitweb didn't change. :(

At first, I thought that the git-cvsimport hadn't worked. But, git-whatchanged clearly showed the new changes. (I later learned that git-rev-list also returned the tip-of-branch commits.) After reading gitweb.cgi, I realized that the refs/heads/* files had not been changed, so they still referred to the tip-of-branch for the initial import. (I expected the refs/heads/* to point to the last commit on each branch. Was that wrong?)

Anyway, I tried to make a new head that actually pointed to what I expected:

$ echo `git-rev-list tip --max-count=1` > refs/heads/mytest $ git-cat-file -t `cat refs/heads/mytest` commit

No problem.  But, this same task doesn't seem to work from gitweb.cgi:

$ ./gitweb.cgi http://localhost/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=test\;a=heads > /dev/null error: unable to find e71b869f3333ad10a492251e099ed9176248a420 fatal: git-cat-file e71b869f3333ad10a492251e099ed9176248a420: bad file

How can this be?  Have I messed something up, or am I just totally confused?

-chris

ps. please cc, not subscribed.

Sven Verdoolaege· Oct 23, 2005, 11:59 UTC · re: Chris Shoemaker · lore

Re: git and gitweb inconsistencies

On Sat, Oct 22, 2005 at 08:14:12PM -0400, Chris Shoemaker wrote:

> A few days later, I ran git-cvsimport again, with -i.  This imported
> just the recent changes, but the view from gitweb didn't change.  :(

Are you sure you didn't just create a new import *inside* the old import ? Do you have, say, both an 'objects' and a '.git/objects' directory ?

> $ echo `git-rev-list tip --max-count=1` > refs/heads/mytest
> $ git-cat-file -t `cat refs/heads/mytest`

That should be

git-update-ref refs/heads/mytest tip (the new head will appear in .git/refs/heads/mytest, unless you've set GIT_DIR) git-cat-file -t mytest

skimo

Chris Shoemaker· Oct 23, 2005, 17:30 UTC · re: Sven Verdoolaege · lore

Re: git and gitweb inconsistencies

On Sun, Oct 23, 2005 at 01:59:39PM +0200, Sven Verdoolaege wrote:

Show 6 quoted lines

> On Sat, Oct 22, 2005 at 08:14:12PM -0400, Chris Shoemaker wrote:
> > A few days later, I ran git-cvsimport again, with -i.  This imported
> > just the recent changes, but the view from gitweb didn't change.  :(
> 
> Are you sure you didn't just create a new import *inside* the old import ?
> Do you have, say, both an 'objects' and a '.git/objects' directory ?

OH!  You, sir, DO have a crystal ball.  :)

I foolishly assumed that the second time I ran git-cvsimport, with -C /pub/scm/project/ it would be able to detect that I was using the stand-alone GIT-DIR. But, it obviously didn't. I guess the solution is use specify GIT_DIR everytime I run git-cvstimport.

So, it seems that git-web.cgi detects and prefers the stand-alone directory structure, because I specify it in the projects_list file, while git-cat-file, and git-update-ref default to using .git.

Show 10 quoted lines

> 
> > $ echo `git-rev-list tip --max-count=1` > refs/heads/mytest
> > $ git-cat-file -t `cat refs/heads/mytest`
> 
> That should be
> 
> git-update-ref refs/heads/mytest tip
> (the new head will appear in .git/refs/heads/mytest, 
> unless you've set GIT_DIR)
> git-cat-file -t mytest

Ah, and if I'd used that command, I would have realized something was wrong when mytest *didn't* appear in refs/heads, but rather .git/refs/heads.

Thanks for thinking creatively about how I could have messed it up!

-chris

> 
> 
> skimo

Sven Verdoolaege· Oct 23, 2005, 18:28 UTC · re: Chris Shoemaker · lore

Re: git and gitweb inconsistencies

On Sun, Oct 23, 2005 at 01:30:55PM -0400, Chris Shoemaker wrote:

> I foolishly assumed that the second time I ran git-cvsimport, with -C
> /pub/scm/project/ it would be able to detect that I was using the
> stand-alone GIT-DIR.  But, it obviously didn't.  I guess the solution
> is use specify GIT_DIR everytime I run git-cvstimport.

Since many of the core git tools try to detect the actual git dir, it might not be a bad idea for cvsimport to do this as well. It probably also shouldn't create a new git repository if the -i option has been specified.

> So, it seems that git-web.cgi detects and prefers the stand-alone
> directory structure, because I specify it in the projects_list file,
> while git-cat-file, and git-update-ref default to using .git.

gitweb just sets GIT_DIR and then the core git tools won't guess.

skimo