threads / discuss / 2825

git cole give unexpected error message

Subject: git cole give unexpected error message

## tl;dr

5 messages between Dec 13, 2005 and Dec 14, 2005.

replies: 4people: 3as markdown or json

Sam Ravnborg· Dec 13, 2005, 21:28 UTC · lore

Encountered following minor issue today:

Executed: sam@mars ~/work $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/lib/klibc/klibc.git viggo defaulting to local storage area fatal: unexpected EOF

The errormessage "fatal: unexpected EOF" did not immediately tell me that the requested git repository did not exists.

But I corrected the path and tried again: sam@mars ~/work $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/libs/klibc/klibc.git viggo viggo already exists.

So one can see that git did not clean up after the faulty clone.

It would be nice if git:
1) Displayed a more meaningfull error message
2) Cleaned up so I did not have to do a manual rm -rf viggo

cogito being a nice porcelain gives the git errormessage but manage to clean up when the clone fails. So also cogito would benefit from a more descriptive errormessage.

Sam

Petr Baudis· Dec 13, 2005, 22:28 UTC · re: Sam Ravnborg · lore

Re: git cole give unexpected error message

Dear diary, on Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 10:28:20PM CET, I got a letter where Sam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org> said that...

> cogito being a nice porcelain gives the git errormessage but manage to
> clean up when the clone fails.
> So also cogito would benefit from a more descriptive errormessage.

Well, git clone can fail for many reasons and I don't think the "no such repository" one is completely overwhelming, so hinting that by Cogito could be quite confusing (theme of the day: usability ;-)).

The real solution would be proper error reporting by the git daemon.

-- 
				Petr "Pasky" Baudis
Stuff: http://pasky.or.cz/
VI has two modes: the one in which it beeps and the one in which
it doesn't.

Andreas Ericsson· Dec 14, 2005, 09:36 UTC · re: Petr Baudis · lore

Re: git cole give unexpected error message

Petr Baudis wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

> Dear diary, on Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 10:28:20PM CET, I got a letter
> where Sam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org> said that...
> 
>>cogito being a nice porcelain gives the git errormessage but manage to
>>clean up when the clone fails.
>>So also cogito would benefit from a more descriptive errormessage.
> 
> 
> Well, git clone can fail for many reasons and I don't think the "no such
> repository" one is completely overwhelming, so hinting that by Cogito
> could be quite confusing (theme of the day: usability ;-)).
> 
> The real solution would be proper error reporting by the git daemon.
>

But that would open up for an information disclosure. If someone's hacking on a patch, please make it configurable at least.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

Petr Baudis· Dec 14, 2005, 11:41 UTC · re: Andreas Ericsson · lore

Re: git cole give unexpected error message

Dear diary, on Wed, Dec 14, 2005 at 10:36:45AM CET, I got a letter where Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se> said that...

Show 18 quoted lines

> Petr Baudis wrote:
> >Dear diary, on Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 10:28:20PM CET, I got a letter
> >where Sam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org> said that...
> >
> >>cogito being a nice porcelain gives the git errormessage but manage to
> >>clean up when the clone fails.
> >>So also cogito would benefit from a more descriptive errormessage.
> >
> >
> >Well, git clone can fail for many reasons and I don't think the "no such
> >repository" one is completely overwhelming, so hinting that by Cogito
> >could be quite confusing (theme of the day: usability ;-)).
> >
> >The real solution would be proper error reporting by the git daemon.
> >
> 
> But that would open up for an information disclosure. If someone's 
> hacking on a patch, please make it configurable at least.

When it breaks at this stage, it's either some bad internal error (I guess memory allocation error might do this), permission problem, or repository not being found. We might then report a more generic error message "Repository not found or access denied.".

-- 
				Petr "Pasky" Baudis
Stuff: http://pasky.or.cz/
VI has two modes: the one in which it beeps and the one in which
it doesn't.

Sam Ravnborg· Dec 14, 2005, 21:20 UTC · re: Petr Baudis · lore

Re: git cole give unexpected error message

On Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 11:28:29PM +0100, Petr Baudis wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

> Dear diary, on Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 10:28:20PM CET, I got a letter
> where Sam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org> said that...
> > cogito being a nice porcelain gives the git errormessage but manage to
> > clean up when the clone fails.
> > So also cogito would benefit from a more descriptive errormessage.
> 
> Well, git clone can fail for many reasons and I don't think the "no such
> repository" one is completely overwhelming, so hinting that by Cogito
> could be quite confusing (theme of the day: usability ;-)).
> 
> The real solution would be proper error reporting by the git daemon.

Which was my point too. When using cogito it displyed the git error message so having git to print a sensible error message would also benefit cogito.

Sam