# When to run git-update-server-info 2 messages from 2007-02-13 to 2007-02-13. Participants: Pavel Roskin, Junio C Hamano. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/6792 ## Pavel Roskin, 2007-02-13 04:49 Subject: When to run git-update-server-info Message-ID: <1171342189.2326.68.camel@dv> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/1171342189.2326.68.camel%40dv ``` Hello! It looks like that either the documentation is misleading or git is not working as promised. Documentation/repository-layout.txt says: info/refs:: This file is to help dumb transports to discover what refs are available in this repository. Whenever you create/delete a new branch or a new tag, `git update-server-info` should be run to keep this file up-to-date if the repository is published for dumb transports. The `git-receive-pack` command, which is run on a remote repository when you `git push` into it, runs `hooks/update` hook to help you achieve this. My understanding of the above text is that git-update-server-info only needs to be run if a new branch or tag is created, not on every git-push. Just because hooks/update is run on every push, it doesn't mean that it needs to be done every time. What happens in reality is that git-pull refuses to pull new revisions from the repository if git-update-server-info is not run after a simple git-push (from another repository, of course) that didn't create any branch or tag. However, git-clone would load all revisions. I'm accessing the repository over http. The problem it, there is more than one way to get the branch revisions, one is from info/refs and the other is from individual files under refs/heads and refs/tags. Using database terms, the git repository in not normalized, so we get an update anomaly. I understand that accessing one file could be faster over http, so I tend to think that it's the documentation needs to be fixed. If that's the case, maybe hooks/update should be created executable by default? Alternatively, git-update-server-info functionality could be embedded into git-receive-pack to simplify server setup. -- Regards, Pavel Roskin ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2007-02-13 05:20 Subject: Re: When to run git-update-server-info Message-ID: <7vps8e3a6j.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7vps8e3a6j.fsf%40assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net In-Reply-To: <1171342189.2326.68.camel@dv> ``` Pavel Roskin writes: > Hello! > > It looks like that either the documentation is misleading or git is not > working as promised. > > Documentation/repository-layout.txt says: > > info/refs:: > This file is to help dumb transports to discover what > refs are available in this repository. Whenever you > create/delete a new branch or a new tag, `git > update-server-info` should be run to keep this file > up-to-date if the repository is published for dumb > transports. The `git-receive-pack` command, which is > run on a remote repository when you `git push` into it, > runs `hooks/update` hook to help you achieve this. > > My understanding of the above text is that git-update-server-info only > needs to be run if a new branch or tag is created, not on every > git-push. Just because hooks/update is run on every push, it doesn't > mean that it needs to be done every time. I agree the above can be interpreted as such, and documentation updates is needed. The information in info/refs are used in full, not just the list of ref names on the far right of each line but also the object name at the beginning of each line. > I understand that accessing one file could be faster over http, so I > tend to think that it's the documentation needs to be fixed. If that's > the case, maybe hooks/update should be created executable by default? The repository that serve things over http are _minorities_, so I do not think that is a good idea. ```