threads / patch / 7732

patchFix merge-recursive on cygwin: broken errno when unlinking a directory

Subject: [PATCH] Fix merge-recursive on cygwin: broken errno when unlinking a directory

## tl;dr

6 messages between Apr 18, 2007 and Apr 19, 2007. Diffs are folded; open one to read it.

replies: 5people: 3as markdown or json

Alex Riesen· Apr 18, 2007, 22:33 UTC · lore

Looks like this time it is not cygwin, the you-know-what actually does return a permission error.

Signed-off-by: Alex Riesen <raa.lkml@gmail.com>
---

I am very tempted to conditionally #define gitunlink to say something rude about win32 and delete c:\boot.ini instead. It will even work, in most setups.

 merge-recursive.c |    9 ++++++---
 1 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
Show changes to merge-recursive.c +6 −3
diff --git a/merge-recursive.c b/merge-recursive.c
index 595b022..ae4032b 100644
--- a/merge-recursive.c
+++ b/merge-recursive.c
@@ -610,16 +610,19 @@ static void update_file_flags(const unsigned char *sha,
 				die(msg, path, "");
 			}
 			if (unlink(path)) {
-				if (errno == EISDIR) {
+				struct stat st;
+				int err = errno;
+				if (err == EISDIR ||
+				    (err == EPERM && !lstat(path, &st) && S_ISDIR(st.st_mode))) {
 					/* something else exists */
 					error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");
 					update_wd = 0;
 					goto update_index;
 				}
-				if (errno != ENOENT)
+				if (err != ENOENT)
 					die("failed to unlink %s "
 					    "in preparation to update: %s",
-					    path, strerror(errno));
+					    path, strerror(err));
 			}
 			if (mode & 0100)
 				mode = 0777;
-- 
1.5.1.1.876.ge36f76
Linus Torvalds· Apr 18, 2007, 23:04 UTC · re: Alex Riesen · lore

Re: [PATCH] Fix merge-recursive on cygwin: broken errno when unlinking a directory

On Thu, 19 Apr 2007, Alex Riesen wrote:
Show 5 quoted lines
>
> +				struct stat st;
> +				int err = errno;
> +				if (err == EISDIR ||
> +				    (err == EPERM && !lstat(path, &st) && S_ISDIR(st.st_mode))) {
Can I ask people to please *not* write things like this?
Here's an important rule from Linus:
	Rule#1 when fixing bugs: there's a reason for the bug. And 
	_usually_ the reason was that the source code was hard to think 
	about or read.
	So you should always make the source code more readable when you 
	fix a bug. If you don't, the bug will just reappear or is just 
	more subtly hidden! A bugfix that just makes the same code even
	*harder* to read is not a fix at all!
(Side note: EPERM is actually apparently the POSIXLY correct error!)

Comlex conditionals are really just asking for bugs - either because they are buggy themselves, or because people don't understand what they really test for, and introduce bugs later.

That whole sequence should probably be a function of its own. But I'd also like to note that for some strange and inexplicable reason, the regular file handling and the symlink handling uses totally different setup, and the symlink handling does *not* do any of the error checks that the file case does.

So that function should be *common* to the two cases, and do the mkdir_p _and_ the unlink. As it is, I suspect we have some test-case for regular files that caused us to be careful with them, but we lack a test-case for symlinks, so we never bothered to make the code work either!

So here's a suggested and totally untested patch. It makes the code more readable, and probably fixes *two* bugs in the process. It also simply doesn't really even care what the error actually was - the important part was not that it was a directory, but that the unlink didn't succeed!

But even if somebody wants to re-introduce more errno value testing, I think you should apply this patch *first*, because source code readability really is very important!

Functions should be small and not have indentation of more than two levels.

[ And yes, I realize I don't always follow my own rules, but I try. I 
  often don't write a hell of a lot of comments when I write the first 
  version of the code - I tend to add them later when some piece of code 
  has been shown to need them - but I try very hard to make functions 
  small and simple and do *one* thing, and not have lots of levels of 
  indentation. And if you see me write bad code, please flame me too! ]
		Linus
---
 merge-recursive.c |   54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------
 1 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)
Show changes to merge-recursive.c +29 −25
diff --git a/merge-recursive.c b/merge-recursive.c
index 595b022..cea6c87 100644
--- a/merge-recursive.c
+++ b/merge-recursive.c
@@ -574,6 +574,31 @@ static void flush_buffer(int fd, const char *buf, unsigned long size)
 	}
 }
 
+static int make_room_for_path(const char *path)
+{
+	int status;
+	const char *msg = "failed to create path '%s'%s";
+
+	status = mkdir_p(path, 0777);
+	if (status) {
+		if (status == -3) {
+			/* something else exists */
+			error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");
+			return -1;
+		}
+		die(msg, path, "");
+	}
+
+	/* Successful unlink is good.. */
+	if (!unlink(path))
+		return 0;
+	/* .. and so is no existing file */
+	if (errno == ENOENT)
+		return 0;
+	/* .. but not some other error (who really cares what?) */
+	return error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");
+}
+
 static void update_file_flags(const unsigned char *sha,
 			      unsigned mode,
 			      const char *path,
@@ -594,33 +619,12 @@ static void update_file_flags(const unsigned char *sha,
 		if (type != OBJ_BLOB)
 			die("blob expected for %s '%s'", sha1_to_hex(sha), path);
 
+		if (make_room_for_path(path) < 0) {
+			update_wd = 0;
+			goto update_index;
+		}
 		if (S_ISREG(mode) || (!has_symlinks && S_ISLNK(mode))) {
 			int fd;
-			int status;
-			const char *msg = "failed to create path '%s'%s";
-
-			status = mkdir_p(path, 0777);
-			if (status) {
-				if (status == -3) {
-					/* something else exists */
-					error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");
-					update_wd = 0;
-					goto update_index;
-				}
-				die(msg, path, "");
-			}
-			if (unlink(path)) {
-				if (errno == EISDIR) {
-					/* something else exists */
-					error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");
-					update_wd = 0;
-					goto update_index;
-				}
-				if (errno != ENOENT)
-					die("failed to unlink %s "
-					    "in preparation to update: %s",
-					    path, strerror(errno));
-			}
 			if (mode & 0100)
 				mode = 0777;
 			else
Alex Riesen· Apr 18, 2007, 23:40 UTC · re: Linus Torvalds · lore

Re: [PATCH] Fix merge-recursive on cygwin: broken errno when unlinking a directory

Linus Torvalds, Thu, Apr 19, 2007 01:04:06 +0200:
Show 8 quoted lines
> >
> > +				struct stat st;
> > +				int err = errno;
> > +				if (err == EISDIR ||
> > +				    (err == EPERM && !lstat(path, &st) && S_ISDIR(st.st_mode))) {
> 
> Can I ask people to please *not* write things like this?
> 
Err... ok.
> 
> (Side note: EPERM is actually apparently the POSIXLY correct error!)
> 
Indeed it is 8-[]
Show 6 quoted lines
> 
> So here's a suggested and totally untested patch. It makes the code more 
> readable, and probably fixes *two* bugs in the process. It also simply 
> doesn't really even care what the error actually was - the important part 
> was not that it was a directory, but that the unlink didn't succeed!
>

Well, it is a bit tested now. I'll repeat the testing tomorrow on that windows box.

> +	/* .. but not some other error (who really cares what?) */
> +	return error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");

I have to care sometimes when cygwin breaks where you never expect it to. These annoying strerror(errno)'s a very helpful. IOW, how can the user respond to the message which just tells "maybe it is expected and you can fix it. Perhaps"? What do I do here next? (well, I know what to do, but someone wont).

An lstat + S_ISDIR would at least make it plain "D/F conflict".
Alex Riesen· Apr 19, 2007, 08:28 UTC · re: Alex Riesen · lore

Re: [PATCH] Fix merge-recursive on cygwin: broken errno when unlinking a directory

On 4/19/07, Alex Riesen <raa.lkml@gmail.com> wrote:
Show 10 quoted lines
> >
> > So here's a suggested and totally untested patch. It makes the code more
> > readable, and probably fixes *two* bugs in the process. It also simply
> > doesn't really even care what the error actually was - the important part
> > was not that it was a directory, but that the unlink didn't succeed!
> >
>
> Well, it is a bit tested now. I'll repeat the testing tomorrow on that
> windows box.
>
Tested on windows too. Works.
Linus Torvalds· Apr 19, 2007, 16:39 UTC · re: Alex Riesen · lore

Re: [PATCH] Fix merge-recursive on cygwin: broken errno when unlinking a directory

On Thu, 19 Apr 2007, Alex Riesen wrote:
Show 12 quoted lines
> On 4/19/07, Alex Riesen <raa.lkml@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > So here's a suggested and totally untested patch. It makes the code more
> > > readable, and probably fixes *two* bugs in the process. It also simply
> > > doesn't really even care what the error actually was - the important part
> > > was not that it was a directory, but that the unlink didn't succeed!
> > >
> > 
> > Well, it is a bit tested now. I'll repeat the testing tomorrow on that
> > windows box.
> 
> Tested on windows too. Works.

Good. Junio, I'd really suggest applying it. The old code was literally wrong, and depended on an error return that seems to be Linux-specific. It was also pretty ugly.

Here's the patch again with proper sign-off and a commentary..

As mentioned, maybe this wants expanding in the future, but regardless, the patch not only fixes a git problem on windows (and quite possibly other unixes too), any extensions will be much easier on top of this.

		Linus
---
From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Subject: Fix working directory errno handling when unlinking a directory

Alex Riesen noticed that the case where a file replaced a directory entry in the working tree was broken on cygwin. It turns out that the code made some Linux-specific assumptions, and also ignored errors entirely for the case where the entry was a symlink rather than a file.

This cleans it up by separating out the common case into a function of its own, so that both regular files and symlinks can share it, and by making the error handling more obvious (and not depend on any Linux-specific behaviour).

Acked-by: Alex Riesen <raa.lkml@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
---
 merge-recursive.c |   54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------
 1 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)
Show changes to merge-recursive.c +29 −25
diff --git a/merge-recursive.c b/merge-recursive.c
index 595b022..cea6c87 100644
--- a/merge-recursive.c
+++ b/merge-recursive.c
@@ -574,6 +574,31 @@ static void flush_buffer(int fd, const char *buf, unsigned long size)
 	}
 }
 
+static int make_room_for_path(const char *path)
+{
+	int status;
+	const char *msg = "failed to create path '%s'%s";
+
+	status = mkdir_p(path, 0777);
+	if (status) {
+		if (status == -3) {
+			/* something else exists */
+			error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");
+			return -1;
+		}
+		die(msg, path, "");
+	}
+
+	/* Successful unlink is good.. */
+	if (!unlink(path))
+		return 0;
+	/* .. and so is no existing file */
+	if (errno == ENOENT)
+		return 0;
+	/* .. but not some other error (who really cares what?) */
+	return error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");
+}
+
 static void update_file_flags(const unsigned char *sha,
 			      unsigned mode,
 			      const char *path,
@@ -594,33 +619,12 @@ static void update_file_flags(const unsigned char *sha,
 		if (type != OBJ_BLOB)
 			die("blob expected for %s '%s'", sha1_to_hex(sha), path);
 
+		if (make_room_for_path(path) < 0) {
+			update_wd = 0;
+			goto update_index;
+		}
 		if (S_ISREG(mode) || (!has_symlinks && S_ISLNK(mode))) {
 			int fd;
-			int status;
-			const char *msg = "failed to create path '%s'%s";
-
-			status = mkdir_p(path, 0777);
-			if (status) {
-				if (status == -3) {
-					/* something else exists */
-					error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");
-					update_wd = 0;
-					goto update_index;
-				}
-				die(msg, path, "");
-			}
-			if (unlink(path)) {
-				if (errno == EISDIR) {
-					/* something else exists */
-					error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");
-					update_wd = 0;
-					goto update_index;
-				}
-				if (errno != ENOENT)
-					die("failed to unlink %s "
-					    "in preparation to update: %s",
-					    path, strerror(errno));
-			}
 			if (mode & 0100)
 				mode = 0777;
 			else
Sam Ravnborg· Apr 19, 2007, 18:31 UTC · re: Linus Torvalds · lore

Re: [PATCH] Fix merge-recursive on cygwin: broken errno when unlinking a directory

> +		if (status == -3) {
> +			/* something else exists */
> +			error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");

It would be more helpful it you spelled it out like: Directory/File conflict?

Show 13 quoted lines
> +			return -1;
> +		}
> +		die(msg, path, "");
> +	}
> +
> +	/* Successful unlink is good.. */
> +	if (!unlink(path))
> +		return 0;
> +	/* .. and so is no existing file */
> +	if (errno == ENOENT)
> +		return 0;
> +	/* .. but not some other error (who really cares what?) */
> +	return error(msg, path, ": perhaps a D/F conflict?");
ditto.
I know this was how it looked previously too but thats just a lame excuse.
	Sam

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