# git-log fatal error in empty repo

3 messages from 2007-06-07 to 2007-06-09. Participants: Steve Hoelzer, Junio C Hamano, Geert Bosch.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/8483

## Steve Hoelzer, 2007-06-07 13:34

Subject: git-log fatal error in empty repo
Message-ID: <588192970706070634s4c25ae45g68be32c06a30d043@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/588192970706070634s4c25ae45g68be32c06a30d043%40mail.gmail.com

```
git-log will return a fatal error for an empty repo, like so:

$ git --version
git version 1.5.2.73.g18bece
$ mkdir mytest
$ cd mytest
$ git-init
Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
$ git-log
fatal: bad default revision 'HEAD'

It would be nice if git-log was quiet or returned a "no log" message
instead of the fatal error.

Steve

```

## Junio C Hamano, 2007-06-07 20:29

Subject: Re: git-log fatal error in empty repo
Message-ID: <7vps47o6eh.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7vps47o6eh.fsf%40assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net
In-Reply-To: <588192970706070634s4c25ae45g68be32c06a30d043@mail.gmail.com>

```
"Steve Hoelzer" <shoelzer@gmail.com> writes:

> git-log will return a fatal error for an empty repo, like so:
>
> $ git --version
> git version 1.5.2.73.g18bece
> $ mkdir mytest
> $ cd mytest
> $ git-init
> Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
> $ git-log
> fatal: bad default revision 'HEAD'
>
> It would be nice if git-log was quiet or returned a "no log" message
> instead of the fatal error.

Maybe, but I highly doubt if it is worth to bother about it.

 revision.c |    5 ++++-
 1 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/revision.c b/revision.c
index 0a29b53..0573b86 100644
--- a/revision.c
+++ b/revision.c
@@ -1218,8 +1218,11 @@ int setup_revisions(int argc, const char **argv, struct rev_info *revs, const ch
 		unsigned char sha1[20];
 		struct object *object;
 		unsigned mode;
-		if (get_sha1_with_mode(def, sha1, &mode))
+		if (get_sha1_with_mode(def, sha1, &mode)) {
+			if (!strcmp("HEAD", def))
+				die("You have no history yet on your HEAD");
 			die("bad default revision '%s'", def);
+		}
 		object = get_reference(revs, def, sha1, 0);
 		add_pending_object_with_mode(revs, object, def, mode);
 	}

```

## Geert Bosch, 2007-06-09 02:31

Subject: Re: git-log fatal error in empty repo
Message-ID: <9EDDBC9D-EE20-4158-AF77-E46B1DD0BC74@adacore.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/9EDDBC9D-EE20-4158-AF77-E46B1DD0BC74%40adacore.com
In-Reply-To: <7vps47o6eh.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>

```

On Jun 7, 2007, at 16:29, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Maybe, but I highly doubt if it is worth to bother about it.

My first confusion with git was exactly this issue.
It's very normal for a new user to do a git init
and than try to verify that the current state is a sane
empty repository.

So, git log, git status and git fsck should all properly
handle this situation and give reasonable output in this case.

   -Geert

```