Subject: Re: [PATCH] ref-filter: don't look for objects when outside of a repository

From: SZEDER Gábor <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2018 23:20:34 +0200

On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 02:17:22PM -0400, Jeff King wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 22, 2018 at 04:11:45PM +0200, SZEDER Gábor wrote:
 
> > diff --git a/ref-filter.c b/ref-filter.c
> > index e1bcb4ca8a..3555bc29e7 100644
> > --- a/ref-filter.c
> > +++ b/ref-filter.c
> > @@ -1473,7 +1473,8 @@ static int get_object(struct ref_array_item *ref, int deref, struct object **obj
> >  		oi->info.sizep = &oi->size;
> >  		oi->info.typep = &oi->type;
> >  	}
> > -	if (oid_object_info_extended(the_repository, &oi->oid, &oi->info,
> > +	if (!have_git_dir() ||
> > +	    oid_object_info_extended(the_repository, &oi->oid, &oi->info,
> >  				     OBJECT_INFO_LOOKUP_REPLACE))
> >  		return strbuf_addf_ret(err, -1, _("missing object %s for %s"),
> >  				       oid_to_hex(&oi->oid), ref->refname);
> 
> Would we perhaps want to give the user a hint that the object is not
> really missing, but rather that we're not in a repository? E.g.,
> something like:
> 
>   if (!have_git_dir())
> 	return strbuf_addf_ret(err, -1, "format specifier requires a repository");
>   if (oid_object_info_extended(...))
> 	return ...;
> 
> ?

I think it makes sense.

I wanted to preserve the error message, because the description of
'--sort=<key>' in 'Documentation/git-ls-remote.txt' explicitly
mentions it, and I added the condition at this place because I didn't
want to duplicate the construction of the error message.

However, if we go for a more informative error message, then wouldn't
it be better to add this condition in populate_value() before it even
calls get_object()?  Then we could also add the problematic format
specifier to the error message (I think, but didn't actually check),
just in case someone specified multiple sort keys.