Subject: [PATCH] transport-helper: fix TSAN race in transfer_debug()

From: Pushkar Singh <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2026 20:13:10 +0000

Currently, transfer_debug() lazily initializes a static variable based
on GIT_TRANSLOOP_DEBUG. Since the function may be called from multiple
worker threads, this initialization is racy and is therefore suppressed
in .tsan-suppressions.

Initialize the variable in bidirectional_transfer_loop() before any
worker threads or processes are created. This patch removes the race and
allows dropping the corresponding TSAN suppression.

Signed-off-by: Pushkar Singh <[email-masked]>
---
 .tsan-suppressions |  1 -
 transport-helper.c | 17 ++++++-----------
 2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/.tsan-suppressions b/.tsan-suppressions
index 5ba86d6845..d84883bd90 100644
--- a/.tsan-suppressions
+++ b/.tsan-suppressions
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 # A static variable is written to racily, but we always write the same value, so
 # in practice it (hopefully!) doesn't matter.
 race:^want_color$
-race:^transfer_debug$
 
 # A boolean value, which tells whether the replace_map has been initialized or
 # not, is read racily with an update. As this variable is written to only once,
diff --git a/transport-helper.c b/transport-helper.c
index 04d55572a9..95a7fa7d86 100644
--- a/transport-helper.c
+++ b/transport-helper.c
@@ -1361,24 +1361,16 @@ int transport_helper_init(struct transport *transport, const char *name)
 /* This should be enough to hold debugging message. */
 #define PBUFFERSIZE 8192
 
+static int transfer_debug_enabled = -1;
+
 /* Print bidirectional transfer loop debug message. */
 __attribute__((format (printf, 1, 2)))
 static void transfer_debug(const char *fmt, ...)
 {
-	/*
-	 * NEEDSWORK: This function is sometimes used from multiple threads, and
-	 * we end up using debug_enabled racily. That "should not matter" since
-	 * we always write the same value, but it's still wrong. This function
-	 * is listed in .tsan-suppressions for the time being.
-	 */
-
 	va_list args;
 	char msgbuf[PBUFFERSIZE];
-	static int debug_enabled = -1;
 
-	if (debug_enabled < 0)
-		debug_enabled = getenv("GIT_TRANSLOOP_DEBUG") ? 1 : 0;
-	if (!debug_enabled)
+	if (!transfer_debug_enabled)
 		return;
 
 	va_start(args, fmt);
@@ -1648,6 +1640,9 @@ int bidirectional_transfer_loop(int input, int output)
 {
 	struct bidirectional_transfer_state state;
 
+	if (transfer_debug_enabled < 0)
+		transfer_debug_enabled = getenv("GIT_TRANSLOOP_DEBUG") ? 1 : 0;
+
 	/* Fill the state fields. */
 	state.ptg.src = input;
 	state.ptg.dest = 1;
-- 
2.53.0.582.gca1db8a0f7