Subject: [PATCH v6 3/9] git: move seen-alias bookkeeping into handle_alias(...)

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2025 22:24:13 +0200

From: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <[email-masked]>

We are about to complicate the command handling by allowing *deprecated*
builtins to be shadowed by aliases.  We need to organize the code in
order to facilitate that.[1]

The code in the `while(1)` speculatively adds commands to the list
before finding out if it’s an alias.  Let’s instead move it inside
`handle_alias(...)`—where it conceptually belongs anyway—and in turn
only run this logic when we have found an alias.[2]

[1]: We will do that with an additional call to `handle_alias(1)` inside
    the loop.  *Not* moving this code leaves a blind spot; we will miss
    alias looping crafted via deprecated builtin names
[2]: Also rename the list to a more descriptive name

Based-on-patch-by: Jeff King <[email-masked]>
Signed-off-by: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <[email-masked]>
---

Notes (series):
    v6:
    
    Apply Peff’s patch[1] in order to get rid of the extra output line.
    
    Drop the footnote from the commit message now that we don’t have that
    problem any more.
    
    🔗 1: https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email-masked]/T/#mb3ac9c32c8527675a1f9cdf7709f2c74b3dd2a6c
    
    v5 (new):
    
    Do a preliminary code movement in order to avoid loop aliasing in the
    specific case of alias-shadowing deprecated builtins.
    
    Link: https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email-masked]/
    
    As noted in footnote 3: you get one more line of output before the loop
    aliasing is detected (and see the next commit):
    
        'whatchanged' is aliased to 'pack-redundant'
        'pack-redundant' is aliased to 'whatchanged'
        'whatchanged' is aliased to 'pack-redundant'
        fatal: alias loop detected: expansion of 'whatchanged' does not terminate:
          whatchanged <==
          pack-redundant ==>
    
    This is an informational message specifically for `<git cmd> -h`.
    This output can be gotten after the next commit.
    
    The output in this case is very incidental:
    
    1. You are aliasing deprecated commands in a chain
    2. You are using `-h`
    3. You are going to get caught by the alias loop checker

 git.c | 48 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------------
 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-)

diff --git a/git.c b/git.c
index 511efdf2056..ef1e7b205aa 100644
--- a/git.c
+++ b/git.c
@@ -365,7 +365,7 @@ static int handle_options(const char ***argv, int *argc, int *envchanged)
 	return (*argv) - orig_argv;
 }
 
-static int handle_alias(struct strvec *args)
+static int handle_alias(struct strvec *args, struct string_list *expanded_aliases)
 {
 	int envchanged = 0, ret = 0, saved_errno = errno;
 	int count, option_count;
@@ -376,6 +376,8 @@ static int handle_alias(struct strvec *args)
 	alias_command = args->v[0];
 	alias_string = alias_lookup(alias_command);
 	if (alias_string) {
+		struct string_list_item *seen;
+
 		if (args->nr == 2 && !strcmp(args->v[1], "-h"))
 			fprintf_ln(stderr, _("'%s' is aliased to '%s'"),
 				   alias_command, alias_string);
@@ -423,6 +425,25 @@ static int handle_alias(struct strvec *args)
 		if (!strcmp(alias_command, new_argv[0]))
 			die(_("recursive alias: %s"), alias_command);
 
+		string_list_append(expanded_aliases, alias_command);
+		seen = unsorted_string_list_lookup(expanded_aliases,
+						   new_argv[0]);
+
+		if (seen) {
+			struct strbuf sb = STRBUF_INIT;
+			for (size_t i = 0; i < expanded_aliases->nr; i++) {
+				struct string_list_item *item = &expanded_aliases->items[i];
+
+				strbuf_addf(&sb, "\n  %s", item->string);
+				if (item == seen)
+					strbuf_addstr(&sb, " <==");
+				else if (i == expanded_aliases->nr - 1)
+					strbuf_addstr(&sb, " ==>");
+			}
+			die(_("alias loop detected: expansion of '%s' does"
+			      " not terminate:%s"), expanded_aliases->items[0].string, sb.buf);
+		}
+
 		trace_argv_printf(new_argv,
 				  "trace: alias expansion: %s =>",
 				  alias_command);
@@ -806,8 +827,7 @@ static void execv_dashed_external(const char **argv)
 static int run_argv(struct strvec *args)
 {
 	int done_alias = 0;
-	struct string_list cmd_list = STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP;
-	struct string_list_item *seen;
+	struct string_list expanded_aliases = STRING_LIST_INIT_DUP;
 
 	while (1) {
 		/*
@@ -859,35 +879,17 @@ static int run_argv(struct strvec *args)
 		/* .. then try the external ones */
 		execv_dashed_external(args->v);
 
-		seen = unsorted_string_list_lookup(&cmd_list, args->v[0]);
-		if (seen) {
-			struct strbuf sb = STRBUF_INIT;
-			for (size_t i = 0; i < cmd_list.nr; i++) {
-				struct string_list_item *item = &cmd_list.items[i];
-
-				strbuf_addf(&sb, "\n  %s", item->string);
-				if (item == seen)
-					strbuf_addstr(&sb, " <==");
-				else if (i == cmd_list.nr - 1)
-					strbuf_addstr(&sb, " ==>");
-			}
-			die(_("alias loop detected: expansion of '%s' does"
-			      " not terminate:%s"), cmd_list.items[0].string, sb.buf);
-		}
-
-		string_list_append(&cmd_list, args->v[0]);
-
 		/*
 		 * It could be an alias -- this works around the insanity
 		 * of overriding "git log" with "git show" by having
 		 * alias.log = show
 		 */
-		if (!handle_alias(args))
+		if (!handle_alias(args, &expanded_aliases))
 			break;
 		done_alias = 1;
 	}
 
-	string_list_clear(&cmd_list, 0);
+	string_list_clear(&expanded_aliases, 0);
 
 	return done_alias;
 }
-- 
2.51.0.274.gdcb64e51a0f