Subject: [PATCH v2] promisor-remote: prevent lazy-fetch recursion in child fetch

From: "Paul Tarjan via GitGitGadget" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:27:25 +0000

From: Paul Tarjan <[email-masked]>

fetch_objects() spawns a child `git fetch` to lazily fill in missing
objects. That child's index-pack, when it receives a thin pack
containing a REF_DELTA against a still-missing base, explicitly
calls promisor_remote_get_direct() — which is fetch_objects() again.
If the base is truly unavailable (e.g. because many refs in the
local store point at objects that have been garbage-collected on the
server), each recursive lazy-fetch can trigger another, leading to
unbounded recursion with runaway disk and process consumption.

The GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH guard (introduced by e6d5479e7a (git: add
--no-lazy-fetch option, 2021-08-31)) already exists at the top of
fetch_objects(); the missing piece is propagating it into the child
fetch's environment. Add that propagation so the child's
index-pack, if it encounters a REF_DELTA against a missing base,
hits the guard and fails fast instead of recursing.

Depth-1 lazy fetch (the whole point of fetch_objects()) is
unaffected: only the child and its descendants see the variable.
With negotiationAlgorithm=noop the client advertises no "have"
lines, so a well-behaved server sends requested objects
un-deltified or deltified only against objects in the same pack;
the child's index-pack should never need a depth-2 fetch. If it
does, the server response was broken or the local store is already
corrupt, and further fetching would not help.

This is the same bug shape that 3a1ea94a49 (commit-graph.c: no lazy
fetch in lookup_commit_in_graph(), 2022-07-01) addressed at a
different entry point.

Add a test that verifies the child fetch environment contains
GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH=1 via a reference-transaction hook.

Signed-off-by: Paul Tarjan <[email-masked]>
---
    promisor-remote: prevent recursive lazy-fetch during index-pack
    
    Propagate GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH=1 into the child fetch spawned by
    fetch_objects() so that index-pack cannot recurse back into lazy-fetch
    when resolving REF_DELTA bases.
    
    We hit this in production: 276 GB of promisor packs written in 90
    minutes against a 100 GB monorepo with ~61K stale prefetch refs pointing
    at GC'd commits.
    
    Changes since v1:
    
     * Dropped CC: trailers from commit message (moved here for
       GitGitGadget)
     * Moved test into t0411-clone-from-partial.sh instead of a new file
     * Removed duplicate commit-message summary from PR description

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-git-2224%2Fptarjan%2Fclaude%2Ffix-lazy-fetch-recursion-KP9Hl-v2
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-git-2224/ptarjan/claude/fix-lazy-fetch-recursion-KP9Hl-v2
Pull-Request: https://github.com/git/git/pull/2224

Range-diff vs v1:

 1:  7b723441f4 ! 1:  907ca7a0ac promisor-remote: prevent lazy-fetch recursion in child fetch
     @@ Commit message
          different entry point.
      
          Add a test that verifies the child fetch environment contains
     -    GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH=1 via a reference-transaction hook, and that
     -    only one fetch subprocess is spawned.
     +    GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH=1 via a reference-transaction hook.
      
     -    Cc: Jonathan Tan <[email-masked]>
     -    Cc: Han Xin <[email-masked]>
     -    Cc: Jeff Hostetler <[email-masked]>
     -    Cc: Christian Couder <[email-masked]>
          Signed-off-by: Paul Tarjan <[email-masked]>
      
       ## promisor-remote.c ##
     @@ promisor-remote.c: static int fetch_objects(struct repository *repo,
       		     "fetch", remote_name, "--no-tags",
       		     "--no-write-fetch-head", "--recurse-submodules=no",
      
     - ## t/meson.build ##
     -@@ t/meson.build: integration_tests = [
     -   't0303-credential-external.sh',
     -   't0410-partial-clone.sh',
     -   't0411-clone-from-partial.sh',
     -+  't0412-promisor-no-lazy-fetch-recursion.sh',
     -   't0450-txt-doc-vs-help.sh',
     -   't0500-progress-display.sh',
     -   't0600-reffiles-backend.sh',
     -
     - ## t/t0412-promisor-no-lazy-fetch-recursion.sh (new) ##
     -@@
     -+#!/bin/sh
     -+
     -+test_description='promisor-remote: no recursive lazy-fetch
     -+
     -+Verify that fetch_objects() sets GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH=1 in the child
     -+fetch environment, so that index-pack cannot recurse back into
     -+fetch_objects() when resolving REF_DELTA bases.
     -+'
     -+
     -+. ./test-lib.sh
     -+
     -+test_expect_success 'setup' '
     -+	test_create_repo server &&
     -+	test_commit -C server foo &&
     -+	git -C server repack -a -d --write-bitmap-index &&
     + ## t/t0411-clone-from-partial.sh ##
     +@@ t/t0411-clone-from-partial.sh: test_expect_success 'promisor lazy-fetching can be re-enabled' '
     + 	test_path_is_file script-executed
     + '
     + 
     ++test_expect_success 'lazy-fetch child has GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH=1' '
     ++	test_create_repo nolazy-server &&
     ++	test_commit -C nolazy-server foo &&
     ++	git -C nolazy-server repack -a -d --write-bitmap-index &&
      +
     -+	git clone "file://$(pwd)/server" client &&
     -+	HASH=$(git -C client rev-parse foo) &&
     -+	rm -rf client/.git/objects/* &&
     -+
     -+	git -C client config core.repositoryformatversion 1 &&
     -+	git -C client config extensions.partialclone "origin"
     -+'
     -+
     -+test_expect_success 'lazy-fetch spawns only one fetch subprocess' '
     -+	GIT_TRACE="$(pwd)/trace" git -C client cat-file -p "$HASH" &&
     -+
     -+	grep "git fetch" trace >fetches &&
     -+	test_line_count = 1 fetches
     -+'
     ++	git clone "file://$(pwd)/nolazy-server" nolazy-client &&
     ++	HASH=$(git -C nolazy-client rev-parse foo) &&
     ++	rm -rf nolazy-client/.git/objects/* &&
      +
     -+test_expect_success 'child of lazy-fetch has GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH=1' '
     -+	rm -rf client/.git/objects/* &&
     ++	git -C nolazy-client config core.repositoryformatversion 1 &&
     ++	git -C nolazy-client config extensions.partialclone "origin" &&
      +
      +	# Install a reference-transaction hook to record the env var
      +	# as seen by processes inside the child fetch.
     -+	test_hook -C client reference-transaction <<-\EOF &&
     ++	test_hook -C nolazy-client reference-transaction <<-\EOF &&
      +	echo "$GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH" >>../env-in-child
      +	EOF
      +
      +	rm -f env-in-child &&
     -+	git -C client cat-file -p "$HASH" &&
     ++	git -C nolazy-client cat-file -p "$HASH" &&
      +
      +	# The hook runs inside the child fetch, which should have
      +	# GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH=1 in its environment.
      +	grep "^1$" env-in-child
      +'
      +
     -+test_done
     + test_done

 promisor-remote.c             |  7 +++++++
 t/t0411-clone-from-partial.sh | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 33 insertions(+)

diff --git a/promisor-remote.c b/promisor-remote.c
index 96fa215b06..35c7aab93d 100644
--- a/promisor-remote.c
+++ b/promisor-remote.c
@@ -42,6 +42,13 @@ static int fetch_objects(struct repository *repo,
 	child.in = -1;
 	if (repo != the_repository)
 		prepare_other_repo_env(&child.env, repo->gitdir);
+	/*
+	 * Prevent the child's index-pack from recursing back into
+	 * fetch_objects() when resolving REF_DELTA bases it does not
+	 * have.  With noop negotiation the server should never need
+	 * to send such deltas, so a depth-2 fetch would not help.
+	 */
+	strvec_pushf(&child.env, "%s=1", NO_LAZY_FETCH_ENVIRONMENT);
 	strvec_pushl(&child.args, "-c", "fetch.negotiationAlgorithm=noop",
 		     "fetch", remote_name, "--no-tags",
 		     "--no-write-fetch-head", "--recurse-submodules=no",
diff --git a/t/t0411-clone-from-partial.sh b/t/t0411-clone-from-partial.sh
index 9e6bca5625..10a829fb80 100755
--- a/t/t0411-clone-from-partial.sh
+++ b/t/t0411-clone-from-partial.sh
@@ -78,4 +78,30 @@ test_expect_success 'promisor lazy-fetching can be re-enabled' '
 	test_path_is_file script-executed
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'lazy-fetch child has GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH=1' '
+	test_create_repo nolazy-server &&
+	test_commit -C nolazy-server foo &&
+	git -C nolazy-server repack -a -d --write-bitmap-index &&
+
+	git clone "file://$(pwd)/nolazy-server" nolazy-client &&
+	HASH=$(git -C nolazy-client rev-parse foo) &&
+	rm -rf nolazy-client/.git/objects/* &&
+
+	git -C nolazy-client config core.repositoryformatversion 1 &&
+	git -C nolazy-client config extensions.partialclone "origin" &&
+
+	# Install a reference-transaction hook to record the env var
+	# as seen by processes inside the child fetch.
+	test_hook -C nolazy-client reference-transaction <<-\EOF &&
+	echo "$GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH" >>../env-in-child
+	EOF
+
+	rm -f env-in-child &&
+	git -C nolazy-client cat-file -p "$HASH" &&
+
+	# The hook runs inside the child fetch, which should have
+	# GIT_NO_LAZY_FETCH=1 in its environment.
+	grep "^1$" env-in-child
+'
+
 test_done

base-commit: 7b2bccb0d58d4f24705bf985de1f4612e4cf06e5
-- 
gitgitgadget