Re: [PATCH 10/11] builtin/gc: avoid global state in `gc_before_repack()`

[Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com>]

> Le 27 mai 2025 à 10:05, Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> a écrit :
> 
> The `gc_before_repack()` should only ever run once in git-gc(1), but we
> may end up calling it twice when the "--detach" flag is passed. The
> duplicated call is avoided though via a static flag in this function.
> 
> This pattern is somewhat unintuitive though. Refactor it to drop the
> static flag and instead guard the second call of `gc_before_repack()`
> via `opts.detach`.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
> ---
> builtin/gc.c | 24 +++++++++---------------
> 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/builtin/gc.c b/builtin/gc.c
> index e5d1114bd2d..174357b9c25 100644
> --- a/builtin/gc.c
> +++ b/builtin/gc.c
> @@ -816,22 +816,14 @@ static int report_last_gc_error(void)
>  return ret;
> }
> 
> -static void gc_before_repack(struct maintenance_run_opts *opts,
> -                 struct gc_config *cfg)
> +static int gc_before_repack(struct maintenance_run_opts *opts,
> +                struct gc_config *cfg)
> {
> -    /*
> -     * We may be called twice, as both the pre- and
> -     * post-daemonized phases will call us, but running these
> -     * commands more than once is pointless and wasteful.
> -     */
> -    static int done = 0;
> -    if (done++)
> -        return;
> -
>  if (cfg->pack_refs && maintenance_task_pack_refs(opts, cfg))
> -        die(FAILED_RUN, "pack-refs");
> +        return error(FAILED_RUN, "pack-refs");
>  if (cfg->prune_reflogs && maintenance_task_reflog_expire(opts, cfg))
> -        die(FAILED_RUN, "reflog");
> +        return error(FAILED_RUN, "reflog");
> +    return 0;
> }
> 
> int cmd_gc(int argc,
> @@ -965,7 +957,8 @@ int cmd_gc(int argc,
>          goto out;
>      }
> 
> -        gc_before_repack(&opts, &cfg); /* dies on failure */
> +        if (gc_before_repack(&opts, &cfg) < 0)
> +            exit(127);

If I (a relative novice to this part of the code) am reading correctly, we trade an implicit die in a private helper for explicit exit in a « main » function, which I find much easier to reason about. Nice!

What I don’t see (being away from the rest of the source at the moment) is where 127 comes from. I don’t intend a crusade against magic numbers :) and I’ve certainly seen enough exit-codes of 127 to guess what this means, but reading only the patch the number does appear out of thin air.

>      delete_tempfile(&pidfile);
> 
>      /*
> @@ -995,7 +988,8 @@ int cmd_gc(int argc,
>      free(path);
>  }
> 
> -    gc_before_repack(&opts, &cfg);
> +    if (opts.detach <= 0)
> +        gc_before_repack(&opts, &cfg);
> 
>  if (!repository_format_precious_objects) {
>      struct child_process repack_cmd = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
> 
> --
> 2.49.0.1266.g31b7d2e469.dirty