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* [PATCH 0/2] Objects treated as missing despite being present, due to race with geometric repacking
@ 2026-08-18 22:34 Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
  2026-08-18 22:34 ` [PATCH 1/2] replay: fail gracefully when a merge input is unreadable Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
  2026-08-18 22:34 ` [PATCH 2/2] packfile: recover when a multi-pack-index names a removed pack Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget @ 2026-08-18 22:34 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: git; +Cc: Elijah Newren

When an object is found in multiple packs that are in a multi-pack-index,
and a subsequent geometric repacking creates a new multi-pack-index and
removes the pack that was considered the owner of the object in the old
multi-pack-index, then an already-running process that had opened the old
multi-pack-index and hadn't yet opened the removed packfile will not be able
to access the object -- lookups will return it as missing. Additionally,
replay has a separate bug where a missing object causes a SIGSEGV rather
than an error message.

This appears to affect a very small percentage of git operations in
production since it is a tiny window, but I've found evidence of it
occurring in at least eight distinct server-side operations, covering seven
different git commands:

git operation                        symptom
-----------------------------------  -----------------------------
git replay (server-side rebase)      SIGSEGV (this series, 1/2)
git merge-tree                       spurious read-miss failure
git diff (raw and tree-vs-tree)      spurious read-miss failure
git rev-list --count                 spurious read-miss failure
git merge-base                       spurious read-miss failure
object/rev resolution (rev-parse,    spurious read-miss failure
  cat-file)
repository repair (fsck/repack)      spurious read-miss failure


There are also commands that could be changing behavior without throwing an
error -- e.g. object negotiation thinking an object doesn't exist and
instead negotiating based on an older common commit, or cat-file --batch
reporting that some objects don't exist.

This series fixes the replay bug first, since it's simpler; investigating
it, together with my other recent repacking work, is what led me to the
underlying multi-pack-index issue that 2/2 addresses.

Elijah Newren (2):
  replay: fail gracefully when a merge input is unreadable
  packfile: recover when a multi-pack-index names a removed pack

 odb/source-packed.c         | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 replay.c                    |  7 +++++++
 t/t3650-replay-basics.sh    | 35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 t/t5319-multi-pack-index.sh | 40 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 4 files changed, 111 insertions(+)


base-commit: 18e66859d87fb4b76599f73460b54f0848c76b16
Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2207%2Fnewren%2Fmidx-removed-pack-recovery-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2207/newren/midx-removed-pack-recovery-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2207
-- 
gitgitgadget

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread

* [PATCH 1/2] replay: fail gracefully when a merge input is unreadable
  2026-08-18 22:34 [PATCH 0/2] Objects treated as missing despite being present, due to race with geometric repacking Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
@ 2026-08-18 22:34 ` Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
  2026-08-18 22:34 ` [PATCH 2/2] packfile: recover when a multi-pack-index names a removed pack Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget @ 2026-08-18 22:34 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: git; +Cc: Elijah Newren, Elijah Newren

From: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>

When objects involved in the merge cannot be read, the merge machinery
will return early with result.clean = -1, and result.tree left as NULL.
pick_regular_commit() tested only "if (!result->clean)", ignoring the
case where "clean < 0".  That causes the code to try to use
result->tree, resulting in a SIGSEGV.

Handle clean < 0 explicitly; the merge machinery will already have printed
messages such as "Could not read <object>" and "collecting merge info
failed for trees...", so we don't need to add much detail beyond the
fact that the merge failed.

Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
---
 replay.c                 |  7 +++++++
 t/t3650-replay-basics.sh | 35 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 42 insertions(+)

diff --git a/replay.c b/replay.c
index 463c900d6c..33e21b2032 100644
--- a/replay.c
+++ b/replay.c
@@ -327,6 +327,13 @@ static struct commit *pick_regular_commit(struct repository *repo,
 	merge_opt->ancestor = NULL;
 	merge_opt->branch2 = NULL;
 
+	if (result->clean < 0) {
+		error(_("merge of %s onto %s failed"),
+		      oid_to_hex(&pickme->object.oid),
+		      oid_to_hex(&replayed_base->object.oid));
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
 	if (!result->clean)
 		return NULL;
 
diff --git a/t/t3650-replay-basics.sh b/t/t3650-replay-basics.sh
index 3353bc4a4d..d66b8edb95 100755
--- a/t/t3650-replay-basics.sh
+++ b/t/t3650-replay-basics.sh
@@ -565,4 +565,39 @@ test_expect_success '--onto with --ref rejects multiple revision ranges' '
 	test_grep "cannot be used with multiple revision ranges" err
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'replay fails without segfault when objects are missing' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -fr unreadable" &&
+	git init unreadable &&
+	(
+		cd unreadable &&
+
+		test_write_lines l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 l8 >f &&
+		git add f &&
+		git commit -m base &&
+		git branch base &&
+
+		test_write_lines l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 CHANGED >f &&
+		git commit -am side &&
+		git branch side &&
+
+		git switch -c onto base &&
+		test_write_lines CHANGED l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 l8 >f &&
+		git commit -am onto &&
+
+		# The replay works while every object is readable.
+		git replay --onto onto base..side &&
+
+		# Removing the onto tree makes parse_tree() fail during the
+		# incore merge, driving clean < 0 with a NULL result tree.
+		onto_tree=$(git rev-parse onto^{tree}) &&
+		obj=$(test_oid_to_path "$onto_tree") &&
+		mv .git/objects/${obj} saved-tree &&
+
+		# Ensure replay gracefully handles the missing object
+		test_must_fail git replay --onto onto base..side 2>err &&
+		test_grep ! "[Ss]egmentation" err &&
+		test_grep "Could not read\|collecting merge info failed" err
+	)
+'
+
 test_done
-- 
gitgitgadget


^ permalink raw reply related	[flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread

* [PATCH 2/2] packfile: recover when a multi-pack-index names a removed pack
  2026-08-18 22:34 [PATCH 0/2] Objects treated as missing despite being present, due to race with geometric repacking Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
  2026-08-18 22:34 ` [PATCH 1/2] replay: fail gracefully when a merge input is unreadable Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
@ 2026-08-18 22:34 ` Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget @ 2026-08-18 22:34 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: git; +Cc: Elijah Newren, Elijah Newren

From: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>

When a geometric repack runs concurrently with other git processes, it
can write a new pack and multi-pack-index and then delete older packs
that the new one subsumes.  One or more of those older packs may have
been indexed by the previous multi-pack-index.  A process that already
had the previous multi-pack-index open keeps using it, and that stale
index still records the removed pack(s) as owning some objects.

Because a multi-pack-index attributes each object to exactly one pack,
an object that exists in multiple covered packs is served only through
its recorded owner.  If that owner is the pack a concurrent repack just
removed, find_pack_entry() cannot serve the object: fill_midx_entry()
routes the lookup to the missing pack (prepare_midx_pack() fails), and
the regular pack fallback deliberately skips every multi-pack-index
covered pack.  The object is reported missing even though a perfectly
good copy survives in another covered pack -- for example a large "base"
pack that geometric repacking intentionally kept.

The false negative is not limited to one caller.  Any reader
(cat-file, rev-list, pack-objects, ...) can spuriously fail with
"unable to read object", and callers that only ask whether an object
exists get a wrong answer too, since the OBJECT_INFO_QUICK path never
retries.  Writers that merge in-core, such as "git replay", are hit
hardest: merge-ort treats the unreadable tree as a premature abort, sets
result.clean < 0, and returns without a result tree.

Teach find_pack_entry() to recover.  After the normal multi-pack-index
lookup and the regular pack fallback both miss, check whether the object
is nonetheless present in a covered multi-pack-index (bsearch_midx()).
If it is, its recorded owner must have become unavailable, so scan that
index's packs directly for a surviving copy.  The bsearch gate keeps
genuine misses (i.e. objects absent from the index) on the fast path, and
because the recovery lives in find_pack_entry() itself it also fixes the
OBJECT_INFO_QUICK callers that never reprepare.

This recovers the object without touching the multi-pack-index itself.
Reloading the stale index would be a more complete fix but would be much
more involved: other code (pack bitmaps, object name disambiguation)
borrows and caches the "struct multi_pack_index *" across object reads,
so freeing it underneath them would be a use-after-free.  Refreshing the
index with proper invalidation of those borrowers is left for future
work.

Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
---
 odb/source-packed.c         | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 t/t5319-multi-pack-index.sh | 40 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 69 insertions(+)

diff --git a/odb/source-packed.c b/odb/source-packed.c
index 0890704e76..de96215069 100644
--- a/odb/source-packed.c
+++ b/odb/source-packed.c
@@ -31,6 +31,35 @@ static int find_pack_entry(struct odb_source_packed *store,
 		}
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * Recovery for a concurrent-repack race: a MIDX can name an owning
+	 * pack for an object that a simultaneous repack has since deleted,
+	 * even though the object still exists in another pack the same MIDX
+	 * covers (e.g. a kept base pack that geometric repack did not rewrite).
+	 * If the object is present in a MIDX yet none of the paths above could
+	 * serve it, its recorded owning pack has become unavailable.  The
+	 * regular fallback above deliberately skips MIDX-covered packs, so
+	 * scan this MIDX's packs directly to find the surviving copy.  The
+	 * bsearch gate keeps genuine misses (objects absent from the MIDX) on
+	 * the fast path.
+	 */
+	if (store->midx) {
+		struct multi_pack_index *m = store->midx;
+		uint32_t midx_pos, i;
+
+		if (bsearch_midx(oid, m, &midx_pos)) {
+			for (i = 0; i < m->num_packs + m->num_packs_in_base; i++) {
+				struct packed_git *p;
+
+				if (prepare_midx_pack(m, i))
+					continue;
+				p = nth_midxed_pack(m, i);
+				if (p && packfile_fill_entry(p, oid, e))
+					return 1;
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
 	return 0;
 }
 
diff --git a/t/t5319-multi-pack-index.sh b/t/t5319-multi-pack-index.sh
index 68143cb5b7..2b8ff6f3ed 100755
--- a/t/t5319-multi-pack-index.sh
+++ b/t/t5319-multi-pack-index.sh
@@ -1393,4 +1393,44 @@ test_expect_success 'pack.preferBitmapTips interprets patterns as hierarchy' '
 	)
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'lookup recovers object whose midx-owning pack was removed' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -fr repo" &&
+	git init repo &&
+	(
+		cd repo &&
+
+		# "keep" ends up only in the big pack; "dup" is deliberately
+		# placed in two packs so the midx has to choose an owner.
+		test_commit keep &&
+		echo duplicated-content >dup &&
+		git add dup &&
+		git commit -m dup &&
+		dup_oid=$(git rev-parse HEAD:dup) &&
+
+		# Roll every object, including dup, into a single big pack.
+		git repack -adq &&
+
+		# Build a second, "moderate" pack that also contains dup, so dup
+		# now lives in two packs that the midx will cover.
+		moderate=$(echo "$dup_oid" |
+			git pack-objects --quiet $objdir/pack/pack) &&
+
+		# Attribute dup to the moderate pack in the midx.
+		git multi-pack-index write \
+			--preferred-pack="pack-$moderate.idx" &&
+
+		# Simulate a concurrent "git repack" retiring the moderate pack:
+		# its files disappear, but the now-stale midx still names it as
+		# the owner of dup.  A valid copy of dup survives in the big pack.
+		rm -f $objdir/pack/pack-$moderate.* &&
+
+		# The midx routes the lookup to the deleted pack, and the regular
+		# pack fallback skips midx-covered packs, so without recovery dup
+		# would appear missing even though it is physically present.
+		echo blob >expect &&
+		git cat-file -t "$dup_oid" >actual &&
+		test_cmp expect actual
+	)
+'
+
 test_done
-- 
gitgitgadget

^ permalink raw reply related	[flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2026-08-18 22:34 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 3+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
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2026-08-18 22:34 [PATCH 0/2] Objects treated as missing despite being present, due to race with geometric repacking Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
2026-08-18 22:34 ` [PATCH 1/2] replay: fail gracefully when a merge input is unreadable Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget
2026-08-18 22:34 ` [PATCH 2/2] packfile: recover when a multi-pack-index names a removed pack Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget

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