exit status = 1 from git fetch -t

[Villeneuve <dvilleneuve@kronos.com>]

Hi,

I'm getting an unexpected exit status of 1 from "git fetch
-t" on one of our largest repositories (by large, I mean 47
branches and 5442 tags, some of which might not be reachable
from branch heads).

The docs are not clear about the interpretation of git
fetch's exit status, so maybe I should not bother.

But assuming the exit status of 1 really indicates some
trouble, here are more details.

Next tests done with git over ssh (server 1.6.1.3, client
1.6.3.1) on RHEL4.

In the "REPO1" repository (exit status printed just before $
in prompt following command):

[REPO1] 0 $ git fetch -t -v -v
Server supports multi_ack
Server supports side-band-64k
Server supports ofs-delta
Marking 60e4d540748c5c3d368c888c4c248de0bdd684cc as complete
Marking 60e4d540748c5c3d368c888c4c248de0bdd684cc as complete
[REPO1] 1 $

while with another repository, "REPO2":

[REPO2] 0 $ git fetch -t -v -v
From ssh://user@machine/path/to/GIT/dir1/dir2/REPO2
 = [up to date]      v1.1 -> v1.1
 = [up to date]      v1.2 -> v1.2
 = [up to date]      v2.0 -> v2.0
... # lots of other similar lines
[REPO2] 0 $

I've compiled git in debug to step in the code, and the
source of the "error" exit status seems to come from
builtin-fetch-pack.c:everything_local, where *refs being
NULL leaves retval to 1 in the final loop.

I'm also puzzled that I don't get the "From ssh://..." in
the trace from "REPO1" as for the "REPO2" repository above.
I do get the "From ssh://..."  line if doing only "git fetch
-v -v" without the "-t" option in "REPO1".

Any help/advice appreciated,
--
Daniel Villeneuve
Kronos, AD OPT Division