[PATCH] filter-branch: Fix fatal error on bare repositories

[PATCH] filter-branch: Fix fatal error on bare repositories

[Eric Kidd]

When git filter-branch is run on a bare repository, it prints out a fatal
error message:

  $ git filter-branch branch
  Rewrite 476c4839280c219c2317376b661d9d95c1727fc3 (9/9)
  WARNING: Ref 'refs/heads/branch' is unchanged
  fatal: This operation must be run in a work tree

Note that this fatal error message doesn't prevent git filter-branch from
exiting successfully. (Why doesn't git filter-branch actually exit with an
error when a shell command fails? I'm not sure why it was designed this
way.)

This error message is caused by the following section of code at the end of
git-filter-branch.sh:

  if [ "$(is_bare_repository)" = false ]; then
          unset GIT_DIR GIT_WORK_TREE GIT_INDEX_FILE
          test -z "$ORIG_GIT_DIR" || {
                  GIT_DIR="$ORIG_GIT_DIR" && export GIT_DIR
          }
          ... elided ...
          git read-tree -u -m HEAD
  fi

The problem is the call to $(is_bare_repository), which is made before
GIT_DIR and GIT_WORK_TREE are restored.  This call always returns "false",
even when we're running in a bare repository.  But this means that we will
attempt to call 'git read-tree' even in a bare repository, which will fail
and print an error.

This patch modifies git-filter-branch.sh to restore the original
environment variables before trying to call is_bare_repository.
---
 git-filter-branch.sh     |   25 +++++++++++++------------
 t/t7003-filter-branch.sh |    4 +++-
 2 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/git-filter-branch.sh b/git-filter-branch.sh
index eb62f71..b75d0ba 100755
--- a/git-filter-branch.sh
+++ b/git-filter-branch.sh
@@ -469,19 +469,20 @@ rm -rf "$tempdir"
 
 trap - 0
 
+unset GIT_DIR GIT_WORK_TREE GIT_INDEX_FILE
+test -z "$ORIG_GIT_DIR" || {
+	GIT_DIR="$ORIG_GIT_DIR" && export GIT_DIR
+}
+test -z "$ORIG_GIT_WORK_TREE" || {
+	GIT_WORK_TREE="$ORIG_GIT_WORK_TREE" &&
+	export GIT_WORK_TREE
+}
+test -z "$ORIG_GIT_INDEX_FILE" || {
+	GIT_INDEX_FILE="$ORIG_GIT_INDEX_FILE" &&
+	export GIT_INDEX_FILE
+}
+
 if [ "$(is_bare_repository)" = false ]; then
-	unset GIT_DIR GIT_WORK_TREE GIT_INDEX_FILE
-	test -z "$ORIG_GIT_DIR" || {
-		GIT_DIR="$ORIG_GIT_DIR" && export GIT_DIR
-	}
-	test -z "$ORIG_GIT_WORK_TREE" || {
-		GIT_WORK_TREE="$ORIG_GIT_WORK_TREE" &&
-		export GIT_WORK_TREE
-	}
-	test -z "$ORIG_GIT_INDEX_FILE" || {
-		GIT_INDEX_FILE="$ORIG_GIT_INDEX_FILE" &&
-		export GIT_INDEX_FILE
-	}
 	git read-tree -u -m HEAD
 fi
 
diff --git a/t/t7003-filter-branch.sh b/t/t7003-filter-branch.sh
index 8537bf9..cb04743 100755
--- a/t/t7003-filter-branch.sh
+++ b/t/t7003-filter-branch.sh
@@ -39,7 +39,9 @@ test_expect_success 'result is really identical' '
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'rewrite bare repository identically' '
-	(git config core.bare true && cd .git && git filter-branch branch)
+	(git config core.bare true && cd .git &&
+	 git filter-branch branch > filter-output 2>&1 &&
+	! fgrep fatal filter-output)
 '
 git config core.bare false
 test_expect_success 'result is really identical' '
-- 
1.6.1.2.253.ga34a.dirty

Re: [PATCH] filter-branch: Fix fatal error on bare repositories

[Junio C Hamano]

Thanks, will apply.