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The fix is short (~30 lines), but the description is not. Sorry.
There is a set of problems caused by files in what I'll refer to as the
"present-despite-SKIP_WORKTREE" state. This commit aims to not just fix
these problems, but remove the entire class as a possibility -- for
those using sparse checkouts. But first, we need to understand the
problems this class presents. A quick outline:
* Problems
* User facing issues
* Problem space complexity
* Maintenance and code correctness challenges
* SKIP_WORKTREE expectations in Git
* Suggested solution
* Pros/Cons of suggested solution
* Notes on testcase modifications
=== User facing issues ===
There are various ways for users to get files to be present in the
working copy despite having the SKIP_WORKTREE bit set for that file in
the index. This may come from:
* various git commands not really supporting the SKIP_WORKTREE bit[1,2]
* users grabbing files from elsewhere and writing them to the worktree
(perhaps even cached in their editor)
* users attempting to "abort" a sparse-checkout operation with a
not-so-early Ctrl+C (updating $GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout and the
working tree is not atomic)[3].
Once users have present-despite-SKIP_WORKTREE files, any modifications
users make to these files will be ignored, possibly to users' confusion.
Further:
* these files will degrade performance for the sparse-index case due
to requiring the index to be expanded (see commit 55dfcf9591
("sparse-checkout: clear tracked sparse dirs", 2021-09-08) for why
we try to delete entire directories outside the sparse cone).
* these files will not be updated by by standard commands
(switch/checkout/pull/merge/rebase will leave them alone unless
conflicts happen -- and even then, the conflicted file may be
written somewhere else to avoid overwriting the SKIP_WORKTREE file
that is present and in the way)
* there is nothing in Git that users can use to discover such
files (status, diff, grep, etc. all ignore it)
* there is no reasonable mechanism to "recover" from such a condition
(neither `git sparse-checkout reapply` nor `git reset --hard` will
correct it).
So, not only are users modifications ignored, but the files get
progressively more stale over time. At some point in the future, they
may change their sparseness specification or disable sparse-checkouts.
At that time, all present-despite-SKIP_WORKTREE files will show up as
having lots of modifications because they represent a version from a
different branch or commit. These might include user-made local changes
from days before, but the only way to tell is to have users look through
them all closely.
If these users come to others for help, there will be no logs that
explain the issue; it's just a mysterious list of changes. Users might
adamantly claim (correctly, as it turns out) that they didn't modify
these files, while others presume they did.
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqbmb1a7ga.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com/
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/git/CABPp-BH9tju7WVm=QZDOvaMDdZbpNXrVWQdN-jmfN8wC6YVhmw@mail.gmail.com/
[3] https://lore.kernel.org/git/CABPp-BFnFpzwGC11TLoLs8YK5yiisA5D5-fFjXnJsbESVDwZsA@mail.gmail.com/
=== Problem space complexity ===
SKIP_WORKTREE has been part of Git for over a decade. Duy did lots of
work on it initially, and several others have since come along and put
lots of work into it. Stolee spent most of 2021 on the sparse-index,
with lots of bugfixes along the way including to non-sparse-index cases
as we are still trying to get sparse checkouts to behave reasonably.
Basically every codepath throughout the treat needs to be aware of an
additional type of file: tracked-but-not-present. The extra type
results in lots of extra testcases and lots of extra code everywhere.
But, the sad thing is that we actually have more than one extra type.
We have tracked, tracked-but-not-present (SKIP_WORKTREE), and
tracked-but-promised-to-not-be-present-but-is-present-anyway
(present-despite-SKIP_WORKTREE). Two types is a monumental amount of
effort to support, and adding a third feels a bit like insanity[4].
[4] Some examples of which can be seen at
https://lore.kernel.org/git/CABPp-BGJ_Nvi5TmgriD9Bh6eNXE2EDq2f8e8QKXAeYG3BxZafA@mail.gmail.com/
=== Maintenance and code correctness challenges ===
Matheus' patches to grep stalled for nearly a year, in part because of
complications of how to handle sparse-checkouts appropriately in all
cases[5][6] (with trying to sanely figure out how to sanely handle
present-despite-SKIP_WORKTREE files being one of the complications).
His rm/add follow-ups also took months because of those kinds of
issues[7]. The corner cases with things like submodules and
SKIP_WORKTREE with the addition of present-despite-SKIP_WORKTREE start
becoming really complex[8].
We've had to add ugly logic to merge-ort to attempt to handle
present-despite-SKIP_WORKTREE files[9], and basically just been forced
to give up in merge-recursive knowing full well that we'll sometimes
silently discard user modifications. Despite stash essentially being a
merge, it needed extra code (beyond what was in merge-ort and
merge-recursive) to manually tweak SKIP_WORKTREE bits in order to avoid
a few different bugs that'd result in an early abort with a partial
stash application[10].
[5] See https://lore.kernel.org/git/5f3f7ac77039d41d1692ceae4b0c5df3bb45b74a.1612901326.git.matheus.bernardino@usp.br/#t
and the dates on the thread; also Matheus and I had several
conversations off-list trying to resolve the issues over that time
[6] ...it finally kind of got unstuck after
https://lore.kernel.org/git/CABPp-BGJ_Nvi5TmgriD9Bh6eNXE2EDq2f8e8QKXAeYG3BxZafA@mail.gmail.com/
[7] See for example
https://lore.kernel.org/git/CABPp-BHwNoVnooqDFPAsZxBT9aR5Dwk5D9sDRCvYSb8akxAJgA@mail.gmail.com/#t
and quotes like "The core functionality of sparse-checkout has always
been only partially implemented", a statement I still believe is true
today.
[8] https://lore.kernel.org/git/pull.809.git.git.1592356884310.gitgitgadget@gmail.com/
[9] See commit 66b209b86a ("merge-ort: implement CE_SKIP_WORKTREE
handling with conflicted entries", 2021-03-20)
[10] See commit ba359fd507 ("stash: fix stash application in
sparse-checkouts", 2020-12-01)
=== SKIP_WORKTREE expectations in Git ===
A couple quotes:
* From [11] (before the "sparse-checkout" command existed):
If it needs too many special cases, hacks, and conditionals, then it
is not worth the complexity---if it is easier to write a correct code
by allowing Git to populate working tree files, it is perfectly fine
to do so.
In a sense, the sparse checkout "feature" itself is a hack by itself,
and that is why I think this part should be "best effort" as well.
* From the git-sparse-checkout manual (still present today):
THIS COMMAND IS EXPERIMENTAL. ITS BEHAVIOR, AND THE BEHAVIOR OF OTHER
COMMANDS IN THE PRESENCE OF SPARSE-CHECKOUTS, WILL LIKELY CHANGE IN
THE FUTURE.
[11] https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqbmb1a7ga.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com/
=== Suggested solution ===
SKIP_WORKTREE was written to allow sparse-checkouts, in particular, as
the name of the option implies, to allow the file to NOT be in the
worktree but consider it to be unchanged rather than deleted.
The suggests a simple solution: present-despite-SKIP_WORKTREE files
should not exist, for those using sparse-checkouts.
Enforce this at index loading time by checking if core.sparseCheckout is
true; if so, check files in the index with the SKIP_WORKTREE bit set to
verify that they are absent from the working tree. If they are present,
unset the bit (in memory, though any commands that write to the index
will record the update).
Users can, of course, can get the SKIP_WORKTREE bit back such as by
running `git sparse-checkout reapply` (if they have ensured the file is
unmodified and doesn't match the specified sparsity patterns).
=== Pros/Cons of suggested solution ===
Pros:
* Solves the user visible problems reported above, which I've been
complaining about for nearly a year but couldn't find a solution to.
* Helps prevent slow performance degradation with a sparse-index.
* Much easier behavior in sparse-checkouts for users to reason about
* Very simple, ~30 lines of code.
* Significantly simplifies some ugly testcases, and obviates the need
to test an entire class of potential issues.
* Reduces code complexity, reasoning, and maintenance. Avoids
disagreements about weird corner cases[12].
* It has been reported that some users might be (ab)using
SKIP_WORKTREE as a let-me-modify-but-keep-the-file-in-the-worktree
mechanism[13, and a few other similar references]. These users know
of multiple caveats and shortcomings in doing so; perhaps not
surprising given the "SKIP_WORKTREE expecations" section above.
However, these users use `git update-index --skip-worktree`, and not
`git sparse-checkout` or core.sparseCheckout=true. As such, these
users would be unaffected by this change and can continue abusing
the system as before.
[12] https://lore.kernel.org/git/CABPp-BH9tju7WVm=QZDOvaMDdZbpNXrVWQdN-jmfN8wC6YVhmw@mail.gmail.com/
[13] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13630849/git-difference-between-assume-unchanged-and-skip-worktree
Cons:
* When core.sparseCheckout is enabled, this adds a performance cost to
reading the index. I'll defer discussion of this cost to a subsequent
patch, since I have some optimizations to add.
=== Notes on testcase modifications ===
The good:
* t1011: Compare to two cases above it ('read-tree will not throw away
dirty changes, non-sparse'); since the file is present, it should
match the non-sparse case now
* t1092: sparse-index & sparse-checkout now match full-worktree
behavior in more cases! Yaay for consistency!
* t6428, t7012: look at how much simpler the tests become! Merge and
stash can just fail early telling the user there's a file in the
way, instead of not noticing until it's about to write a file and
then have to implement sudden crash avoidance. Hurray for sanity!
* t7817: sparse behavior better matches full tree behavior. Hurray
for sanity!
The confusing:
* t3705: These changes were ONLY needed on Windows, but they don't
hurt other platforms. Let's discuss each individually:
* core.sparseCheckout should be false by default. Nothing in this
testcase toggles that until many, many tests later. However,
early tests (#5 in particular) were testing `update-index
--skip-worktree` behavior in a non-sparse-checkout, but the
Windows tests in CI were behaving as if core.sparseCheckout=true
had been specified somewhere. I do not have access to a Windows
machine. But I just manually did what should have been a no-op
and turned the config off. And it fixed the test.
* I have no idea why the leftover .gitattributes file from this
test was causing failures for test #18 on Windows, but only with
these changes of mine. Test #18 was checking for empty stderr,
and specifically wanted to know that some error completely
unrelated to file endings did not appear. The leftover
.gitattributes file thus caused some spurious stderr unrelated to
the thing being checked. Since other tests did not intend to
test normalization, just proactively remove the .gitattributes
file. I'm certain this is cleaner and better, I'm just unsure
why/how this didn't trigger problems before.
Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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Now that 'git ls-files --sparse' exists, we can use it to verify the
state of a sparse index instead of 'test-tool read-cache table'. Replace
these usages within t1091-sparse-checkout-builtin.sh and
t3705-add-sparse-checkout.sh.
The important changes are due to the different output format. In t3705,
we need to use the '--stage' output to get a file mode and OID, but
it also includes a stage value and drops the object type. This leads
to some differences in how we handle looking for specific entries.
In t1091, the test focuses on enabling the sparse index, so we do not
need the --stage flag to demonstrate how the index changes, and instead
can use a diff.
Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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These three commands recently learned to avoid updating paths outside
the sparse checkout even if they are missing the SKIP_WORKTREE bit. This
is done using path_in_sparse_checkout(), which checks whether a given
path matches the current list of sparsity rules, similar to what
clear_ce_flags() does when we run "git sparse checkout init" or "git
sparse-checkout reapply". However, clear_ce_flags() uses a recursive
approach, applying the match results from parent directories on paths
that get the UNDECIDED result, whereas path_in_sparse_checkout() only
attempts to match the full path and immediately considers UNDECIDED as
NOT_MATCHED. This makes the function miss matches with leading
directories. For example, if the user has the sparsity patterns "!/a"
and "b/", add, rm, and mv will fail to update the path "a/b/c" and end
up displaying a warning about it being outside the sparse checkout even
though it isn't. This problem only occurs in full pattern mode as the
pattern matching functions never return UNDECIDED for cone mode.
To fix this, replicate the recursive behavior of clear_ce_flags() in
path_in_sparse_checkout(), falling back to the parent directory match
when a path gets the UNDECIDED result. (If this turns out to be too
expensive in some cases, we may want to later add some form of caching
to accelerate multiple queries within the same directory. This is not
implemented in this patch, though.) Also add two tests for each affected
command (add, rm, and mv) to check that they behave correctly with the
recursive pattern matching. The first test would previously fail without
this patch while the second already succeeded. It is added mostly to
make sure that we are not breaking the existing pattern matching for
directories that are really sparse, and also as a protection against any
future regressions.
Two other existing tests had to be changed as well: one test in t3602
checks that "git rm -r <dir>" won't remove sparse entries, but it didn't
allow the non-sparse entries inside <dir> to be removed. The other one,
in t7002, tested that "git mv" would correctly display a warning message
for sparse paths, but it accidentally expected the message to include
two non-sparse paths as well.
Signed-off-by: Matheus Tavares <matheus.bernardino@usp.br>
Acked-by: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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The previous changes modified the behavior of 'git add', 'git rm', and
'git mv' to not adjust paths outside the sparse-checkout cone, even if
they exist in the working tree and their cache entries lack the
SKIP_WORKTREE bit. The intention is to warn users that they are doing
something potentially dangerous. The '--sparse' option was added to each
command to allow careful users the same ability they had before.
To improve the discoverability of this new functionality, add a message
to advice.updateSparsePath that mentions the existence of the option.
The previous set of changes also modified the purpose of this message to
include possibly a list of paths instead of only a list of pathspecs.
Make the warning message more clear about this new behavior.
Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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We added checks for path_in_sparse_checkout() to portions of 'git add'
that add warnings and prevent stagins a modification, but we skipped the
--renormalize mode. Update renormalize_tracked_files() to ignore cache
entries whose path is outside of the sparse-checkout cone (unless
--sparse is provided). Add a test in t3705.
Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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We added checks for path_in_sparse_checkout() to portions of 'git add'
that add warnings and prevent staging a modification, but we skipped the
--chmod mode. Update chmod_pathspec() to ignore cache entries whose path
is outside of the sparse-checkout cone (unless --sparse is provided).
Add a test in t3705.
Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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We previously modified 'git add' to refuse updating index entries
outside of the sparse-checkout cone. This is justified to prevent users
from accidentally getting into a confusing state when Git removes those
files from the working tree at some later point.
Unfortunately, this caused some workflows that were previously possible
to become impossible, especially around merge conflicts outside of the
sparse-checkout cone. These were documented in tests within t1092.
We now re-enable these workflows using a new '--sparse' option to 'git
add'. This allows users to signal "Yes, I do know what I'm doing with
these files," and accept the consequences of the files leaving the
worktree later.
We delay updating the advice message until implementing a similar option
in 'git rm' and 'git mv'.
Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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When 'git add' adds a tracked file that is outside of the
sparse-checkout cone, it checks the SKIP_WORKTREE bit to see if the file
exists outside of the sparse-checkout cone. This is usually correct,
except in the case of a merge conflict outside of the cone.
Modify add_pathspec_matched_against_index() to be more careful about
paths by checking the sparse-checkout patterns in addition to the
SKIP_WORKTREE bit. This causes 'git add' to no longer allow files
outside of the cone that removed the SKIP_WORKTREE bit due to a merge
conflict.
With only this change, users will only be able to add the file after
adding the file to the sparse-checkout cone. A later change will allow
users to force adding even though the file is outside of the
sparse-checkout cone.
Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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The tests in t3705-add-sparse-checkout.sh check to see how 'git add'
behaves with paths outside the sparse-checkout definition. These
currently check to see if a given warning is present but not that the
index is not updated with the sparse entries. Add a new
'test_sparse_entry_unstaged' helper to be sure 'git add' is behaving
correctly.
We need to modify setup_sparse_entry to actually commit the sparse_entry
file so it exists at HEAD and as an entry in the index, but its exact
contents are not staged in the index.
Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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`git add` already refrains from updating SKIP_WORKTREE entries, but it
silently exits with zero code when it is asked to do so. Instead, let's
warn the user and display a hint on how to update these entries.
Note that we only warn the user whey they give a pathspec item that
matches no eligible path for updating, but it does match one or more
SKIP_WORKTREE entries. A warning was chosen over erroring out right away
to reproduce the same behavior `add` already exhibits with ignored
files. This also allow users to continue their workflow without having
to invoke `add` again with only the eligible paths (as those will have
already been added).
Signed-off-by: Matheus Tavares <matheus.bernardino@usp.br>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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Signed-off-by: Matheus Tavares <matheus.bernardino@usp.br>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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We already have a couple tests for `add` with SKIP_WORKTREE entries in
t7012, but these only cover the most basic scenarios. As we will be
changing how `add` deals with sparse paths in the subsequent commits,
let's move these two tests to their own file and add more test cases
for different `add` options and situations. This also demonstrates two
options that don't currently respect SKIP_WORKTREE entries: `--chmod`
and `--renormalize`.
Signed-off-by: Matheus Tavares <matheus.bernardino@usp.br>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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Elijah Newren
Derrick Stolee
Matheus Tavares