GNU bug report logs - #22690
ELPA repository is corrupted on Savannah

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Emacs bug reports and feature requests <bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org>
Subject: ELPA repository is corrupted on Savannah
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2016 15:25:58 -0800

Stephen Leake reported the problem here:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2016-02/msg00867.html

Andreas Schwab analyzed it here:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2016-02/msg00887.html

The following shell transcript shows how to reproduce the problem:

$ git clone -c transfer.fsckObjects=true git://git.savannah.gnu.org/emacs/elpa.git
Cloning into 'elpa'...
remote: Counting objects: 93882, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (32519/32519), done.
error: object 2699d230e3b592ae42506d7b5c969a7ac6a4593c:contains zero-padded file 
modes
fatal: Error in object
fatal: index-pack failed

Message #14 received at 22690-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: 22690-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: ELPA repository is corrupted on Savannah
Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2018 18:24:47 -0800

Closing the bug report, since the bug cannot be fixed.

Message #22 received at 22690 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: rms <at> gnu.org
Cc: 22690 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22690: ELPA repository is corrupted on Savannah
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2018 09:33:32 -0800

On 03/05/2018 05:11 AM, Richard Stallman wrote:
> What is the problem?  The idea that there is no way to
> fix it is somewhat shocking.

As I understand it the problem is that the repository data uses a Git 
format that was a mistake and has been deprecated in later Git releases. 
Current versions of Git do not generate this mistaken format, and 
optionally warn if they discover it in the repository (the mistaken 
format still works otherwise). Our repository contains data that was 
generated by an older Git that had the bug.

We could work around the problem by rewriting history, something that is 
a pain to do with Git (and which arguably is not something we should do, 
which is why I wrote the somewhat-misleading "the bug cannot be fixed"). 
We'd rather not work around the problem in this particular case as it's 
not worth the trouble.

Message #25 received at 22690 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Richard Stallman <rms <at> gnu.org>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 22690 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22690: ELPA repository is corrupted on Savannah
Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2018 18:05:09 -0500

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > As I understand it the problem is that the repository data uses a Git 
  > format that was a mistake and has been deprecated in later Git releases. 
  > Current versions of Git do not generate this mistaken format, and 
  > optionally warn if they discover it in the repository (the mistaken 
  > format still works otherwise). Our repository contains data that was 
  > generated by an older Git that had the bug.

What practical problems does this cause for us?

Do we have another repo that we can use?

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
Skype: No way! See https://stallman.org/skype.html.

Message #28 received at 22690 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: rms <at> gnu.org
Cc: 22690 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22690: ELPA repository is corrupted on Savannah
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2018 15:25:58 -0800

On 03/05/2018 03:05 PM, Richard Stallman wrote:
> What practical problems does this cause for us?
>
> Do we have another repo that we can use?

The only practical problem that I know of is that if one tells Git to 
complain about the mistaken format, it'll complain. I suppose that a 
future version of Git could drop support for the mistaken format, but I 
view that as unlikely; and if it does happen we can work around the 
problem then.

It's not a question of whether to use Git or not, or whether to use 
another copy of the repository or not. Any simple Git clone of the 
current repository will have the same problem. Converting to any other 
repository format (e.g., Bzr) would be equivalent to converting to 
current Git format; either action would work around the problem equally 
well. Either action would also be a hassle, though, which is why we 
haven't done it.

Message #31 received at 22690 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Richard Stallman <rms <at> gnu.org>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 22690 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22690: ELPA repository is corrupted on Savannah
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2018 15:52:05 -0500

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > The only practical problem that I know of is that if one tells Git to 
  > complain about the mistaken format, it'll complain. I suppose that a 
  > future version of Git could drop support for the mistaken format, but I 
  > view that as unlikely; and if it does happen we can work around the 
  > problem then.

Thanks.  I agree that we don't need to do anything now.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
Skype: No way! See https://stallman.org/skype.html.

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