In git v1.4.3, we introduced a new loose object format that
encoded some object information outside of the zlib stream.
Ultimately the format was dropped in v1.5.3, but we kept the
reading side around to help people migrate objects. Each
time we open a loose object, we use a heuristic to check
whether it is in the normal loose format, or the
experimental one.
This heuristic is robust in the face of valid data, but it
tends to treat corrupted or garbage data as an experimental
object. With the regular format, we would notice quickly
that zlib's crc does not check out and complain. With the
experimental object, we are likely to extract a nonsensical
object size and try to allocate a huge buffer, resulting in
xmalloc calling "die".
This latter behavior is much worse, for two reasons. One,
git reports an allocation error when the real error is
corruption. And two, the program dies unconditionally, so
you cannot even run fsck (which would otherwise ignore the
broken object and keep going).
We could try to improve the heuristic to err on the side of
normal objects in the face of corruption, but there is
really little point. The experimental format is long-dead,
and was never enabled by default to begin with. We can
instead simply remove it. The only affected repository would
be one that explicitly set core.legacyheaders in 2007, and
then never repacked in the intervening 6 years.
Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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Git - the stupid content tracker
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"git" can mean anything, depending on your mood.
- random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not
actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a
mispronunciation of "get" may or may not be relevant.
- stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the
dictionary of slang.
- "global information tracker": you're in a good mood, and it actually
works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- "goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t": when it breaks
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an
unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations
and full access to internals.
Git is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public
License version 2 (some parts of it are under different licenses,
compatible with the GPLv2). It was originally written by Linus
Torvalds with help of a group of hackers around the net.
Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions.
See Documentation/gittutorial.txt to get started, then see
Documentation/everyday.txt for a useful minimum set of commands, and
Documentation/git-commandname.txt for documentation of each command.
If git has been correctly installed, then the tutorial can also be
read with "man gittutorial" or "git help tutorial", and the
documentation of each command with "man git-commandname" or "git help
commandname".
CVS users may also want to read Documentation/gitcvs-migration.txt
("man gitcvs-migration" or "git help cvs-migration" if git is
installed).
Many Git online resources are accessible from http://git-scm.com/
including full documentation and Git related tools.
The user discussion and development of Git take place on the Git
mailing list -- everyone is welcome to post bug reports, feature
requests, comments and patches to git@vger.kernel.org (read
Documentation/SubmittingPatches for instructions on patch submission).
To subscribe to the list, send an email with just "subscribe git" in
the body to majordomo@vger.kernel.org. The mailing list archives are
available at http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/,
http://marc.info/?l=git and other archival sites.
The maintainer frequently sends the "What's cooking" reports that
list the current status of various development topics to the mailing
list. The discussion following them give a good reference for
project status, development direction and remaining tasks.
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