pack-protocol.txt: accept error packets in any context

In the Git pack protocol definition, an error packet may appear only in
a certain context. However, servers can face a runtime error (e.g. I/O
error) at an arbitrary timing. This patch changes the protocol to allow
an error packet to be sent instead of any packet.

Without this protocol spec change, when a server cannot process a
request, there's no way to tell that to a client. Since the server
cannot produce a valid response, it would be forced to cut a connection
without telling why. With this protocol spec change, the server can be
more gentle in this situation. An old client may see these error packets
as an unexpected packet, but this is not worse than having an unexpected
EOF.

Following this protocol spec change, the error packet handling code is
moved to pkt-line.c. Implementation wise, this implementation uses
pkt-line to communicate with a subprocess. Since this is not a part of
Git protocol, it's possible that a packet that is not supposed to be an
error packet is mistakenly parsed as an error packet. This error packet
handling is enabled only for the Git pack protocol parsing code
considering this.

Signed-off-by: Masaya Suzuki <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <[email protected]>

Author: draftcode

Documentation/technical/pack-protocol.txt

@@ -22,6 +22,16 @@ protocol-common.txt. When the grammar indicate `PKT-LINE(...)`, unless
 otherwise noted the usual pkt-line LF rules apply: the sender SHOULD
 include a LF, but the receiver MUST NOT complain if it is not present.
 
+An error packet is a special pkt-line that contains an error string.
+
+----
+  error-line     =  PKT-LINE("ERR" SP explanation-text)
+----
+
+Throughout the protocol, where `PKT-LINE(...)` is expected, an error packet MAY
+be sent. Once this packet is sent by a client or a server, the data transfer
+process defined in this protocol is terminated.
+
 Transports
 ----------
 There are three transports over which the packfile protocol is
@@ -89,13 +99,6 @@ process on the server side over the Git protocol is this:
      "0039git-upload-pack /schacon/gitbook.git\0host=example.com\0" |
      nc -v example.com 9418
 
-If the server refuses the request for some reasons, it could abort
-gracefully with an error message.
-
-----
-  error-line     =  PKT-LINE("ERR" SP explanation-text)
-----
-
 
 SSH Transport
 -------------
@@ -398,12 +401,11 @@ from the client).
 Then the server will start sending its packfile data.
 
 ----
-  server-response = *ack_multi ack / nak / error-line
+  server-response = *ack_multi ack / nak
   ack_multi       = PKT-LINE("ACK" SP obj-id ack_status)
   ack_status      = "continue" / "common" / "ready"
   ack             = PKT-LINE("ACK" SP obj-id)
   nak             = PKT-LINE("NAK")
-  error-line     =  PKT-LINE("ERR" SP explanation-text)
 ----
 
 A simple clone may look like this (with no 'have' lines):

builtin/archive.c

@@ -53,15 +53,15 @@ static int run_remote_archiver(int argc, const char **argv,
 		packet_write_fmt(fd[1], "argument %s\n", argv[i]);
 	packet_flush(fd[1]);
 
-	packet_reader_init(&reader, fd[0], NULL, 0, PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE);
+	packet_reader_init(&reader, fd[0], NULL, 0,
+			   PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE |
+			   PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET);
 
 	if (packet_reader_read(&reader) != PACKET_READ_NORMAL)
 		die(_("git archive: expected ACK/NAK, got a flush packet"));
 	if (strcmp(reader.line, "ACK")) {
 		if (starts_with(reader.line, "NACK "))
 			die(_("git archive: NACK %s"), reader.line + 5);
-		if (starts_with(reader.line, "ERR "))
-			die(_("remote error: %s"), reader.line + 4);
 		die(_("git archive: protocol error"));
 	}
 

builtin/fetch-pack.c

@@ -217,7 +217,8 @@ int cmd_fetch_pack(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 
 	packet_reader_init(&reader, fd[0], NULL, 0,
 			   PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE |
-			   PACKET_READ_GENTLE_ON_EOF);
+			   PACKET_READ_GENTLE_ON_EOF |
+			   PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET);
 
 	switch (discover_version(&reader)) {
 	case protocol_v2:

builtin/receive-pack.c

@@ -1986,7 +1986,9 @@ int cmd_receive_pack(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	if (advertise_refs)
 		return 0;
 
-	packet_reader_init(&reader, 0, NULL, 0, PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE);
+	packet_reader_init(&reader, 0, NULL, 0,
+			   PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE |
+			   PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET);
 
 	if ((commands = read_head_info(&reader, &shallow)) != NULL) {
 		const char *unpack_status = NULL;

builtin/send-pack.c

@@ -250,7 +250,8 @@ int cmd_send_pack(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 
 	packet_reader_init(&reader, fd[0], NULL, 0,
 			   PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE |
-			   PACKET_READ_GENTLE_ON_EOF);
+			   PACKET_READ_GENTLE_ON_EOF |
+			   PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET);
 
 	switch (discover_version(&reader)) {
 	case protocol_v2:

connect.c

@@ -296,7 +296,6 @@ struct ref **get_remote_heads(struct packet_reader *reader,
 	struct ref **orig_list = list;
 	int len = 0;
 	enum get_remote_heads_state state = EXPECTING_FIRST_REF;
-	const char *arg;
 
 	*list = NULL;
 
@@ -306,8 +305,6 @@ struct ref **get_remote_heads(struct packet_reader *reader,
 			die_initial_contact(1);
 		case PACKET_READ_NORMAL:
 			len = reader->pktlen;
-			if (len > 4 && skip_prefix(reader->line, "ERR ", &arg))
-				die(_("remote error: %s"), arg);
 			break;
 		case PACKET_READ_FLUSH:
 			state = EXPECTING_DONE;

fetch-pack.c

@@ -182,8 +182,6 @@ static enum ack_type get_ack(struct packet_reader *reader,
 			return ACK;
 		}
 	}
-	if (skip_prefix(reader->line, "ERR ", &arg))
-		die(_("remote error: %s"), arg);
 	die(_("git fetch-pack: expected ACK/NAK, got '%s'"), reader->line);
 }
 
@@ -258,7 +256,8 @@ static int find_common(struct fetch_negotiator *negotiator,
 		die(_("--stateless-rpc requires multi_ack_detailed"));
 
 	packet_reader_init(&reader, fd[0], NULL, 0,
-			   PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE);
+			   PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE |
+			   PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET);
 
 	if (!args->no_dependents) {
 		mark_tips(negotiator, args->negotiation_tips);
@@ -1358,7 +1357,8 @@ static struct ref *do_fetch_pack_v2(struct fetch_pack_args *args,
 	struct fetch_negotiator negotiator;
 	fetch_negotiator_init(&negotiator, negotiation_algorithm);
 	packet_reader_init(&reader, fd[0], NULL, 0,
-			   PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE);
+			   PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE |
+			   PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET);
 
 	while (state != FETCH_DONE) {
 		switch (state) {

pkt-line.c

@@ -346,6 +346,10 @@ enum packet_read_status packet_read_with_status(int fd, char **src_buffer,
 		return PACKET_READ_EOF;
 	}
 
+	if ((options & PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET) &&
+	    starts_with(buffer, "ERR "))
+		die(_("remote error: %s"), buffer + 4);
+
 	if ((options & PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE) &&
 	    len && buffer[len-1] == '\n')
 		len--;

pkt-line.h

@@ -62,9 +62,13 @@ int write_packetized_from_buf(const char *src_in, size_t len, int fd_out);
  *
  * If options contains PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE, a trailing newline (if
  * present) is removed from the buffer before returning.
+ *
+ * If options contains PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET, it dies when it sees an
+ * ERR packet.
  */
-#define PACKET_READ_GENTLE_ON_EOF (1u<<0)
-#define PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE (1u<<1)
+#define PACKET_READ_GENTLE_ON_EOF     (1u<<0)
+#define PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE     (1u<<1)
+#define PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET (1u<<2)
 int packet_read(int fd, char **src_buffer, size_t *src_len, char
 		*buffer, unsigned size, int options);
 

remote-curl.c

@@ -204,7 +204,8 @@ static struct ref *parse_git_refs(struct discovery *heads, int for_push)
 
 	packet_reader_init(&reader, -1, heads->buf, heads->len,
 			   PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE |
-			   PACKET_READ_GENTLE_ON_EOF);
+			   PACKET_READ_GENTLE_ON_EOF |
+			   PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET);
 
 	heads->version = discover_version(&reader);
 	switch (heads->version) {
@@ -411,7 +412,8 @@ static struct discovery *discover_refs(const char *service, int for_push)
 	    !strbuf_cmp(&exp, &type)) {
 		struct packet_reader reader;
 		packet_reader_init(&reader, -1, last->buf, last->len,
-				   PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE);
+				   PACKET_READ_CHOMP_NEWLINE |
+				   PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET);
 
 		/*
 		 * smart HTTP response; validate that the service
@@ -1182,7 +1184,8 @@ static void proxy_state_init(struct proxy_state *p, const char *service_name,
 		p->headers = curl_slist_append(p->headers, buf.buf);
 
 	packet_reader_init(&p->reader, p->in, NULL, 0,
-			   PACKET_READ_GENTLE_ON_EOF);
+			   PACKET_READ_GENTLE_ON_EOF |
+			   PACKET_READ_DIE_ON_ERR_PACKET);
 
 	strbuf_release(&buf);
 }