Gerrit enabled by default and no obvious way to turn off

[DesselBane]

Version

0.17.0

Operating System

Windows

Distribution Method

winget (Windows)

Describe the issue

Since the update to 0.17.0 any new project gets created with Gerrit enabled (Forge Azure DevOps on prem). I don't use Gerrit and I also don't see an obvious way to turn it off (I unset the git config option which worked) but I would argue it should not be enabled by default.

How to reproduce (Optional)

1. Install GitButler 0.17.0
2. Add a new Project (maybe it needs to be a Azure DevOps forge)

Expected behavior (Optional)

Gerrit is disabled by default / no Gerrit pop up on push. It would also be fine if the app asks if this project should use Gerrit. Also I would expect a Settings entry to turn it on/off without going into the git config

Relevant log output (Optional)

[Byron]

Thanks a lot for reporting!

It looks like this is the code that decides if something is in gerrit mode.

gitbutler/crates/gitbutler-project/src/controller.rs

Lines 329 to 348 in 0066a0e

	pub fn is_gerrit_remote(repo: &gix::Repository) -> anyhow::Result<bool> {
	use gix::{bstr::ByteSlice, remote::Direction};
	// Magic refspec that we use to determine if the remote is a Gerrit remote
	let gerrit_notes_ref = "refs/meta/config";
	let remote_name = repo
	.remote_default_name(Direction::Fetch)
	.ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("No fetch remotes found"))?;
	let mut remote = repo.find_remote(remote_name.as_bstr())?;
	remote.replace_refspecs(vec![gerrit_notes_ref], Direction::Fetch)?;
	remote = remote.with_fetch_tags(gix::remote::fetch::Tags::None);
	let (map, _) = remote
	.connect(Direction::Fetch)?
	.ref_map(gix::progress::Discard, Default::default())?;
	Ok(!map.remote_refs.is_empty())
	}

Could this be a false positive?

[krlvi]

Thanks for flagging this! Investigating.
As a mitigation, you can disable it by editing .git/config within the repo and removing the "gerritMode" entry.
This is toggled only on project add.

For my debugging purposes, could you check if running git ls-remote origin refs/meta/config in the affected repo gives you any output?

[DesselBane]

Hi,

so I saw the 0.17.1 patch and updated, sadly it is not fixed for me. On project creation the gitbutler.gerritMode option is added in the project git config.

git ls-remote origin refs/meta/config returns nothing. Also I noticed that the code was changed to check for refs/notes/review instead but git ls-remote origin refs/notes/review also returns nothing.

[Byron]

Sorry for the hickup!
The PR didn't pass CI and couldn't be merged until earlier this morning.

I am now building a new Nightly which has it included, in 20m at most you can give it a try.

[DesselBane]

Issue is still reproducable with nightly 0.5.1634 (downloaded from the linked pipeline)

[Byron]

Thanks for checking that v0.5.1634 apparently still has this issue.

Did you make sure that the setting is removed from .git/config, and tried to re-add the project? It is then when it now wouldn't detect Gerrit when there is none.
Also, it won't turn the setting off even if it was incorrectly set prior.
Thanks again.

[DesselBane]

Yes I

• deleted the project in GitButler
• removed the setting in .git/config
• added the project again

And then the setting was added back into the .git/config file

[krlvi]

Hmm at this point, I am willing to bet that Azure DevOps are using Gerrit under the hood 🙈
Gonna do some more investigating...

[krlvi]

Okay I made an account on Azure to test this and could not reproduce it. Is it possible that this repository was once a Gerrit one but was since migrated to Azure?

[DesselBane]

Okay I made an account on Azure to test this and could not reproduce it.

Then you were probably using Azure DevOps Services which is the SaaS version. We have the on prem self hosted version. Reading the MS Docs would lead you to belive that they are almost identical just one in the cloud on self hosted. Sadly experience has shown that there are quite a few subtle differences between the two (which sadly arent well documented 🙈 )

Is it possible that this repository was once a Gerrit one but was since migrated to Azure?

I just created a new repo to test this and it too is detected as a Gerrit repo.

I also checked if we have any extensions installed for the ADO Server but could not find anything which seemed Gerrit related.

[krlvi]

Thanks for taking the time to do this testing...
It does seem at this point that there is no way to reliably detecting a Gerrit remote without false positives.

My plan is to disable auto detecting and perhaps add a way of configuring this in the GUI instead

[DesselBane]

A GUI way would be nice true.
Maybe on the configure your workspace page

There could also be an option to use or not use Gerrit. There it could default to the auto detection (guess it depends if more people use Gerrit than a self hosted ADO server 😅 )
And then of cource in the project settings afterwards.