ref_transaction_commit(): fix atomicity and avoid fd exhaustion

The old code was roughly

    for update in updates:
        acquire locks and check old_sha
    for update in updates:
        if changing value:
            write_ref_to_lockfile()
            commit_ref_update()
    for update in updates:
        if deleting value:
            unlink()
    rewrite packed-refs file
    for update in updates:
        if reference still locked:
            unlock_ref()

This has two problems.

Non-atomic updates
==================

The atomicity of the reference transaction depends on all pre-checks
being done in the first loop, before any changes have started being
committed in the second loop. The problem is that
write_ref_to_lockfile() (previously part of write_ref_sha1()), which
is called from the second loop, contains two more checks:

* It verifies that new_sha1 is a valid object

* If the reference being updated is a branch, it verifies that
  new_sha1 points at a commit object (as opposed to a tag, tree, or
  blob).

If either of these checks fails, the "transaction" is aborted during
the second loop. But this might happen after some reference updates
have already been permanently committed. In other words, the
all-or-nothing promise of "git update-ref --stdin" could be violated.

So these checks have to be moved to the first loop.

File descriptor exhaustion
==========================

The old code locked all of the references in the first loop, leaving
all of the lockfiles open until later loops. Since we might be
updating a lot of references, this could result in file descriptor
exhaustion.

The solution
============

After this patch, the code looks like

    for update in updates:
        acquire locks and check old_sha
        if changing value:
            write_ref_to_lockfile()
        else:
            close_ref()
    for update in updates:
        if changing value:
            commit_ref_update()
    for update in updates:
        if deleting value:
            unlink()
    rewrite packed-refs file
    for update in updates:
        if reference still locked:
            unlock_ref()

This fixes both problems:

1. The pre-checks in write_ref_to_lockfile() are now done in the first
   loop, before any changes have been committed. If any of the checks
   fails, the whole transaction can now be rolled back correctly.

2. All lockfiles are closed in the first loop immediately after they
   are created (either by write_ref_to_lockfile() or by close_ref()).
   This means that there is never more than one open lockfile at a
   time, preventing file descriptor exhaustion.

To simplify the bookkeeping across loops, add a new REF_NEEDS_COMMIT
bit to update->flags, which keeps track of whether the corresponding
lockfile needs to be committed, as opposed to just unlocked. (Since
"struct ref_update" is internal to the refs module, this change is not
visible to external callers.)

This change fixes two tests in t1400.

Signed-off-by: Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 2 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/t/t1400-update-ref.sh b/t/t1400-update-ref.sh
index 7a69f1a083..636d3a167c 100755
--- a/t/t1400-update-ref.sh
+++ b/t/t1400-update-ref.sh
@@ -1071,7 +1071,7 @@ run_with_limited_open_files () {
 
 test_lazy_prereq ULIMIT_FILE_DESCRIPTORS 'run_with_limited_open_files true'
 
-test_expect_failure ULIMIT_FILE_DESCRIPTORS 'large transaction creating branches does not burst open file limit' '
+test_expect_success ULIMIT_FILE_DESCRIPTORS 'large transaction creating branches does not burst open file limit' '
 (
 	for i in $(test_seq 33)
 	do
@@ -1082,7 +1082,7 @@ test_expect_failure ULIMIT_FILE_DESCRIPTORS 'large transaction creating branches
 )
 '
 
-test_expect_failure ULIMIT_FILE_DESCRIPTORS 'large transaction deleting branches does not burst open file limit' '
+test_expect_success ULIMIT_FILE_DESCRIPTORS 'large transaction deleting branches does not burst open file limit' '
 (
 	for i in $(test_seq 33)
 	do