Re: [PATCH v2] remove the impression of unexpectedness when access is denied

Jonathan Nieder [off-list ref] writes:

I ran into this message for the first time today.

 $ git fetch --all
 Fetching origin
 remote: Counting objects: 368, done.
[...]
 Fetching gitk
 fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

 Please make sure you have the correct access rights
 and the repository exists.
 error: Could not fetch gitk
 Fetching debian
 Fetching pape
[...]

The "gitk" remote refers to git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/gitk/gitk.
Using ls-remote to contact it produces the same result.  The message
is correct: the repository does not exist.

Impressions:

 * Looking at "Could not read", it is not clear what could not read
   and why.  GIT_TRACE_PACKET tells me the interaction was

	me> git-upload-pack /pub/scm/gitk/gitk\0host=git.kernel.org\0
	them> (hangup)

   Would it make sense for the server to send an "ERR" packet to give
   a more helpful diagnosis?

I think git-daemon does so (or at least attempts to do so);
path_ok() uses enter_repo() to check if the given path is a
repository, returns NULL to run_service(), whichh in turn calls
daemon_error() that does the ERR thing.

 * The spacing and capitalization is odd and makes it not flow well
   with the rest of the output.  I suspect it would be easier to read
   with the error separated from hints:

	Fetching gitk
	fatal: the remote server sent an empty response
	hint: does the repository exist?
	hint: do you have the correct access rights?
	error: Could not fetch gitk
	Fetching debian

   If a server is misconfigured and just decides to send an empty
   response for no good reason, the output would still be true.

It does sound better. Also s/Could not fetch/could not fetch/.

 * The error message is the same whether the server returned no
   response or an incomplete pkt-line.  Maybe in the latter case it
   should print the "hung up unexpectedly" thing.

OK.