Re: [PATCH v6 1/6] setup: don't modify repo in `create_reference_database()`

Patrick Steinhardt [off-list ref] writes:

On Sat, Feb 14, 2026 at 11:34:14PM +0100, Karthik Nayak wrote:

quoted

The `create_reference_database()` function is used to create the
reference database during initialization of a repository. The function
calls `repo_set_ref_storage_format()` to set the repositories reference
format. This is an unexpected side-effect of the function. More so
because the function is only called in two locations:

  1. During git-init(1) where the value is propagated from the `struct
     repository_format repo_fmt` value.

  2. During git-clone(1) where the value is propagated from the
     `the_repository` value.

The former is valid, however the flow already calls
`repo_set_ref_storage_format()`, so this effort is simply duplicated.
The latter sets the existing value in `the_repository` back to itself.
While this is okay for now, introduction of more fields in
`repo_set_ref_storage_format()` would cause issues, especially
dynamically allocated strings, where we would free/allocate the same
string back into `the_repostiory`.

To avoid all this confusion, clean up the function to longer take in and

s/longer/no &/, I assume?

Yup.

quoted

diff --git a/builtin/clone.c b/builtin/clone.c
index b40cee5968..cd43bb5aa2 100644
--- a/builtin/clone.c
+++ b/builtin/clone.c

@@ -1442,7 +1442,7 @@ int cmd_clone(int argc,
 	hash_algo = hash_algo_by_ptr(transport_get_hash_algo(transport));
 	initialize_repository_version(hash_algo, the_repository->ref_storage_format, 1);
 	repo_set_hash_algo(the_repository, hash_algo);
-	create_reference_database(the_repository->ref_storage_format, NULL, 1);
+	create_reference_database(NULL, 1);

 	/*
 	 * Before fetching from the remote, download and install bundle

This is case (2), where we set the ref storage format to itself.

quoted

diff --git a/setup.c b/setup.c
index b723f8b339..1fc9ae3872 100644
--- a/setup.c
+++ b/setup.c

@@ -2701,8 +2699,7 @@ int init_db(const char *git_dir, const char *real_git_dir,
 				      &repo_fmt, init_shared_repository);

 	if (!(flags & INIT_DB_SKIP_REFDB))
-		create_reference_database(repo_fmt.ref_storage_format,
-					  initial_branch, flags & INIT_DB_QUIET);
+		create_reference_database(initial_branch, flags & INIT_DB_QUIET);
 	create_object_directory();

 	if (repo_settings_get_shared_repository(the_repository)) {

And this is the second case. We call `repository_format_configure()` a
few lines above, and that function calls `repo_set_ref_storage_format()`
itself.

Looks good to me, and a nice simplification. Thanks!

Patrick

Thanks!