Thread (3 messages) 3 messages, 3 authors, 2d ago

[PATCH] sequencer: refuse to revert shallow boundary commits by default

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From: Nakul V S via GitGitGadget <hidden>
Date: 2026-10-21 10:09:44
Subsystem: documentation, the rest · Maintainers: Jonathan Corbet, Linus Torvalds

From: Nakul V S <redacted>

When a repository is cloned with --depth=1, Git records the boundary
commit in .git/shallow and rewrites its parent links via the graft
mechanism, making it appear as a root commit. Reverting such a commit
will therefore delete all tracked files, which is almost always
unintended by the user.

Add a check in do_pick_commit() that detects when the target commit is
a shallow boundary (nr_parent < 0 in the commit graft) and refuses the
operation by default. A new --allow-shallow-boundary flag is provided
for the rare cases where the user genuinely intends this behavior.

Signed-off-by: Nakul V S <redacted>
---
    sequencer: refuse to revert shallow boundary commits by default

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2273%2Fvsnakul%2Fsequencer-shallow-boundary-check-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2273/vsnakul/sequencer-shallow-boundary-check-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2273

 Documentation/git-revert.adoc | 12 +++++++++++-
 builtin/revert.c              |  4 +++-
 sequencer.c                   | 14 ++++++++++++++
 sequencer.h                   |  1 +
 t/t3501-revert-cherry-pick.sh | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 5 files changed, 54 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-revert.adoc b/Documentation/git-revert.adoc
index ffba365e63..4395df62e2 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-revert.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/git-revert.adoc
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ git-revert - Revert some existing commits
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git revert' [--[no-]edit] [-n] [-m <parent-number>] [-s] [-S[<keyid>]] <commit>...
+'git revert' [--[no-]edit] [-n] [-m <parent-number>] [-s] [-S[<keyid>]] [--allow-shallow-boundary] <commit>...
 'git revert' (--continue | --skip | --abort | --quit)
 
 DESCRIPTION
@@ -122,6 +122,16 @@ include::rerere-options.adoc[]
 	configuration variable can be used to enable this option by
 	default.
 
+--allow-shallow-boundary::
+	By default, 'git revert' refuses to revert a commit that is a
+	shallow boundary (i.e. a commit listed in `.git/shallow`),
+	because its true parent history is absent from the clone and
+	reverting it would remove all tracked files. This option
+	overrides that safeguard and allows the revert to proceed.
++
+To restore full history before reverting, use
+`git fetch --unshallow` instead.
+
 
 SEQUENCER SUBCOMMANDS
 ---------------------
diff --git a/builtin/revert.c b/builtin/revert.c
index 52100a20cb..f27397fdec 100644
--- a/builtin/revert.c
+++ b/builtin/revert.c
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
  */
 
 static const char * const revert_usage[] = {
-	N_("git revert [--[no-]edit] [-n] [-m <parent-number>] [-s] [-S[<keyid>]] <commit>..."),
+	N_("git revert [--[no-]edit] [-n] [-m <parent-number>] [-s] [-S[<keyid>]] [--allow-shallow-boundary] <commit>..."),
 	N_("git revert (--continue | --skip | --abort | --quit)"),
 	NULL
 };
@@ -128,6 +128,8 @@ static int run_sequencer(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix,
 		OPT_BOOL('e', "edit", &opts->edit, N_("edit the commit message")),
 		OPT_NOOP_NOARG('r', NULL),
 		OPT_BOOL('s', "signoff", &opts->signoff, N_("add a Signed-off-by trailer")),
+		OPT_BOOL(0, "allow-shallow-boundary", &opts->allow_shallow_boundary,
+			 N_("allow reverting a shallow boundary commit")),
 		OPT_CALLBACK('m', "mainline", opts, N_("parent-number"),
 			     N_("select mainline parent"), option_parse_m),
 		OPT_RERERE_AUTOUPDATE(&opts->allow_rerere_auto),
diff --git a/sequencer.c b/sequencer.c
index efbfd1315b..6de59bf6aa 100644
--- a/sequencer.c
+++ b/sequencer.c
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@
 #include "rebase-interactive.h"
 #include "reset.h"
 #include "branch.h"
+#include "shallow.h"
 
 #define GIT_REFLOG_ACTION "GIT_REFLOG_ACTION"
 
@@ -2366,6 +2367,19 @@ static enum pick_result do_pick_commit(struct repository *r,
 	}
 	discard_index(r->index);
 
+	if (is_repository_shallow(r)) {
+		struct commit_graft *graft = lookup_commit_graft(r, &commit->object.oid);
+		if (graft && graft->nr_parent < 0 && !opts->allow_shallow_boundary) {
+			return error(_("%s: commit %s is a shallow boundary commit.\n"
+				       "Reverting it will remove all tracked files because its\n"
+				       "true parent history is not present in this clone.\n"
+				       "Use --allow-shallow-boundary to override, or\n"
+				       "'git fetch --unshallow' to restore full history first."),
+				     command_to_string(command),
+				     oid_to_hex(&commit->object.oid));
+		}
+	}
+
 	if (!commit->parents)
 		parent = NULL;
 	else if (commit->parents->next) {
diff --git a/sequencer.h b/sequencer.h
index a5d12a1070..f334bc5357 100644
--- a/sequencer.h
+++ b/sequencer.h
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ struct replay_opts {
 	int committer_date_is_author_date;
 	int ignore_date;
 	int commit_use_reference;
+	int allow_shallow_boundary;
 
 	struct strvec trailer_args;
 
diff --git a/t/t3501-revert-cherry-pick.sh b/t/t3501-revert-cherry-pick.sh
index 939e7a16a6..508464004f 100755
--- a/t/t3501-revert-cherry-pick.sh
+++ b/t/t3501-revert-cherry-pick.sh
@@ -256,4 +256,29 @@ test_expect_success 'cherry-pick is unaware of --reference (for now)' '
 	test_grep "^usage: git cherry-pick" actual
 '
 
+# Tests for shallow boundary safeguard
+
+test_expect_success 'setup shallow boundary tests' '
+	git init src &&
+	test_commit -C src A &&
+	test_commit -C src B &&
+	git clone --no-local --depth=1 src shallow-repo
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'revert of shallow boundary commit is refused by default' '
+	test_must_fail git -C shallow-repo revert --no-edit HEAD 2>err &&
+	test_grep "shallow boundary commit" err
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'revert of shallow boundary succeeds with --allow-shallow-boundary' '
+	git -C shallow-repo revert --no-edit --allow-shallow-boundary HEAD
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'revert in non-shallow repo is unaffected' '
+	git init non-shallow &&
+	test_commit -C non-shallow A &&
+	test_commit -C non-shallow B &&
+	git -C non-shallow revert --no-edit HEAD
+'
+
 test_done
base-commit: 47fdf2208c5b94c8cc01c106b8f7c85efb91c926
-- 
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