Sylvain Beucler <beuc@xxxxxxx> writes: > I tried and I found something that doesn't seem to follow the > documentation: > > repo_one$ git push Beuc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:/srv/git/sources/administration.git \ > master:refs/heads/master > # [OK] > repo_two$ git push --force Beuc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:/srv/git/administration.git \ > +refs/heads/master:refs/heads/master > updating 'refs/heads/master' > from ee3bda653dfabaf0f78f2a9977abec180f2b19dc > to c9a726b610bafc82142a16af80b83d28375ca619 > Generating pack... > Done counting 0 objects. > Total 0, written 0 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0) > Unpacking 0 objects > error: denying non-fast forward; you should pull first > > From man git-push: > "If the optional plus + is used, the remote ref is updated even if it > does not result in a fast forward update." > > This also makes one wonder how the 'pu' git branch is updated. > > One the one hand, this means that sysadmin intervention is required to > reset such a repository, which is bad. One the other hand, this is > also a security because users cannot erase history, even if there a > cron job to prune&pack the git repositories, which is good. > > Is this by design? Or should it work? I suspect (because I cannot see your .git/config in the repository; which would say "[core] sharedrepository = 1" if my suspicion is correct) that this is fairly new heavyhanded safety valve added by the list around mid September, with this: commit 11031d7e9f34f6a20ff4a4bd4fa3e5e3c0024a57 Author: Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@xxxxxx> Date: Thu Sep 21 01:07:54 2006 +0200 add receive.denyNonFastforwards config variable If receive.denyNonFastforwards is set to true, git-receive-pack will deny non fast-forwards, i.e. forced updates. Most notably, a push to a repository which has that flag set will fail. As a first user, 'git-init-db --shared' sets this flag, since in a shared setup, you are most unlikely to want forced pushes to succeed. The reasoning is exactly as you guessed. I think the intention of the patch is that the repository administrators are expected to either (1) adjust the non-fast-forwarding branch to fast-forward (by reset --hard to an ancestor of what you are trying to push into), (2) temporarily disable the safety value by editing .git/config, or (3) instead of pushing into it, force fetching into it from the repository machine. It is doing what it was designed to do. It is a different issue if the design is good, but rewinding the public branch is not something even a repository administrator should take lightly and not expected to happen often (except in cases like yours where the administrator is tipping his toe into the water), so I think overall the current behaviour is an acceptable balance between safety and convenience. My public repository is not shared (only I can push into it) so this is a non-issue for my 'pu' branch. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html