On Fri, Sep 2, 2016 at 10:15 AM, Jonathan Tan <jonathantanmy@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > + if (is_null_oid(&old_oid)) { > + if (strcmp(name, "capabilities^{}")) Its not the zero ID that is special, its the "capabilities^{}" name that is special when its the first entry in the stream. In the wire protocol a "x^{}" line is a modifier to a prior "x" line to add a peeled object to the prior line. But if we see "^{}" on the first line that is non-sense, there is no prior line to modify with this identifier. Further ^{} is used here because its invalid in a name. A server really cannot have a reference that ends with the sequence ^{}. And a server should not have a reference named "capabilities" without a "refs/" prefix on it. So the entire "capabilities^{}" on the first line is a bunch of contradictions that violate a number of things about the protocol, which is why clients should ignore it. I think the test should be about: !*list && !strcmp(name, "capabilities^{}") > + warning("zero object ID received that is not accompanied by a " > + "capability declaration, ignoring and continuing anyway"); Annoyingly a zero object ID is sort of possible; with a probability of 1/2^160 or something. Its just a very very unlikely value. Slightly stronger to test against the known invalid name.