Suppose, from a repository that has ".gitmodules", we clone with --filter=blob:none: git clone --filter=blob:none --no-checkout \ https://kernel.googlesource.com/pub/scm/git/git Then we fetch: git -C git fetch This will cause a "unable to load config blob object", because the fetch_config_from_gitmodules() invocation in cmd_fetch() will attempt to load ".gitmodules" (which Git knows to exist because the client has the tree of HEAD) while fetch_if_missing is set to 0. fetch_if_missing is set to 0 too early - ".gitmodules" here should be lazily fetched. Git must set fetch_if_missing to 0 before the fetch because as part of the fetch, packfile negotiation happens (and we do not want to fetch any missing objects when checking existence of objects), but we do not need to set it so early. Move the setting of fetch_if_missing to the earliest possible point in cmd_fetch(), right before any fetching happens. Signed-off-by: Jonathan Tan <jonathantanmy@xxxxxxxxxx> --- No change from v2 except that I've added Signed-off-by. --- builtin/fetch.c | 4 ++-- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/builtin/fetch.c b/builtin/fetch.c index 0c345b5dfe..863c858fde 100644 --- a/builtin/fetch.c +++ b/builtin/fetch.c @@ -1755,8 +1755,6 @@ int cmd_fetch(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix) packet_trace_identity("fetch"); - fetch_if_missing = 0; - /* Record the command line for the reflog */ strbuf_addstr(&default_rla, "fetch"); for (i = 1; i < argc; i++) @@ -1824,6 +1822,8 @@ int cmd_fetch(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix) } } + fetch_if_missing = 0; + if (remote) { if (filter_options.choice || has_promisor_remote()) fetch_one_setup_partial(remote); -- 2.23.0.866.gb869b98d4c-goog