Sign in

Search issue titles and bodies, change requests and comments. Private repositories you cannot read are not included.

vole
Clone

Read only, no credentials:

https://rodent.software/git/vole.git

Write over SSH with a registered key:

git clone ssh://git@0.0.0.0:2222/vole.git

A free and open-source forge that lives in your Git repo.

Phase 5: file locking, for the repositories git cannot merge

bf1e027ce09298d66cb8225fb1f5871e959f42bc · Keenan Nemetz · 16d ago · parent 21d48210

Phase 5: file locking, for the repositories git cannot merge

`git lfs lock <path>` works over the SSH transfer, and while a path is held a
push that changes it is refused. This is what makes a repository of design
files usable by more than one person: two people pushing changes to the same
binary leaves one version and silently discards the other, and "discarded" is
not a conflict anybody can resolve.

The HTTP locking API is the usual path for git-lfs, and it is a *write*
surface, which this instance does not have — its web is anonymous and
read-only. So locking rides the SSH transfer protocol instead (lock,
list-lock, unlock, advertised as the `locking` capability): the key that
pushed is the key that locks, with no second endpoint and nothing new to
authenticate.

The decision worth remembering is where the refusal lives. git-lfs enforces
locks on the *client* — it asks the server what is held and declines to send
the push — which is a courtesy, and a plain `git push` walks straight past
it. So the rule also sits in pre-receive, at the one place this forge
enforces everything else, where a client setting cannot turn it off. The
client-side check becomes a faster error message rather than the authority.
It guards only the paths the push actually writes, so reading, branching and
merging untouched history are unaffected. An admin may override, audited, for
the same reason force-push is allowed: a lock whose holder has left would
otherwise make a path unpushable forever.

Locks live in data/users.db beside the roster and the access rules — the file
holding what git cannot rebuild — because a lock resurrected from history
would be exactly wrong. The point of a lock is that it is released. They are
keyed by account id, so a rename releases nothing, and path normalization
makes "./art.psd" and "art.psd" one lock rather than two.

/r/<repo>/locks answers "who is holding what", which the protocol otherwise
hides completely: the next person to push is refused with no way to find out
why without asking somebody.

Measured: TestALockRefusesAPushUntilItIsReleased drives the whole lifecycle
through the binary over SSH — lock, a refused push naming the holder, unlock,
the same push landing — with git-lfs deliberately absent so the refusal can
only come from pre-receive. TestLocksAreAdvertisedOnlyWhenOffered pins that
the capability follows the lock table, since a client that reads `locking`
will offer a command that must work. Store tests cover path normalization,
paging, owner partitioning and the audited override.

Known gap, stated rather than assumed: git-lfs is not installed here, so the
protocol was written against docs/proposals/ssh_adapter.md and verified with
a client written to that document — not with a shipped client. The framing,
the 201/409 argument blocks and the five-line lock-spec records are the
spec's; whether a real `git lfs lock` agrees is the first thing to check on a
machine that has one.

internal/hook/hook.go +36−2

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
17 17 "github.com/rodent-software/vole/internal/identity"
18 18 "github.com/rodent-software/vole/internal/issues"
19 19 "github.com/rodent-software/vole/internal/lfs"
20 "github.com/rodent-software/vole/internal/locks"
20 21 "github.com/rodent-software/vole/internal/repo"
21 22 "github.com/rodent-software/vole/internal/requests"
22 23 "github.com/rodent-software/vole/internal/runs"
@@ -67,8 +68,9 @@ func PreReceive(cfg Config) int {
67 68 // so the gate has to open the repository the same way the server does rather than
68 69 // assume a directory is a repository.
69 70 var (
70 acls *access.Store
71 err error
71 acls *access.Store
72 lockTable *locks.Store
73 err error
72 74 )
73 75 if cfg.UsersDB != "" {
74 76 acls, err = access.Open(cfg.UsersDB)
@@ -77,6 +79,14 @@ func PreReceive(cfg Config) int {
77 79 return 1
78 80 }
79 81 defer acls.Close()
82 // The lock table shares that database, so the push path learns what is held
83 // without a second endpoint and without the client's cooperation.
84 lockTable, err = locks.Open(cfg.UsersDB)
85 if err != nil {
86 reject(cfg.Out, "cannot open the lock table: %v", err)
87 return 1
88 }
89 defer lockTable.Close()
80 90 }
81 91 // GIT_DIR may be "." — that is what git hands a hook — so the directory is made
82 92 // absolute before anything is derived from it.
@@ -213,6 +223,30 @@ func PreReceive(cfg Config) int {
213 223 }
214 224 }
215 225
226 // An LFS lock is held on a path, and a push that changes that path is exactly
227 // what the holder asked to be told about. This sits with the integrity checks
228 // rather than with review: a lock is not a review decision, and an admin may
229 // override it, audited, because a lock whose holder has left would otherwise
230 // make a path unpushable forever.
231 if lockTable != nil {
232 held, err := lockTable.Paths(m.ID)
233 if err != nil {
234 problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf("%s: cannot read the lock table: %v", c.ref, err))
235 } else if lockProblems, err := lockedPathFindings(g, c, held, actorID, who); err != nil {
236 problems = append(problems, fmt.Sprintf("%s: cannot check locks: %v", c.ref, err))
237 } else if len(lockProblems) > 0 {
238 if role.AtLeast(acl.Admin) {
239 for _, p := range lockProblems {
240 auditLine(cfg.AuditPath, fmt.Sprintf("lock override %s by %s in %s: %s",
241 c.ref, actor, m.Name, p))
242 reject(cfg.Out, "admin override, audited: %s", p)
243 }
244 } else {
245 problems = append(problems, lockProblems...)
246 }
247 }
248 }
249
216 250 // A published release is immutable: the tag that names it and the pointers
217 251 // that carry its bytes. This sits with the integrity checks rather than
218 252 // with the review gate, because a download that can change bytes is broken