Traditionally, if folks run git commands such as checkout or rebase from a
subdirectory, that git command could remove their current working directory
and result in subsequent git and non-git commands either getting confused or
printing messages that confuse the user (e.g. "fatal: Unable to read current
working directory: No such file or directory"). Many commands either
silently avoid removing directories that are not empty (i.e. those that have
untracked or modified files in them)[1], or show an error and abort,
depending on which is more appropriate for the command in question. With
this series, we augment the reasons to avoid removing directories to include
not just has-untracked-or-modified-files, but also to avoid removing the
original_cwd as well.

Peff and Junio provided some good pros/cons, if it helps:

 * Pros: Peff (original suggester of the idea)[2], and Junio[3]
 * Cons: Peff [2, again -- see the "P.S."], and Junio[4]

[1] well, with a few exceptions; see
https://lore.kernel.org/git/pull.1036.v3.git.1632760428.gitgitgadget@gmail.com/
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/git/YS8eEtwQvF7TaLCb@coredump.intra.peff.net/
[3] https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqo86elyht.fsf@gitster.g/ [4]
https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqo8691gr8.fsf@gitster.g/

Changes since v2:

 * the series is now only about the working tree. So if the original cwd is
   outside the worktree (or we're in a bare repo), then the new code is a
   no-op.
 * fixed ugly early die() possibility (uses strbuf_getcwd() instead of
   xgetcwd())
 * modified the initial tests to show both expected and desired behavior.
   subsequent patches fix the tests. One new patch added at the end which
   simplifies the tests to only check for desired behavior.
 * NULLify startup_info->original_cwd when it matches the toplevel worktree;
   that is already protected and we don't need secondary protection for it.
   This simplified some other codepaths so we don't have to check for
   startup_info->original_cwd == "".
 * clarified some commit messages

Changes since v1:

 * clarified multiple commit messages
 * renamed the_cwd to startup_info->original_cwd to make it clearer that
   it's our parent process'es cwd that really matters, which we inherited at
   program startup. Also pulls it out of the global namespace.
 * Normalize the path for startup_info->original_cwd, and ensure that it's
   actually the original cwd even if -C is passed to git.
 * small code cleanups suggested by René and Ævar
 * split the final patch, which got the most comments into two, one for each
   function being modified; significantly extending the first of the two
   commit messages with a lot of history
 * no longer has a content conflict with so/stash-staged
 * add another value for the flags parameter that remove_dir_recursively()
   takes so that it can opt into either the old or the new behavior. Use
   that for the one special corner case I could find where it matters, and
   add a few tests around it to highlight the utility of the flag.

Elijah Newren (11):
  t2501: add various tests for removing the current working directory
  setup: introduce startup_info->original_cwd
  unpack-trees: refuse to remove startup_info->original_cwd
  unpack-trees: add special cwd handling
  symlinks: do not include startup_info->original_cwd in dir removal
  clean: do not attempt to remove startup_info->original_cwd
  rebase: do not attempt to remove startup_info->original_cwd
  stash: do not attempt to remove startup_info->original_cwd
  dir: avoid incidentally removing the original_cwd in remove_path()
  dir: new flag to remove_dir_recurse() to spare the original_cwd
  t2501: simplify the tests since we can now assume desired behavior

 builtin/clean.c      |  44 +++++--
 builtin/rm.c         |   3 +-
 builtin/stash.c      |   5 +-
 cache.h              |   2 +
 common-main.c        |   4 +
 dir.c                |  15 ++-
 dir.h                |   9 +-
 sequencer.c          |   3 +
 setup.c              |  65 +++++++++++
 symlinks.c           |   8 +-
 t/t2501-cwd-empty.sh | 268 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 unpack-trees.c       |  30 ++++-
 unpack-trees.h       |   1 +
 13 files changed, 435 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)
 create mode 100755 t/t2501-cwd-empty.sh

base-commit: 88d915a634b449147855041d44875322de2b286d

Submitted-As: https://lore.kernel.org/git/pull.1140.v3.git.git.1637966463.gitgitgadget@gmail.com
In-Reply-To: https://lore.kernel.org/git/pull.1140.git.git.1637455620.gitgitgadget@gmail.com
In-Reply-To: https://lore.kernel.org/git/pull.1140.v2.git.git.1637829556.gitgitgadget@gmail.com