[Bug] Wrong commit recognition of the tag

[sebres]

Issue:

If you target a tag (e. g. by selecting in the select-box "Branch") on the project main page (e. g. "<> Code"), you'll see a wrong commit as "Latest commit".

For example: https://github.com/fail2ban/fail2ban/tree/0.10.1 shows as the latest commit b698a749029af2c216268aa29a1228f21e87bfb7, but actually 351abeb4ff77dfca4049e7401553900b46e8db40 is the latest commit of tag 0.10.1.

This results in wrong content of each file belonging this tag.
E.g. view of README.md or ChangeLog show the obsolete content.

Observed behavior:

You don't see the last commit of the release tag, and therefore each link points to obsolete content of any file within...

Expected behavior:

You see the current commit of the tags, as well as the current content of the files within the tag.

[alecbz]

When looking at the GitHub UI, I see a branch in that repo called 0.10.1, but there's no 0.10.1 tag as far as I can tell (and in fact there could not be given that the branch exists, since branches and tag share a namespace AFAIK).

However, when I clone the repo locally, 0.10.1 does appear as a tag, not a branch.

I'm not sure why GitHub sees this tag as actually being a branch. Was there once a branch called '0.10.1' on the repo?

[szepeviktor]

there could not be given that the branch exists, since branches and tag share a namespace

It may be the cause of confusion.

[sebres]

However, when I clone the repo locally, 0.10.1 does appear as a tag, not a branch.

This is a tag (even created within github, using "Draft a new release" button).

When looking at the GitHub UI, I see a branch in that repo called 0.10.1, but there's no 0.10.1 tag
I'm not sure why GitHub sees this tag as actually being a branch.

It's not just this tag affected.
Github has currently this behavior for all tags, that don't contain slash (/) character...
If you check this with git tag -l you'll see many many other tags, however you'll not be able to find in this github-list some tag without slash...

Was there once a branch called '0.10.1' on the repo?

Never

[alecbz]

Github has currently this behavior for all tags, that don't contain slash ('/') character...

Wow, wtf.... this has been reported to support@github.com already, right? Curious what they say. If that's really what's happening that's super weird.

[sebres]

If that's really what's happening that's super weird.

I don't know what really happening there (I don't have a source code of github :)), but it is the current state of the art. At least in this repository... ATM no time to check it everywhere.

[sebres]

Another interesting thing is that the other release-tags (without / char) are not visible on github at all (neither in branch-list, nor in tag-list).
But we can manually build an URL (e. g. https://github.com/fail2ban/fail2ban/tree/0.9.6) , which is callable and seems to use correct last commit (and indeed shows the content of this release).

[sebres]

BTW still no reaction from github until now.

[sebres]

New findings: I've pushed the tags 0.10.1 (and 0.10.0) to my own fork right now.
Both tags are invisible, but the URL https://github.com/sebres/fail2ban/tree/0.10.1 shows the correct commit [351abeb], as well as the correct content there.

Confused!?...

[sebres]

So, I got an answer from github-support, below you'll find it together with my answer:

02 Nov 2017 15:45, github-support wrote:

Hey Serg,

The https://github.com/fail2ban/fail2ban/blob/0.10.1/ChangeLog link takes you to the latest version of the ChangeLog file on tag 0.10.1.

You are wrong here, the latest version of the file ChangeLog (in this tag) is 351abeb4ff77dfca4049e7401553900b46e8db40 (but also the README.md and several other files).

The version that we see is another version.
In-between I made more tests (see the whole discussion under isaacs/github/#1109):
for example you can test another link (the same tag/commit in my own fork), where it works:

Thus compare:
1. https://github.com/sebres/fail2ban/tree/0.10.1
with the same in fork:
2. https://github.com/fail2ban/fail2ban/tree/0.10.1

What did you see there?

+1. Tag: 0.10.1
-2. Branch: 0.10.1
+1. Latest commit 351abeb
-2. Latest commit b698a74
+1. in the README: FAIL2BAN v0.10.1 2017/10/12
-2. in the README: FAIL2BAN v0.10.1 2016/??/??
...
-2. each link on file show the wrong content (another version).

The commit you see there is the commit of the last time that file was edited on the tag, rather than the tagged commits itself.

https://github.com/fail2ban/fail2ban/commits/0.10.1/ChangeLog

Sorry for the confusion on that one and let me know if you need anything else.

As already said, just take a look under isaacs/github/#1109 resp. try to clone this repo
(fail2ban/fail2ban) and try to see which commit it is:

$ git show-ref --tags 0.10.1
351abeb4ff77dfca4049e7401553900b46e8db40 refs/tags/0.10.1
$ git rev-list -1 0.10.1
351abeb4ff77dfca4049e7401553900b46e8db40

[sebres]

I found now what it is: there was indeed still a old branch (with name 0.10.1) there. No idea how this branch was created.
After removing of this branch, it looks good now.

[sebres]

JBTW I was a bit wrong with my conclusion for invisibility of some tags in the tag-list on <> Code page:
The tag seems to be invisible if the name:

• either does not contain any letter (in our case only number and dot);
• or does not start from the letter (in our case only starts from number).

It doesn't matter currently, whenever the tag was released (over github interface) or just pushed via git.