From 45e36ad453a774cb39d6e3aa4febf88a5d8c55d3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Maximilian Bosch <maximilian@mbosch.me>
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2020 20:59:24 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Provide a more meaningful error-message for
 `builtins.fetchGit` if a revision can't be checked out

A common pitfall when using e.g. `builtins.fetchGit` is the `fatal: not
a tree object`-error when trying to fetch a revision of a git-repository
that isn't on the `master` branch and no `ref` is specified.

In order to make clear what's the problem, I added a simple check
whether the revision in question exists and if it doesn't a more
meaningful error-message is displayed:

```
nix-repl> builtins.fetchGit { url = "https://github.com/owner/myrepo"; rev = "<commit not on master>"; }
moderror: --- Error -------------------------------------------------------------------- nix
Cannot find Git revision 'bf1cc5c648e6aed7360448a3745bb2fe4fbbf0e9' in ref 'master' of repository 'https://gitlab.com/Ma27/nvim.nix'! Please make sure that the rev exists on the ref you've specified or add allRefs = true; to fetchGit.
```

Closes #2431
---
 src/libfetchers/git.cc | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+)

diff --git a/src/libfetchers/git.cc b/src/libfetchers/git.cc
index ad7638d732fe..c12d442e9c5d 100644
--- a/src/libfetchers/git.cc
+++ b/src/libfetchers/git.cc
@@ -392,6 +392,28 @@ struct GitInputScheme : InputScheme
         AutoDelete delTmpDir(tmpDir, true);
         PathFilter filter = defaultPathFilter;
 
+        RunOptions checkCommitOpts(
+            "git",
+            { "-C", repoDir, "cat-file", "commit", input.getRev()->gitRev() }
+        );
+        checkCommitOpts.searchPath = true;
+        checkCommitOpts.mergeStderrToStdout = true;
+
+        auto result = runProgram(checkCommitOpts);
+        if (WEXITSTATUS(result.first) == 128
+            && result.second.find("bad file") != std::string::npos
+        ) {
+            throw Error(
+                "Cannot find Git revision '%s' in ref '%s' of repository '%s'! "
+                    "Please make sure that the " ANSI_BOLD "rev" ANSI_NORMAL " exists on the "
+                    ANSI_BOLD "ref" ANSI_NORMAL " you've specified or add " ANSI_BOLD
+                    "allRefs = true;" ANSI_NORMAL " to " ANSI_BOLD "fetchGit" ANSI_NORMAL ".",
+                input.getRev()->gitRev(),
+                *input.getRef(),
+                actualUrl
+            );
+        }
+
         if (submodules) {
             Path tmpGitDir = createTempDir();
             AutoDelete delTmpGitDir(tmpGitDir, true);