die: lowercase error messages in cat-file and related commands by mdferdousalam · Pull Request #2052 · gitgitgadget/git

mdferdousalam · 2026-02-23T08:30:45Z

Lowercase die(), error() and warning() messages that begin with a
capital letter, following the CodingGuidelines.

The series is now split into two patches:

[1/2] die: lowercase "Not a valid object name" messages
Fixes the same message across all six files where it appears:
cat-file.c, describe.c, ls-tree.c, merge-base.c, read-tree.c,
and unpack-file.c, along with corresponding test expectations.

[2/2] cat-file: fix remaining error and warning message formatting
Fixes "Cannot read object" and the promisor remotes warning
in cat-file.c only.

Changes since v1:

Split into two patches: first fixes "Not a valid object name"
across all files in a single patch, second fixes remaining
cat-file.c messages separately (Junio C Hamano)
Performed third-party audit of projects that parse this error
message — several widely-used projects (Gitea, Gogs, GitLab
Gitaly, JetBrains IntelliJ, etc.) do case-sensitive string
matching on "Not a valid object name", discussed on-list
Fixed Signed-off-by to use full name

cc: Junio C Hamano gitster@pobox.com
cc: Engr Md Ferdous Alam mdferdousalam1989@yahoo.com

gitgitgadget · 2026-02-23T08:31:21Z

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mdferdousalam · 2026-02-23T08:33:08Z

Hi @derrickstolee, I'm a new contributor. Could you please /allow me so I can submit this patch to the mailing list? Thanks!

mdferdousalam · 2026-02-23T08:44:03Z

/submit

gitgitgadget · 2026-02-23T08:45:15Z

Submitted as pull.2052.git.1771836302101.gitgitgadget@gmail.com

To fetch this version into FETCH_HEAD:

git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/ pr-2052/mdferdousalam/fix-error-messages-cat-file-v1

To fetch this version to local tag pr-2052/mdferdousalam/fix-error-messages-cat-file-v1:

git fetch --no-tags https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/ tag pr-2052/mdferdousalam/fix-error-messages-cat-file-v1

mdferdousalam · 2026-02-23T11:26:47Z

/submit

gitgitgadget · 2026-02-23T11:27:47Z

Error: 03d3eaa was already submitted

gitgitgadget · 2026-02-23T16:02:17Z

Junio C Hamano wrote on the Git mailing list (how to reply to this email):

"Md Ferdous Alam via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:

> From: mdferdousalam <mdferdousalam1989@yahoo.com>
>
> The CodingGuidelines state that error messages should not begin
> with a capital letter and should not end with a full stop.  Fix
> the die(), error() and warning() messages in builtin/cat-file.c
> that violate these rules, and update the corresponding test
> expectations in t1006 and t8007.
>
> Signed-off-by: mdferdousalam <mdferdousalam1989@yahoo.com>
> ---
>     cat-file: fix error and warning message formatting
>
> Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2052%2Fmdferdousalam%2Ffix-error-messages-cat-file-v1
> Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2052/mdferdousalam/fix-error-messages-cat-file-v1
> Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2052

It may be cleaner to deal with "Not a valid object name %s" that
appear in 5 other .c files in addition to cat-file.c in a single
patch (touching no other messages, just the "Not a valid object
name" one), and do the rest of cat-file.c in a second patch.

Have you audited third-party software that use Git plumbing commands
like "git cat-file" to make sure that they do not expect the current
and historical spelling to make sure this change will not break them?

Other than that, looking good.  Thanks for working on it.

>
>  builtin/cat-file.c           | 8 ++++----
>  t/t1006-cat-file.sh          | 6 +++---
>  t/t8007-cat-file-textconv.sh | 2 +-
>  3 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/builtin/cat-file.c b/builtin/cat-file.c
> index df8e87a81f..a8d564dd6a 100644
> --- a/builtin/cat-file.c
> +++ b/builtin/cat-file.c
> @@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ static int cat_one_file(int opt, const char *exp_type, const char *obj_name)
>  
>  	if (get_oid_with_context(the_repository, obj_name, get_oid_flags, &oid,
>  				 &obj_context))
> -		die("Not a valid object name %s", obj_name);
> +		die("not a valid object name %s", obj_name);
>  
>  	if (!path)
>  		path = obj_context.path;
> @@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ static int cat_one_file(int opt, const char *exp_type, const char *obj_name)
>  	case 'p':
>  		type = odb_read_object_info(the_repository->objects, &oid, NULL);
>  		if (type < 0)
> -			die("Not a valid object name %s", obj_name);
> +			die("not a valid object name %s", obj_name);
>  
>  		/* custom pretty-print here */
>  		if (type == OBJ_TREE) {
> @@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ static int cat_one_file(int opt, const char *exp_type, const char *obj_name)
>  		buf = odb_read_object(the_repository->objects, &oid,
>  				      &type, &size);
>  		if (!buf)
> -			die("Cannot read object %s", obj_name);
> +			die("cannot read object %s", obj_name);
>  
>  		if (use_mailmap) {
>  			size_t s = size;
> @@ -910,7 +910,7 @@ static int batch_objects(struct batch_options *opt)
>  			data.skip_object_info = 1;
>  
>  		if (repo_has_promisor_remote(the_repository))
> -			warning("This repository uses promisor remotes. Some objects may not be loaded.");
> +			warning("this repository uses promisor remotes; some objects may not be loaded");
>  
>  		disable_replace_refs();
>  
> diff --git a/t/t1006-cat-file.sh b/t/t1006-cat-file.sh
> index 0eee3bb878..0283c7400d 100755
> --- a/t/t1006-cat-file.sh
> +++ b/t/t1006-cat-file.sh
> @@ -705,7 +705,7 @@ do
>  		then
>  			cat >expect <<-EOF
>  			error: header for $bogus_long_oid too long, exceeds 32 bytes
> -			fatal: Not a valid object name $bogus_long_oid
> +			fatal: not a valid object name $bogus_long_oid
>  			EOF
>  		else
>  			cat >expect <<-EOF
> @@ -721,7 +721,7 @@ do
>  
>  	test_expect_success "cat-file $arg1 error on missing short OID" '
>  		cat >expect.err <<-EOF &&
> -		fatal: Not a valid object name $(test_oid deadbeef_short)
> +		fatal: not a valid object name $(test_oid deadbeef_short)
>  		EOF
>  		test_must_fail git cat-file $arg1 $(test_oid deadbeef_short) >out 2>err.actual &&
>  		test_must_be_empty out &&
> @@ -732,7 +732,7 @@ do
>  		if test "$arg1" = "-p"
>  		then
>  			cat >expect.err <<-EOF
> -			fatal: Not a valid object name $(test_oid deadbeef)
> +			fatal: not a valid object name $(test_oid deadbeef)
>  			EOF
>  		else
>  			cat >expect.err <<-\EOF
> diff --git a/t/t8007-cat-file-textconv.sh b/t/t8007-cat-file-textconv.sh
> index c3735fb50d..3a69b03794 100755
> --- a/t/t8007-cat-file-textconv.sh
> +++ b/t/t8007-cat-file-textconv.sh
> @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ test_expect_success 'setup ' '
>  
>  test_expect_success 'usage: <bad rev>' '
>  	cat >expect <<-\EOF &&
> -	fatal: Not a valid object name HEAD2
> +	fatal: not a valid object name HEAD2
>  	EOF
>  	test_must_fail git cat-file --textconv HEAD2 2>actual &&
>  	test_cmp expect actual
>
> base-commit: 7c02d39fc2ed2702223c7674f73150d9a7e61ba4

The CodingGuidelines state that error messages should not begin with a capital letter. Lowercase the "Not a valid object name" die() messages that appear in cat-file, describe, ls-tree, merge-base, read-tree, and unpack-file, and update the corresponding test expectations in t1006 and t8007. Signed-off-by: Md Ferdous Alam <mdferdousalam1989@yahoo.com>

The CodingGuidelines state that error messages should not begin with a capital letter and should not end with a full stop. Fix the remaining die() and warning() messages in builtin/cat-file.c that violate these rules: lowercase "Cannot read object" and reformat the promisor remotes warning to not start with a capital letter and to use a semicolon instead of a full stop. Signed-off-by: Md Ferdous Alam <mdferdousalam1989@yahoo.com>

gitgitgadget · 2026-02-23T19:33:23Z

Engr Md Ferdous Alam wrote on the Git mailing list (how to reply to this email):

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:


> It may be cleaner to deal with "Not a valid object name %s" that
> appear in 5 other .c files in addition to cat-file.c in a single
> patch (touching no other messages, just the "Not a valid object
> name" one), and do the rest of cat-file.c in a second patch.


Done in v2.  The series is now split into two patches:


  [1/2] die: lowercase "Not a valid object name" messages
        (cat-file.c, describe.c, ls-tree.c, merge-base.c,
         read-tree.c, unpack-file.c and their test expectations)
  [2/2] cat-file: fix remaining error and warning message formatting
        ("Cannot read object" and the promisor remotes warning)


> Have you audited third-party software that use Git plumbing commands
> like "git cat-file" to make sure that they do not expect the current
> and historical spelling to make sure this change will not break them?


I did a broad search across GitHub.  Here is what I found:


Several widely-used projects do case-sensitive string matching on
"fatal: Not a valid object name" in stderr output from Git commands:


  - Gitea (go-gitea/gitea) -- strings.Contains() in Go
  - Gogs (gogs/gogs) -- strings.Contains() in Go
  - GitLab Gitaly -- strings.HasPrefix() in Go
  - JetBrains IntelliJ -- startsWith() in Java
  - Harness CI/CD -- strings.HasPrefix() in Go (3 locations)
  - Review Board -- startswith() in Python
  - Tencent CodeAnalysis -- regex match in Python
  - DataLad -- "in" string check in Python
  - elastic/docs tooling -- .includes() in JavaScript
  - prettier-standard -- exact === equality in JavaScript


On the other hand, these are NOT affected:


  - Pure Git reimplementations (libgit2, JGit, go-git, Dulwich,
    isomorphic-git, GitPython) generate their own messages.
  - GitKraken GitLens already uses case-insensitive matching (/i).
  - VS Code Git extension and GitHub Desktop do not match this
    specific message.
  - Many CI/CD tools (Nx, BuildKit, Skaffold, Flutter) rely on
    exit codes rather than message text.


A handful of projects already check for the lowercase form "not a
valid object name", suggesting the ecosystem is in transition, but
the majority still expect the capitalized form.


Given the risk of silently breaking error detection in projects like
Gitea, Gogs, Gitaly, and IntelliJ, I am not sure whether it is
worth proceeding with patch [1/2].  Patch [2/2] changes messages
that are far less likely to be parsed by external tools ("Cannot
read object" and the promisor remotes warning).


How would you like to proceed?  Should we:


  (a) keep both patches as-is and let downstream projects adapt,
  (b) drop patch [1/2] and only ship [2/2], or
  (c) take a different approach?


Thanks,
Md Ferdous Alam

  







On Monday, February 23, 2026 at 09:54:52 PM GMT+6, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote: 





"Md Ferdous Alam via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:

> From: mdferdousalam <mdferdousalam1989@yahoo.com>
>
> The CodingGuidelines state that error messages should not begin
> with a capital letter and should not end with a full stop.  Fix
> the die(), error() and warning() messages in builtin/cat-file.c
> that violate these rules, and update the corresponding test
> expectations in t1006 and t8007.
>
> Signed-off-by: mdferdousalam <mdferdousalam1989@yahoo.com>
> ---
>    cat-file: fix error and warning message formatting
>
> Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2052%2Fmdferdousalam%2Ffix-error-messages-cat-file-v1
> Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2052/mdferdousalam/fix-error-messages-cat-file-v1
> Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2052

It may be cleaner to deal with "Not a valid object name %s" that
appear in 5 other .c files in addition to cat-file.c in a single
patch (touching no other messages, just the "Not a valid object
name" one), and do the rest of cat-file.c in a second patch.

Have you audited third-party software that use Git plumbing commands
like "git cat-file" to make sure that they do not expect the current
and historical spelling to make sure this change will not break them?

Other than that, looking good.  Thanks for working on it.


>
>  builtin/cat-file.c          | 8 ++++----
>  t/t1006-cat-file.sh          | 6 +++---
>  t/t8007-cat-file-textconv.sh | 2 +-
>  3 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/builtin/cat-file.c b/builtin/cat-file.c
> index df8e87a81f..a8d564dd6a 100644
> --- a/builtin/cat-file.c
> +++ b/builtin/cat-file.c
> @@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ static int cat_one_file(int opt, const char *exp_type, const char *obj_name)
>  
>      if (get_oid_with_context(the_repository, obj_name, get_oid_flags, &oid,
>                  &obj_context))
> -        die("Not a valid object name %s", obj_name);
> +        die("not a valid object name %s", obj_name);
>  
>      if (!path)
>          path = obj_context.path;
> @@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ static int cat_one_file(int opt, const char *exp_type, const char *obj_name)
>      case 'p':
>          type = odb_read_object_info(the_repository->objects, &oid, NULL);
>          if (type < 0)
> -            die("Not a valid object name %s", obj_name);
> +            die("not a valid object name %s", obj_name);
>  
>          /* custom pretty-print here */
>          if (type == OBJ_TREE) {
> @@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ static int cat_one_file(int opt, const char *exp_type, const char *obj_name)
>          buf = odb_read_object(the_repository->objects, &oid,
>                        &type, &size);
>          if (!buf)
> -            die("Cannot read object %s", obj_name);
> +            die("cannot read object %s", obj_name);
>  
>          if (use_mailmap) {
>              size_t s = size;
> @@ -910,7 +910,7 @@ static int batch_objects(struct batch_options *opt)
>              data.skip_object_info = 1;
>  
>          if (repo_has_promisor_remote(the_repository))
> -            warning("This repository uses promisor remotes. Some objects may not be loaded.");
> +            warning("this repository uses promisor remotes; some objects may not be loaded");
>  
>          disable_replace_refs();
>  
> diff --git a/t/t1006-cat-file.sh b/t/t1006-cat-file.sh
> index 0eee3bb878..0283c7400d 100755
> --- a/t/t1006-cat-file.sh
> +++ b/t/t1006-cat-file.sh
> @@ -705,7 +705,7 @@ do
>          then
>              cat >expect <<-EOF
>              error: header for $bogus_long_oid too long, exceeds 32 bytes
> -            fatal: Not a valid object name $bogus_long_oid
> +            fatal: not a valid object name $bogus_long_oid
>              EOF
>          else
>              cat >expect <<-EOF
> @@ -721,7 +721,7 @@ do
>  
>      test_expect_success "cat-file $arg1 error on missing short OID" '
>          cat >expect.err <<-EOF &&
> -        fatal: Not a valid object name $(test_oid deadbeef_short)
> +        fatal: not a valid object name $(test_oid deadbeef_short)
>          EOF
>          test_must_fail git cat-file $arg1 $(test_oid deadbeef_short) >out 2>err.actual &&
>          test_must_be_empty out &&
> @@ -732,7 +732,7 @@ do
>          if test "$arg1" = "-p"
>          then
>              cat >expect.err <<-EOF
> -            fatal: Not a valid object name $(test_oid deadbeef)
> +            fatal: not a valid object name $(test_oid deadbeef)
>              EOF
>          else
>              cat >expect.err <<-\EOF
> diff --git a/t/t8007-cat-file-textconv.sh b/t/t8007-cat-file-textconv.sh
> index c3735fb50d..3a69b03794 100755
> --- a/t/t8007-cat-file-textconv.sh
> +++ b/t/t8007-cat-file-textconv.sh
> @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ test_expect_success 'setup ' '
>  
>  test_expect_success 'usage: <bad rev>' '
>      cat >expect <<-\EOF &&
> -    fatal: Not a valid object name HEAD2
> +    fatal: not a valid object name HEAD2
>      EOF
>      test_must_fail git cat-file --textconv HEAD2 2>actual &&
>      test_cmp expect actual
>
> base-commit: 7c02d39fc2ed2702223c7674f73150d9a7e61ba4

gitgitgadget · 2026-02-23T19:33:26Z

User Engr Md Ferdous Alam <mdferdousalam1989@yahoo.com> has been added to the cc: list.

gitgitgadget · 2026-02-23T20:08:42Z

Junio C Hamano wrote on the Git mailing list (how to reply to this email):

Engr Md Ferdous Alam <mdferdousalam1989@yahoo.com> writes:

> Given the risk of silently breaking error detection in projects like
> Gitea, Gogs, Gitaly, and IntelliJ, I am not sure whether it is
> worth proceeding with patch [1/2].
> ...
> How would you like to proceed?

It is prudent to treat any and all messages from plumbing commands
like cat-file as sleeping dogs and keep them undisturbed.  Even for
human end-user facing messages from Porcelain commands, we may want
to be careful, but if I recall correctly, the commands your recent
set of patches covered were all plumbing?

Thanks.

gitgitgadget bot added the new user label Feb 23, 2026

mdferdousalam force-pushed the fix-error-messages-cat-file branch from 03d3eaa to ceffe61 Compare February 23, 2026 17:35

mdferdousalam added 2 commits February 23, 2026 23:39

mdferdousalam force-pushed the fix-error-messages-cat-file branch from ceffe61 to b785003 Compare February 23, 2026 17:40

mdferdousalam changed the title ~~cat-file: fix error and warning message formatting~~ die: lowercase error messages in cat-file and related commands Feb 23, 2026

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die: lowercase error messages in cat-file and related commands#2052

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