The working directory affects filepath behavior only on Windows

[jdblischak]

In git2r unit tests, the working directory is outside of the Git repository being tested, and the file paths are relative to the root of the Git repository, e.g. add(repo, "test.txt"), where test.txt does not exist in the current working directory, but instead at file.path(workdir(repo), "test.txt").

Thus the following code works on Linux, macOS, and Windows:

# working directory outside of Git repo, file paths relative to root of Git repo

library(git2r)
d <- tempfile()
repo <- clone("https://github.com/ropensci/git2r.git", d)
testfile_rel <- file.path("R", "testfile.txt")
testfile_abs <- file.path(d, testfile_rel)
writeLines("this is a test", testfile_abs)
status(repo)
## Untracked files:
##   Untracked:  R/testfile.txt
add(repo, testfile_rel)
status(repo)
## Staged changes:
##   New:        R/testfile.txt
com_add <- commit(repo, "Commit testfile")
compath_add <- commits(repo, path = testfile_rel)
stopifnot(identical(compath_add[[1]]$sha, com_add$sha))
rm_file(repo, path = testfile_rel)
status(repo)
## Staged changes:
##   Deleted:    R/testfile.txt
com_rm <- commit(repo, "Remove testfile")
compath_rm <- commits(repo, path = testfile_rel)
stopifnot(identical(compath_rm[[1]]$sha, com_rm$sha))

However, when the working directory is set to be a subdirectory of the Git repository, the code continues to work on Linux and macOS, but unexpectedly fails on Windows:

# working directory is subdir of Git repo, file paths relative to root of Git repo

library(git2r)
d <- tempfile()
repo <- clone("https://github.com/ropensci/git2r.git", d)
cwd <- setwd(file.path(d, "man"))
testfile_rel <- file.path("R", "testfile.txt")
testfile_abs <- file.path(d, testfile_rel)
writeLines("this is a test", testfile_abs)
status(repo)
## Untracked files:
##   Untracked:  R/testfile.txt
add(repo, testfile_rel)
status(repo)
## Staged changes:
##   New:        R/testfile.txt
com_add <- commit(repo, "Commit testfile")
compath_add <- commits(repo, path = testfile_rel)
stopifnot(identical(compath_add[[1]]$sha, com_add$sha))
rm_file(repo, path = testfile_rel)
status(repo)
## Staged changes:
##   Deleted:    R/testfile.txt
com_rm <- commit(repo, "Remove testfile")
compath_rm <- commits(repo, path = testfile_rel)
stopifnot(identical(compath_rm[[1]]$sha, com_rm$sha))
setwd(cwd)

Thus only on Windows, when the working directory is a subdirectory of the Git repository, the absolute path to the file is required:

# working directory is subdir of Git repo, absolute file paths
# Required for Windows, but also works on Linux but not macOS

library(git2r)
d <- tempfile()
repo <- clone("https://github.com/ropensci/git2r.git", d)
cwd <- setwd(file.path(d, "man"))
testfile_rel <- file.path("R", "testfile.txt")
testfile_abs <- file.path(d, testfile_rel)
writeLines("this is a test", testfile_abs)
status(repo)
## Untracked files:
##   Untracked:  R/testfile.txt
add(repo, testfile_abs)
status(repo)
## Staged changes:
##   New:        R/testfile.txt
com_add <- commit(repo, "Commit testfile")
compath_add <- commits(repo, path = testfile_abs)
stopifnot(identical(compath_add[[1]]$sha, com_add$sha))
rm_file(repo, path = testfile_rel)
status(repo)
## Staged changes:
##   Deleted:    R/testfile.txt
com_rm <- commit(repo, "Remove testfile")
compath_rm <- commits(repo, path = testfile_abs)
stopifnot(identical(compath_rm[[1]]$sha, com_rm$sha))
setwd(cwd)

Confusingly, while add() and commits(path) require an absolute path on Windows when the current working directory is a subdirectory, rm_file() always requires a relative path. Changing the rm_file() call in the above example to use an absolute path causes an error (on all 3 operating systems):

rm_file(repo, path = testfile_abs)
Error in rm_file(repo, path = testfile_abs) : 
  pathspec '/tmp/RtmptCFrfN/file79fe61f79dbb/R/testfile.txt' did not match any files.

Furthermore, always using the absolute path to commits(path), even when the file no longer exists, works on Windows and Linux, but not macOS.

Is it possible to make the filepath behavior be consistent across all 3 operating systems? Also, is it possible to change rm_file() to behave the same as add() and commits(path)?

Notes:

• Potentially related issue: Windows git2r sometimes can't add files to repo  #315
• The above tests were performed with git2r 0.26.1.

[stewid]

Thanks for reporting this.

Is it possible to make the filepath behavior be consistent across all 3 operating systems?

I think we should aim for a consistent filepath behavior.

Also, is it possible to change rm_file() to behave the same as add() and commits(path)?

It's now possible to use an absolute path in rm_file 84a2f5f

[jdblischak]

It's now possible to use an absolute path in rm_file

I confirmed that this works with git2r 0.26.1.9000

[jdblischak]

I was recently burned by this behavior again. My relative paths were wrong. However, since they were relative to the root of the Git repository, they worked on Linux and macOS. Only Windows failed (silently).

While I see the convenience of being able to specify a path relative to the root of the Git repository, I think it introduces a lot of ambiguity. It's unknown if the path is relative to the working directory or the Git repository, and having git2r try to figure out which exposes it to all the known complications of cross-platform handling of filepaths.

Below is another example. The final line passes a path to a file that is relative to the root of the Git repository, but not to the working directory.

library(git2r)
packageVersion("git2r")
path <- tempfile()
dir.create(path)
repo <- init(path)
config(repo, user.name = "Alice", user.email = "alice@example.org")
subdir <- file.path(path, "sub")
dir.create(subdir)
testfile <- file.path(subdir, "test.txt")
file.create(testfile)
add(repo, testfile)
commit(repo, "Commit test file")
commits(repo, path = testfile)
library(withr)
with_dir(path, commits(repo, path = "sub/test.txt"))
with_dir(subdir, commits(repo, path = "sub/test.txt"))

This works on Linux:

library(git2r)
packageVersion("git2r")
#> [1] '0.26.1'
path <- tempfile()
dir.create(path)
repo <- init(path)
config(repo, user.name = "Alice", user.email = "alice@example.org")
subdir <- file.path(path, "sub")
dir.create(subdir)
testfile <- file.path(subdir, "test.txt")
file.create(testfile)
#> [1] TRUE
add(repo, testfile)
commit(repo, "Commit test file")
#> [5586dea] 2020-02-13: Commit test file
commits(repo, path = testfile)
#> [[1]]
#> [5586dea] 2020-02-13: Commit test file
library(withr)
with_dir(path, commits(repo, path = "sub/test.txt"))
#> [[1]]
#> [5586dea] 2020-02-13: Commit test file
with_dir(subdir, commits(repo, path = "sub/test.txt"))
#> [[1]]
#> [5586dea] 2020-02-13: Commit test file

^{Created on 2020-02-13 by the reprex package (v0.3.0)}

Session info

devtools::session_info()
#> Warning in system("timedatectl", intern = TRUE): running command 'timedatectl'
#> had status 1
#> ─ Session info ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  setting  value                       
#>  version  R version 3.6.2 (2019-12-12)
#>  os       Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS          
#>  system   x86_64, linux-gnu           
#>  ui       X11                         
#>  language (EN)                        
#>  collate  C.UTF-8                     
#>  ctype    C.UTF-8                     
#>  tz       America/New_York            
#>  date     2020-02-13                  
#> 
#> ─ Packages ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
#>  package     * version date       lib source        
#>  assertthat    0.2.1   2019-03-21 [3] CRAN (R 3.5.3)
#>  backports     1.1.5   2019-10-02 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
#>  callr         3.4.1   2020-01-24 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.2)
#>  cli           2.0.1   2020-01-08 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.2)
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#>  devtools      2.2.1   2019-09-24 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
#>  digest        0.6.23  2019-11-23 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
#>  ellipsis      0.3.0   2019-09-20 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
#>  evaluate      0.14    2019-05-28 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.0)
#>  fansi         0.4.1   2020-01-08 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.2)
#>  fs            1.3.1   2019-05-06 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.0)
#>  git2r       * 0.26.1  2019-06-29 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
#>  glue          1.3.1   2019-03-12 [3] CRAN (R 3.5.3)
#>  highr         0.8     2019-03-20 [3] CRAN (R 3.5.3)
#>  htmltools     0.4.0   2019-10-04 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
#>  knitr         1.28    2020-02-06 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.2)
#>  magrittr      1.5     2014-11-22 [3] CRAN (R 3.5.0)
#>  memoise       1.1.0   2017-04-21 [3] CRAN (R 3.5.0)
#>  pkgbuild      1.0.6   2019-10-09 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
#>  pkgload       1.0.2   2018-10-29 [3] CRAN (R 3.5.1)
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#>  R6            2.4.1   2019-11-12 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
#>  Rcpp          1.0.3   2019-11-08 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
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#>  rlang         0.4.4   2020-01-28 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.2)
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#>  stringi       1.4.5   2020-01-11 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.2)
#>  stringr       1.4.0   2019-02-10 [3] CRAN (R 3.5.2)
#>  testthat      2.3.1   2019-12-01 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
#>  usethis       1.5.1   2019-07-04 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
#>  withr       * 2.1.2   2018-03-15 [3] CRAN (R 3.5.0)
#>  xfun          0.11    2019-11-12 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
#>  yaml          2.2.1   2020-02-01 [3] CRAN (R 3.6.2)
#> 
#> [1] /home/jdblischak/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.6
#> [2] /usr/local/lib/R/site-library
#> [3] /usr/lib/R/site-library
#> [4] /usr/lib/R/library

But fails on Windows (it returns an empty list):

library(git2r)
packageVersion("git2r")
#> [1] '0.26.1.9000'
path <- tempfile()
dir.create(path)
repo <- init(path)
config(repo, user.name = "Alice", user.email = "alice@example.org")
subdir <- file.path(path, "sub")
dir.create(subdir)
testfile <- file.path(subdir, "test.txt")
file.create(testfile)
#> [1] TRUE
add(repo, testfile)
commit(repo, "Commit test file")
#> [797bd94] 2020-02-13: Commit test file
commits(repo, path = testfile)
#> [[1]]
#> [797bd94] 2020-02-13: Commit test file
library(withr)
with_dir(path, commits(repo, path = "sub/test.txt"))
#> [[1]]
#> [797bd94] 2020-02-13: Commit test file
with_dir(subdir, commits(repo, path = "sub/test.txt"))
#> list()

^{Created on 2020-02-13 by the reprex package (v0.3.0.9000)}

Session info

sessioninfo::session_info()
#> - Session info ---------------------------------------------------------------
#>  setting  value                       
#>  version  R version 3.6.2 (2019-12-12)
#>  os       Windows 10 x64              
#>  system   x86_64, mingw32             
#>  ui       RTerm                       
#>  language (EN)                        
#>  collate  English_United States.1252  
#>  ctype    English_United States.1252  
#>  tz       America/New_York            
#>  date     2020-02-13                  
#> 
#> - Packages -------------------------------------------------------------------
#>  package     * version     date       lib source                         
#>  assertthat    0.2.1       2019-03-21 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)                 
#>  cli           2.0.1       2020-01-08 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.2)                 
#>  crayon        1.3.4       2017-09-16 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)                 
#>  digest        0.6.23      2019-11-23 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.2)                 
#>  evaluate      0.14        2019-05-28 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)                 
#>  fansi         0.4.1       2020-01-08 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.2)                 
#>  git2r       * 0.26.1.9000 2020-02-13 [1] Github (ropensci/git2r@0b30ed1)
#>  glue          1.3.1       2019-03-12 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)                 
#>  highr         0.8         2019-03-20 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)                 
#>  htmltools     0.4.0       2019-10-04 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)                 
#>  knitr         1.28        2020-02-06 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.2)                 
#>  magrittr      1.5         2014-11-22 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)                 
#>  Rcpp          1.0.3       2019-11-08 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.2)                 
#>  rlang         0.4.4       2020-01-28 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.2)                 
#>  rmarkdown     2.1         2020-01-20 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.2)                 
#>  sessioninfo   1.1.1       2018-11-05 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)                 
#>  stringi       1.4.5       2020-01-11 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.2)                 
#>  stringr       1.4.0       2019-02-10 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)                 
#>  withr       * 2.1.2       2018-03-15 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)                 
#>  xfun          0.12        2020-01-13 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.2)                 
#>  yaml          2.2.1       2020-02-01 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.2)                 
#> 
#> [1] C:/Users/john/Documents/R/win-library/3.6
#> [2] C:/Program Files/R/R-3.6.2/library

The difference in behavior is due to the call to normalizePath() in git2r::sanitize_path():

git2r/R/index.R

Lines 101 to 102 in 93f91bc

	sanitize_path <- function(p, repo_wd) {
	np <- suppressWarnings(normalizePath(p, winslash = "/"))

On Linux, passing a non-existent path to normalizePath() returns the original path. Thus the path that gets passed to commits() is relative to the root of the Git repository, and the commits touching that file are returned.

> suppressWarnings(normalizePath("a/b/c", winslash = "/"))
[1] "a/b/c"

In contrast, on Windows, normalizePath() prepends the working directory to a non-existent path. Thus this absolute path gets passed to commits(), and no commits are returned since that path doesn't exist.

> suppressWarnings(normalizePath("a/b/c", winslash = "/"))
[1] "C:/Users/john/Documents/a/b/c"