Error while running gitstats with linux kernel repository and old git versions about gitstats HOT 6 CLOSED

The problem is something unexpected from the git rev-list command, but I can't figure out what by cloning the repository what it is.

Can you run this command in your clone and tell me what it outputs:

$ git rev-list --pretty=format:"%at %ai %aN <%aE>" HEAD | grep -v ^commit |egrep -v '^[0-9]{10} [0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2} [0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2} [+-][0-9]{4} '

For me it outputs only this line, and it shouldn't cause the problem:

1 1970-01-01 01:00:01 +0100 Ursula Braun <[email protected]>

Also, please show me the output of git show-ref HEAD in your opensuse kernel clone.

from gitstats.

The same occurs with the mainline kernel from git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git

The reason seems to be that some of the output lines from git rev-list are not in the expected format:

$ git rev-list --pretty=format:"%at %ai %aN <%aE>" HEAD | grep -v ^commit |egrep -v '^[0-9]{10} [0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2} [0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2} [+-][0-9]{4} '
1 1970-01-01 01:00:01 +0100 Ursula Braun <[email protected]>
  %aN <%aE>
  [...]

That last line ("%aN <%aE>") is repeated 98 times. It seems that for some commits, e.g. febf7ea4bedcd36fba0843db726bba28d22bf89a, git rev-list doesn't display any author information when using --pretty:format although when using --pretty:raw, at least some of the information is there:

commit febf7ea4bedcd36fba0843db726bba28d22bf89a
tree 0a0d398e0637fba8292d8b139afbd41b102bb9c4
parent 00213b17cec87d2cd4df75bcc79aea7a91d8532d
author  <[email protected]> 1136284526 +0100
committer  <[email protected]> 1136284526 +0100

    gitignore: ignore more generated files

    Signed-off-by: Sam Ravnborg <[email protected]>

from gitstats.

git 1.8.3.rc2 here, and this is the result:

$ git rev-list --pretty=format:"%at %ai %aN <%aE>" febf7ea4bedcd36fba0843db726bba28d22bf89a |head -n2
commit febf7ea4bedcd36fba0843db726bba28d22bf89a
1136284526 2006-01-03 11:35:26 +0100 Sam Ravnborg <[email protected]>

$ git log -1 febf7ea4bedcd36fba0843db726bba28d22bf89a
commit febf7ea4bedcd36fba0843db726bba28d22bf89a
Author:  <[email protected]>
Date:   Tue Jan 3 11:35:26 2006 +0100

    gitignore: ignore more generated files

    Signed-off-by: Sam Ravnborg <[email protected]>

With git version 1.7.10.4:

$ git rev-list --pretty=format:"%at %ai %aN <%aE>" febf7ea4bedcd36fba0843db726bba28d22bf89a |head -n2
commit febf7ea4bedcd36fba0843db726bba28d22bf89a
  %aN <%aE>

So this might be either a git bug fixed in some revision, or just a difference in behavior. What git version are you running?

from gitstats.

I was running git version 1.7.10.4 (which is the current version in Debian stable/wheezy).

The latest dev version of git works correctly, and apparently, everything from at least 1.8.3.rc2. So as you say, it's an issue with an old version of git.

I think this issue could be closed since updating to a more recent git version fixes the problem.

from gitstats.

Indeed. I was just thinking about whether this could warrant a workaround in gitstats, but I guess downstream distro releases that can't upgrade git can't upgrade gitstats either, so there's no point.

Thanks for the details.

from gitstats.

We have hit this problem in Gentoo as well. The error can be reproduced by running gitstats on https://github.com/gentoo-science/sci. The corresponding Gentoo bug is here: https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=575946

The problem is that git rev-list has invalid UTF-8 characters from authors' names.

I will create a pull request with a possible solution to this problem for @hoxu's review.

from gitstats.