Cache file does not exist.

[dworthen]

Describe the bug
I updated to the newest cli, version 1.1.4, and added the follow values to ~/.gov4git/config.json

  "cache_dir": "/Users/derek/.gov4git/cache",
  "cache_ttl_seconds": 120,

I am working with an existing community and identity repos so I skipped the init commands. The first command I ran after updating was gov4git ballot show --name issues/1 which resulted in the following error

 g4g ballot show --name issues/1

url="\\Users\\derek\\.gov4git\\cache\\ufxiq2z37alq4jvk52ra5xmw5d74t4ql5ine72rzz43gsn4vg44a\\repo" refspecs=["refs/heads/main:refs/heads/main"] err=exec: "C:\\Program Files\\Git\\mingw64\\libexec\\git-core\\git-upload-pack": file does not exist

I tried running gov4git cache update, which results in no response in the CLI, then rerun the above command and I get the same error. I also get the error from other commands such as gov4git ballot list.

The command appears to create the cache directory filled with guid directories but seems to fail to locate the git-upload-pack. Why is it searching for git binaries? I thought a pure go implementation of git was being used. Any suggestions?

I am running this on Windows.

[dworthen]

I updated my git from version 2.40 to 2.42 and that resolved the issue. Is git a requirement for users to use gov4git?

[petar]

There are a couple of things here.

Overall the new release could not work with your old cache because the format of the cache directory changed.

But thanks to this problem, we are discovering that go-git uses a local git binary in some cases.

I dug into the go-git code ade and discovered https://github.com/go-git/go-git/blob/master/plumbing/transport/file/client.go#L19 that for local URLs which use the "file protocol", go git relies on the local binary.

This is annoying and I've inquired if this can be fixed. But for now I'd assume it cannot be fixed in the short term.

Other users go-git/go-git#614 on the go-git issues board have also experienced hangs during erroneous conditions during local repo access.

I wonder if we can pursue some lightweight solution for M1. For instance:

• require a newer version of git installed, or
• package git in the binary app (probably too messy?)

[petar]

FYI I am investigating remedies here go-git/go-git#838

[petar]

I prepared an RC that configured go-git not to use an external git binary https://github.com/gov4git/gov4git/releases/tag/v1.1.8-rc-nogitbinary

This requires comprehensive testing on Windows and through the desktop app before we have confidence to adopt it.

The go-git native approach is not 100% compatible with the alternative of using git binary 2.42, however the incompatibilities do not seem to fall within the use cases of gov4git.