fix(installer): never let a stale --commit pin roll an install backwards

hermes-setup.exe bakes its build-time commit into the binary
(BUILD_PIN_COMMIT) and passes it as -Commit on every install-mode run,
including the retry the desktop's "Update didn't finish" screen kicks
off. The repository stage checked that SHA out unconditionally, so an
installer built months earlier rewound a current managed checkout to its
build commit -- 9,160 commits in the reported case -- leaving ancient
source against a current venv. npm then failed on workspaces that did not
exist yet at that commit, and every later update ran against the wrong
tree.

Skip the pin when its target is already an ancestor of HEAD. Fresh clones
have no such ancestry so reproducible/CI pinning is unchanged, and
--force-commit / -ForceCommit still rolls back on purpose.
This commit is contained in:
Brooklyn Nicholson 2026-07-29 17:35:16 -05:00
parent fc551f9691
commit b3daf1609c
3 changed files with 199 additions and 4 deletions

View file

@ -22,6 +22,12 @@ param(
# cloning the full default-branch history) and then `git checkout`s the
# exact ref. Precedence: Commit > Tag > Branch.
[string]$Commit = "",
# Apply -Commit even when it would roll an existing install BACKWARDS.
# Without this the repository stage skips a pin that is already an ancestor
# of HEAD, so a stale baked-in BUILD_PIN_COMMIT can't downgrade a current
# checkout. Reproducible/CI installs that genuinely want an older SHA on an
# existing tree pass -ForceCommit.
[switch]$ForceCommit,
[string]$Tag = "",
[string]$HermesHome = $(if ($env:HERMES_HOME) { $env:HERMES_HOME } else { "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes" }),
[string]$InstallDir = $(if ($env:HERMES_HOME) { "$env:HERMES_HOME\hermes-agent" } else { "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\hermes-agent" }),
@ -1505,8 +1511,32 @@ function Install-Repository {
# Make sure we have the commit locally (a tag-less commit
# SHA isn't always reachable from any one branch fetch).
git -c windows.appendAtomically=false fetch origin $Commit
git -c windows.appendAtomically=false checkout --detach $Commit
if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) { throw "git checkout $Commit failed (exit $LASTEXITCODE)" }
# A commit pin must never move an existing install
# BACKWARDS. hermes-setup.exe bakes its build-time commit
# into the binary (BUILD_PIN_COMMIT) and passes it as
# -Commit on every install-mode run -- including the retry
# the desktop's "Update didn't finish" screen kicks off. An
# installer built months ago would otherwise rewind a
# current checkout to its build commit, leaving ancient
# code against a current venv (npm workspaces and Python
# deps that no longer match: the #74xxx report). Skip the
# pin when the target is already an ancestor of HEAD; a
# fresh clone has no such ancestry and pins normally.
$skipRollback = $false
if (-not $ForceCommit) {
git -c windows.appendAtomically=false merge-base --is-ancestor $Commit HEAD 2>$null
$isAncestor = ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0)
$pinnedSha = (& git -c windows.appendAtomically=false rev-parse "$Commit^{commit}" 2>$null)
$headSha = (& git -c windows.appendAtomically=false rev-parse HEAD 2>$null)
$skipRollback = $isAncestor -and ($pinnedSha -ne $headSha)
}
if ($skipRollback) {
Write-Warn "Ignoring -Commit $Commit`: the checkout is already newer."
Write-Warn "Pinning to it would roll this install back. Pass -ForceCommit to override."
} else {
git -c windows.appendAtomically=false checkout --detach $Commit
if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) { throw "git checkout $Commit failed (exit $LASTEXITCODE)" }
}
} elseif ($Tag) {
git -c windows.appendAtomically=false fetch origin "refs/tags/${Tag}:refs/tags/${Tag}"
git -c windows.appendAtomically=false checkout --detach "refs/tags/$Tag"

View file

@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ SKIP_BROWSER=false
NO_SKILLS=false
BRANCH="main"
INSTALL_COMMIT=""
FORCE_COMMIT=false
ENSURE_DEPS=""
MANIFEST_MODE=false
@ -117,6 +118,10 @@ while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
INSTALL_COMMIT="$2"
shift 2
;;
--force-commit|-ForceCommit)
FORCE_COMMIT=true
shift
;;
--manifest|-Manifest)
MANIFEST_MODE=true
shift
@ -165,6 +170,8 @@ while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
echo " 'hermes update' runs never inject bundled skills either"
echo " --branch NAME Git branch to install (default: main)"
echo " --commit SHA Pin checkout to a specific commit after clone/update"
echo " (ignored when it would roll an existing install back)"
echo " --force-commit Apply --commit even if it rolls the install backwards"
echo " --manifest Print desktop bootstrap stage manifest as JSON"
echo " --stage NAME Run one desktop bootstrap stage"
echo " --json Print a JSON result frame for --stage"
@ -1330,11 +1337,31 @@ EOF
cd "$INSTALL_DIR"
if [ -n "$INSTALL_COMMIT" ]; then
log_info "Pinning checkout to commit $INSTALL_COMMIT..."
# A commit pin must never move an existing install BACKWARDS. The
# bootstrap installer bakes its build-time commit into the binary
# (BUILD_PIN_COMMIT) and passes it as --commit on every install-mode
# run -- including the one the desktop's failure screen retries. An
# installer built months ago would otherwise rewind a current checkout
# to its build commit, stranding the user on ancient code with a
# current venv. Only pin when the target is not already an ancestor of
# HEAD; a fresh clone has no such ancestry and pins normally.
if ! git cat-file -e "$INSTALL_COMMIT^{commit}" 2>/dev/null; then
git fetch origin "$INSTALL_COMMIT" || true
fi
git checkout --detach "$INSTALL_COMMIT"
if git rev-parse --verify --quiet HEAD >/dev/null 2>&1 \
&& git merge-base --is-ancestor "$INSTALL_COMMIT" HEAD 2>/dev/null \
&& [ "$(git rev-parse "$INSTALL_COMMIT^{commit}" 2>/dev/null)" != "$(git rev-parse HEAD)" ]; then
if [ "$FORCE_COMMIT" = true ]; then
log_warn "--force-commit: rolling this install back to $INSTALL_COMMIT."
git checkout --detach "$INSTALL_COMMIT"
else
log_warn "Ignoring --commit $INSTALL_COMMIT: the checkout is already newer."
log_warn "Pinning to it would roll this install back. Pass --force-commit to override."
fi
else
log_info "Pinning checkout to commit $INSTALL_COMMIT..."
git checkout --detach "$INSTALL_COMMIT"
fi
fi
log_success "Repository ready"

View file

@ -0,0 +1,138 @@
"""Regression: a stale ``--commit`` pin must not roll an install backwards.
``hermes-setup.exe`` bakes its build-time commit into the binary
(``BUILD_PIN_COMMIT``) and passes it as ``-Commit`` / ``--commit`` on every
install-mode run including the retry the desktop's "Update didn't finish"
screen kicks off. The repository stage used to ``git checkout --detach`` that
SHA unconditionally, so an installer built months earlier rewound a current
managed checkout to its build commit (observed: ~9k commits back), leaving
ancient source against a current venv npm workspaces and Python deps that no
longer match, and every subsequent update failing against the wrong tree.
The pin is skipped when its target is already an ancestor of HEAD, unless the
caller explicitly passes ``--force-commit`` / ``-ForceCommit``. A fresh clone
has no such ancestry, so reproducible/CI pinning is unaffected.
``install.ps1`` carries the same guard (that is the path the Windows report
hit), but there is no PowerShell host in CI to execute it against a real repo,
and asserting on the script's *source text* would test its shape rather than
its behavior. These run the bash implementation of the same logic for real.
"""
from __future__ import annotations
import re
import shutil
import subprocess
from pathlib import Path
import pytest
REPO_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
INSTALL_SH = REPO_ROOT / "scripts" / "install.sh"
pytestmark = pytest.mark.skipif(
shutil.which("git") is None or shutil.which("bash") is None,
reason="needs git and bash",
)
def _git(cwd: Path, *args: str) -> str:
return subprocess.run(
["git", "-c", "user.email=t@t", "-c", "user.name=t", *args],
cwd=cwd,
check=True,
capture_output=True,
text=True,
).stdout.strip()
def _extract_pin_block() -> str:
"""Pull the commit-pin block out of install.sh's update_repo()."""
text = INSTALL_SH.read_text()
match = re.search(
r'if \[ -n "\$INSTALL_COMMIT" \]; then.*?\n fi\n',
text,
re.DOTALL,
)
assert match is not None, "commit-pin block not found in install.sh"
return match.group(0)
@pytest.fixture
def repo(tmp_path):
"""A checkout with three commits, HEAD at the newest."""
origin = tmp_path / "origin"
origin.mkdir()
_git(origin, "init", "-q", "-b", "main")
shas = []
for n in range(3):
(origin / "f.txt").write_text(f"rev{n}\n")
_git(origin, "add", "f.txt")
_git(origin, "commit", "-qm", f"rev{n}")
shas.append(_git(origin, "rev-parse", "HEAD"))
return origin, shas
def _run_pin_block(repo_dir: Path, commit: str, *, force: bool = False) -> str:
"""Execute install.sh's pin block standalone against ``repo_dir``."""
script = "\n".join(
[
"set -e",
"log_info() { echo \"INFO $*\"; }",
"log_warn() { echo \"WARN $*\"; }",
f'INSTALL_COMMIT="{commit}"',
f'FORCE_COMMIT={"true" if force else "false"}',
f'cd "{repo_dir}"',
_extract_pin_block(),
]
)
return subprocess.run(
["bash", "-c", script],
capture_output=True,
text=True,
check=True,
).stdout
def test_stale_pin_does_not_rewind_a_newer_checkout(repo):
"""The reported failure: an old baked-in pin downgrading a current tree."""
repo_dir, shas = repo
head_before = _git(repo_dir, "rev-parse", "HEAD")
out = _run_pin_block(repo_dir, shas[0])
assert _git(repo_dir, "rev-parse", "HEAD") == head_before, (
"a pin older than HEAD must leave the checkout where it is"
)
assert "already newer" in out
def test_force_commit_still_rolls_back(repo):
"""Reproducible/CI installs that genuinely want an older SHA keep working."""
repo_dir, shas = repo
_run_pin_block(repo_dir, shas[0], force=True)
assert _git(repo_dir, "rev-parse", "HEAD") == shas[0]
def test_pin_to_current_head_is_applied(repo):
"""Pinning to HEAD itself is a no-op checkout, not a skipped one."""
repo_dir, shas = repo
out = _run_pin_block(repo_dir, shas[2])
assert _git(repo_dir, "rev-parse", "HEAD") == shas[2]
assert "already newer" not in out
def test_pin_to_a_newer_commit_is_applied(repo):
"""Rolling FORWARD to a newer pin is the legitimate case — never blocked."""
repo_dir, shas = repo
_git(repo_dir, "checkout", "-q", "--detach", shas[0])
out = _run_pin_block(repo_dir, shas[2])
assert _git(repo_dir, "rev-parse", "HEAD") == shas[2]
assert "already newer" not in out