From: Stefan Sperling <stsp@stsp.name>
Subject: Re: `populating an empty repository with got send'
To: Sylvain Saboua <sylvain@saboua.me>
Cc: Simon Harrison <info@simonh.uk>, Gameoftrees <gameoftrees@openbsd.org>
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2026 11:04:33 +0200

The issue here is that cloning an empty repository will always fail,
and no got.conf file will be created. Sending to an empty repository
is possible but requires a got.conf file to be created first.

Perhaps we need to improve error reporting, or teach Got to handle
the empty clone case by creating an empty repository with a minimal
got.conf file that points at the server which the repository was
cloned from.

I am not sure if this would always lead to satisfactory results.
But it might be better than the current behaviour, which is clearly
non-intuitive unless one already knows how got.conf is used during
clone/fetch and send operations.

On Sat, Aug 15, 2026 at 06:08:36PM +0200, Sylvain Saboua wrote:
> Problem solved, I was confused to think that got would
> automatically register the source/origin credentials when
> cloning a repo.
> 
> On 2026-08-15 17:26, Simon Harrison wrote:
> > On Sat, 15 Aug 2026 15:41:02 +0200
> > Sylvain Saboua <sylvain@saboua.me> wrote:
> > 
> > > >  $ cd bkup
> > > >  $ got send -b main
> > > > got: origin: remote repository not found
> > > >  $ got send -b main sylvain@srv:bkup
> > > > got: sylvain@srv:bkup: remote repository not found
> > > >
> > > > Am I doing a mistake with the send command ?
> > 
> > It may be worth posting your local got.conf as got is reporting that it
> > can't find the remote repo:
> > 
> > > > got: origin: remote repository not found
> > 
> I'm sorry ... does got requires a local got.conf file in order to be
> able to send updates to the remote server it fetched the repo from ?!
> I don't remember needing nor configuring that when I first tried a got
> client some time ago ...
> 
> > For reference, this is what I use for sending to my servers (with using
> > gotd btw):
> > 
> > $ cat got.conf
> > remote "server1" {
> >   server server1.com
> >   protocol ssh
> >   repository "/home/simon/repo/simonh/simonh-scripts.git"
> > }
> > 
> > remote "server2" {
> >   server server1.com
> >   protocol ssh
> >   repository "/home/simon/repo/simonh/simonh-scripts.git"
> > }
> 
> Thanks, the following worked :
> 
>  $ pwd
> /Users/sylvansab/hax/got/bkup/
>  $ more .got/got.conf
> remote "origin" {
>         server sylvain@srv
>         protocol ssh
>         repository "bkup"
> }
>  $ got send
> Connecting to "origin" ssh://sylvain@srv/bkup
> 1 commit colored; 3 objects found; 1 tree scanned
> packing 1 reference; 3 objects; deltify: 100%; uploading pack:  236B 100%
> Server has accepted refs/heads/main
> 
> -- 
> Sylvain Saboua
> looking for a PDP-11
> 
>