Finder repository-root identity

The pinned source is TortoiseGit 7338078f8ddd924b8cddee35f512f2286072136d: TGitCache/GITStatusCache.cpp, CachedDirectory.cpp, TortoiseShell/ContextMenu.cpp and Git/GitIndex.cpp. Their status cache, path ownership, repository-wide menu facts and status lookup are adapted to native Finder snapshots and the owned macOS cache service. This is partial Finder parity, not a new Windows cache engine.

Repository facts and selection

File statuses already retain exact UTF-8 identities. Repository metadata now uses the same path map, so canonically equivalent spellings cannot overwrite another root's merge, Bisect, stash, LFS, SVN or submodule-parent facts. The nearest root, common selection owner, registered child owner, deletion/rename eligibility and cross-root transfer gate use exact component boundaries. An exact cached namespace wins. A unique canonical filesystem alias remains supported; an ambiguous alias fails closed rather than borrowing another root's metadata. This cache does not authorize repository access. App-side discovery, grants and operation validation remain necessary after a Finder command is selected.

Root replacement/removal preserves independent nested checkouts, raw metadata, index flags and badges for other roots. Folder aggregation and recursive submodule badges stay within the exact owning tree. Child-scan failure paths and cycle guards, service directory counts and queued cache removals also retain exact identities. Finder request relative-path extraction uses byte boundaries instead of grapheme counts and cannot treat a canonical peer as a selected root or descendant.

Snapshot and writer migration

The shared snapshot adds lossless repositoriesV2 records, alongside the existing lossless file/overlay/index-flag fields. Current readers prefer the new records and reject malformed/duplicate exact keys. Legacy metadata remains a deterministic first-byte-sorted projection. Older extensions can read that reduced field while an app update is being activated; their format cannot represent canonical peers. Existing legacy snapshots still load, but names already lost in an older writer's String dictionary cannot be reconstructed from that snapshot.

The private .writers file migrates version 1 to version 2 while preserving its store UUID, monotonic counter and known tickets. Version 2 stores root/sequence and root/consumed records losslessly. Newer same-root or overlapping subtree reads supersede old ones; independent canonical peers no longer supersede each other. Removal consumes that root's pending work without erasing its peer. Invalid cross-root and non-normalized payloads fail before publication. Locking, atomic snapshot replacement and cancellation remain in the existing store.

Older app/cache-service writers refuse version 2 instead of overwriting its exact keys. Update/restart both writers together; do not downgrade by deleting the writer file while another process is publishing. Installed extension readers still use the compatible status snapshot. No bookmark/credential format is changed by this batch.

Validation scope and open work

The batch checkpoint covers lossless/legacy decoding, exact ownership and ambiguous aliases, root removal/reopen, ticket ordering, format migration, invalid payloads, badges and selected-path round trips. The native receiver exercises production Finder menu construction/icons, primitive one-use dispatch, concurrent owned cache writers and the retained two-foreground-model publication/event family.

The native host volume may alias canonical filenames. The wire fixture intentionally retains both spellings; it does not prove two physical canonical-peer directories exist on that volume. Physical multi-volume Finder behavior, migration between installed signed versions, security-scoped bookmark aliases, minimum OS, all icon sets/menu masks and full App Store distribution acceptance remain open. No new screenshot or complete Finder/port certification follows from this batch.

The 18 October checkpoint records 71 distinct relevant Core cases with passing evidence across the initial unaffected cases and focused repairs. Two Debug builds and both native engine cases passed; only the affected transfer/creation checks were repeated after final alias-owner review. Initial compile/legacy-fixture failures are retained. All four receivers, eight reported exact-root workers and eight retained publication workers were reaped. The twelve reported PIDs were independently absent. No full Core, signed deployment, physical Finder or full hosted CI certification is made.

The query-lifetime continuation reuses the exact namespace and owner-scoped descendant state within each snapshot value. Mutations detach query data from retained copies; source masks, wire identities and migration policy remain as documented above.