Bug: GitLab searches fails when the branch name includes the "+" character

Summary

A US Government customer raised an issue that when reviewing the results from global search, switching to a branch that includes + returns We couldn't find any projects matching <search-term>.

Relevant info:

• US Federal ticket (Internal access to verified US Citizens only)
• SFDC (internal)

Steps to reproduce

In my example project:

1. Create a branch with +, for example: main+testing
2. Search for a unique term -- for example: Bibliotaph
3. In the search results, switch to the main+testing branch

Example Project

https://gitlab.com/dcoy/6742-weird-branch-issue

What is the current bug behavior?

Switching to branches that include + in search returns We couldn't find any projects matching <search-term>.

What is the expected correct behavior?

Switching branches that include + should display the results if the search term is found.

Relevant logs and/or screenshots

{
  "component": "gitlab",
  "subcomponent": "production_json",
  "method": "GET",
  "path": "/search/count",
  "format": "json",
  "controller": "SearchController",
  "action": "count",
  "status": 200,
  "time": "2023-11-02T18:07:16.598Z",
  "params": [
    {
      "key": "project_id",
      "value": "8"
    },
    {
      "key": "repository_ref",
      "value": "main+testing"
    },
    {
      "key": "scope",
      "value": "milestones"
    },
    {
      "key": "search",
      "value": "[FILTERED]"
    }
  ],
  "correlation_id": "01HE8KFMJSAEPC6Z91NNYG5X0Q",
  "meta.caller_id": "SearchController#count",
  "meta.remote_ip": "[REDACTED]",
  "meta.feature_category": "global_search",
  "meta.user": "dcoy",
  "meta.user_id": 4,
  "meta.client_id": "user/4",
  "meta.search.group_id": null,
  "meta.search.project_id": "8",
  "meta.search.scope": "milestones",
  "meta.search.filters.confidential": null,
  "meta.search.filters.state": null,
  "meta.search.force_search_results": null,
  "meta.search.project_ids": null,
  "meta.search.filters.language": null,
  "abuse.confidence": 1,
  "abuse.messages": [
    "Repository ref abusive characters detected"
  ],
  "remote_ip": "[REDACTED]",
  "user_id": 4,
  "username": "dcoy",
  "ua": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
  "queue_duration_s": 0.00764,
  [...]
  "rate_limiting_gates": [
    "search_rate_limit"
  ],
}

Output of checks

Results of GitLab environment info

Expand for output related to GitLab environment info

kubectl exec -it gl-dcoy-toolbox-77c7f7bdfb-hx4qx -- gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info
Defaulted container "toolbox" out of: toolbox, certificates (init), configure (init)

System information
System:
Proxy:		no
Current User:	git
Using RVM:	no
Ruby Version:	3.0.6p216
Gem Version:	3.4.20
Bundler Version:2.4.20
Rake Version:	13.0.6
Redis Version:	6.0.16
Sidekiq Version:6.5.7
Go Version:	unknown

GitLab information
Version:	16.5.0-ee
Revision:	fc87c9d4cca
Directory:	/srv/gitlab
DB Adapter:	PostgreSQL
DB Version:	14.8
URL:		https://[REDACTED]
HTTP Clone URL:	https://[REDACTED]/some-group/some-project.git
SSH Clone URL:	git@[REDACTED]:some-group/some-project.git
Elasticsearch:	no
Geo:		no
Using LDAP:	no
Using Omniauth:	yes
Omniauth Providers: gitlab

GitLab Shell
Version:	14.29.0
Repository storages:
- default: 	tcp://gl-dcoy-gitaly-0.gl-dcoy-gitaly.default.svc:8075
GitLab Shell path:		/home/git/gitlab-shell

Gitaly
- default Address: 	tcp://gl-dcoy-gitaly-0.gl-dcoy-gitaly.default.svc:8075
- default Version: 	16.5.0
- default Git Version: 	2.42.0

Results of GitLab application Check

Expand for output related to the GitLab application check

kubectl exec -it gl-dcoy-toolbox-77c7f7bdfb-hx4qx -- gitlab-rake gitlab:check SANITIZE=true
Defaulted container "toolbox" out of: toolbox, certificates (init), configure (init)
Checking GitLab subtasks ...
Checking GitLab Shell ...
GitLab Shell: ... GitLab Shell version >= 14.29.0 ? ... OK (14.29.0)
Running /home/git/gitlab-shell/bin/check
gitlab-shell self-check failed
Try fixing it:
Make sure GitLab is running;
Check the gitlab-shell configuration file:
sudo -u git -H editor /home/git/gitlab-shell/config.yml
Please fix the error above and rerun the checks.
Checking GitLab Shell ... Finished
Checking Gitaly ...
Gitaly: ... default ... OK
Checking Gitaly ... Finished
Checking Sidekiq ...
Sidekiq: ... Running? ... no
Try fixing it:
sudo -u git -H RAILS_ENV=production bin/background_jobs start
For more information see:
doc/install/installation.md in section "Install Init Script"
see log/sidekiq.log for possible errors
Please fix the error above and rerun the checks.
Checking Sidekiq ... Finished
Checking Incoming Email ...
Incoming Email: ... Reply by email is disabled in config/gitlab.yml
Checking Incoming Email ... Finished
Checking LDAP ...
LDAP: ... LDAP is disabled in config/gitlab.yml
Checking LDAP ... Finished
Checking GitLab App ...
Database config exists? ... yes
Tables are truncated? ... skipped
All migrations up? ... yes
Database contains orphaned GroupMembers? ... no
GitLab config exists? ... yes
GitLab config up to date? ... yes
Cable config exists? ... yes
Resque config exists? ... yes
Log directory writable? ... yes
Tmp directory writable? ... yes
Uploads directory exists? ... yes
Uploads directory has correct permissions? ... yes
Uploads directory tmp has correct permissions? ... skipped (no tmp uploads folder yet)
Systemd unit files or init script exist? ... no
Try fixing it:
Install the Service
For more information see:
doc/install/installation.md in section "Install the Service"
Please fix the error above and rerun the checks.
Systemd unit files or init script up-to-date? ... can't check because of previous errors
Projects have namespace: ...
1/1 ... yes
5/2 ... yes
5/3 ... yes
5/4 ... yes
5/5 ... yes
5/6 ... yes
5/7 ... yes
5/8 ... yes
14/9 ... yes
14/10 ... yes
14/11 ... yes
14/13 ... yes
14/14 ... yes
26/15 ... yes
26/16 ... yes
14/17 ... yes
14/18 ... yes
14/19 ... yes
34/20 ... yes
14/21 ... yes
14/22 ... yes
Redis version >= 6.0.0? ... yes
Ruby version >= 3.0.6 ? ... yes (3.0.6)
Git user has default SSH configuration? ... yes
Active users: ... 7
Is authorized keys file accessible? ... skipped (authorized keys not enabled)
GitLab configured to store new projects in hashed storage? ... yes
All projects are in hashed storage? ... yes
Elasticsearch version 7.x-8.x or OpenSearch version 1.x ... skipped (Advanced Search is disabled)
All migrations must be finished before doing a major upgrade ... skipped (Advanced Search is disabled)
Checking GitLab App ... Finished
Checking GitLab subtasks ... Finished

Possible fixes