Project.repository should never be nil so you can call repository.exists? or repository.empty?

Also specify separate project factory for project with filled repo

app/helpers/application_helper.rb

@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ module ApplicationHelper
     ]
     project_nav = []
-    if @project && @project.repository && @project.repository.root_ref
+    if @project && @project.repository.exists? && @project.repository.root_ref
       project_nav = [
         { label: "#{simple_sanitize(@project.name_with_namespace)} - Issues",   url: project_issues_path(@project) },
         { label: "#{simple_sanitize(@project.name_with_namespace)} - Commits",  url: project_commits_path(@project, @ref || @project.repository.root_ref) },

app/models/project.rb

@@ -141,13 +141,7 @@ class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
   end
   def repository
-    if path
     @repository ||= Repository.new(path_with_namespace, default_branch)
-    else
-      nil
-    end
-  rescue Gitlab::Git::NoRepository
-    nil
   end
   def saved?
@@ -332,14 +326,14 @@ class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
   end
   def valid_repo?
-    repo
+    repository.exists?
   rescue
     errors.add(:path, "Invalid repository path")
     false
   end
   def empty_repo?
-    !repository || repository.empty?
+    !repository.exists? || repository.empty?
   end
   def ensure_satellite_exists
@@ -363,7 +357,7 @@ class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
   end
   def repo_exists?
-    @repo_exists ||= (repository && repository.branches.present?)
+    @repo_exists ||= repository.exists?
   rescue
     @repo_exists = false
   end

app/models/repository.rb

@@ -3,6 +3,16 @@ class Repository
   def initialize(path_with_namespace, default_branch)
     @raw_repository = Gitlab::Git::Repository.new(path_with_namespace, default_branch)
+  rescue Gitlab::Git::Repository::NoRepository
+    nil
+  end
+
+  def exists?
+    raw_repository
+  end
+
+  def empty?
+    raw_repository.empty?
   end
   def commit(id = nil)

app/views/projects/_clone_panel.html.haml

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
       .form-horizontal= render "shared/clone_panel"
     .span4.pull-right
       .pull-right
-        - unless @project.empty_repo?
+        - if @project.empty_repo?
           - if can? current_user, :download_code, @project
             = link_to archive_project_repository_path(@project), class: "btn-small btn grouped" do
               %i.icon-download-alt

features/steps/shared/project.rb

@@ -3,14 +3,14 @@ module SharedProject
   # Create a project without caring about what it's called
   And "I own a project" do
-    @project = create(:project)
+    @project = create(:project_with_code)
     @project.team << [@user, :master]
   end
   # Create a specific project called "Shop"
   And 'I own project "Shop"' do
     @project = Project.find_by_name "Shop"
-    @project ||= create(:project, name: "Shop")
+    @project ||= create(:project_with_code, name: "Shop")
     @project.team << [@user, :master]
   end

lib/api/projects.rb

@@ -372,7 +372,7 @@ module Gitlab
         ref = params[:ref_name] || user_project.try(:default_branch) || 'master'
         commits = user_project.repository.commits(ref, nil, per_page, page * per_page)
-        present CommitDecorator.decorate(commits), with: Entities::RepoCommit
+        present commits, with: Entities::RepoCommit
       end
       # Get a project snippets

lib/extracts_path.rb

@@ -85,8 +85,8 @@ module ExtractsPath
   # - @id     - A string representing the joined ref and path
   # - @ref    - A string representing the ref (e.g., the branch, tag, or commit SHA)
   # - @path   - A string representing the filesystem path
-  # - @commit - A CommitDecorator representing the commit from the given ref
-  # - @tree   - A TreeDecorator representing the tree at the given ref/path
+  # - @commit - A Commit representing the commit from the given ref
+  # - @tree   - A Tree representing the tree at the given ref/path
   #
   # If the :id parameter appears to be requesting a specific response format,
   # that will be handled as well.

lib/gitlab/markdown.rb

@@ -187,7 +187,7 @@ module Gitlab
     def reference_commit(identifier)
       if @project.valid_repo? && commit = @project.repository.commit(identifier)
-        link_to(identifier, project_commit_url(@project, commit), html_options.merge(title: CommitDecorator.new(commit).link_title, class: "gfm gfm-commit #{html_options[:class]}"))
+        link_to(identifier, project_commit_url(@project, commit), html_options.merge(title: commit.link_title, class: "gfm gfm-commit #{html_options[:class]}"))
       end
     end
   end

spec/factories.rb

@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ FactoryGirl.define do
   factory :project do
     sequence(:name) { |n| "project#{n}" }
-    path { 'gitlabhq' }
+    path { name.downcase.gsub(/\s/, '_') }
     creator
   end
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ FactoryGirl.define do
     issues_tracker_id { "project_name_in_redmine" }
   end
+  factory :project_with_code, parent: :project do
+    path { 'gitlabhq' }
+  end
+
   factory :group do
     sequence(:name) { |n| "group#{n}" }
     path { name.downcase.gsub(/\s/, '_') }

spec/helpers/gitlab_markdown_helper_spec.rb

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ describe GitlabMarkdownHelper do
   let!(:project) { create(:project) }
   let(:user)          { create(:user, username: 'gfm') }
-  let(:commit)        { CommitDecorator.decorate(Commit.new(project.repository.commit)) }
+  let(:commit)        { project.repository.commit) }
   let(:issue)         { create(:issue, project: project) }
   let(:merge_request) { create(:merge_request, project: project) }
   let(:snippet)       { create(:snippet, project: project) }

spec/models/commit_spec.rb

@@ -3,35 +3,32 @@ require 'spec_helper'
 describe Commit do
   let(:commit) { create(:project).repository.commit }
-  describe CommitDecorator do
-    let(:decorator) { CommitDecorator.new(commit) }
   describe '#title' do
     it "returns no_commit_message when safe_message is blank" do
-        decorator.stub(:safe_message).and_return('')
-        decorator.title.should == "--no commit message"
+      commit.stub(:safe_message).and_return('')
+      commit.title.should == "--no commit message"
     end
     it "truncates a message without a newline at 70 characters" do
       message = commit.safe_message * 10
-        decorator.stub(:safe_message).and_return(message)
-        decorator.title.should == "#{message[0..69]}…"
+      commit.stub(:safe_message).and_return(message)
+      commit.title.should == "#{message[0..69]}…"
     end
     it "truncates a message with a newline before 80 characters at the newline" do
       message = commit.safe_message.split(" ").first
-        decorator.stub(:safe_message).and_return(message + "\n" + message)
-        decorator.title.should == message
+      commit.stub(:safe_message).and_return(message + "\n" + message)
+      commit.title.should == message
     end
     it "truncates a message with a newline after 80 characters at 70 characters" do
       message = (commit.safe_message * 10) + "\n"
-        decorator.stub(:safe_message).and_return(message)
-        decorator.title.should == "#{message[0..69]}…"
-      end
+      commit.stub(:safe_message).and_return(message)
+      commit.title.should == "#{message[0..69]}…"
     end
   end

spec/models/project_spec.rb

@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ describe Project do
   end
   describe :update_merge_requests do
-    let(:project) { create(:project) }
+    let(:project) { create(:project_with_code) }
     before do
       @merge_request = create(:merge_request, project: project)
@@ -187,11 +187,7 @@ describe Project do
     let(:project) { create(:project) }
     it "should return valid repo" do
-      project.repository.should be_kind_of(Gitlab::Git::Repository)
-    end
-
-    it "should return nil" do
-      Project.new(path: "empty").repository.should be_nil
+      project.repository.should be_kind_of(Repository)
     end
   end
@@ -249,7 +245,7 @@ describe Project do
   end
   describe :open_branches do
-    let(:project) { create(:project) }
+    let(:project) { create(:project_with_code) }
     before do
       project.protected_branches.create(name: 'master')

spec/spec_helper.rb

@@ -47,11 +47,7 @@ Spork.prefork do
     config.use_transactional_fixtures = false
     config.before do
-      # Use tmp dir for FS manipulations
-      temp_repos_path = Rails.root.join('tmp', 'test-git-base-path')
-      Gitlab.config.gitlab_shell.stub(repos_path: temp_repos_path)
-      FileUtils.rm_rf temp_repos_path
-      FileUtils.mkdir_p temp_repos_path
+      TestEnv.init
     end
   end
 end