From 513fed323a86f30996adc8e66f6cf6641b40e77a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Chris Lu <chris.lu@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2021 02:30:44 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] SkipListElementReference can be an empty object

---
 weed/util/skiplist/skiplist_serde.go | 12 +++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/weed/util/skiplist/skiplist_serde.go b/weed/util/skiplist/skiplist_serde.go
index 5b7089e80..e528b8a3d 100644
--- a/weed/util/skiplist/skiplist_serde.go
+++ b/weed/util/skiplist/skiplist_serde.go
@@ -34,8 +34,18 @@ func (t *SkipList) deleteElement(element *SkipListElement) error {
 }
 
 func (t *SkipList) loadElement(ref *SkipListElementReference) (*SkipListElement, error) {
-	if ref == nil {
+	if ref.IsNil() {
 		return nil, nil
 	}
 	return t.listStore.LoadElement(ref.ElementPointer)
 }
+
+func (ref *SkipListElementReference) IsNil() bool {
+	if ref == nil {
+		return true
+	}
+	if len(ref.Key) == 0 {
+		return true
+	}
+	return false
+}
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