diff below does two things:

 - drops the unused path argument to got_get_repo_{owner,age}

 - makes gotweb_get_repo_{description,clone_url} use openat instead of
   re-constructing the path.  less strings allocated on-the-fly.

I couldn't help myself not to change `len' to be at least `long' to
match ftell(3) return type.  side question: for nitpicking' sake,
should we also make sure len is less than SIZE_MAX-1 before trying to
calloc?  (minus one to account for NUL.)

diff /home/op/w/got
commit - 906ae6c0c06930fb1fc983786177f7de6c4d0403
path + /home/op/w/got
blob - b5a140ba22d460fe720b01f0db1a2c26b2d0661f
file + gotwebd/got_operations.c
--- gotwebd/got_operations.c
+++ gotwebd/got_operations.c
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ got_get_repo_owner(char **owner, struct request *c, ch
 }
 
 const struct got_error *
-got_get_repo_owner(char **owner, struct request *c, char *dir)
+got_get_repo_owner(char **owner, struct request *c)
 {
 	struct server *srv = c->srv;
 	struct transport *t = c->t;
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ got_get_repo_age(char **repo_age, struct request *c, c
 }
 
 const struct got_error *
-got_get_repo_age(char **repo_age, struct request *c, char *dir,
+got_get_repo_age(char **repo_age, struct request *c,
     const char *refname, int ref_tm)
 {
 	const struct got_error *error = NULL;
blob - 09d8f166fab40a704104d07aaa4c8e0564295c66
file + gotwebd/gotweb.c
--- gotwebd/gotweb.c
+++ gotwebd/gotweb.c
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 #include <dirent.h>
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <event.h>
+#include <fcntl.h>
 #include <imsg.h>
 #include <sha1.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
@@ -93,9 +94,9 @@ static const struct got_error *gotweb_get_repo_descrip
 static const struct got_error *gotweb_load_got_path(struct request *c,
     struct repo_dir *);
 static const struct got_error *gotweb_get_repo_description(char **,
-    struct server *, char *);
+    struct server *, DIR *);
 static const struct got_error *gotweb_get_clone_url(char **, struct server *,
-    char *);
+    DIR *);
 static const struct got_error *gotweb_render_navs(struct request *);
 static const struct got_error *gotweb_render_blame(struct request *);
 static const struct got_error *gotweb_render_briefs(struct request *);
@@ -1545,8 +1546,7 @@ gotweb_render_branches(struct request *c)
 		if (strncmp(refname, "refs/heads/", 11) != 0)
 			continue;
 
-		error = got_get_repo_age(&age, c, qs->path, refname,
-		    TM_DIFF);
+		error = got_get_repo_age(&age, c, refname, TM_DIFF);
 		if (error)
 			goto done;
 
@@ -2431,7 +2431,6 @@ done:
 		goto err;
 	}
 
-
 	repo = find_cached_repo(srv, repo_dir->path);
 	if (repo == NULL) {
 		error = cache_repo(&repo, srv, repo_dir, sock);
@@ -2439,18 +2438,16 @@ done:
 			goto err;
 	}
 	t->repo = repo;
-	error = gotweb_get_repo_description(&repo_dir->description, srv,
-	    repo_dir->path);
+	error = gotweb_get_repo_description(&repo_dir->description, srv, dt);
 	if (error)
 		goto err;
-	error = got_get_repo_owner(&repo_dir->owner, c, repo_dir->path);
+	error = got_get_repo_owner(&repo_dir->owner, c);
 	if (error)
 		goto err;
-	error = got_get_repo_age(&repo_dir->age, c, repo_dir->path,
-	    NULL, TM_DIFF);
+	error = got_get_repo_age(&repo_dir->age, c, NULL, TM_DIFF);
 	if (error)
 		goto err;
-	error = gotweb_get_clone_url(&repo_dir->url, srv, repo_dir->path);
+	error = gotweb_get_clone_url(&repo_dir->url, srv, dt);
 err:
 	free(dir_test);
 	if (dt != NULL && closedir(dt) == EOF && error == NULL)
@@ -2483,28 +2480,32 @@ gotweb_get_repo_description(char **description, struct
 }
 
 static const struct got_error *
-gotweb_get_repo_description(char **description, struct server *srv, char *dir)
+gotweb_get_repo_description(char **description, struct server *srv, DIR *dir)
 {
 	const struct got_error *error = NULL;
 	FILE *f = NULL;
-	char *d_file = NULL;
-	unsigned int len;
+	int fd;
+	long len;
 	size_t n;
 
 	*description = NULL;
 	if (srv->show_repo_description == 0)
 		return NULL;
 
-	if (asprintf(&d_file, "%s/description", dir) == -1)
-		return got_error_from_errno("asprintf");
-
-	f = fopen(d_file, "r");
-	if (f == NULL) {
+	fd = openat(dirfd(dir), "description", O_RDONLY);
+	if (fd == -1) {
 		if (errno != ENOENT && errno != EACCES)
-			error = got_error_from_errno2("fopen", d_file);
+			error = got_error_from_errno2("openat", "description");
 		goto done;
 	}
 
+	f = fdopen(fd, "r");
+	if (f == NULL) {
+		error = got_error_from_errno("fdopen");
+		close(fd);
+		goto done;
+	}
+
 	if (fseek(f, 0, SEEK_END) == -1) {
 		error = got_ferror(f, GOT_ERR_IO);
 		goto done;
@@ -2538,17 +2539,16 @@ done:
 done:
 	if (f != NULL && fclose(f) == EOF && error == NULL)
 		error = got_error_from_errno("fclose");
-	free(d_file);
 	return error;
 }
 
 static const struct got_error *
-gotweb_get_clone_url(char **url, struct server *srv, char *dir)
+gotweb_get_clone_url(char **url, struct server *srv, DIR *dir)
 {
 	const struct got_error *error = NULL;
-	FILE *f;
-	char *d_file = NULL;
-	unsigned int len;
+	FILE *f = NULL;
+	int fd;
+	long len;
 	size_t n;
 
 	*url = NULL;
@@ -2556,16 +2556,20 @@ gotweb_get_clone_url(char **url, struct server *srv, c
 	if (srv->show_repo_cloneurl == 0)
 		return NULL;
 
-	if (asprintf(&d_file, "%s/cloneurl", dir) == -1)
-		return got_error_from_errno("asprintf");
-
-	f = fopen(d_file, "r");
-	if (f == NULL) {
+	fd = openat(dirfd(dir), "cloneurl", O_RDONLY);
+	if (fd == -1) {
 		if (errno != ENOENT && errno != EACCES)
-			error = got_error_from_errno2("fopen", d_file);
+			error = got_error_from_errno2("fopen", "cloneurl");
 		goto done;
 	}
 
+	f = fdopen(fd, "r");
+	if (f == NULL) {
+		error = got_error_from_errno("fdopen");
+		close(fd);
+		goto done;
+	}
+
 	if (fseek(f, 0, SEEK_END) == -1) {
 		error = got_ferror(f, GOT_ERR_IO);
 		goto done;
@@ -2595,7 +2599,6 @@ done:
 done:
 	if (f != NULL && fclose(f) == EOF && error == NULL)
 		error = got_error_from_errno("fclose");
-	free(d_file);
 	return error;
 }
 
blob - a8a55276acbd0b209205938c75b88d6918b1c6b8
file + gotwebd/gotwebd.h
--- gotwebd/gotwebd.h
+++ gotwebd/gotwebd.h
@@ -455,8 +455,8 @@ const struct got_error *got_get_repo_owner(char **, st
 int fcgi_gen_binary_response(struct request *, const uint8_t *, int);
 
 /* got_operations.c */
-const struct got_error *got_get_repo_owner(char **, struct request *, char *);
-const struct got_error *got_get_repo_age(char **, struct request *, char *,
+const struct got_error *got_get_repo_owner(char **, struct request *);
+const struct got_error *got_get_repo_age(char **, struct request *,
     const char *, int);
 const struct got_error *got_get_repo_commits(struct request *, int);
 const struct got_error *got_get_repo_tags(struct request *, int);