Back in 5b92477f89 (builtin/gc.c: conditionally avoid pruning objects
via loose, 2022-05-20), `git gc` learned the `--cruft` option and
`gc.cruftPacks` configuration to opt-in to writing cruft packs when
collecting or pruning unreachable objects.
Cruft packs were introduced with the merge in a50036da1a (Merge branch
'tb/cruft-packs', 2022-06-03). They address the problem of "loose object
explosions", where Git will write out many individual loose objects when
there is a large number of unreachable objects that have not yet aged
past `--prune=<date>`.
Instead of keeping track of those unreachable yet recent objects via
their loose object file's mtime, cruft packs collect all unreachable
objects into a single pack with a corresponding `*.mtimes` file that
acts as a table to store the mtimes of all unreachable objects. This
prevents the need to store unreachable objects as loose as they age out
of the repository, and avoids the problem of loose object explosions.
Beyond avoiding loose object explosions, cruft packs also act as a more
efficient mechanism to store unreachable objects as they age out of a
repository. This is because pairs of similar unreachable objects serve
as delta bases for one another.
In 5b92477f89, the feature was introduced as experimental. Since then,
GitHub has been running these patches in every repository generating
hundreds of millions of cruft packs along the way. The feature is
battle-tested, and avoids many pathological cases such as above. Users
who either run `git gc` manually, or via `git maintenance` can benefit
from having cruft packs.
As such, enable cruft pack generation to take place by default (by
making `gc.cruftPacks` have the default of "true" rather than "false).
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Integrate the cruft packs documentation initially added in
3d89a8c118 (Documentation/technical: add cruft-packs.txt, 2022-05-20)
to the newly created "gitformat-pack" documentation.
Like the "bitmap-format" added before it in
0d4455a3ab (documentation: add documentation for the bitmap format,
2013-11-14) the "cruft-packs" were documented in their own file.
As the diff move detection will show there is no change to
"Documentation/technical/cruft-packs.txt" here except to move it, and
to "indent" the existing sections by adding an extra "=" to them.
We could similarly convert the "bitmap-format.txt", but let's leave it
for now due to a conflict with the in-flight ac/bitmap-lookup-table
series.
Signed-off-by: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Continue the move of existing Documentation/technical/* protocol and
file-format documentation into our main documentation space by moving
the various documentation pertaining to the *.pack format and related
files, and updating things that refer to it to link to the new
location.
By moving these we can properly link from the newly created
gitformat-commit-graph to a gitformat-chunk-format page.
Integrating "Documentation/technical/bitmap-format.txt" and
"Documentation/technical/cruft-packs.txt" might logically be part of
this change, but as those cover parts of the wider "pack
format" (including associated files) that's documented outside of
"Documentation/technical/pack-format.txt" let's leave those for now,
subsequent commit(s) will address those.
Signed-off-by: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2022-08-04 14:12:24 -07:00
Renamed from Documentation/technical/pack-format.txt (Browse further)
