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The Implementation Plan section lists a 'bundle.flag' option that is not documented anywhere else. What is documented elsewhere in the document and implemented by previous changes is the 'bundle.heuristic' config key. For now, a heuristic is required to indicate that a bundle list is organized for use during 'git fetch', and it is also sufficient for all existing designs. Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <derrickstolee@github.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
573 lines
26 KiB
Plaintext
573 lines
26 KiB
Plaintext
Bundle URIs
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===========
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Git bundles are files that store a pack-file along with some extra metadata,
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including a set of refs and a (possibly empty) set of necessary commits. See
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linkgit:git-bundle[1] and linkgit:gitformat-bundle[5] for more information.
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Bundle URIs are locations where Git can download one or more bundles in
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order to bootstrap the object database in advance of fetching the remaining
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objects from a remote.
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One goal is to speed up clones and fetches for users with poor network
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connectivity to the origin server. Another benefit is to allow heavy users,
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such as CI build farms, to use local resources for the majority of Git data
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and thereby reducing the load on the origin server.
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To enable the bundle URI feature, users can specify a bundle URI using
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command-line options or the origin server can advertise one or more URIs
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via a protocol v2 capability.
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Design Goals
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------------
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The bundle URI standard aims to be flexible enough to satisfy multiple
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workloads. The bundle provider and the Git client have several choices in
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how they create and consume bundle URIs.
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* Bundles can have whatever name the server desires. This name could refer
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to immutable data by using a hash of the bundle contents. However, this
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means that a new URI will be needed after every update of the content.
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This might be acceptable if the server is advertising the URI (and the
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server is aware of new bundles being generated) but would not be
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ergonomic for users using the command line option.
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* The bundles could be organized specifically for bootstrapping full
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clones, but could also be organized with the intention of bootstrapping
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incremental fetches. The bundle provider must decide on one of several
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organization schemes to minimize client downloads during incremental
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fetches, but the Git client can also choose whether to use bundles for
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either of these operations.
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* The bundle provider can choose to support full clones, partial clones,
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or both. The client can detect which bundles are appropriate for the
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repository's partial clone filter, if any.
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* The bundle provider can use a single bundle (for clones only), or a
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list of bundles. When using a list of bundles, the provider can specify
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whether or not the client needs _all_ of the bundle URIs for a full
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clone, or if _any_ one of the bundle URIs is sufficient. This allows the
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bundle provider to use different URIs for different geographies.
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* The bundle provider can organize the bundles using heuristics, such as
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creation tokens, to help the client prevent downloading bundles it does
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not need. When the bundle provider does not provide these heuristics,
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the client can use optimizations to minimize how much of the data is
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downloaded.
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* The bundle provider does not need to be associated with the Git server.
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The client can choose to use the bundle provider without it being
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advertised by the Git server.
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* The client can choose to discover bundle providers that are advertised
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by the Git server. This could happen during `git clone`, during
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`git fetch`, both, or neither. The user can choose which combination
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works best for them.
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* The client can choose to configure a bundle provider manually at any
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time. The client can also choose to specify a bundle provider manually
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as a command-line option to `git clone`.
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Each repository is different and every Git server has different needs.
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Hopefully the bundle URI feature is flexible enough to satisfy all needs.
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If not, then the feature can be extended through its versioning mechanism.
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Server requirements
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-------------------
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To provide a server-side implementation of bundle servers, no other parts
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of the Git protocol are required. This allows server maintainers to use
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static content solutions such as CDNs in order to serve the bundle files.
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At the current scope of the bundle URI feature, all URIs are expected to
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be HTTP(S) URLs where content is downloaded to a local file using a `GET`
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request to that URL. The server could include authentication requirements
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to those requests with the aim of triggering the configured credential
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helper for secure access. (Future extensions could use "file://" URIs or
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SSH URIs.)
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Assuming a `200 OK` response from the server, the content at the URL is
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inspected. First, Git attempts to parse the file as a bundle file of
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version 2 or higher. If the file is not a bundle, then the file is parsed
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as a plain-text file using Git's config parser. The key-value pairs in
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that config file are expected to describe a list of bundle URIs. If
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neither of these parse attempts succeed, then Git will report an error to
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the user that the bundle URI provided erroneous data.
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Any other data provided by the server is considered erroneous.
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Bundle Lists
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------------
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The Git server can advertise bundle URIs using a set of `key=value` pairs.
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A bundle URI can also serve a plain-text file in the Git config format
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containing these same `key=value` pairs. In both cases, we consider this
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to be a _bundle list_. The pairs specify information about the bundles
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that the client can use to make decisions for which bundles to download
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and which to ignore.
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A few keys focus on properties of the list itself.
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bundle.version::
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(Required) This value provides a version number for the bundle
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list. If a future Git change enables a feature that needs the Git
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client to react to a new key in the bundle list file, then this version
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will increment. The only current version number is 1, and if any other
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value is specified then Git will fail to use this file.
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bundle.mode::
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(Required) This value has one of two values: `all` and `any`. When `all`
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is specified, then the client should expect to need all of the listed
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bundle URIs that match their repository's requirements. When `any` is
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specified, then the client should expect that any one of the bundle URIs
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that match their repository's requirements will suffice. Typically, the
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`any` option is used to list a number of different bundle servers
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located in different geographies.
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bundle.heuristic::
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If this string-valued key exists, then the bundle list is designed to
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work well with incremental `git fetch` commands. The heuristic signals
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that there are additional keys available for each bundle that help
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determine which subset of bundles the client should download. The only
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heuristic currently planned is `creationToken`.
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The remaining keys include an `<id>` segment which is a server-designated
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name for each available bundle. The `<id>` must contain only alphanumeric
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and `-` characters.
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bundle.<id>.uri::
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(Required) This string value is the URI for downloading bundle `<id>`.
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If the URI begins with a protocol (`http://` or `https://`) then the URI
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is absolute. Otherwise, the URI is interpreted as relative to the URI
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used for the bundle list. If the URI begins with `/`, then that relative
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path is relative to the domain name used for the bundle list. (This use
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of relative paths is intended to make it easier to distribute a set of
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bundles across a large number of servers or CDNs with different domain
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names.)
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bundle.<id>.filter::
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This string value represents an object filter that should also appear in
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the header of this bundle. The server uses this value to differentiate
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different kinds of bundles from which the client can choose those that
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match their object filters.
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bundle.<id>.creationToken::
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This value is a nonnegative 64-bit integer used for sorting the bundles
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list. This is used to download a subset of bundles during a fetch when
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`bundle.heuristic=creationToken`.
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bundle.<id>.location::
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This string value advertises a real-world location from where the bundle
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URI is served. This can be used to present the user with an option for
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which bundle URI to use or simply as an informative indicator of which
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bundle URI was selected by Git. This is only valuable when
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`bundle.mode` is `any`.
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Here is an example bundle list using the Git config format:
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[bundle]
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version = 1
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mode = all
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heuristic = creationToken
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[bundle "2022-02-09-1644442601-daily"]
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uri = https://bundles.example.com/git/git/2022-02-09-1644442601-daily.bundle
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creationToken = 1644442601
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[bundle "2022-02-02-1643842562"]
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uri = https://bundles.example.com/git/git/2022-02-02-1643842562.bundle
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creationToken = 1643842562
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[bundle "2022-02-09-1644442631-daily-blobless"]
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uri = 2022-02-09-1644442631-daily-blobless.bundle
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creationToken = 1644442631
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filter = blob:none
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[bundle "2022-02-02-1643842568-blobless"]
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uri = /git/git/2022-02-02-1643842568-blobless.bundle
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creationToken = 1643842568
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filter = blob:none
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This example uses `bundle.mode=all` as well as the
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`bundle.<id>.creationToken` heuristic. It also uses the `bundle.<id>.filter`
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options to present two parallel sets of bundles: one for full clones and
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another for blobless partial clones.
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Suppose that this bundle list was found at the URI
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`https://bundles.example.com/git/git/` and so the two blobless bundles have
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the following fully-expanded URIs:
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* `https://bundles.example.com/git/git/2022-02-09-1644442631-daily-blobless.bundle`
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* `https://bundles.example.com/git/git/2022-02-02-1643842568-blobless.bundle`
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Advertising Bundle URIs
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-----------------------
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If a user knows a bundle URI for the repository they are cloning, then
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they can specify that URI manually through a command-line option. However,
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a Git host may want to advertise bundle URIs during the clone operation,
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helping users unaware of the feature.
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The only thing required for this feature is that the server can advertise
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one or more bundle URIs. This advertisement takes the form of a new
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protocol v2 capability specifically for discovering bundle URIs.
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The client could choose an arbitrary bundle URI as an option _or_ select
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the URI with best performance by some exploratory checks. It is up to the
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bundle provider to decide if having multiple URIs is preferable to a
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single URI that is geodistributed through server-side infrastructure.
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Cloning with Bundle URIs
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------------------------
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The primary need for bundle URIs is to speed up clones. The Git client
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will interact with bundle URIs according to the following flow:
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1. The user specifies a bundle URI with the `--bundle-uri` command-line
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option _or_ the client discovers a bundle list advertised by the
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Git server.
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2. If the downloaded data from a bundle URI is a bundle, then the client
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inspects the bundle headers to check that the prerequisite commit OIDs
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are present in the client repository. If some are missing, then the
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client delays unbundling until other bundles have been unbundled,
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making those OIDs present. When all required OIDs are present, the
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client unbundles that data using a refspec. The default refspec is
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`+refs/heads/*:refs/bundles/*`, but this can be configured. These refs
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are stored so that later `git fetch` negotiations can communicate each
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bundled ref as a `have`, reducing the size of the fetch over the Git
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protocol. To allow pruning refs from this ref namespace, Git may
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introduce a numbered namespace (such as `refs/bundles/<i>/*`) such that
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stale bundle refs can be deleted.
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3. If the file is instead a bundle list, then the client inspects the
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`bundle.mode` to see if the list is of the `all` or `any` form.
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a. If `bundle.mode=all`, then the client considers all bundle
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URIs. The list is reduced based on the `bundle.<id>.filter` options
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matching the client repository's partial clone filter. Then, all
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bundle URIs are requested. If the `bundle.<id>.creationToken`
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heuristic is provided, then the bundles are downloaded in decreasing
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order by the creation token, stopping when a bundle has all required
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OIDs. The bundles can then be unbundled in increasing creation token
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order. The client stores the latest creation token as a heuristic
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for avoiding future downloads if the bundle list does not advertise
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bundles with larger creation tokens.
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b. If `bundle.mode=any`, then the client can choose any one of the
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bundle URIs to inspect. The client can use a variety of ways to
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choose among these URIs. The client can also fallback to another URI
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if the initial choice fails to return a result.
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Note that during a clone we expect that all bundles will be required, and
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heuristics such as `bundle.<uri>.creationToken` can be used to download
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bundles in chronological order or in parallel.
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If a given bundle URI is a bundle list with a `bundle.heuristic`
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value, then the client can choose to store that URI as its chosen bundle
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URI. The client can then navigate directly to that URI during later `git
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fetch` calls.
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When downloading bundle URIs, the client can choose to inspect the initial
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content before committing to downloading the entire content. This may
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provide enough information to determine if the URI is a bundle list or
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a bundle. In the case of a bundle, the client may inspect the bundle
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header to determine that all advertised tips are already in the client
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repository and cancel the remaining download.
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Fetching with Bundle URIs
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-------------------------
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When the client fetches new data, it can decide to fetch from bundle
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servers before fetching from the origin remote. This could be done via a
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command-line option, but it is more likely useful to use a config value
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such as the one specified during the clone.
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The fetch operation follows the same procedure to download bundles from a
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bundle list (although we do _not_ want to use parallel downloads here). We
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expect that the process will end when all prerequisite commit OIDs in a
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thin bundle are already in the object database.
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When using the `creationToken` heuristic, the client can avoid downloading
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any bundles if their creation tokens are not larger than the stored
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creation token. After fetching new bundles, Git updates this local
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creation token.
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If the bundle provider does not provide a heuristic, then the client
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should attempt to inspect the bundle headers before downloading the full
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bundle data in case the bundle tips already exist in the client
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repository.
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Error Conditions
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----------------
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If the Git client discovers something unexpected while downloading
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information according to a bundle URI or the bundle list found at that
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location, then Git can ignore that data and continue as if it was not
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given a bundle URI. The remote Git server is the ultimate source of truth,
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not the bundle URI.
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Here are a few example error conditions:
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* The client fails to connect with a server at the given URI or a connection
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is lost without any chance to recover.
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* The client receives a 400-level response (such as `404 Not Found` or
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`401 Not Authorized`). The client should use the credential helper to
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find and provide a credential for the URI, but match the semantics of
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Git's other HTTP protocols in terms of handling specific 400-level
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errors.
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* The server reports any other failure response.
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* The client receives data that is not parsable as a bundle or bundle list.
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* A bundle includes a filter that does not match expectations.
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* The client cannot unbundle the bundles because the prerequisite commit OIDs
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are not in the object database and there are no more bundles to download.
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There are also situations that could be seen as wasteful, but are not
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error conditions:
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* The downloaded bundles contain more information than is requested by
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the clone or fetch request. A primary example is if the user requests
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a clone with `--single-branch` but downloads bundles that store every
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reachable commit from all `refs/heads/*` references. This might be
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initially wasteful, but perhaps these objects will become reachable by
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a later ref update that the client cares about.
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* A bundle download during a `git fetch` contains objects already in the
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object database. This is probably unavoidable if we are using bundles
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for fetches, since the client will almost always be slightly ahead of
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the bundle servers after performing its "catch-up" fetch to the remote
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server. This extra work is most wasteful when the client is fetching
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much more frequently than the server is computing bundles, such as if
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the client is using hourly prefetches with background maintenance, but
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the server is computing bundles weekly. For this reason, the client
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should not use bundle URIs for fetch unless the server has explicitly
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recommended it through a `bundle.heuristic` value.
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Example Bundle Provider organization
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------------------------------------
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The bundle URI feature is intentionally designed to be flexible to
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different ways a bundle provider wants to organize the object data.
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However, it can be helpful to have a complete organization model described
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here so providers can start from that base.
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This example organization is a simplified model of what is used by the
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GVFS Cache Servers (see section near the end of this document) which have
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been beneficial in speeding up clones and fetches for very large
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repositories, although using extra software outside of Git.
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The bundle provider deploys servers across multiple geographies. Each
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server manages its own bundle set. The server can track a number of Git
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repositories, but provides a bundle list for each based on a pattern. For
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example, when mirroring a repository at `https://<domain>/<org>/<repo>`
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the bundle server could have its bundle list available at
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`https://<server-url>/<domain>/<org>/<repo>`. The origin Git server can
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list all of these servers under the "any" mode:
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[bundle]
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version = 1
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mode = any
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[bundle "eastus"]
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uri = https://eastus.example.com/<domain>/<org>/<repo>
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[bundle "europe"]
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uri = https://europe.example.com/<domain>/<org>/<repo>
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[bundle "apac"]
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uri = https://apac.example.com/<domain>/<org>/<repo>
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This "list of lists" is static and only changes if a bundle server is
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added or removed.
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Each bundle server manages its own set of bundles. The initial bundle list
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contains only a single bundle, containing all of the objects received from
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cloning the repository from the origin server. The list uses the
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`creationToken` heuristic and a `creationToken` is made for the bundle
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based on the server's timestamp.
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The bundle server runs regularly-scheduled updates for the bundle list,
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such as once a day. During this task, the server fetches the latest
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contents from the origin server and generates a bundle containing the
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objects reachable from the latest origin refs, but not contained in a
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previously-computed bundle. This bundle is added to the list, with care
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that the `creationToken` is strictly greater than the previous maximum
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`creationToken`.
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When the bundle list grows too large, say more than 30 bundles, then the
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oldest "_N_ minus 30" bundles are combined into a single bundle. This
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bundle's `creationToken` is equal to the maximum `creationToken` among the
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merged bundles.
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An example bundle list is provided here, although it only has two daily
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bundles and not a full list of 30:
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[bundle]
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version = 1
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mode = all
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heuristic = creationToken
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[bundle "2022-02-13-1644770820-daily"]
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uri = https://eastus.example.com/<domain>/<org>/<repo>/2022-02-09-1644770820-daily.bundle
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creationToken = 1644770820
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[bundle "2022-02-09-1644442601-daily"]
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uri = https://eastus.example.com/<domain>/<org>/<repo>/2022-02-09-1644442601-daily.bundle
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creationToken = 1644442601
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[bundle "2022-02-02-1643842562"]
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uri = https://eastus.example.com/<domain>/<org>/<repo>/2022-02-02-1643842562.bundle
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creationToken = 1643842562
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To avoid storing and serving object data in perpetuity despite becoming
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unreachable in the origin server, this bundle merge can be more careful.
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Instead of taking an absolute union of the old bundles, instead the bundle
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can be created by looking at the newer bundles and ensuring that their
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necessary commits are all available in this merged bundle (or in another
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one of the newer bundles). This allows "expiring" object data that is not
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being used by new commits in this window of time. That data could be
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reintroduced by a later push.
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The intention of this data organization has two main goals. First, initial
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clones of the repository become faster by downloading precomputed object
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data from a closer source. Second, `git fetch` commands can be faster,
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especially if the client has not fetched for a few days. However, if a
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client does not fetch for 30 days, then the bundle list organization would
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cause redownloading a large amount of object data.
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One way to make this organization more useful to users who fetch frequently
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is to have more frequent bundle creation. For example, bundles could be
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created every hour, and then once a day those "hourly" bundles could be
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merged into a "daily" bundle. The daily bundles are merged into the
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oldest bundle after 30 days.
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It is recommended that this bundle strategy is repeated with the `blob:none`
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filter if clients of this repository are expecting to use blobless partial
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clones. This list of blobless bundles stays in the same list as the full
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bundles, but uses the `bundle.<id>.filter` key to separate the two groups.
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For very large repositories, the bundle provider may want to _only_ provide
|
|
blobless bundles.
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|
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Implementation Plan
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|
-------------------
|
|
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|
This design document is being submitted on its own as an aspirational
|
|
document, with the goal of implementing all of the mentioned client
|
|
features over the course of several patch series. Here is a potential
|
|
outline for submitting these features:
|
|
|
|
1. Integrate bundle URIs into `git clone` with a `--bundle-uri` option.
|
|
This will include a new `git fetch --bundle-uri` mode for use as the
|
|
implementation underneath `git clone`. The initial version here will
|
|
expect a single bundle at the given URI.
|
|
|
|
2. Implement the ability to parse a bundle list from a bundle URI and
|
|
update the `git fetch --bundle-uri` logic to properly distinguish
|
|
between `bundle.mode` options. Specifically design the feature so
|
|
that the config format parsing feeds a list of key-value pairs into the
|
|
bundle list logic.
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|
|
|
3. Create the `bundle-uri` protocol v2 command so Git servers can advertise
|
|
bundle URIs using the key-value pairs. Plug into the existing key-value
|
|
input to the bundle list logic. Allow `git clone` to discover these
|
|
bundle URIs and bootstrap the client repository from the bundle data.
|
|
(This choice is an opt-in via a config option and a command-line
|
|
option.)
|
|
|
|
4. Allow the client to understand the `bundle.heuristic` configuration key
|
|
and the `bundle.<id>.creationToken` heuristic. When `git clone`
|
|
discovers a bundle URI with `bundle.heuristic`, it configures the client
|
|
repository to check that bundle URI during later `git fetch <remote>`
|
|
commands.
|
|
|
|
5. Allow clients to discover bundle URIs during `git fetch` and configure
|
|
a bundle URI for later fetches if `bundle.heuristic` is set.
|
|
|
|
6. Implement the "inspect headers" heuristic to reduce data downloads when
|
|
the `bundle.<id>.creationToken` heuristic is not available.
|
|
|
|
As these features are reviewed, this plan might be updated. We also expect
|
|
that new designs will be discovered and implemented as this feature
|
|
matures and becomes used in real-world scenarios.
|
|
|
|
Related Work: Packfile URIs
|
|
---------------------------
|
|
|
|
The Git protocol already has a capability where the Git server can list
|
|
a set of URLs along with the packfile response when serving a client
|
|
request. The client is then expected to download the packfiles at those
|
|
locations in order to have a complete understanding of the response.
|
|
|
|
This mechanism is used by the Gerrit server (implemented with JGit) and
|
|
has been effective at reducing CPU load and improving user performance for
|
|
clones.
|
|
|
|
A major downside to this mechanism is that the origin server needs to know
|
|
_exactly_ what is in those packfiles, and the packfiles need to be available
|
|
to the user for some time after the server has responded. This coupling
|
|
between the origin and the packfile data is difficult to manage.
|
|
|
|
Further, this implementation is extremely hard to make work with fetches.
|
|
|
|
Related Work: GVFS Cache Servers
|
|
--------------------------------
|
|
|
|
The GVFS Protocol [2] is a set of HTTP endpoints designed independently of
|
|
the Git project before Git's partial clone was created. One feature of this
|
|
protocol is the idea of a "cache server" which can be colocated with build
|
|
machines or developer offices to transfer Git data without overloading the
|
|
central server.
|
|
|
|
The endpoint that VFS for Git is famous for is the `GET /gvfs/objects/{oid}`
|
|
endpoint, which allows downloading an object on-demand. This is a critical
|
|
piece of the filesystem virtualization of that product.
|
|
|
|
However, a more subtle need is the `GET /gvfs/prefetch?lastPackTimestamp=<t>`
|
|
endpoint. Given an optional timestamp, the cache server responds with a list
|
|
of precomputed packfiles containing the commits and trees that were introduced
|
|
in those time intervals.
|
|
|
|
The cache server computes these "prefetch" packfiles using the following
|
|
strategy:
|
|
|
|
1. Every hour, an "hourly" pack is generated with a given timestamp.
|
|
2. Nightly, the previous 24 hourly packs are rolled up into a "daily" pack.
|
|
3. Nightly, all prefetch packs more than 30 days old are rolled up into
|
|
one pack.
|
|
|
|
When a user runs `gvfs clone` or `scalar clone` against a repo with cache
|
|
servers, the client requests all prefetch packfiles, which is at most
|
|
`24 + 30 + 1` packfiles downloading only commits and trees. The client
|
|
then follows with a request to the origin server for the references, and
|
|
attempts to checkout that tip reference. (There is an extra endpoint that
|
|
helps get all reachable trees from a given commit, in case that commit
|
|
was not already in a prefetch packfile.)
|
|
|
|
During a `git fetch`, a hook requests the prefetch endpoint using the
|
|
most-recent timestamp from a previously-downloaded prefetch packfile.
|
|
Only the list of packfiles with later timestamps are downloaded. Most
|
|
users fetch hourly, so they get at most one hourly prefetch pack. Users
|
|
whose machines have been off or otherwise have not fetched in over 30 days
|
|
might redownload all prefetch packfiles. This is rare.
|
|
|
|
It is important to note that the clients always contact the origin server
|
|
for the refs advertisement, so the refs are frequently "ahead" of the
|
|
prefetched pack data. The missing objects are downloaded on-demand using
|
|
the `GET gvfs/objects/{oid}` requests, when needed by a command such as
|
|
`git checkout` or `git log`. Some Git optimizations disable checks that
|
|
would cause these on-demand downloads to be too aggressive.
|
|
|
|
See Also
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/RFC-cover-00.13-0000000000-20210805T150534Z-avarab@gmail.com/
|
|
An earlier RFC for a bundle URI feature.
|
|
|
|
[2] https://github.com/microsoft/VFSForGit/blob/master/Protocol.md
|
|
The GVFS Protocol
|