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2025-03-21Documentation: remove a "future work" item from the MIDX docsTaylor Blau1-10/+0
One of the items listed as "future work" in the MIDX's technical documentation is to extend the format to allow MIDXs to be written incrementally across multiple layers. This was suggested all the way back in ceab693d1f (multi-pack-index: add design document, 2018-07-12), and implemented in b9497848df (Merge branch 'tb/incremental-midx-part-1', 2024-08-19). Let's remove it accordingly. Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com> Acked-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-03-06Merge branch 'tz/doc-txt-to-adoc-fixes'Junio C Hamano3-3/+3
Fallouts from recent renaming of documentation files from .txt suffix to the new .adoc suffix have been corrected. * tz/doc-txt-to-adoc-fixes: (38 commits) xdiff: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes unpack-trees.c: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes transport.h: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes trace2/tr2_sysenv.c: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes trace2.h: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes t6434: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes t6012: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes t/helper/test-rot13-filter.c: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes simple-ipc.h: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes setup.c: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes refs.h: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes pseudo-merge.h: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes parse-options.h: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes object-name.c: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes list-objects-filter-options.h: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes fsck.h: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes diffcore.h: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes diff.h: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes contrib/long-running-filter: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes config.c: *.txt -> *.adoc fixes ...
2025-03-05Merge branch 'pw/build-meson-technical-and-howto-docs'Junio C Hamano1-31/+31
Meson-based build procedure forgot to build some docs, which has been corrected. * pw/build-meson-technical-and-howto-docs: meson: fix building technical and howto docs
2025-03-05Merge branch 'cc/lop-remote'Junio C Hamano1-0/+656
Large-object promisor protocol extension. * cc/lop-remote: doc: add technical design doc for large object promisors promisor-remote: check advertised name or URL Add 'promisor-remote' capability to protocol v2
2025-03-03doc: *.txt -> *.adoc fixesTodd Zullinger2-2/+2
Update a few more instances of Documentation/*.txt files which have been renamed to *.adoc. Signed-off-by: Todd Zullinger <tmz@pobox.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-03-03technical/partial-clone: update reference to rev-list-options.adocTodd Zullinger1-1/+1
Signed-off-by: Todd Zullinger <tmz@pobox.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-03-03doc: add technical design doc for large object promisorsChristian Couder1-0/+656
Let's add a design doc about how we could improve handling liarge blobs using "Large Object Promisors" (LOPs). It's a set of features with the goal of using special dedicated promisor remotes to store large blobs, and having them accessed directly by main remotes and clients. Signed-off-by: Christian Couder <chriscool@tuxfamily.org> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-03-03meson: fix building technical and howto docsPhillip Wood1-31/+31
When our asciidoc files were renamed from "*.txt" to "*.adoc" in 1f010d6bdf7 (doc: use .adoc extension for AsciiDoc files, 2025-01-20) the "meson.build" file in "Documentation" was updated but the "meson.build" files in the "technical" and "howto" subdirectories were not. This causes the meson build to fail when configured with -Ddocs=html. Fix this by updating the relevant "meson.build" files. Signed-off-by: Phillip Wood <phillip.wood@dunelm.org.uk> Acked-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-02-18Merge branch 'ds/backfill'Junio C Hamano1-1/+10
Lazy-loading missing files in a blobless clone on demand is costly as it tends to be one-blob-at-a-time. "git backfill" is introduced to help bulk-download necessary files beforehand. * ds/backfill: backfill: assume --sparse when sparse-checkout is enabled backfill: add --sparse option backfill: add --min-batch-size=<n> option backfill: basic functionality and tests backfill: add builtin boilerplate
2025-02-14Merge branch 'bc/doc-adoc-not-txt'Junio C Hamano34-5/+6
All the documentation .txt files have been renamed to .adoc to help content aware editors. * bc/doc-adoc-not-txt: Remove obsolete ".txt" extensions for AsciiDoc files doc: use .adoc extension for AsciiDoc files gitattributes: mark AsciiDoc files as LF-only editorconfig: add .adoc extension doc: update gitignore for .adoc extension
2025-02-03backfill: add --sparse optionDerrick Stolee1-0/+8
One way to significantly reduce the cost of a Git clone and later fetches is to use a blobless partial clone and combine that with a sparse-checkout that reduces the paths that need to be populated in the working directory. Not only does this reduce the cost of clones and fetches, the sparse-checkout reduces the number of objects needed to download from a promisor remote. However, history investigations can be expensive as computing blob diffs will trigger promisor remote requests for one object at a time. This can be avoided by downloading the blobs needed for the given sparse-checkout using 'git backfill' and its new '--sparse' mode, at a time that the user is willing to pay that extra cost. Note that this is distinctly different from the '--filter=sparse:<oid>' option, as this assumes that the partial clone has all reachable trees and we are using client-side logic to avoid downloading blobs outside of the sparse-checkout cone. This avoids the server-side cost of walking trees while also achieving a similar goal. It also downloads in batches based on similar path names, presenting a resumable download if things are interrupted. This augments the path-walk API to have a possibly-NULL 'pl' member that may point to a 'struct pattern_list'. This could be more general than the sparse-checkout definition at HEAD, but 'git backfill --sparse' is currently the only consumer. Be sure to test this in both cone mode and not cone mode. Cone mode has the benefit that the path-walk can skip certain paths once they would expand beyond the sparse-checkout. Non-cone mode can describe the included files using both positive and negative patterns, which changes the possible return values of path_matches_pattern_list(). Test both kinds of matches for increased coverage. To test this, we can create a blobless sparse clone, expand the sparse-checkout slightly, and then run 'git backfill --sparse' to see how much data is downloaded. The general steps are 1. git clone --filter=blob:none --sparse <url> 2. git sparse-checkout set <dir1> ... <dirN> 3. git backfill --sparse For the Git repository with the 'builtin' directory in the sparse-checkout, we get these results for various batch sizes: | Batch Size | Pack Count | Pack Size | Time | |-----------------|------------|-----------|-------| | (Initial clone) | 3 | 110 MB | | | 10K | 12 | 192 MB | 17.2s | | 15K | 9 | 192 MB | 15.5s | | 20K | 8 | 192 MB | 15.5s | | 25K | 7 | 192 MB | 14.7s | This case matters less because a full clone of the Git repository from GitHub is currently at 277 MB. Using a copy of the Linux repository with the 'kernel/' directory in the sparse-checkout, we get these results: | Batch Size | Pack Count | Pack Size | Time | |-----------------|------------|-----------|------| | (Initial clone) | 2 | 1,876 MB | | | 10K | 11 | 2,187 MB | 46s | | 25K | 7 | 2,188 MB | 43s | | 50K | 5 | 2,194 MB | 44s | | 100K | 4 | 2,194 MB | 48s | This case is more meaningful because a full clone of the Linux repository is currently over 6 GB, so this is a valuable way to download a fraction of the repository and no longer need network access for all reachable objects within the sparse-checkout. Choosing a batch size will depend on a lot of factors, including the user's network speed or reliability, the repository's file structure, and how many versions there are of the file within the sparse-checkout scope. There will not be a one-size-fits-all solution. Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-02-03backfill: basic functionality and testsDerrick Stolee1-1/+2
The default behavior of 'git backfill' is to fetch all missing blobs that are reachable from HEAD. Document and test this behavior. The implementation is a very simple use of the path-walk API, initializing the revision walk at HEAD to start the path-walk from all commits reachable from HEAD. Ignore the object arrays that correspond to tree entries, assuming that they are all present already. The path-walk API provides lists of objects in batches according to a common path, but that list could be very small. We want to balance the number of requests to the server with the ability to have the process interrupted with minimal repeated work to catch up in the next run. Based on some experiments (detailed in the next change) a minimum batch size of 50,000 is selected for the default. This batch size is a _minimum_. As the path-walk API emits lists of blob IDs, they are collected into a list of objects for a request to the server. When that list is at least the minimum batch size, then the request is sent to the server for the new objects. However, the list of blob IDs from the path-walk API could be much longer than the batch size. At this moment, it is unclear if there is a benefit to split the list when there are too many objects at the same path. Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-01-29Merge branch 'ds/path-walk-1'Junio C Hamano1-0/+63
Introduce a new API to visit objects in batches based on a common path, or by type. * ds/path-walk-1: path-walk: drop redundant parse_tree() call path-walk: reorder object visits path-walk: mark trees and blobs as UNINTERESTING path-walk: visit tags and cached objects path-walk: allow consumer to specify object types t6601: add helper for testing path-walk API test-lib-functions: add test_cmp_sorted path-walk: introduce an object walk by path
2025-01-21doc: use .adoc extension for AsciiDoc filesbrian m. carlson32-5/+5
We presently use the ".txt" extension for our AsciiDoc files. While not wrong, most editors do not associate this extension with AsciiDoc, meaning that contributors don't get automatic editor functionality that could be useful, such as syntax highlighting and prose linting. It is much more common to use the ".adoc" extension for AsciiDoc files, since this helps editors automatically detect files and also allows various forges to provide rich (HTML-like) rendering. Let's do that here, renaming all of the files and updating the includes where relevant. Adjust the various build scripts and makefiles to use the new extension as well. Note that this should not result in any user-visible changes to the documentation. Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-01-21doc: update gitignore for .adoc extensionbrian m. carlson1-0/+1
We presently use the ".txt" extension for our AsciiDoc files. While not wrong, most editors do not associate this extension with AsciiDoc, meaning that contributors don't get automatic editor functionality that could be useful, such as syntax highlighting and prose linting. Instead, in a future commit, we're going to move to using the more common ".adoc" extension for these files, which many editors intrinsically recognize as an AsciiDoc file. To avoid contributors accidentally checking in generated files, ignore the new extension for generated files in the documentation .gitignore files. Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2025-01-14meson: fix missing deps for technical articlesSam James1-0/+1
We need an explicit `depends: documentation_deps` so that all of our Documentation targets know they require asciidoc.conf. This shows up as parallel build failures with it not yet being available. Other targets look OK already. Signed-off-by: Sam James <sam@gentoo.org> Acked-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-12-27meson: generate articlesPatrick Steinhardt1-0/+66
While the Meson build system already knows to generate man pages and our user manual, it does not yet generate the random assortment of articles that we have. Plug this gap. Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-12-27Documentation: refactor "api-index.sh" for out-of-tree buildsPatrick Steinhardt1-4/+15
The "api-index.sh" script generates an index of API-related documentation. The script does not handle out-of-tree builds and thus cannot be used easily by Meson. Refactor it to be independent of locations by both accepting a source directory where the API docs live as well as a path to an output file. Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-12-20path-walk: mark trees and blobs as UNINTERESTINGDerrick Stolee1-0/+8
When the input rev_info has UNINTERESTING starting points, we want to be sure that the UNINTERESTING flag is passed appropriately through the objects. To match how this is done in places such as 'git pack-objects', we use the mark_edges_uninteresting() method. This method has an option for using the "sparse" walk, which is similar in spirit to the path-walk API's walk. To be sure to keep it independent, add a new 'prune_all_uninteresting' option to the path_walk_info struct. To check how the UNINTERSTING flag is spread through our objects, extend the 'test-tool path-walk' command to output whether or not an object has that flag. This changes our tests significantly, including the removal of some objects that were previously visited due to the incomplete implementation. Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-12-20path-walk: visit tags and cached objectsDerrick Stolee1-1/+1
The rev_info that is specified for a path-walk traversal may specify visiting tag refs (both lightweight and annotated) and also may specify indexed objects (blobs and trees). Update the path-walk API to walk these objects as well. When walking tags, we need to peel the annotated objects until reaching a non-tag object. If we reach a commit, then we can add it to the pending objects to make sure we visit in the commit walk portion. If we reach a tree, then we will assume that it is a root tree. If we reach a blob, then we have no good path name and so add it to a new list of "tagged blobs". When the rev_info includes the "--indexed-objects" flag, then the pending set includes blobs and trees found in the cache entries and cache-tree. The cache entries are usually blobs, though they could be trees in the case of a sparse index. The cache-tree stores previously-hashed tree objects but these are cleared out when staging objects below those paths. We add tests that demonstrate this. The indexed objects come with a non-NULL 'path' value in the pending item. This allows us to prepopulate the 'path_to_lists' strmap with lists for these paths. The tricky thing about this walk is that we will want to combine the indexed objects walk with the commit walk, especially in the future case of walking objects during a command like 'git repack'. Whenever possible, we want the objects from the index to be grouped with similar objects in history. We don't want to miss any paths that appear only in the index and not in the commit history. Thus, we need to be careful to let the path stack be populated initially with only the root tree path (and possibly tags and tagged blobs) and go through the normal depth-first search. Afterwards, if there are other paths that are remaining in the paths_to_lists strmap, we should then iterate through the stack and visit those objects recursively. Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-12-20path-walk: allow consumer to specify object typesDerrick Stolee1-0/+9
We add the ability to filter the object types in the path-walk API so the callback function is called fewer times. This adds the ability to ask for the commits in a list, as well. We re-use the empty string for this set of objects because these are passed directly to the callback function instead of being part of the 'path_stack'. Future changes will add the ability to visit annotated tags. Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-12-20t6601: add helper for testing path-walk APIDerrick Stolee1-1/+2
Add some tests based on the current behavior, doing interesting checks for different sets of branches, ranges, and the --boundary option. This sets a baseline for the behavior and we can extend it as new options are introduced. Store and output a 'batch_nr' value so we can demonstrate that the paths are grouped together in a batch and not following some other ordering. This allows us to test the depth-first behavior of the path-walk API. However, we purposefully do not test the order of the objects in the batch, so the output is compared to the expected output through a sort. It is important to mention that the behavior of the API will change soon as we start to handle UNINTERESTING objects differently, but these tests will demonstrate the change in behavior. Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-12-20path-walk: introduce an object walk by pathDerrick Stolee1-0/+45
In anticipation of a few planned applications, introduce the most basic form of a path-walk API. It currently assumes that there are no UNINTERESTING objects, and does not include any complicated filters. It calls a function pointer on groups of tree and blob objects as grouped by path. This only includes objects the first time they are discovered, so an object that appears at multiple paths will not be included in two batches. These batches are collected in 'struct type_and_oid_list' objects, which store an object type and an oid_array of objects. The data structures are documented in 'struct path_walk_context', but in summary the most important are: * 'paths_to_lists' is a strmap that connects a path to a type_and_oid_list for that path. To avoid conflicts in path names, we make sure that tree paths end in "/" (except the root path with is an empty string) and blob paths do not end in "/". * 'path_stack' is a string list that is added to in an append-only way. This stores the stack of our depth-first search on the heap instead of using recursion. * 'path_stack_pushed' is a strmap that stores path names that were already added to 'path_stack', to avoid repeating paths in the stack. Mostly, this saves us from quadratic lookups from doing unsorted checks into the string_list. The coupling of 'path_stack' and 'path_stack_pushed' is protected by the push_to_stack() method. Call this instead of inserting into these structures directly. The walk_objects_by_path() method initializes these structures and starts walking commits from the given rev_info struct. The commits are used to find the list of root trees which populate the start of our depth-first search. The core of our depth-first search is in a while loop that continues while we have not indicated an early exit and our 'path_stack' still has entries in it. The loop body pops a path off of the stack and "visits" the path via the walk_path() method. The walk_path() method gets the list of OIDs from the 'path_to_lists' strmap and executes the callback method on that list with the given path and type. If the OIDs correspond to tree objects, then iterate over all trees in the list and run add_children() to add the child objects to their own lists, adding new entries to the stack if necessary. In testing, this depth-first search approach was the one that used the least memory while iterating over the object lists. There is still a chance that repositories with too-wide path patterns could cause memory pressure issues. Limiting the stack size could be done in the future by limiting how many objects are being considered in-progress, or by visiting blob paths earlier than trees. There are many future adaptations that could be made, but they are left for future updates when consumers are ready to take advantage of those features. Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-12-07Documentation: add comparison of build systemsPatrick Steinhardt1-0/+224
We're contemplating whether to eventually replace our build systems with a build system that is easier to use. Add a comparison of build systems to our technical documentation as a baseline for discussion. Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-10-22doc: consolidate extensions in git-config documentationCaleb White3-44/+6
The `technical/repository-version.txt` document originally served as the master list for extensions, requiring that any new extensions be defined there. However, the `config/extensions.txt` file was introduced later and has since become the de facto location for describing extensions, with several extensions listed there but missing from `repository-version.txt`. This consolidates all extension definitions into `config/extensions.txt`, making it the authoritative source for extensions. The references in `repository-version.txt` are updated to point to `config/extensions.txt`, and cross-references to related documentation such as `gitrepository-layout[5]` and `git-config[1]` are added. Suggested-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> Signed-off-by: Caleb White <cdwhite3@pm.me> Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
2024-10-07docs: fix the `maintain-git` links in `technical/platform-support`Johannes Schindelin1-2/+2
These links should point to `.html` files, not to `.txt` ones. Compare also to 4945f046c7f (api docs: link to html version of api-trace2, 2022-09-16). Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-09-23Documentation/technical: fix a typoAndrew Kreimer1-1/+1
Fix a typo in documentation. Signed-off-by: Andrew Kreimer <algonell@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-09-18Merge branch 'ps/clar-unit-test'Junio C Hamano1-0/+2
Import clar unit tests framework libgit2 folks invented for our use. * ps/clar-unit-test: Makefile: rename clar-related variables to avoid confusion clar: add CMake support t/unit-tests: convert ctype tests to use clar t/unit-tests: convert strvec tests to use clar t/unit-tests: implement test driver Makefile: wire up the clar unit testing framework Makefile: do not use sparse on third-party sources Makefile: make hdr-check depend on generated headers Makefile: fix sparse dependency on GENERATED_H clar: stop including `shellapi.h` unnecessarily clar(win32): avoid compile error due to unused `fs_copy()` clar: avoid compile error with mingw-w64 t/clar: fix compatibility with NonStop t: import the clar unit testing framework t: do not pass GIT_TEST_OPTS to unit tests with prove
2024-09-04t: import the clar unit testing frameworkPatrick Steinhardt1-0/+2
Our unit testing framework is a homegrown solution. While it supports most of our needs, it is likely that the volume of unit tests will grow quite a bit in the future such that we can exercise low-level subsystems directly. This surfaces several shortcomings that the current solution has: - There is no way to run only one specific tests. While some of our unit tests wire this up manually, others don't. In general, it requires quite a bit of boilerplate to get this set up correctly. - Failures do not cause a test to stop execution directly. Instead, the test author needs to return manually whenever an assertion fails. This is rather verbose and is not done correctly in most of our unit tests. - Wiring up a new testcase requires both implementing the test function and calling it in the respective test suite's main function, which is creating code duplication. We can of course fix all of these issues ourselves, but that feels rather pointless when there are already so many unit testing frameworks out there that have those features. We line out some requirements for any unit testing framework in "Documentation/technical/unit-tests.txt". The "clar" unit testing framework, which isn't listed in that table yet, ticks many of the boxes: - It is licensed under ISC, which is compatible. - It is easily vendorable because it is rather tiny at around 1200 lines of code. - It is easily hackable due to the same reason. - It has TAP support. - It has skippable tests. - It preprocesses test files in order to extract test functions, which then get wired up automatically. While it's not perfect, the fact that clar originates from the libgit2 project means that it should be rather easy for us to collaborate with upstream to plug any gaps. Import the clar unit testing framework at commit 1516124 (Merge pull request #97 from pks-t/pks-whitespace-fixes, 2024-08-15). The framework will be wired up in subsequent commits. Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-08-22trace2: implement trace2_printf() for event targetJosh Steadmon1-2/+15
The trace2 event target does not have an implementation for trace2_printf(). While the event target is for structured events, and trace2_printf() is for unstructured, human-readable messages, it may still be useful to wrap these unstructured messages in a structured JSON object. Among other things, it may reduce confusion when manually debugging using event trace data. Add a simple implementation for the event target that wraps trace2_printf() messages in a minimal JSON object. Document this in Documentation/technical/api-trace2.txt, and bump the event format version since we're adding a new event type. Signed-off-by: Josh Steadmon <steadmon@google.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-08-19Merge branch 'tb/incremental-midx-part-1'Junio C Hamano1-0/+103
Incremental updates of multi-pack index files. * tb/incremental-midx-part-1: midx: implement support for writing incremental MIDX chains t/t5313-pack-bounds-checks.sh: prepare for sub-directories t: retire 'GIT_TEST_MULTI_PACK_INDEX_WRITE_BITMAP' midx: implement verification support for incremental MIDXs midx: support reading incremental MIDX chains midx: teach `midx_fanout_add_midx_fanout()` about incremental MIDXs midx: teach `midx_preferred_pack()` about incremental MIDXs midx: teach `midx_contains_pack()` about incremental MIDXs midx: remove unused `midx_locate_pack()` midx: teach `fill_midx_entry()` about incremental MIDXs midx: teach `nth_midxed_offset()` about incremental MIDXs midx: teach `bsearch_midx()` about incremental MIDXs midx: introduce `bsearch_one_midx()` midx: teach `nth_bitmapped_pack()` about incremental MIDXs midx: teach `nth_midxed_object_oid()` about incremental MIDXs midx: teach `prepare_midx_pack()` about incremental MIDXs midx: teach `nth_midxed_pack_int_id()` about incremental MIDXs midx: add new fields for incremental MIDX chains Documentation: describe incremental MIDX format
2024-08-06Documentation: describe incremental MIDX formatTaylor Blau1-0/+103
Prepare to implement incremental multi-pack indexes (MIDXs) over the next several commits by first describing the relevant prerequisites (like a new chunk in the MIDX format, the directory structure for incremental MIDXs, etc.) The format is described in detail in the patch contents below, but the high-level description is as follows. Incremental MIDXs live in $GIT_DIR/objects/pack/multi-pack-index.d, and each `*.midx` within that directory has a single "parent" MIDX, which is the MIDX layer immediately before it in the MIDX chain. The chain order resides in a file 'multi-pack-index-chain' in the same directory. Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-08-02Documentation: add platform support policyEmily Shaffer1-0/+190
Supporting many platforms is only possible when we have the right tools to ensure that support. Teach platform maintainers how they can help us to help them, by explaining what kind of tooling support we would like to have, and what level of support becomes available as a result. Provide examples so that platform maintainers can see what we're asking for in practice. With this policy in place, we can make changes with stronger assurance that we are not breaking anybody we promised not to. Instead, we can feel confident that our existing testing and integration practices protect those who care from breakage. Signed-off-by: Emily Shaffer <emilyshaffer@google.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-06-14Documentation/technical/bitmap-format.txt: add missing position tableTaylor Blau1-0/+9
While investigating a benign Coverity warning on the new pseudo-merge implementation, I was struggling to understand the (paraphrased) below: ofs = index_end - 24 - (index->pseudo_merges.nr * sizeof(uint64_t)); for (i = 0; i < index->pseudo_merges.nr; i++) { index->pseudo_merges.v[i].at = get_be64(ofs); ofs += sizeof(uint64_t); } , in pack-bitmap.c::load_bitmap_header(). Looking at the documentation, the diagram describing the on-disk format (prior to this patch) suggested that the optional extended lookup table immediately preceded the trailing metadata portion. If that were the case, that would make the above code from load_bitmap_header() incorrect, as we'd be blindly reading into the extended offset table. But later on in the documentation there is a description of the pseudo-merge position table as immediately preceding the trailing metadata portion of the extension. And indeed, we do write the position table in pack-bitmap-write.c: /* write positions for all pseudo merges */ for (i = 0; i < writer->pseudo_merges_nr; i++) hashwrite_be64(f, pseudo_merge_ofs[i]); hashwrite_be32(f, writer->pseudo_merges_nr); hashwrite_be32(f, kh_size(writer->pseudo_merge_commits)); hashwrite_be64(f, table_start - start); hashwrite_be64(f, hashfile_total(f) - start + sizeof(uint64_t)); So this is purely a case of the diagram being out of sync with the textual description and actual implementation of the format specification. Add the missing component back to the format diagram to avoid further confusion in this area. Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-05-24Documentation/technical: describe pseudo-merge bitmaps formatTaylor Blau1-0/+132
Prepare to implement pseudo-merge bitmaps over the next several commits by first describing the serialization format which will store the new pseudo-merge bitmaps themselves. This format is implemented as an optional extension within the bitmap v1 format, making it compatible with previous versions of Git, as well as the original .bitmap implementation within JGit. The format is described in detail in the patch contents below, but the high-level description is as follows: - An array of pseudo-merge bitmaps, each containing a pair of EWAH bitmaps: one describing the set of pseudo-merge "parents", and another describing the set of object(s) reachable from those parents. - A lookup table to determine which pseudo-merge(s) a given commit appears in. An optional extended lookup table follows when there is at least one commit which appears in multiple pseudo-merge groups. - Trailing metadata, including the number of pseudo-merge(s), number of unique parents, the offset within the .bitmap file for the pseudo-merge commit lookup table, and the size of the optional extension itself. Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-02-07refs: introduce reftable backendPatrick Steinhardt1-2/+3
Due to scalability issues, Shawn Pearce has originally proposed a new "reftable" format more than six years ago [1]. Initially, this new format was implemented in JGit with promising results. Around two years ago, we have then added the "reftable" library to the Git codebase via a4bbd13be3 (Merge branch 'hn/reftable', 2021-12-15). With this we have landed all the low-level code to read and write reftables. Notably missing though was the integration of this low-level code into the Git code base in the form of a new ref backend that ties all of this together. This gap is now finally closed by introducing a new "reftable" backend into the Git codebase. This new backend promises to bring some notable improvements to Git repositories: - It becomes possible to do truly atomic writes where either all refs are committed to disk or none are. This was not possible with the "files" backend because ref updates were split across multiple loose files. - The disk space required to store many refs is reduced, both compared to loose refs and packed-refs. This is enabled both by the reftable format being a binary format, which is more compact, and by prefix compression. - We can ignore filesystem-specific behaviour as ref names are not encoded via paths anymore. This means there is no need to handle case sensitivity on Windows systems or Unicode precomposition on macOS. - There is no need to rewrite the complete refdb anymore every time a ref is being deleted like it was the case for packed-refs. This means that ref deletions are now constant time instead of scaling linearly with the number of refs. - We can ignore file/directory conflicts so that it becomes possible to store both "refs/heads/foo" and "refs/heads/foo/bar". - Due to this property we can retain reflogs for deleted refs. We have previously been deleting reflogs together with their refs to avoid file/directory conflicts, which is not necessary anymore. - We can properly enumerate all refs. With the "files" backend it is not easily possible to distinguish between refs and non-refs because they may live side by side in the gitdir. Not all of these improvements are realized with the current "reftable" backend implementation. At this point, the new backend is supposed to be a drop-in replacement for the "files" backend that is used by basically all Git repositories nowadays. It strives for 1:1 compatibility, which means that a user can expect the same behaviour regardless of whether they use the "reftable" backend or the "files" backend for most of the part. Most notably, this means we artificially limit the capabilities of the "reftable" backend to match the limits of the "files" backend. It is not possible to create refs that would end up with file/directory conflicts, we do not retain reflogs, we perform stricter-than-necessary checks. This is done intentionally due to two main reasons: - It makes it significantly easier to land the "reftable" backend as tests behave the same. It would be tough to argue for each and every single test that doesn't pass with the "reftable" backend. - It ensures compatibility between repositories that use the "files" backend and repositories that use the "reftable" backend. Like this, hosters can migrate their repositories to use the "reftable" backend without causing issues for clients that use the "files" backend in their clones. It is expected that these artificial limitations may eventually go away in the long term. Performance-wise things very much depend on the actual workload. The following benchmarks compare the "files" and "reftable" backends in the current version: - Creating N refs in separate transactions shows that the "files" backend is ~50% faster. This is not surprising given that creating a ref only requires us to create a single loose ref. The "reftable" backend will also perform auto compaction on updates. In real-world workloads we would likely also want to perform pack loose refs, which would likely change the picture. Benchmark 1: update-ref: create refs sequentially (refformat = files, refcount = 1) Time (mean ± σ): 2.1 ms ± 0.3 ms [User: 0.6 ms, System: 1.7 ms] Range (min … max): 1.8 ms … 4.3 ms 133 runs Benchmark 2: update-ref: create refs sequentially (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1) Time (mean ± σ): 2.7 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.6 ms, System: 2.2 ms] Range (min … max): 2.4 ms … 2.9 ms 132 runs Benchmark 3: update-ref: create refs sequentially (refformat = files, refcount = 1000) Time (mean ± σ): 1.975 s ± 0.006 s [User: 0.437 s, System: 1.535 s] Range (min … max): 1.969 s … 1.980 s 3 runs Benchmark 4: update-ref: create refs sequentially (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1000) Time (mean ± σ): 2.611 s ± 0.013 s [User: 0.782 s, System: 1.825 s] Range (min … max): 2.597 s … 2.622 s 3 runs Benchmark 5: update-ref: create refs sequentially (refformat = files, refcount = 100000) Time (mean ± σ): 198.442 s ± 0.241 s [User: 43.051 s, System: 155.250 s] Range (min … max): 198.189 s … 198.670 s 3 runs Benchmark 6: update-ref: create refs sequentially (refformat = reftable, refcount = 100000) Time (mean ± σ): 294.509 s ± 4.269 s [User: 104.046 s, System: 190.326 s] Range (min … max): 290.223 s … 298.761 s 3 runs - Creating N refs in a single transaction shows that the "files" backend is significantly slower once we start to write many refs. The "reftable" backend only needs to update two files, whereas the "files" backend needs to write one file per ref. Benchmark 1: update-ref: create many refs (refformat = files, refcount = 1) Time (mean ± σ): 1.9 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.4 ms] Range (min … max): 1.8 ms … 2.6 ms 151 runs Benchmark 2: update-ref: create many refs (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1) Time (mean ± σ): 2.5 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.7 ms, System: 1.7 ms] Range (min … max): 2.4 ms … 3.4 ms 148 runs Benchmark 3: update-ref: create many refs (refformat = files, refcount = 1000) Time (mean ± σ): 152.5 ms ± 5.2 ms [User: 19.1 ms, System: 133.1 ms] Range (min … max): 148.5 ms … 167.8 ms 15 runs Benchmark 4: update-ref: create many refs (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1000) Time (mean ± σ): 58.0 ms ± 2.5 ms [User: 28.4 ms, System: 29.4 ms] Range (min … max): 56.3 ms … 72.9 ms 40 runs Benchmark 5: update-ref: create many refs (refformat = files, refcount = 1000000) Time (mean ± σ): 152.752 s ± 0.710 s [User: 20.315 s, System: 131.310 s] Range (min … max): 152.165 s … 153.542 s 3 runs Benchmark 6: update-ref: create many refs (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1000000) Time (mean ± σ): 51.912 s ± 0.127 s [User: 26.483 s, System: 25.424 s] Range (min … max): 51.769 s … 52.012 s 3 runs - Deleting a ref in a fully-packed repository shows that the "files" backend scales with the number of refs. The "reftable" backend has constant-time deletions. Benchmark 1: update-ref: delete ref (refformat = files, refcount = 1) Time (mean ± σ): 1.7 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.2 ms] Range (min … max): 1.6 ms … 2.1 ms 316 runs Benchmark 2: update-ref: delete ref (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1) Time (mean ± σ): 1.8 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.3 ms] Range (min … max): 1.7 ms … 2.1 ms 294 runs Benchmark 3: update-ref: delete ref (refformat = files, refcount = 1000) Time (mean ± σ): 2.0 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.5 ms, System: 1.4 ms] Range (min … max): 1.9 ms … 2.5 ms 287 runs Benchmark 4: update-ref: delete ref (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1000) Time (mean ± σ): 1.9 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.5 ms, System: 1.3 ms] Range (min … max): 1.8 ms … 2.1 ms 217 runs Benchmark 5: update-ref: delete ref (refformat = files, refcount = 1000000) Time (mean ± σ): 229.8 ms ± 7.9 ms [User: 182.6 ms, System: 46.8 ms] Range (min … max): 224.6 ms … 245.2 ms 6 runs Benchmark 6: update-ref: delete ref (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1000000) Time (mean ± σ): 2.0 ms ± 0.0 ms [User: 0.6 ms, System: 1.3 ms] Range (min … max): 2.0 ms … 2.1 ms 3 runs - Listing all refs shows no significant advantage for either of the backends. The "files" backend is a bit faster, but not by a significant margin. When repositories are not packed the "reftable" backend outperforms the "files" backend because the "reftable" backend performs auto-compaction. Benchmark 1: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = files, refcount = 1, packed = true) Time (mean ± σ): 1.6 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.1 ms] Range (min … max): 1.5 ms … 2.0 ms 1729 runs Benchmark 2: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1, packed = true) Time (mean ± σ): 1.6 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.1 ms] Range (min … max): 1.5 ms … 1.8 ms 1816 runs Benchmark 3: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = files, refcount = 1000, packed = true) Time (mean ± σ): 4.3 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.9 ms, System: 3.3 ms] Range (min … max): 4.1 ms … 4.6 ms 645 runs Benchmark 4: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1000, packed = true) Time (mean ± σ): 4.5 ms ± 0.2 ms [User: 1.0 ms, System: 3.3 ms] Range (min … max): 4.2 ms … 5.9 ms 643 runs Benchmark 5: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = files, refcount = 1000000, packed = true) Time (mean ± σ): 2.537 s ± 0.034 s [User: 0.488 s, System: 2.048 s] Range (min … max): 2.511 s … 2.627 s 10 runs Benchmark 6: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1000000, packed = true) Time (mean ± σ): 2.712 s ± 0.017 s [User: 0.653 s, System: 2.059 s] Range (min … max): 2.692 s … 2.752 s 10 runs Benchmark 7: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = files, refcount = 1, packed = false) Time (mean ± σ): 1.6 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.1 ms] Range (min … max): 1.5 ms … 1.9 ms 1834 runs Benchmark 8: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1, packed = false) Time (mean ± σ): 1.6 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.1 ms] Range (min … max): 1.4 ms … 2.0 ms 1840 runs Benchmark 9: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = files, refcount = 1000, packed = false) Time (mean ± σ): 13.8 ms ± 0.2 ms [User: 2.8 ms, System: 10.8 ms] Range (min … max): 13.3 ms … 14.5 ms 208 runs Benchmark 10: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1000, packed = false) Time (mean ± σ): 4.5 ms ± 0.2 ms [User: 1.2 ms, System: 3.3 ms] Range (min … max): 4.3 ms … 6.2 ms 624 runs Benchmark 11: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = files, refcount = 1000000, packed = false) Time (mean ± σ): 12.127 s ± 0.129 s [User: 2.675 s, System: 9.451 s] Range (min … max): 11.965 s … 12.370 s 10 runs Benchmark 12: show-ref: print all refs (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1000000, packed = false) Time (mean ± σ): 2.799 s ± 0.022 s [User: 0.735 s, System: 2.063 s] Range (min … max): 2.769 s … 2.836 s 10 runs - Printing a single ref shows no real difference between the "files" and "reftable" backends. Benchmark 1: show-ref: print single ref (refformat = files, refcount = 1) Time (mean ± σ): 1.5 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.0 ms] Range (min … max): 1.4 ms … 1.8 ms 1779 runs Benchmark 2: show-ref: print single ref (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1) Time (mean ± σ): 1.6 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.1 ms] Range (min … max): 1.4 ms … 2.5 ms 1753 runs Benchmark 3: show-ref: print single ref (refformat = files, refcount = 1000) Time (mean ± σ): 1.5 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.3 ms, System: 1.1 ms] Range (min … max): 1.4 ms … 1.9 ms 1840 runs Benchmark 4: show-ref: print single ref (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1000) Time (mean ± σ): 1.6 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.1 ms] Range (min … max): 1.5 ms … 2.0 ms 1831 runs Benchmark 5: show-ref: print single ref (refformat = files, refcount = 1000000) Time (mean ± σ): 1.6 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.1 ms] Range (min … max): 1.5 ms … 2.1 ms 1848 runs Benchmark 6: show-ref: print single ref (refformat = reftable, refcount = 1000000) Time (mean ± σ): 1.6 ms ± 0.1 ms [User: 0.4 ms, System: 1.1 ms] Range (min … max): 1.5 ms … 2.1 ms 1762 runs So overall, performance depends on the usecases. Except for many sequential writes the "reftable" backend is roughly on par or significantly faster than the "files" backend though. Given that the "files" backend has received 18 years of optimizations by now this can be seen as a win. Furthermore, we can expect that the "reftable" backend will grow faster over time when attention turns more towards optimizations. The complete test suite passes, except for those tests explicitly marked to require the REFFILES prerequisite. Some tests in t0610 are marked as failing because they depend on still-in-flight bug fixes. Tests can be run with the new backend by setting the GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_REF_FORMAT environment variable to "reftable". There is a single known conceptual incompatibility with the dumb HTTP transport. As "info/refs" SHOULD NOT contain the HEAD reference, and because the "HEAD" file is not valid anymore, it is impossible for the remote client to figure out the default branch without changing the protocol. This shortcoming needs to be handled in a subsequent patch series. As the reftable library has already been introduced a while ago, this commit message will not go into the details of how exactly the on-disk format works. Please refer to our preexisting technical documentation at Documentation/technical/reftable for this. [1]: https://public-inbox.org/git/CAJo=hJtyof=HRy=2sLP0ng0uZ4=S-DpZ5dR1aF+VHVETKG20OQ@mail.gmail.com/ Original-idea-by: Shawn Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> Based-on-patch-by: Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@google.com> Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2024-01-02setup: introduce "extensions.refStorage" extensionPatrick Steinhardt1-0/+5
Introduce a new "extensions.refStorage" extension that allows us to specify the ref storage format used by a repository. For now, the only supported format is the "files" format, but this list will likely soon be extended to also support the upcoming "reftable" format. There have been discussions on the Git mailing list in the past around how exactly this extension should look like. One alternative [1] that was discussed was whether it would make sense to model the extension in such a way that backends are arbitrarily stackable. This would allow for a combined value of e.g. "loose,packed-refs" or "loose,reftable", which indicates that new refs would be written via "loose" files backend and compressed into "packed-refs" or "reftable" backends, respectively. It is arguable though whether this flexibility and the complexity that it brings with it is really required for now. It is not foreseeable that there will be a proliferation of backends in the near-term future, and the current set of existing formats and formats which are on the horizon can easily be configured with the much simpler proposal where we have a single value, only. Furthermore, if we ever see that we indeed want to gain the ability to arbitrarily stack the ref formats, then we can adapt the current extension rather easily. Given that Git clients will refuse any unknown value for the "extensions.refStorage" extension they would also know to ignore a stacked "loose,packed-refs" in the future. So let's stick with the easy proposal for the time being and wire up the extension. [1]: <pull.1408.git.1667846164.gitgitgadget@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-12-09Merge branch 'js/doc-unit-tests'Junio C Hamano1-0/+240
Process to add some form of low-level unit tests has started. * js/doc-unit-tests: ci: run unit tests in CI unit tests: add TAP unit test framework unit tests: add a project plan document
2023-11-10unit tests: add a project plan documentJosh Steadmon1-0/+240
In our current testing environment, we spend a significant amount of effort crafting end-to-end tests for error conditions that could easily be captured by unit tests (or we simply forgo some hard-to-setup and rare error conditions). Describe what we hope to accomplish by implementing unit tests, and explain some open questions and milestones. Discuss desired features for test frameworks/harnesses, and provide a comparison of several different frameworks. Finally, document our rationale for implementing a custom framework. Co-authored-by: Calvin Wan <calvinwan@google.com> Signed-off-by: Calvin Wan <calvinwan@google.com> Signed-off-by: Josh Steadmon <steadmon@google.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-10-09documentation: add missing quotesElijah Newren1-1/+1
Diff best viewed with --color-diff. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-10-09documentation: add some commas where they are helpfulElijah Newren2-3/+3
Diff best viewed with --color-diff. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-10-09documentation: fix capitalizationElijah Newren1-1/+1
Diff best viewed with --color-diff. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-10-09documentation: add missing articleElijah Newren2-2/+2
Diff best viewed with --color-diff. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-10-09documentation: fix choice of articleElijah Newren1-1/+1
Diff best viewed with --color-diff. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-10-09documentation: fix singular vs. pluralElijah Newren3-3/+3
Diff best viewed with --color-diff. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-10-09documentation: fix verb tenseElijah Newren1-1/+1
Diff best viewed with --color-diff. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-10-09documentation: fix subject/verb agreementElijah Newren2-3/+3
Diff best viewed with --color-diff. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-10-09documentation: remove extraneous wordsElijah Newren3-3/+3
Diff best viewed with --color-diff. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-10-09documentation: add missing wordsElijah Newren4-4/+4
Diff best viewed with --color-diff. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2023-10-09documentation: fix apostrophe usageElijah Newren1-1/+1
Diff best viewed with --color-diff. Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>