{"thread":{"id":"1158","subject":"using git without blobs in the object database","startedAt":"2005-07-07T12:10:37Z","lastAt":"2005-07-07T12:10:37Z","messageCount":1,"participants":["Bryan Larsen"],"isPatch":false,"patchVersion":null,"patchTotal":null},"messages":[{"id":"5759","messageId":"42CD1BBD.8070306@gmail.com","threadId":"1158","inReplyTo":null,"subject":"using git without blobs in the object database","fromName":"Bryan Larsen","fromEmail":"bryan.larsen@gmail.com","sentAt":"2005-07-07T12:10:37Z","receivedAt":"2005-07-07T12:10:37Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"bryan@larsen.st","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/32073?v=4"},"body":"Use Case:  A large set of large binary files, geographically \ndistributed.  Each location has some unique files, some identical files \nand some slightly modified files.\n\nI want to use git to tell me what changed and when.  But I cannot afford \nto have it store the blobs in the object database, nor do I need to; \nknowing the signature of previous objects is good enough.\n\nIt seems to me that most operations should work without these objects, \nand that some people do so.  For instance, git-update-cache has a \n--cacheinfo option that facilitates this operation.\n\nBut not all commands work so well.  For instance, git-write-tree will \nfail if --cacheinfo was used to add a file.  This failure is caused by a \ncall to check_valid_sha1().  It appears that this check is not strictly \nnecessary, just very useful for normal operation.\n\nWould a patch that added a flag \"--disable-sha1-check\" to git-write-tree \nbe accepted?  I hope that's all I need to add, but I haven't completed \nmy evaluation yet.\n\nthanks,\nBryan\n"}]}