Re: Getting rid of symlinks in .git?

From: Petr Baudis <pasky@suse.cz>
Date: Nov 11, 2005, 15:49 UTC
Message-ID: <20051111154938.GU30496@pasky.or.cz>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.63.0511111636400.16210@wbgn013.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de>

Dear diary, on Fri, Nov 11, 2005 at 04:40:43PM CET, I got a letter where Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> said that...

Show 10 quoted lines

> On Fri, 11 Nov 2005, Petr Baudis wrote:
> 
> > Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> said that...
> > > 
> > > Please note that symlinks are much more performant than symrefs. Working a 
> > > lot with switching branches, this matters.
> > 
> > What operations get slowed down noticeably in particular?
> 
> Well, if you have to read two files instead of one, it is 100% slower ;-)

But you usually don't read the HEAD that often...

Besides, the kernel has to read the symlink file as well in order to follow the symlink. ;-)

> Note that the only symlink/symref you usually have is .git/HEAD. But it 
> feels wrong to take the worse approach in *all* cases, just because 
> *one* brain-fscked file system/operating system does not support the 
> superior approach.

This is about being consistent, and also to support dumber protocols better.

-- 
				Petr "Pasky" Baudis
Stuff: http://pasky.or.cz/
VI has two modes: the one in which it beeps and the one in which
it doesn't.