Re: Efficiency of initial clone from server

From: Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org>
Date: Feb 12, 2007, 17:06 UTC
Message-ID: <20070212170647.GB29621@spearce.org>
In-Reply-To: <9e4733910702120631o1be92037ue89b069b0354c8cb@mail.gmail.com>

Jon Smirl <jonsmirl@gmail.com> wrote:

> Why doesn't clone copy the existing packs down first with sendfile,
> then build a small pack for what is left and avoid the initial step of
> making a giant pack. Isn't clone going to break when the repo exceeds
> 2GB?

Because the network format allows an unlimited packfile size, at least until you reach the 2^32-1 object count barrier anyway. It also allows only one packfile to be sent.

The problem is the local system. We are unable to build an index file locally on a packfile that is larger than 4 GiB, as the offsets to positions within the packfile are 32 bit unsigned big-endian integers. The index gets built on the client as it receives the packfile from the server.

-- 
Shawn.