Re: git fails on large repo clone on intermittent, or intermittently-high-latency, connections

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Jan 5, 2011, 17:54 UTC
Message-ID: <20110105175412.GA21863@burratino>
In-Reply-To: <m3tyhnbcf7.fsf@localhost.localdomain>

Jakub Narebski wrote:

> Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net> writes:

Show 11 quoted lines

>> How hard would it be to add a wget-like mode to git, for the initial
>> repo download?
>
> Very hard; tthough "resumable clone" was often requested (25%
> responders in "Git User's Survey 2010", see [1]), and there was even
> some discussion about possible implementation, it was not implemented
> yet, even as proof of concept.
>
> The trouble is that packfile is *generated for a client*, and
> bit-for-bit representation of said pack can vary (e.g. if
> multithreaded packing is enabled; usually a good idea).

That said, one possible partial solution would be to automate generation of a seed bundle for huge repositories (with a script or a special parameter to "git gc", maybe) and to document serving such a seed bundle over HTTP as part of the standard setup. If this could be made simple enough that e.g. all large repos on repo.or.cz had such a seed bundle then I would call it a success. :)