git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

Re: [PATCH] Doc: clarify that pack-objects makes packs, plural

From
Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date
Aug 23, 2017, 21:22 UTC
Message-ID
<20170823212251.li5fs4kypeveydbm@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To
<xmqqbmn72x7a.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
On Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 12:56:25PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>  - There should be an update to say max-pack-size is not something
>    normal users would ever want.
Agreed.
Show 20 quoted lines
> diff --git a/Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt b/Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt
> index 8973510a41..3aa6234501 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt
> @@ -108,9 +108,13 @@ base-name::
>  	is taken from the `pack.windowMemory` configuration variable.
>  
>  --max-pack-size=<n>::
> -	Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed with
> +	In unusual scenarios, you may not be able to create files
> +	larger than certain size on your filesystem, and this option
> +	can be used to tell the command to split the output packfile
> +	into multiple independent packfiles and what the maximum
> +	size of each packfile is. The size can be suffixed with
>  	"k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
> -	If specified, multiple packfiles may be created, which also
> +	This option
>  	prevents the creation of a bitmap index.
>  	The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
>  	`pack.packSizeLimit` is set.

I wonder if it is worth mentioning the other downside: that the sum of the split packfiles may be substantially larger than a single packfile would be (due to lost delta opportunities between the split packs).

For the sneaker-net case, you are much better off generating a single pack and then using "split" and "cat" to reconstruct it on the other end Not that I think we should go into such detail in the manpage, but I have to wonder if --max-pack-size has outlived its usefulness. The only use case I can think of is a filesystem that cannot hold files larger than N bytes.

-Peff
Previous: Jonathan TanNext: Jacob Keller
Message 4 of 7 in “Doc: clarify that pack-objects makes packs, plural”
  1. Doc: clarify that pack-objects makes packs, pluralJonathan Tan, Aug 22, 2017
  2. Junio C HamanoAug 22, 2017
  3. Doc: clarify that pack-objects makes packs, pluralJonathan Tan, Aug 23, 2017
  4. Jeff KingAug 23, 2017
  5. Jacob KellerAug 24, 2017
  6. Jeff KingAug 24, 2017
  7. Junio C HamanoAug 24, 2017

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.