Re: Migration to Git LFS inflates repository multiple times

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Nov 12, 2018, 12:30 UTC
Message-ID: <20181112123058.GE3956@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <CABUeae-Bk5hxEsLuDi=MytzN-kBG0D4psLbc_1=B+=70D=JKCQ@mail.gmail.com>

On Mon, Nov 12, 2018 at 12:47:42AM +0100, Mateusz Loskot wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

> Hi,
> 
> I'm posting here for the first time and I hope it's the right place to ask
> questions about Git LFS.
> 
> TL;TR: Is this normal a repository migrated to Git LFS inflates multiple times
> and how to deal with it?

That does sound odd to me. People with more LFS experience can probably give you a better answers, but one thought occurred to me: does LFS store backup copies of the original refs that it rewrites (similar to the way filter-branch stores refs/original)?

If so, then the resulting repo has the new history _and_ the old history. Which might mean storing those large blobs both as Git objects (for the old history) and in an LFS cache directory (for the new history).

And the right next step is probably to delete those backup refs, and then "git gc --prune=now". Hmm, actually thinking about it, reflogs could be making the old history reachable, too.

Try looking at the output of "git for-each-ref" and seeing if there are any backup refs. After deleting them (or confirming that there aren't), prune the reflogs with:

  git reflog expire --expire-unreachable=now --all

and then "git gc --prune=now".

-Peff