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[GSoC PATCH v2 0/7] repack: add --drop-filtered to reclaim space in partial clones

From
Siddharth Shrimali <r.siddharth.shrimali@gmail.com>
Date
Jul 30, 2026, 17:41 UTC
Message-ID
<20260730174153.9949-1-r.siddharth.shrimali@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<20260716132848.95982-1-r.siddharth.shrimali@gmail.com>

This is v2 of the series adding "git repack --drop-filtered" to reclaim disk space in partial clones by dropping large, locally-held promisor blobs that remain recoverable from the promisor remote. v1 was sent as an RFC [1].

Partial clones let you work with large repositories without downloading every blob up front. Mising blobs are lazily fetched from the promisor remote on demand. Over time these accumulate locally and there is currently no safe, built-in way to reclaim that space short of re-cloning. This series adds that reverse direction: enumerate promisor blobs over a size threshold, drop them locally, and rely on the existing lazy-fetch machinery to bring them back transparently when needed.

How it works:
  * Enumerate promisor objects directly (ODB_FOR_EACH_OBJECT_PROMISOR_ONLY)
    and select the blobs exceeding the filter threshold. Every enumerated
    object is a promisor object by construction, so it is guaranteed
    recoverable and locally-created objects are never candidates.
  * Rebuild the promisor pack without the selected blobs, reusing the
    existing repack machinery, so the drop is crash-safe (write, fsync,
    install, then delete the old pack).
  * --dry-run lists the candidates and changes nothing.

Safety guards refuse to run while a merge, rebase, am, cherry-pick, revert, or bisect is in progress, and refuse to drop a blob referenced by the current index (it would only be lazily re-fetched by the next worktree command). Both are skipped for bare repositories.

Changes since v1:
  * distinguish an explicit -b/--write-bitmap-index on the command line
    (reported as a conflict) from a repack.writeBitmaps config value
    (silently disabled for the command). This addresses Junio's review
    that the previous check could not tell the two apart
  * documented the choice to keep --dry-run as a separate option rather
    than --drop-filtered=<mode>
  * implemented the safety guards
  * Added git-repack documentation for --drop-filtered and --dry-run
  * Reorganised so enumerate_promisor_blobs() is introduced in its final
    signature
  * Distributed the tests into the commits that introduce each behavior,
    instead of a single standalone test commit.
  * Dropped the drop-log commit from this series
To do:
  * Remote verification: verifying against the remote awaits the "remote-object-info"
    cat-file protocol command.
  * Drop log: introduce with the error-path change that reads it.
  * --verbose: space-reclaimed reporting.
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/20260716132848.95982-1-r.siddharth.shrimali@gmail.com/
Siddharth Shrimali (7):
  builtin/repack.c: add --drop-filtered and --dry-run options
  list-objects-filter: add list_objects_filter__filter_oidset()
  repack-promisor: allow excluding objects from the rebuilt promisor
    pack
  builtin/repack: enumerate promisor blobs for --drop-filtered
  builtin/repack: actually drop filtered promisor blobs
  builtin/repack: add safety guards for --drop-filtered
  Documentation/git-repack: document --drop-filtered and --dry-run
 Documentation/git-repack.adoc   |  35 +++++++
 builtin/repack.c                | 135 +++++++++++++++++++++++-
 list-objects-filter.c           |  45 ++++++++
 list-objects-filter.h           |  16 +++
 repack-filtered.c               |  81 +++++++++++++++
 repack-promisor.c               |  15 ++-
 repack.h                        |   8 +-
 t/meson.build                   |   1 +
 t/t7706-repack-drop-filtered.sh | 179 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 9 files changed, 511 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
 create mode 100755 t/t7706-repack-drop-filtered.sh
-- 
2.54.0
Previous: Siddharth ShrimaliNext: Siddharth Shrimali
Message 20 of 76 in “repack: add --drop-filtered to reclaim space in partial clones”
  1. 0/7 repack: add --drop-filtered to reclaim space in partial clonesSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 16, 2026
  2. 1/7 builtin/repack.c: add --drop-filtered and --dry-run optionsSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 16, 2026
  3. Junio C HamanoJul 16, 2026
  4. Siddharth ShrimaliJul 17, 2026
  5. Siddharth AsthanaJul 23, 2026
  6. Christian CouderJul 18, 2026
  7. Siddharth ShrimaliJul 20, 2026
  8. 2/7 list-objects-filter: add list_objects_filter__filter_oidset()Siddharth Shrimali, Jul 16, 2026
  9. 3/7 repack-promisor: allow excluding objects from the rebuilt promisor packSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 16, 2026
  10. 4/7 builtin/repack: enumerate promisor blobs for --drop-filteredSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 16, 2026
  11. 5/7 t7706: test --drop-filtered enumeration and validationSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 16, 2026
  12. 6/7 builtin/repack: actually drop filtered promisor blobsSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 16, 2026
  13. Siddharth AsthanaJul 23, 2026
  14. Siddharth ShrimaliJul 25, 2026
  15. 7/7 repack-promisor: record dropped objects in a drop logSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 16, 2026
  16. Siddharth AsthanaJul 23, 2026
  17. Siddharth ShrimaliJul 25, 2026
  18. Siddharth AsthanaJul 23, 2026
  19. Siddharth ShrimaliJul 25, 2026
  20. 0/7 repack: add --drop-filtered to reclaim space in partial clonesSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 30, 2026
  21. 1/7 builtin/repack.c: add --drop-filtered and --dry-run optionsSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 30, 2026
  22. Siddharth AsthanaAug 4, 2026
  23. 2/7 list-objects-filter: add list_objects_filter__filter_oidset()Siddharth Shrimali, Jul 30, 2026
  24. 3/7 repack-promisor: allow excluding objects from the rebuilt promisor packSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 30, 2026
  25. 4/7 builtin/repack: enumerate promisor blobs for --drop-filteredSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 30, 2026
  26. 5/7 builtin/repack: actually drop filtered promisor blobsSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 30, 2026
  27. 6/7 builtin/repack: add safety guards for --drop-filteredSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 30, 2026
  28. Siddharth AsthanaAug 4, 2026
  29. 7/7 Documentation/git-repack: document --drop-filtered and --dry-runSiddharth Shrimali, Jul 30, 2026
  30. Junio C HamanoJul 31, 2026
  31. Siddharth ShrimaliAug 1, 2026
  32. Junio C HamanoAug 2, 2026
  33. Siddharth ShrimaliAug 2, 2026
  34. Siddharth AsthanaAug 4, 2026
  35. 0/7 repack: add --drop-filtered to reclaim space in partial clonesSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 6, 2026
  36. 1/7 builtin/repack.c: add --drop-filtered and --dry-run optionsSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 6, 2026
  37. 2/7 list-objects-filter: add list_objects_filter__filter_oidset()Siddharth Shrimali, Aug 6, 2026
  38. 3/7 repack-promisor: allow excluding objects from the rebuilt promisor packSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 6, 2026
  39. 4/7 builtin/repack: enumerate promisor blobs for --drop-filteredSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 6, 2026
  40. 5/7 builtin/repack: actually drop filtered promisor blobsSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 6, 2026
  41. 6/7 builtin/repack: add guards for --drop-filteredSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 6, 2026
  42. 7/7 Documentation/git-repack: document --drop-filtered and --dry-runSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 6, 2026
  43. Junio C HamanoAug 6, 2026
  44. Junio C HamanoAug 6, 2026
  45. Siddharth ShrimaliAug 7, 2026
  46. Junio C HamanoAug 7, 2026
  47. Siddharth ShrimaliAug 8, 2026
  48. 0/7 repack: add --drop-filtered to reclaim space in partial clonesSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 10, 2026
  49. 1/7 builtin/repack.c: add --drop-filtered and --dry-run optionsSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 10, 2026
  50. 2/7 list-objects-filter: add list_objects_filter__filter_oidset()Siddharth Shrimali, Aug 10, 2026
  51. Christian CouderAug 12, 2026
  52. Junio C HamanoAug 12, 2026
  53. Siddharth ShrimaliAug 12, 2026
  54. 3/7 repack-promisor: allow excluding objects from the rebuilt promisor packSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 10, 2026
  55. 4/7 builtin/repack: enumerate promisor blobs for --drop-filteredSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 10, 2026
  56. Christian CouderAug 12, 2026
  57. 5/7 builtin/repack: actually drop filtered promisor blobsSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 10, 2026
  58. 6/7 builtin/repack: add guards for --drop-filteredSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 10, 2026
  59. Christian CouderAug 12, 2026
  60. Siddharth ShrimaliAug 12, 2026
  61. 7/7 Documentation/git-repack: document --drop-filtered and --dry-runSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 10, 2026
  62. Christian CouderAug 12, 2026
  63. Junio C HamanoAug 11, 2026
  64. Siddharth ShrimaliAug 12, 2026
  65. 0/6 repack: add --drop-filtered to reclaim space in partial clonesSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 13, 2026
  66. 1/6 builtin/repack: add --drop-filtered and --dry-run optionsSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 13, 2026
  67. 2/6 list-objects-filter: add list_objects_filter__filter_oidset()Siddharth Shrimali, Aug 13, 2026
  68. 3/6 repack-promisor: allow excluding objects from the rebuilt promisor packSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 13, 2026
  69. 4/6 builtin/repack: enumerate promisor blobs for --drop-filteredSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 13, 2026
  70. 5/6 builtin/repack: actually drop filtered promisor blobsSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 13, 2026
  71. 6/6 builtin/repack: add guards for --drop-filteredSiddharth Shrimali, Aug 13, 2026
  72. Samuel BronsonSep 3, 2026
  73. Siddharth ShrimaliSep 4, 2026
  74. Christian CouderAug 14, 2026
  75. Junio C HamanoAug 14, 2026
  76. Siddharth ShrimaliAug 14, 2026

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