Re: Something is broken in repack

From: Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se>
Date: Dec 11, 2007, 20:34 UTC
Message-ID: <475EF453.90404@op5.se>
In-Reply-To: <7v7ijldnq1.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>

Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 12 quoted lines

> Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> writes:
> 
>> So what you actually want to do is to just re-use already packed delta 
>> chains directly, which is what we normally do. But you are explicitly 
>> looking at the "--no-reuse-delta" (aka "git repack -f") case, which is why 
>> it then blows up.
> 
> While that does not explain, as Nico pointed out, the huge difference
> between the two repack runs that have different starting pack, I would
> say it is a fair thing to say.  If you have a suboptimal pack (i.e. not
> enough reusable deltas, as in the 2.1GB pack case), do run "repack -f",
> but if you have a good pack (i.e. 300MB pack), don't.

I think this is too much of a mystery for a lot of people to let it go. Even I started looking into it, and I've got so little spare time just now that I wouldn't stand much of a chance of making a contribution even if I had written the code originally.

That being said, I the fact that some git repositories really *can't* be repacked on some machines (because it eats ALL virtual memory) is really something that lowers git's reputation among huge projects.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231