Re: Exact format of tree objets

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 11, 2013, 18:38 UTC
Message-ID: <7v4nd4bigv.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <CABx5MBRAYmO39BnMqnHZhUOwQf-7yeRuD=m7-P2xXdhkp6aWpA@mail.gmail.com>

Chico Sokol <chico.sokol@gmail.com> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> Is there any official documentation of tree objets format? Are tree
> objects encoded specially in some way? How can I parse the inflated
> contents of a tree object?
>
> We're suspecting that there is some kind of special format or
> encoding, because the command "git cat-file -p <sha>" show me ...
> While "git cat-file tree <sha>" generate ...

"cat-file -p" is meant to be human-readable form. The latter gives the exact byte contents read_sha1_file() sees, which is a binary format. Essentially, it is a sequence of:

 - mode of the entry encoded in octal, without any leading '0' pad;
 - pathname component of the entry, terminated with NUL;
 - 20-byte SHA-1 object name.

sorted in a particular order.