[RFC] deprecating and eventually removing "git relink"?

What do people think about the subject? As to the timeframe I am thinking about deprecation at v1.7.9 (late January 2012) and removal at v1.7.12 (early August 2012) [*1*].

The script more-or-less outlived its usefulness in July 2005 when packfiles were introduced.

You are better off repacking the repositories in the first place before accumulating so many loose object that linking the same ones between the repositories would give you major saving. It is theoretically possible that two repositories happen to have the same pack and it would give you saving to hardlink them together, but even in that case, the saving would not survive repacking unless they are marked with a ".keep" marker, which the script does not do anyway.

A more useful feature to attack a similar issue would be to make it easier to use "--reference" aka "objects/info/alternates". Namely:

 (1) devise a way to make it safer by allowing the repository whose
     objects are borrowed by other repositories a way to protect objects
     that it does not need but may be needed by others from repacking; and

 (2) allowing two repositories that started independently to share objects
     using the alternates mechanism after the fact.

but that is a separate issue.

[Footnote]

*1* Both dates were derived from a mechanical "9-week per release cycle".