Re: Question about git-prune

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 30, 2007, 20:12 UTC
Message-ID: <7vps3db3rc.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <f66d3l$sa6$1@sea.gmane.org>

walt <wa1ter@myrealbox.com> writes:

>> Probably the objects were packed.
>
> I also tried git-prune-packed, which also did nothing AFAICT.

Of course it wouldn't; prune-packed is to prune loose objects that also appear in packs.

What is happening is:

 - You create a pack that has everything reachable from refs at
   one point;

 - You pull or do your own development; the set of objects
   reachable from refs change from the above set.  This set is
   superset of the above only if there is no rewind is
   involved.  Otherwise, some objects already packed in the
   previous step are now unreachable.

 - git-prune and git-prune-packed are about removing loose
   objects.  They never go into existing packs and eradicate
   objects from them.

When you have unreachable cruft in packs, repacking is the only way to rid them ("git repack -a -d", which is run by "git gc").