From: Angelo Borsotti <angelo.borsotti@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:51:20 GMT
Subject: git pull transfers useless files
Message-ID: <CAB9Jk9BcusbERNW0ZTsuq6xd7onOuggfTxJnf7D_USNv-uhC1g@mail.gmail.com>

Hello,

git pull transfers useless files when called with the --squash option
and merge=binary
attribute.
Consider the following example:

#!/bin/bash

set -v
cd remote
rm -rf * .git/
git init
echo '*.pdf -crlf -diff merge=binary' >.git/info/attributes

touch f1
git add f1
echo "aaa" >f1.pdf
git add f1.pdf
cp <very large pdf file, some 100 Mbytes>.pdf f2.pdf
git add f2.pdf
git commit -m A
cd ..

cd local
rm -rf * .git/
git init
echo '*.pdf -crlf -diff merge=binary' >.git/info/attributes
git remote add remote ../remote

touch f3
git add f3
git commit -m B
git checkout -b develop

echo "bbb" >f2.pdf
git add f2.pdf
git commit -m C
git pull -v --squash remote master

ls
cat <f2.pdf

set +v

Replace <very large pdf file, some 100 Mbytes>.pdf with the path of a pdf file
that is really large and run it.
When it executes the git pull it spends on my computer some 30 seconds,
obviously transferring the pdf file, that then it disregards because of the
merge=binary attribute.
When a commit contains many binary files, the command spends a lot of
time needlessly.

Is it possible to optimize it?

Thank you
-Angelo Borsotti