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Re: [PATCH] docs: add filter-branch note about The BFG

From
Roberto Tyley <roberto.tyley@gmail.com>
Date
Dec 18, 2013, 01:04 UTC
Message-ID
<CAFY1edaEZzDUuG9kopbAp9h2Frc2aLRKkjKMUnpSonML2xZN=A@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<xmqqk3f3mjl5.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>
On 17 December 2013 18:13, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 10 quoted lines
>
> Having said that, "You may want to use ..." without giving the
> reason why we recommend the other tool leaves the reader wondering
> what the pros and cons are, and why git-filter-branch exists if BFG
> is the first thing its document recommends even before it describes
> what git-filter-branch is and does.  "You may want to check ..."
> might be slightly better, but probably by not that much improvement.
>
> Rewriting "it's generally faster ..."  part to give a bit more info
> to allow readers decide the pros and cons themselves may be needed.

Thanks for that feedback, it makes sense. Here's an alternative version which gives more information on the pros and cons of each tool, and why you might want to use either - as Jonathan suggested, this would be for the NOTES section at the bottom of the file, where it's less intrusive:

Notes -----

git-filter-branch allows you to make complex shell-scripted rewrites of your Git history, but you may not need this flexibility if you're simply _removing unwanted data_ like large files or passwords. For those operations you may want to consider link:http://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner/[The BFG Repo-Cleaner], a JVM-based alternative to git-filter-branch, typically at least 10-50x faster for those use-cases, and with quite different properties:

* The BFG takes advantage of multi-core machines, cleaning commit
file-trees in parallel, which git-filter-branch currently does not do.
* Any particular version of a file is cleaned exactly _once_. The BFG,
unlike git-filter-branch, does not give you the opportunity to handle
a file differently based on where or when it was committed within your
history.
* The link:http://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner/#examples[command-set]
is much more restrictive than git-filter branch, and dedicated just to
the tasks of removing unwanted data - e.g. `--strip-blobs-bigger-than
1M`.
I can re-submit this as a patch if it's acceptable?
Previous: Junio C HamanoNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 3 of 7 in “docs: add filter-branch note about The BFG”
  1. docs: add filter-branch note about The BFGRoberto Tyley, Dec 17, 2013
  2. Junio C HamanoDec 17, 2013
  3. Roberto TyleyDec 18, 2013
  4. Junio C HamanoDec 18, 2013
  5. Tweaked notes on gfb<->bfg differencesRoberto Tyley, Dec 18, 2013
  6. docs: add filter-branch notes on The BFGRoberto Tyley, Dec 18, 2013
  7. Jonathan NiederDec 17, 2013

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