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Re: upload-pack is slow with lots of refs

From
Shawn Pearce <spearce@spearce.org>
Date
Oct 9, 2012, 06:46 UTC
Message-ID
<CAJo=hJsJgqZqPxucRcSgYSa0N3pcw5seT9vcu2BE8WwfJVrvKQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<5072EBD1.40500@kdbg.org>
On Mon, Oct 8, 2012 at 8:05 AM, Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org> wrote:
Show 16 quoted lines
> Am 05.10.2012 18:57, schrieb Shawn Pearce:
>> On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 11:24 PM, Johannes Sixt <j.sixt@viscovery.net> wrote:
>>> Upload-pack can just start
>>> advertising refs in the "v1" way and announce a "v2" capability and listen
>>> for response in parallel. A v2 capable client can start sending "wants" or
>>> some other signal as soon as it sees the "v2" capability. Upload-pack,
>>> which was listening for responses in parallel, can interrupt its
>>> advertisements and continue with v2 protocol from here.
>>>
>>> This sounds so simple (not the implementation, of course) - I must be
>>> missing something.
>>
>> Smart HTTP is not bidirectional. The client can't cut off the server.
>
> Smart HTTP does not need it: you already posted a better solution (I'm
> refering to "&v=2").
Yes but then it diverges even further from the native bidirectional protocol.
Show 9 quoted lines
>> Its also more complex to code the server to listen for a stop command
>> from the client at the same time the server is blasting out useless
>> references to the client.
>
> At least the server side does not seem to be that complex. See below.
> Of course, the server blasted out some refs, but I'm confident that in
> practice the client will be able to signal v2 capability after a few packets
> of advertisements. You can switch on TCP_NODELAY for the first line with
> the capabilities to ensure it goes out on the wire ASAP.
...
Show 7 quoted lines
> +static int client_spoke(void)
> +{
> +       struct pollfd pfd;
> +       pfd.fd = 0;
> +       pfd.events = POLLIN;
> +       return poll(&pfd, 1, 0) > 0 &&
> +               (pfd.revents & (POLLIN|POLLHUP));

Except doing this in Java is harder on an arbitrary InputStream type. I guess we really only care about basic TCP, in which case we can use NIO to implement an emulation of poll, and SSH, where MINA SSHD probably doesn't provide a way to see if the client has given us data without blocking. That makes supporting v2 really hard in e.g. Gerrit Code Review. You could argue that its improper to attempt to implement a network protocol in a language whose standard libraries have gone out of their way to prevent you from polling to see if data is immediately available, but I prefer to ignore such arguments.

As it turns out we don't really have this problem with git://. Clients can bury a v2 request in the extended headers where the host line appears today. Its a bit tricky because of that \0 bug causing infinite looping, but IIRC using \0\0 is safe even against ancient servers. So git:// and http:// both have a way where the client can ask for v2 support before the server speaks, and have it transparently be ignored by ancient servers.

The only place we have a problem is SSH. That exec of the remote binary is just super-strict. Its good to be paranoid, but its also locked out any chance we have at doing the upgrade over SSH without having to run two SSH commands in the worst case. I guess the best approach is to try the v1 protocol by default, have the remote advertise it supports v2, and remember this on a per-host basis in ~/.gitconfig for future requests. Users could always force a specific preference with remote.NAME.uploadpack variable or --uploadpack command line flag.

Previous: Johannes SixtNext: Johannes Sixt
Message 13 of 24 in “upload-pack is slow with lots of refs”
  1. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonOct 3, 2012
  2. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuyOct 3, 2012
  3. Jeff KingOct 3, 2012
  4. Junio C HamanoOct 3, 2012
  5. Jeff KingOct 3, 2012
  6. Shawn PearceOct 3, 2012
  7. Jeff KingOct 3, 2012
  8. Sascha CunzOct 4, 2012
  9. Jeff KingOct 5, 2012
  10. Johannes SixtOct 5, 2012
  11. Shawn PearceOct 5, 2012
  12. Johannes SixtOct 8, 2012
  13. Shawn PearceOct 9, 2012
  14. Johannes SixtOct 9, 2012
  15. Johannes SixtOct 9, 2012
  16. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonOct 3, 2012
  17. Jeff KingOct 3, 2012
  18. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonOct 3, 2012
  19. Jeff KingOct 3, 2012
  20. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonOct 3, 2012
  21. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonOct 3, 2012
  22. Jeff KingOct 3, 2012
  23. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonOct 3, 2012
  24. Junio C HamanoOct 3, 2012

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