[PATCH v2] diff-index: don't queue unchanged filepairs with diff_change()

From: René Scharfe <l.s.r@web.de>
Date: Nov 30, 2025, 11:47 UTC
Message-ID: <aa28974b-ec73-4562-bfc8-4745ad58b55a@web.de>

diff_cache() queues unchanged filepairs if the flag find_copies_harder is set, and uses diff_change() for that. This function allocates a filespec for each side, does a few other things that are unnecessary for unchanged filepairs and always sets the diff_flag has_changes, which is simply misleading in this case.

Add a new streamlined function for queuing unchanged filepairs and use it in show_modified(), which is called by diff_cache() via oneway_diff() and do_oneway_diff(). It allocates only a single filespec for each filepair and uses it twice with reference counting. This has a measurable effect if there are a lot of them, like in the Linux repo:

Benchmark 1: ./git_v2.52.0 -C ../linux diff --cached --find-copies-harder
  Time (mean ± σ):      31.8 ms ±   0.2 ms    [User: 24.2 ms, System: 6.3 ms]
  Range (min … max):    31.5 ms …  32.3 ms    85 runs

Benchmark 2: ./git -C ../linux diff --cached --find-copies-harder
  Time (mean ± σ):      23.9 ms ±   0.2 ms    [User: 18.1 ms, System: 4.6 ms]
  Range (min … max):    23.5 ms …  24.4 ms    111 runs

Summary
  ./git -C ../linux diff --cached --find-copies-harder ran
    1.33 ± 0.01 times faster than ./git_v2.52.0 -C ../linux diff --cached --find-copies-harder

Signed-off-by: René Scharfe <l.s.r@web.de>
---
Changes since v1:
- Clearer description of memory usage in the commit message.

 diff-lib.c | 13 ++++++-------
 diff.c     | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
 diff.h     |  5 +++++
 3 files changed, 31 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/diff-lib.c b/diff-lib.c
index b8f8f3bc31..8e624f38c6 100644
--- a/diff-lib.c
+++ b/diff-lib.c
@@ -418,13 +418,12 @@ static int show_modified(struct rev_info *revs,
 	}
 
 	oldmode = old_entry->ce_mode;
-	if (mode == oldmode && oideq(oid, &old_entry->oid) && !dirty_submodule &&
-	    !revs->diffopt.flags.find_copies_harder)
-		return 0;
-
-	diff_change(&revs->diffopt, oldmode, mode,
-		    &old_entry->oid, oid, 1, !is_null_oid(oid),
-		    old_entry->name, 0, dirty_submodule);
+	if (mode != oldmode || !oideq(oid, &old_entry->oid) || dirty_submodule)
+		diff_change(&revs->diffopt, oldmode, mode,
+			    &old_entry->oid, oid, 1, !is_null_oid(oid),
+			    old_entry->name, 0, dirty_submodule);
+	else if (revs->diffopt.flags.find_copies_harder)
+		diff_same(&revs->diffopt, mode, oid, old_entry->name);
 	return 0;
 }
 
diff --git a/diff.c b/diff.c
index 915317025f..63d33251cd 100644
--- a/diff.c
+++ b/diff.c
@@ -7348,6 +7348,26 @@ void diff_change(struct diff_options *options,
 			  concatpath, old_dirty_submodule, new_dirty_submodule);
 }
 
+void diff_same(struct diff_options *options,
+	       unsigned mode,
+	       const struct object_id *oid,
+	       const char *concatpath)
+{
+	struct diff_filespec *one;
+
+	if (S_ISGITLINK(mode) && is_submodule_ignored(concatpath, options))
+		return;
+
+	if (options->prefix &&
+	    strncmp(concatpath, options->prefix, options->prefix_length))
+		return;
+
+	one = alloc_filespec(concatpath);
+	fill_filespec(one, oid, 1, mode);
+	one->count++;
+	diff_queue(&diff_queued_diff, one, one);
+}
+
 struct diff_filepair *diff_unmerge(struct diff_options *options, const char *path)
 {
 	struct diff_filepair *pair;
diff --git a/diff.h b/diff.h
index 31eedd5c0c..e80503aebb 100644
--- a/diff.h
+++ b/diff.h
@@ -572,6 +572,11 @@ void diff_change(struct diff_options *,
 		 const char *fullpath,
 		 unsigned dirty_submodule1, unsigned dirty_submodule2);
 
+void diff_same(struct diff_options *,
+	       unsigned mode,
+	       const struct object_id *oid,
+	       const char *fullpath);
+
 struct diff_filepair *diff_unmerge(struct diff_options *, const char *path);
 
 void compute_diffstat(struct diff_options *options, struct diffstat_t *diffstat,

-- 
2.52.0