sparse fetch, was Re: [PATCH 08/12] git-clone: support --path to do sparse clone

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Jul 24, 2008, 17:41 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0807241837441.8986@racer>
In-Reply-To: <20080724171952.GB21043@sigill.intra.peff.net>

Hi,

On Thu, 24 Jul 2008, Jeff King wrote:

> As a user, I would expect "sparse clone" to also be sparse on the 
> fetching. That is, to not even bother fetching tree objects that we are 
> not going to check out. But that is a whole other can of worms from 
> local sparseness, so I think it is worth saving for a different series.

I think this is not even worth of a series. Sure, it would have benefits for those who want sparse checkouts. But it comes for a high price on everyone else:

- security issues (you'd need to open the git protocol to give you 
  something else than a ref, _including_ refs that were deleted)

- performance issues (the server would have to do a lot more, faking 
  commits, or in the alternative serving a gazillion more sessions if the 
  client does the reconstruction)

... and I am sure there are tons more issues.

Ciao, Dscho