Re: [PATCH] deprecate the new loose object header format

From: Nicolas Pitre <nico@cam.org>
Date: May 9, 2007, 20:42 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.0.99.0705091633590.24220@xanadu.home>
In-Reply-To: <56b7f5510705091316t78e31032k95815e190239717e@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, 9 May 2007, Dana How wrote:

> This doesn't just deprecate the format,
> it removes the ability to create it.
> So to me this patch goes too far.

Well, I disagree. We cannot create it anymore, but we still can read it. Older Git versions nay not even read it. And since this format was off by default anyway, I doubt you've lost anything.

> Also, if we're interested in "simpler", wouldn't
> it be better for loose and in-pack objects to be
> the same?  I thought that was the point of
> !legacy_headers.

It is not simpler because:

 1) backward compatibility requires the legacy format, and

 2) the object SHA1 is always computed with the legacy header included.

So what is simpler is really to get rid of over 100 lines of code that didn't provide a real benefit. The faster we remove the ability to write such objects the fewer they'll be in the field.

Nicolas