Re: [PATCH v3] Prevent megablobs from gunking up git packs

From: Nicolas Pitre <nico@cam.org>
Date: May 27, 2007, 03:15 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.0.99.0705262304200.3366@xanadu.home>
In-Reply-To: <465887AB.1010001@gmail.com>

On Sat, 26 May 2007, Dana How wrote:

Show 12 quoted lines

> 
> Extremely large blobs distort general-purpose git packfiles.
> These megablobs can be either stored in separate "kept" packfiles,
> or left as loose objects.  Here we add some features to help
> either approach.
> 
> This patch implements the following:
> 1. git pack-objects accepts --max-blob-size=N,  with the effect that
>    only loose blobs less than N KB are written to the packfiles(s).
>    If an already packed blob violates this limit (perhaps these are
>    fast-import packs or max-blob-size was reduced),  it _is_ passed
>    through if from a local pack and no loose copy exists.

I'm still not convainced by this feature.  Is it really necessary?

Wouldn't it be better if the --max-blob-size=N was instead a --trailing-blob-size=N to specify which blobs are considered "naughty" per our previous discussion? This way there is no incoherency with already packed blobs larger than the treshold that you have to pass through.

This, combined with the option to disable deltification of large blobs (both options can be specified with the same size), and possibly the pack size limit, would solve your large blob issue, shouldn't it?

Nicolas