Re: git-clone --how-much-disk-space-will-this-cost-me? [--depth n]

From: Nicolas Pitre <nico@cam.org>
Date: Dec 16, 2008, 05:45 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.2.00.0812160039180.30035@xanadu.home>
In-Reply-To: <49470D65.40808@gmx.ch>

On Tue, 16 Dec 2008, Jean-Luc Herren wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

> jidanni@jidanni.org wrote:
> > JH> So maybe what you really want is an ETA display during the cloning
> > JH> process?  Sounds like a good idea to me.
> > 
> > ETA implies that git has an estimate of what is going to happen.
> 
> Aren't you implying this too from the beginning?  But reading
> Jeff's reply, there seems to be a reason why there isn't an ETA
> already.
> 
> However, since some repositories get cloned in the same way very
> often, there could be some cache that keeps these size information
> around for any subsequent identical clones.  The server could then
> send a hint about the expected amount of data at the beginning.

And then you'll end up being the unlucky bastard to be the first to clones the new latest revision of a repository, and ETA won't be available, and you'll complain about the fact that sometimes it is there and sometimes it is not.

The fact is, fundamentally, we don't know how many bytes to push when generating a pack to answer the clone request. Sometimes we _could_ but not always. It is therefore better to be consistent and let people know that there is simply no ETA.

Nicolas