From: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Date: Mon, 07 Sep 2026 07:23:37 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 6/8] odb/source: support writing alternates when creating the database
Message-ID: <ap5medBVRZbjI0gM@pks.im>
In-Reply-To: <ap2bu85Ut_bN4wkt@denethor>

On Sun, Sep 06, 2026 at 12:02:57PM -0500, Justin Tobler wrote:
> On 26/08/31 12:02PM, Patrick Steinhardt wrote:
> > +struct odb_create_on_disk_options {
> > +	/*
> > +	 * Alternates that shall be written into the newly created object
> > +	 * database. Whether or not this option can be handled is specific to
> > +	 * the backend.
> > +	 */
> > +	const struct strvec *alternates;
> > +};
> 
> So ODB interface here still exposes a way to signal alternates to the
> backend, but an alternative backend may not actually use alternates at
> all. Out of curiousity, does this mean git-clone(1) options such as
> "--shared" should only be allowed to work with the "files" backend? Or
> should the expected behavior of such options just be backend specific?

The latter. It's totally feasible that an alternative backend may
support alternates, but it's also feasible that it doesn't.

Patrick