Re: [PATCH 1/1] read-cache: update index format default to v4

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sep 24, 2018, 22:29 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqa7o6r0l5.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <20180924213223.GG27036@localhost>

SZEDER Gábor <szeder.dev@gmail.com> writes:

Show 10 quoted lines

> On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 02:15:30PM -0700, Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget wrote:
>> From: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
>> 
>> The index v4 format has been available since 2012 with 9d22778
>> "reach-cache.c: write prefix-compressed names in the index". Since
>> the format has been stable for so long, almost all versions of Git
>> in use today understand version 4, removing one barrier to upgrade
>> -- that someone may want to downgrade and needs a working repo.
>
> What about alternative implementations, like JGit, libgit2, etc.?

Good question.

Because the index-version of an index file is designed to be sticky, repos that need to be accessed by other implementations can keep whatever current version. A new repo that need to be accessed by them can be (forcibly) written in v2 and keep its v2ness, I would think.

And that would serve as an incentive for the implementations to catch up ;-)