From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2018 20:07:27 GMT
Subject: Re: What's so special about objects/17/ ?
Message-ID: <xmqqlg79tta8.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqpnwltu8s.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

> Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> 1. We still have this check of objects/17/ in builtin/gc.c today. Why
>>    objects/17/ and not e.g. objects/00/ to go with other 000* magic such
>>    as the 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 SHA-1?d  Statistically
>>    it doesn't matter, but 17 seems like an odd thing to pick at random
>>    out of 00..ff, does it have any significance?
>
> ...
> by general public and I do not have to explain the choice to the
> general public ;-)

One thing that is more important than "why not 00 but 17?" to answer
is why a hardcoded number rather than a runtime random.  It is for
repeatability.