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Re: [PATCH v2 5/9] docs: add documentation for loose objects

From
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date
Oct 3, 2025, 17:05 UTC
Message-ID
<xmqqzfa7ud9z.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To
<20251002223855.1022847-6-sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
"brian m. carlson" <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> writes:
Show 10 quoted lines
> +DESCRIPTION
> +-----------
> +
> +Loose objects are how Git stores individual objects, where every object is
> +written as a separate file.
> +
> +Over the lifetime of a repository, objects are usually written as loose objects
> +initially.  Eventually, these loose objects will be compacted into packfiles
> +via repository maintenance to improve disk space usage and speed up the lookup
> +of these objects.
Much easier to follow relative to v1.  Very much appreciated.
Show 16 quoted lines
> +== Loose objects
> +
> +Each loose object contains a prefix, followed immediately by the data of the
> +object.  The prefix contains `<type> <size>\0`.  `<type>` is one of `blob`,
> +`tree`, `commit`, or `tag` and `size` is the size of the data (without the
> +prefix) as a decimal integer expressed in ASCII.
> +
> +The entire contents, prefix and data concatenated, is then compressed with zlib
> +and the compressed data is stored in the file.  The object ID of the object is
> +the SHA-1 or SHA-256 (as appropriate) hash of the uncompressed data.
> +
> +The file for the loose object is stored under the `objects` directory, with the
> +first two hex characters of the object ID being the directory and the remaining
> +characters being the file name.  This is done to shard the data and avoid too
> +many files being in one directory, since some file systems perform poorly with
> +many items in a directory.
Additional explanation new in v2 look quite sensible.
Show 24 quoted lines
> +As an example, the empty tree contains the data (when uncompressed) `tree 0\0`
> +and, in a SHA-256 repository, would have the object ID
> +`6ef19b41225c5369f1c104d45d8d85efa9b057b53b14b4b9b939dd74decc5321` and would be
> +stored under
> +`$GIT_DIR/objects/6e/f19b41225c5369f1c104d45d8d85efa9b057b53b14b4b9b939dd74decc5321`.
> +
> +Similarly, a blob containing the contents `abc` would have the uncompressed
> +data of `blob 3\0abc`.
> +
> +GIT
> +---
> +Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite
> diff --git a/Documentation/meson.build b/Documentation/meson.build
> index 41f43e0336..64f70ac724 100644
> --- a/Documentation/meson.build
> +++ b/Documentation/meson.build
> @@ -172,6 +172,7 @@ manpages = {
>    'gitformat-chunk.adoc' : 5,
>    'gitformat-commit-graph.adoc' : 5,
>    'gitformat-index.adoc' : 5,
> +  'gitformat-loose.adoc' : 5,
>    'gitformat-pack.adoc' : 5,
>    'gitformat-signature.adoc' : 5,
>    'githooks.adoc' : 5,
Previous: brian m. carlsonNext: brian m. carlson
Message 48 of 67 in “SHA-1/SHA-256 interoperability, part 1”
  1. 0/9 SHA-1/SHA-256 interoperability, part 1brian m. carlson, Sep 19, 2025
  2. 3/9 docs: reflect actual double signature for tagsbrian m. carlson, Sep 19, 2025
  3. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2025
  4. brian m. carlsonSep 20, 2025
  5. Junio C HamanoSep 20, 2025
  6. Patrick SteinhardtSep 24, 2025
  7. brian m. carlsonSep 25, 2025
  8. 1/9 docs: update pack index v3 formatbrian m. carlson, Sep 19, 2025
  9. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2025
  10. brian m. carlsonSep 20, 2025
  11. Junio C HamanoSep 20, 2025
  12. Patrick SteinhardtSep 24, 2025
  13. brian m. carlsonSep 25, 2025
  14. 2/9 docs: update offset order for pack index v3brian m. carlson, Sep 19, 2025
  15. 4/9 docs: improve ambiguous areas of pack format documentationbrian m. carlson, Sep 19, 2025
  16. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2025
  17. 8/9 Allow specifying compatibility hashbrian m. carlson, Sep 19, 2025
  18. Patrick SteinhardtSep 24, 2025
  19. brian m. carlsonSep 30, 2025
  20. 5/9 docs: add documentation for loose objectsbrian m. carlson, Sep 19, 2025
  21. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2025
  22. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2025
  23. brian m. carlsonSep 19, 2025
  24. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2025
  25. Patrick SteinhardtSep 24, 2025
  26. brian m. carlsonSep 25, 2025
  27. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2025
  28. Patrick SteinhardtSep 24, 2025
  29. brian m. carlsonSep 30, 2025
  30. 6/9 rev-parse: allow printing compatibility hashbrian m. carlson, Sep 19, 2025
  31. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2025
  32. Patrick SteinhardtSep 24, 2025
  33. brian m. carlsonSep 25, 2025
  34. 7/9 fsck: consider gpgsig headers expected in tagsbrian m. carlson, Sep 19, 2025
  35. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2025
  36. brian m. carlsonSep 22, 2025
  37. 9/9 t: add a prerequisite for a compatibility hashbrian m. carlson, Sep 19, 2025
  38. Patrick SteinhardtSep 24, 2025
  39. 0/9 SHA-1/SHA-256 interoperability, part 1brian m. carlson, Oct 2, 2025
  40. 1/9 docs: update pack index v3 formatbrian m. carlson, Oct 2, 2025
  41. Junio C HamanoOct 3, 2025
  42. 3/9 docs: reflect actual double signature for tagsbrian m. carlson, Oct 2, 2025
  43. 2/9 docs: update offset order for pack index v3brian m. carlson, Oct 2, 2025
  44. 4/9 docs: improve ambiguous areas of pack format documentationbrian m. carlson, Oct 2, 2025
  45. Junio C HamanoOct 3, 2025
  46. brian m. carlsonOct 3, 2025
  47. 5/9 docs: add documentation for loose objectsbrian m. carlson, Oct 2, 2025
  48. Junio C HamanoOct 3, 2025
  49. 7/9 fsck: consider gpgsig headers expected in tagsbrian m. carlson, Oct 2, 2025
  50. 6/9 rev-parse: allow printing compatibility hashbrian m. carlson, Oct 2, 2025
  51. 8/9 t: allow specifying compatibility hashbrian m. carlson, Oct 2, 2025
  52. Junio C HamanoOct 3, 2025
  53. brian m. carlsonOct 3, 2025
  54. 9/9 t1010: use BROKEN_OBJECTS prerequisitebrian m. carlson, Oct 2, 2025
  55. 0/9 SHA-1/SHA-256 interoperability, part 1brian m. carlson, Oct 9, 2025
  56. 3/9 docs: reflect actual double signature for tagsbrian m. carlson, Oct 9, 2025
  57. 4/9 docs: improve ambiguous areas of pack format documentationbrian m. carlson, Oct 9, 2025
  58. 2/9 docs: update offset order for pack index v3brian m. carlson, Oct 9, 2025
  59. 1/9 docs: update pack index v3 formatbrian m. carlson, Oct 9, 2025
  60. 5/9 docs: add documentation for loose objectsbrian m. carlson, Oct 9, 2025
  61. 6/9 rev-parse: allow printing compatibility hashbrian m. carlson, Oct 9, 2025
  62. 8/9 t: allow specifying compatibility hashbrian m. carlson, Oct 9, 2025
  63. 7/9 fsck: consider gpgsig headers expected in tagsbrian m. carlson, Oct 9, 2025
  64. 9/9 t1010: use BROKEN_OBJECTS prerequisitebrian m. carlson, Oct 9, 2025
  65. Junio C HamanoOct 13, 2025
  66. brian m. carlsonOct 13, 2025
  67. Patrick SteinhardtOct 14, 2025

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