threads / discuss / 26884

Reduce number of changes to pack file.

Subject: Reduce number of changes to pack file.

## tl;dr

3 messages between Mar 28, 2011 and Mar 28, 2011.

replies: 2people: 3as markdown or json

Chandra Sukiman· Mar 28, 2011, 03:33 UTC · lore

Hi,

I am using git with Dropbox (see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1960799/using-gitdropbox-together-effectively). Basically I created a bare repository at dropbox and everyone uses that for central repository. As the repository size is getting bigger, sometime during the git gc, it will create a huge .pack file (300 mb) which need to be uploaded and downloaded by everyone. I tried to limit the size of the pack to 10m (pack.packSizeLimit = 10m), but when doing gc, what happens now is that most of the pack files will get re-arranged and modified. This will cause the same upload/download issue that I want to solve.

Is there any way for git gc to reduce the number of file changed?

Thank you

Chandra

Joshua Juran· Mar 28, 2011, 13:29 UTC · re: Chandra Sukiman · lore

Re: Reduce number of changes to pack file.

On Mar 27, 2011, at 8:33 PM, Chandra Sukiman wrote:

> I am using git with Dropbox (see
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1960799/using-gitdropbox-together-effectively) 
> .

I don't see how this can end any way other than in pain.

> As the repository size is getting bigger, sometime during the git gc,
> it will create a huge .pack file (300 mb) which need to be uploaded
> and downloaded by everyone.

Thank you for making my point for me. :-)

> I tried to limit the size of the pack to 10m (pack.packSizeLimit =
> 10m), but when doing gc, what happens now is that most of the pack
> files will get re-arranged and modified. This will cause the same
> upload/download issue that I want to solve.

:-)

> Is there any way for git gc to reduce the number of file changed?

I'm going to answer a completely different question: "Where should I host my Git repo?". The answer is, on (a) one of the free hosting services like GitHub (if your project is public), (b) one of the pay services (like GitHub), or (c) your own Unix server. I use (a) and (c).

You shouldn't be hosting a Git repository on a file-based synchronization service. It's asking for trouble.

Josh

Santi Béjar· Mar 28, 2011, 13:40 UTC · re: Chandra Sukiman · lore

Re: Reduce number of changes to pack file.

On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 5:33 AM, Chandra Sukiman <tmcchandra@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 15 quoted lines

> Hi,
>
> I am using git with Dropbox (see
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1960799/using-gitdropbox-together-effectively).
> Basically I created a bare repository at dropbox and everyone uses
> that for central repository.
> As the repository size is getting bigger, sometime during the git gc,
> it will create a huge .pack file (300 mb) which need to be uploaded
> and downloaded by everyone.
> I tried to limit the size of the pack to 10m (pack.packSizeLimit =
> 10m), but when doing gc, what happens now is that most of the pack
> files will get re-arranged and modified. This will cause the same
> upload/download issue that I want to solve.
>
> Is there any way for git gc to reduce the number of file changed?

Yes, you can mark those packs you want to keep creating an empty file in .git/objects/packs/ with the name of the pack but with .keep as the extension, i.e.:

.git/objects/pack/pack-f525c8673216b3302b4ec2b515e807a2dcfeff57.idx .git/objects/pack/pack-f525c8673216b3302b4ec2b515e807a2dcfeff57.keep .git/objects/pack/pack-f525c8673216b3302b4ec2b515e807a2dcfeff57.pack

HTH, Santi

Show 9 quoted lines

>
> Thank you
>
> Chandra
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