Back in e8c58f894b (t: support GIT_TEST_WRITE_REV_INDEX, 2021-01-25), we
added a test knob to conditionally enable writing a ".rev" file when
indexing a pack. At the time, this was used to ensure that the test
suite worked even when ".rev" files were written, which served as a
stress-test for the on-disk reverse index implementation.
Now that reading from on-disk ".rev" files is enabled by default, the
test knob `GIT_TEST_WRITE_REV_INDEX` no longer has any meaning.
We could get rid of the option entirely, but there would be no
convenient way to test Git when ".rev" files *aren't* in place.
Instead of getting rid of the option, invert its meaning to instead
disable writing ".rev" files, thereby running the test suite in a mode
where the reverse index is generated from scratch.
This ensures that, when GIT_TEST_NO_WRITE_REV_INDEX is set to some
spelling of "true", we are still running and exercising Git's behavior
when forced to generate reverse indexes from scratch. Do so by setting
it in the linux-TEST-vars CI run to ensure that we are maintaining good
coverage of this now-legacy code.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Acked-by: Derrick Stolee <derrickstolee@github.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Back in e37d0b8730 (builtin/index-pack.c: write reverse indexes,
2021-01-25), Git learned how to read and write a pack's reverse index
from a file instead of in-memory.
A pack's reverse index is a mapping from pack position (that is, the
order that objects appear together in a ".pack") to their position in
lexical order (that is, the order that objects are listed in an ".idx"
file).
Reverse indexes are consulted often during pack-objects, as well as
during auxiliary operations that require mapping between pack offsets,
pack order, and index index.
They are useful in GitHub's infrastructure, where we have seen a
dramatic increase in performance when writing ".rev" files[1]. In
particular:
- an ~80% reduction in the time it takes to serve fetches on a popular
repository, Homebrew/homebrew-core.
- a ~60% reduction in the peak memory usage to serve fetches on that
same repository.
- a collective savings of ~35% in CPU time across all pack-objects
invocations serving fetches across all repositories in a single
datacenter.
Reverse indexes are also beneficial to end-users as well as forges. For
example, the time it takes to generate a pack containing the objects for
the 10 most recent commits in linux.git (representing a typical push) is
significantly faster when on-disk reverse indexes are available:
$ { git rev-parse HEAD && printf '^' && git rev-parse HEAD~10 } >in
$ hyperfine -L v false,true 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex={v} pack-objects --delta-base-offset --revs --stdout <in >/dev/null'
Benchmark 1: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false pack-objects --delta-base-offset --revs --stdout <in >/dev/null
Time (mean ± σ): 543.0 ms ± 20.3 ms [User: 616.2 ms, System: 58.8 ms]
Range (min … max): 521.0 ms … 577.9 ms 10 runs
Benchmark 2: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true pack-objects --delta-base-offset --revs --stdout <in >/dev/null
Time (mean ± σ): 245.0 ms ± 11.4 ms [User: 335.6 ms, System: 31.3 ms]
Range (min … max): 226.0 ms … 259.6 ms 13 runs
Summary
'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true pack-objects --delta-base-offset --revs --stdout <in >/dev/null' ran
2.22 ± 0.13 times faster than 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false pack-objects --delta-base-offset --revs --stdout <in >/dev/null'
The same is true of writing a pack containing the objects for the 30
most-recent commits:
$ { git rev-parse HEAD && printf '^' && git rev-parse HEAD~30 } >in
$ hyperfine -L v false,true 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex={v} pack-objects --delta-base-offset --revs --stdout <in >/dev/null'
Benchmark 1: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false pack-objects --delta-base-offset --revs --stdout <in >/dev/null
Time (mean ± σ): 866.5 ms ± 16.2 ms [User: 1414.5 ms, System: 97.0 ms]
Range (min … max): 839.3 ms … 886.9 ms 10 runs
Benchmark 2: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true pack-objects --delta-base-offset --revs --stdout <in >/dev/null
Time (mean ± σ): 581.6 ms ± 10.2 ms [User: 1181.7 ms, System: 62.6 ms]
Range (min … max): 567.5 ms … 599.3 ms 10 runs
Summary
'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true pack-objects --delta-base-offset --revs --stdout <in >/dev/null' ran
1.49 ± 0.04 times faster than 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false pack-objects --delta-base-offset --revs --stdout <in >/dev/null'
...and savings on trivial operations like computing the on-disk size of
a single (packed) object are even more dramatic:
$ git rev-parse HEAD >in
$ hyperfine -L v false,true 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex={v} cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <in'
Benchmark 1: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <in
Time (mean ± σ): 305.8 ms ± 11.4 ms [User: 264.2 ms, System: 41.4 ms]
Range (min … max): 290.3 ms … 331.1 ms 10 runs
Benchmark 2: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <in
Time (mean ± σ): 4.0 ms ± 0.3 ms [User: 1.7 ms, System: 2.3 ms]
Range (min … max): 1.6 ms … 4.6 ms 1155 runs
Summary
'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <in' ran
76.96 ± 6.25 times faster than 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <in'
In the more than two years since e37d0b8730 was merged, Git's
implementation of on-disk reverse indexes has been thoroughly tested,
both from users enabling `pack.writeReverseIndexes`, and from GitHub's
deployment of the feature. The latter has been running without incident
for more than two years.
This patch changes Git's behavior to write on-disk reverse indexes by
default when indexing a pack, which should make the above operations
faster for everybody's Git installation after a repack.
(The previous commit explains some potential drawbacks of using on-disk
reverse indexes in certain limited circumstances, that essentially boil
down to a trade-off between time to generate, and time to access. For
those limited cases, the `pack.readReverseIndex` escape hatch can be
used).
[1]: https://github.blog/2021-04-29-scaling-monorepo-maintenance/#reverse-indexes
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Acked-by: Derrick Stolee <derrickstolee@github.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Since 1615c567b8 (Documentation/config/pack.txt: advertise
'pack.writeReverseIndex', 2021-01-25), we have had the
`pack.writeReverseIndex` configuration option, which tells Git whether
or not it is allowed to write a ".rev" file when indexing a pack.
Introduce a complementary configuration knob, `pack.readReverseIndex` to
control whether or not Git will read any ".rev" file(s) that may be
available on disk.
This option is useful for debugging, as well as disabling the effect of
".rev" files in certain instances.
This is useful because of the trade-off[^1] between the time it takes to
generate a reverse index (slow from scratch, fast when reading an
existing ".rev" file), and the time it takes to access a record (the
opposite).
For example, even though it is faster to use the on-disk reverse index
when computing the on-disk size of a packed object, it is slower to
enumerate the same value for all objects.
Here are a couple of examples from linux.git. When computing the above
for a single object, using the on-disk reverse index is significantly
faster:
$ git rev-parse HEAD >in
$ hyperfine -L v false,true 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex={v} cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <in'
Benchmark 1: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <in
Time (mean ± σ): 302.5 ms ± 12.5 ms [User: 258.7 ms, System: 43.6 ms]
Range (min … max): 291.1 ms … 328.1 ms 10 runs
Benchmark 2: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <in
Time (mean ± σ): 3.9 ms ± 0.3 ms [User: 1.6 ms, System: 2.4 ms]
Range (min … max): 2.0 ms … 4.4 ms 801 runs
Summary
'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <in' ran
77.29 ± 7.14 times faster than 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <in'
, but when instead trying to compute the on-disk object size for all
objects in the repository, using the ".rev" file is a disadvantage over
creating the reverse index from scratch:
$ hyperfine -L v false,true 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex={v} cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" --batch-all-objects'
Benchmark 1: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" --batch-all-objects
Time (mean ± σ): 8.258 s ± 0.035 s [User: 7.949 s, System: 0.308 s]
Range (min … max): 8.199 s … 8.293 s 10 runs
Benchmark 2: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" --batch-all-objects
Time (mean ± σ): 16.976 s ± 0.107 s [User: 16.706 s, System: 0.268 s]
Range (min … max): 16.839 s … 17.105 s 10 runs
Summary
'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" --batch-all-objects' ran
2.06 ± 0.02 times faster than 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" --batch-all-objects'
Luckily, the results when running `git cat-file` with `--unordered` are
closer together:
$ hyperfine -L v false,true 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex={v} cat-file --unordered --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" --batch-all-objects'
Benchmark 1: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false cat-file --unordered --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" --batch-all-objects
Time (mean ± σ): 5.066 s ± 0.105 s [User: 4.792 s, System: 0.274 s]
Range (min … max): 4.943 s … 5.220 s 10 runs
Benchmark 2: git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true cat-file --unordered --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" --batch-all-objects
Time (mean ± σ): 6.193 s ± 0.069 s [User: 5.937 s, System: 0.255 s]
Range (min … max): 6.145 s … 6.356 s 10 runs
Summary
'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=false cat-file --unordered --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" --batch-all-objects' ran
1.22 ± 0.03 times faster than 'git.compile -c pack.readReverseIndex=true cat-file --unordered --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" --batch-all-objects'
Because the equilibrium point between these two is highly machine- and
repository-dependent, allow users to configure whether or not they will
read any ".rev" file(s) with this configuration knob.
[^1]: Generating a reverse index in memory takes O(N) time (where N is
the number of objects in the repository), since we use a radix sort.
Reading an entry from an on-disk ".rev" file is slower since each
operation is bound by disk I/O instead of memory I/O.
In order to compute the on-disk size of a packed object, we need to
find the offset of our object, and the adjacent object (the on-disk
size difference of these two). Finding the first offset requires a
binary search. Finding the latter involves a single .rev lookup.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Acked-by: Derrick Stolee <derrickstolee@github.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
This test is leak-free as of the previous commit, so let's mark it as
such to ensure we don't regress and introduce a leak in the future.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Acked-by: Derrick Stolee <derrickstolee@github.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Failures within `for` and `while` loops can go unnoticed if not detected
and signaled manually since the loop itself does not abort when a
contained command fails, nor will a failure necessarily be detected when
the loop finishes since the loop returns the exit code of the last
command it ran on the final iteration, which may not be the command
which failed. Therefore, detect and signal failures manually within
loops using the idiom `|| return 1` (or `|| exit 1` within subshells).
Signed-off-by: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Reviewed-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Right now, the test suite can be run with 'GIT_TEST_WRITE_REV_INDEX=1'
in the environment, which causes all operations which write a pack to
also write a .rev file.
To prepare for when that eventually becomes the default, we should
continue to test the in-memory reverse index, too, in order to avoid
losing existing coverage. Unfortunately, explicit existing coverage is
rather sparse, so only a basic test is added that compares the result of
git rev-list --objects --no-object-names --all |
git cat-file --batch-check='%(objectsize:disk) %(objectname)'
with and without an on-disk reverse index.
Suggested-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Helped-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
When an on-disk reverse index exists, there is no need to generate one
in memory. In fact, doing so can be slow, and require large amounts of
the heap.
Let's make sure that we treat the on-disk reverse index with precedence
(i.e., that when it exists, we don't bother trying to generate an
equivalent one in memory) by teaching Git how to conditionally die()
when generating a reverse index in memory.
Then, add a test to ensure that when (a) an on-disk reverse index
exists, and (b) when setting GIT_TEST_REV_INDEX_DIE_IN_MEMORY, that we
do not die, implying that we read from the on-disk one.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
In the next patch, we'll add support for unconditionally enabling the
'pack.writeReverseIndex' setting with a new GIT_TEST_WRITE_REV_INDEX
environment variable.
This causes a little bit of fallout with tests that, for example,
compare the list of files in the pack directory being unprepared to see
.rev files in its output.
Those locations can be cleaned up to look for specific file extensions,
rather than take everything in the pack directory (for instance) and
then grep out unwanted items.
Once the pack.writeReverseIndex option has been thoroughly
tested, we will default it to 'true', removing GIT_TEST_WRITE_REV_INDEX,
and making it possible to revert this patch.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Now that we have an implementation that can write the new reverse index
format, enable writing a .rev file in 'git pack-objects' by consulting
the pack.writeReverseIndex configuration variable.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Teach 'git index-pack' to optionally write and verify reverse index with
'--[no-]rev-index', as well as respecting the 'pack.writeReverseIndex'
configuration option.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Taylor Blau
Eric Sunshine