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Cruft packs are an alternative mechanism for storing a collection of
unreachable objects whose mtimes are recent enough to avoid being
pruned out of the repository.
When cruft packs were first introduced back in b757353676
(builtin/pack-objects.c: --cruft without expiration, 2022-05-20) and
a7d493833f (builtin/pack-objects.c: --cruft with expiration,
2022-05-20), the recommended workflow consisted of:
- Repacking periodically, either by packing anything loose in the
repository (via `git repack -d`) or producing a geometric sequence
of packs (via `git repack --geometric=<d> -d`).
- Every so often, splitting the repository into two packs, one cruft
to store the unreachable objects, and another non-cruft pack to
store the reachable objects.
Repositories may (out of band with the above) choose periodically to
prune out some unreachable objects which have aged out of the grace
period by generating a pack with `--cruft-expiration=<approxidate>`.
This allowed repositories to maintain relatively few packs on average,
and quarantine unreachable objects together in a cruft pack, avoiding
the pitfalls of holding unreachable objects as loose while they age out
(for more, see some of the details in 3d89a8c118
(Documentation/technical: add cruft-packs.txt, 2022-05-20)).
This all works, but can be costly from an I/O-perspective when
frequently repacking a repository that has many unreachable objects.
This problem is exacerbated when those unreachable objects are rarely
(if every) pruned.
Since there is at most one cruft pack in the above scheme, each time we
update the cruft pack it must be rewritten from scratch. Because much of
the pack is reused, this is a relatively inexpensive operation from a
CPU-perspective, but is very costly in terms of I/O since we end up
rewriting basically the same pack (plus any new unreachable objects that
have entered the repository since the last time a cruft pack was
generated).
At the time, we decided against implementing more robust support for
multiple cruft packs. This patch implements that support which we were
lacking.
Introduce a new option `--max-cruft-size` which allows repositories to
accumulate cruft packs up to a given size, after which point a new
generation of cruft packs can accumulate until it reaches the maximum
size, and so on. To generate a new cruft pack, the process works like
so:
- Sort a list of any existing cruft packs in ascending order of pack
size.
- Starting from the beginning of the list, group cruft packs together
while the accumulated size is smaller than the maximum specified
pack size.
- Combine the objects in these cruft packs together into a new cruft
pack, along with any other unreachable objects which have since
entered the repository.
Once a cruft pack grows beyond the size specified via `--max-cruft-size`
the pack is effectively frozen. This limits the I/O churn up to a
quadratic function of the value specified by the `--max-cruft-size`
option, instead of behaving quadratically in the number of total
unreachable objects.
When pruning unreachable objects, we bypass the new code paths which
combine small cruft packs together, and instead start from scratch,
passing in the appropriate `--max-pack-size` down to `pack-objects`,
putting it in charge of keeping the resulting set of cruft packs sized
correctly.
This may seem like further I/O churn, but in practice it isn't so bad.
We could prune old cruft packs for whom all or most objects are removed,
and then generate a new cruft pack with just the remaining set of
objects. But this additional complexity buys us relatively little,
because most objects end up being pruned anyway, so the I/O churn is
well contained.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
176 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
176 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
git-gc(1)
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=========
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NAME
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----
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git-gc - Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository
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SYNOPSIS
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--------
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[verse]
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'git gc' [--aggressive] [--auto] [--quiet] [--prune=<date> | --no-prune] [--force] [--keep-largest-pack]
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DESCRIPTION
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-----------
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Runs a number of housekeeping tasks within the current repository,
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such as compressing file revisions (to reduce disk space and increase
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performance), removing unreachable objects which may have been
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created from prior invocations of 'git add', packing refs, pruning
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reflog, rerere metadata or stale working trees. May also update ancillary
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indexes such as the commit-graph.
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When common porcelain operations that create objects are run, they
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will check whether the repository has grown substantially since the
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last maintenance, and if so run `git gc` automatically. See `gc.auto`
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below for how to disable this behavior.
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Running `git gc` manually should only be needed when adding objects to
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a repository without regularly running such porcelain commands, to do
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a one-off repository optimization, or e.g. to clean up a suboptimal
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mass-import. See the "PACKFILE OPTIMIZATION" section in
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linkgit:git-fast-import[1] for more details on the import case.
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OPTIONS
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-------
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--aggressive::
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Usually 'git gc' runs very quickly while providing good disk
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space utilization and performance. This option will cause
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'git gc' to more aggressively optimize the repository at the expense
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of taking much more time. The effects of this optimization are
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mostly persistent. See the "AGGRESSIVE" section below for details.
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--auto::
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With this option, 'git gc' checks whether any housekeeping is
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required; if not, it exits without performing any work.
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+
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See the `gc.auto` option in the "CONFIGURATION" section below for how
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this heuristic works.
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+
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Once housekeeping is triggered by exceeding the limits of
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configuration options such as `gc.auto` and `gc.autoPackLimit`, all
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other housekeeping tasks (e.g. rerere, working trees, reflog...) will
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be performed as well.
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--[no-]cruft::
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When expiring unreachable objects, pack them separately into a
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cruft pack instead of storing them as loose objects. `--cruft`
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is on by default.
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--max-cruft-size=<n>::
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When packing unreachable objects into a cruft pack, limit the
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size of new cruft packs to be at most `<n>` bytes. Overrides any
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value specified via the `gc.maxCruftSize` configuration. See
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the `--max-cruft-size` option of linkgit:git-repack[1] for
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more.
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--prune=<date>::
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Prune loose objects older than date (default is 2 weeks ago,
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overridable by the config variable `gc.pruneExpire`).
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--prune=now prunes loose objects regardless of their age and
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increases the risk of corruption if another process is writing to
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the repository concurrently; see "NOTES" below. --prune is on by
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default.
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--no-prune::
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Do not prune any loose objects.
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--quiet::
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Suppress all progress reports.
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--force::
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Force `git gc` to run even if there may be another `git gc`
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instance running on this repository.
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--keep-largest-pack::
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All packs except the largest non-cruft pack, any packs marked
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with a `.keep` file, and any cruft pack(s) are consolidated into
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a single pack. When this option is used, `gc.bigPackThreshold`
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is ignored.
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AGGRESSIVE
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----------
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When the `--aggressive` option is supplied, linkgit:git-repack[1] will
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be invoked with the `-f` flag, which in turn will pass
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`--no-reuse-delta` to linkgit:git-pack-objects[1]. This will throw
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away any existing deltas and re-compute them, at the expense of
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spending much more time on the repacking.
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The effects of this are mostly persistent, e.g. when packs and loose
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objects are coalesced into one another pack the existing deltas in
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that pack might get re-used, but there are also various cases where we
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might pick a sub-optimal delta from a newer pack instead.
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Furthermore, supplying `--aggressive` will tweak the `--depth` and
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`--window` options passed to linkgit:git-repack[1]. See the
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`gc.aggressiveDepth` and `gc.aggressiveWindow` settings below. By
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using a larger window size we're more likely to find more optimal
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deltas.
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It's probably not worth it to use this option on a given repository
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without running tailored performance benchmarks on it. It takes a lot
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more time, and the resulting space/delta optimization may or may not
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be worth it. Not using this at all is the right trade-off for most
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users and their repositories.
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CONFIGURATION
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-------------
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include::includes/cmd-config-section-all.txt[]
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include::config/gc.txt[]
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NOTES
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-----
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'git gc' tries very hard not to delete objects that are referenced
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anywhere in your repository. In particular, it will keep not only
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objects referenced by your current set of branches and tags, but also
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objects referenced by the index, remote-tracking branches, reflogs
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(which may reference commits in branches that were later amended or
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rewound), and anything else in the refs/* namespace. Note that a note
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(of the kind created by 'git notes') attached to an object does not
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contribute in keeping the object alive. If you are expecting some
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objects to be deleted and they aren't, check all of those locations
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and decide whether it makes sense in your case to remove those
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references.
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On the other hand, when 'git gc' runs concurrently with another process,
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there is a risk of it deleting an object that the other process is using
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but hasn't created a reference to. This may just cause the other process
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to fail or may corrupt the repository if the other process later adds a
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reference to the deleted object. Git has two features that significantly
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mitigate this problem:
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. Any object with modification time newer than the `--prune` date is kept,
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along with everything reachable from it.
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. Most operations that add an object to the database update the
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modification time of the object if it is already present so that #1
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applies.
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However, these features fall short of a complete solution, so users who
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run commands concurrently have to live with some risk of corruption (which
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seems to be low in practice).
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HOOKS
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-----
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The 'git gc --auto' command will run the 'pre-auto-gc' hook. See
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linkgit:githooks[5] for more information.
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SEE ALSO
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--------
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linkgit:git-prune[1]
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linkgit:git-reflog[1]
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linkgit:git-repack[1]
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linkgit:git-rerere[1]
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GIT
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---
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Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite
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