1 <?xml version=
"1.0" encoding=
"UTF-8"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC
"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
3 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
4 <html xmlns=
"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:
lang=
"en">
6 <meta http-equiv=
"Content-Type" content=
"application/xhtml+xml; charset=UTF-8" />
7 <meta name=
"generator" content=
"AsciiDoc 10.2.0" />
8 <title>Concerning Git
’s Packing Heuristics
</title>
9 <style type=
"text/css">
10 /* Shared CSS for AsciiDoc xhtml11 and html5 backends */
14 font-family: Georgia,serif;
18 h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6,
19 div.title, caption.title,
20 thead, p.table.header,
22 #author, #revnumber, #revdate, #revremark,
24 font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
28 margin:
1em
5%
1em
5%;
33 text-decoration: underline;
49 h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
57 border-bottom:
2px solid silver;
77 border:
1px solid silver;
88 ul
> li { color: #aaa; }
89 ul
> li
> * { color: black; }
91 .monospaced, code, pre {
92 font-family:
"Courier New", Courier, monospace;
99 white-space: pre-wrap;
109 #revnumber, #revdate, #revremark {
114 border-top:
2px solid silver;
120 padding-bottom:
0.5em;
124 padding-bottom:
0.5em;
129 margin-bottom:
1.5em;
131 div.imageblock, div.exampleblock, div.verseblock,
132 div.quoteblock, div.literalblock, div.listingblock, div.sidebarblock,
133 div.admonitionblock {
135 margin-bottom:
1.5em;
137 div.admonitionblock {
139 margin-bottom:
2.0em;
144 div.content { /* Block element content. */
148 /* Block element titles. */
149 div.title, caption.title {
154 margin-bottom:
0.5em;
160 td div.title:first-child {
163 div.content div.title:first-child {
166 div.content + div.title {
170 div.sidebarblock
> div.content {
172 border:
1px solid #dddddd;
173 border-left:
4px solid #f0f0f0;
177 div.listingblock
> div.content {
178 border:
1px solid #dddddd;
179 border-left:
5px solid #f0f0f0;
184 div.quoteblock, div.verseblock {
188 border-left:
5px solid #f0f0f0;
192 div.quoteblock
> div.attribution {
197 div.verseblock
> pre.content {
198 font-family: inherit;
201 div.verseblock
> div.attribution {
205 /* DEPRECATED: Pre version
8.2.7 verse style literal block. */
206 div.verseblock + div.attribution {
210 div.admonitionblock .icon {
214 text-decoration: underline;
216 padding-right:
0.5em;
218 div.admonitionblock td.content {
220 border-left:
3px solid #dddddd;
223 div.exampleblock
> div.content {
224 border-left:
3px solid #dddddd;
228 div.imageblock div.content { padding-left:
0; }
229 span.image img { border-style: none; vertical-align: text-bottom; }
230 a.image:visited { color: white; }
234 margin-bottom:
0.8em;
247 list-style-position: outside;
250 list-style-type: decimal;
253 list-style-type: lower-alpha;
256 list-style-type: upper-alpha;
259 list-style-type: lower-roman;
262 list-style-type: upper-roman;
265 div.compact ul, div.compact ol,
266 div.compact p, div.compact p,
267 div.compact div, div.compact div {
269 margin-bottom:
0.1em;
281 margin-bottom:
0.8em;
284 padding-bottom:
15px;
286 dt.hdlist1.strong, td.hdlist1.strong {
292 padding-right:
0.8em;
298 div.hdlist.compact tr {
307 .footnote, .footnoteref {
311 span.footnote, span.footnoteref {
312 vertical-align: super;
316 margin:
20px
0 20px
0;
320 #footnotes div.footnote {
326 border-top:
1px solid silver;
335 padding-right:
0.5em;
336 padding-bottom:
0.3em;
344 #footer-badges { display: none; }
348 margin-bottom:
2.5em;
356 margin-bottom:
0.1em;
359 div.toclevel0, div.toclevel1, div.toclevel2, div.toclevel3, div.toclevel4 {
376 span.aqua { color: aqua; }
377 span.black { color: black; }
378 span.blue { color: blue; }
379 span.fuchsia { color: fuchsia; }
380 span.gray { color: gray; }
381 span.green { color: green; }
382 span.lime { color: lime; }
383 span.maroon { color: maroon; }
384 span.navy { color: navy; }
385 span.olive { color: olive; }
386 span.purple { color: purple; }
387 span.red { color: red; }
388 span.silver { color: silver; }
389 span.teal { color: teal; }
390 span.white { color: white; }
391 span.yellow { color: yellow; }
393 span.aqua-background { background: aqua; }
394 span.black-background { background: black; }
395 span.blue-background { background: blue; }
396 span.fuchsia-background { background: fuchsia; }
397 span.gray-background { background: gray; }
398 span.green-background { background: green; }
399 span.lime-background { background: lime; }
400 span.maroon-background { background: maroon; }
401 span.navy-background { background: navy; }
402 span.olive-background { background: olive; }
403 span.purple-background { background: purple; }
404 span.red-background { background: red; }
405 span.silver-background { background: silver; }
406 span.teal-background { background: teal; }
407 span.white-background { background: white; }
408 span.yellow-background { background: yellow; }
410 span.big { font-size:
2em; }
411 span.small { font-size:
0.6em; }
413 span.underline { text-decoration: underline; }
414 span.overline { text-decoration: overline; }
415 span.line-through { text-decoration: line-through; }
417 div.unbreakable { page-break-inside: avoid; }
427 margin-bottom:
1.5em;
429 div.tableblock
> table {
430 border:
3px solid #
527bbd;
432 thead, p.table.header {
439 /* Because the table frame attribute is overridden by CSS in most browsers. */
440 div.tableblock
> table[
frame=
"void"] {
443 div.tableblock
> table[
frame=
"hsides"] {
444 border-left-style: none;
445 border-right-style: none;
447 div.tableblock
> table[
frame=
"vsides"] {
448 border-top-style: none;
449 border-bottom-style: none;
460 margin-bottom:
1.5em;
462 thead, p.tableblock.header {
473 border-color: #
527bbd;
474 border-collapse: collapse;
476 th.tableblock, td.tableblock {
480 border-color: #
527bbd;
483 table.tableblock.frame-topbot {
484 border-left-style: hidden;
485 border-right-style: hidden;
487 table.tableblock.frame-sides {
488 border-top-style: hidden;
489 border-bottom-style: hidden;
491 table.tableblock.frame-none {
492 border-style: hidden;
495 th.tableblock.halign-left, td.tableblock.halign-left {
498 th.tableblock.halign-center, td.tableblock.halign-center {
501 th.tableblock.halign-right, td.tableblock.halign-right {
505 th.tableblock.valign-top, td.tableblock.valign-top {
508 th.tableblock.valign-middle, td.tableblock.valign-middle {
509 vertical-align: middle;
511 th.tableblock.valign-bottom, td.tableblock.valign-bottom {
512 vertical-align: bottom;
523 padding-bottom:
0.5em;
524 border-top:
2px solid silver;
525 border-bottom:
2px solid silver;
530 body.manpage div.sectionbody {
535 body.manpage div#toc { display: none; }
540 <script type=
"text/javascript">
542 var asciidoc = { // Namespace.
544 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
545 // Table Of Contents generator
546 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
548 /* Author: Mihai Bazon, September
2002
549 * http://students.infoiasi.ro/~mishoo
551 * Table Of Content generator
554 * Feel free to use this script under the terms of the GNU General Public
555 * License, as long as you do not remove or alter this notice.
558 /* modified by Troy D. Hanson, September
2006. License: GPL */
559 /* modified by Stuart Rackham,
2006,
2009. License: GPL */
562 toc: function (toclevels) {
564 function getText(el) {
566 for (var i = el.firstChild; i != null; i = i.nextSibling) {
567 if (i.nodeType ==
3 /* Node.TEXT_NODE */) // IE doesn't speak constants.
569 else if (i.firstChild != null)
575 function TocEntry(el, text, toclevel) {
578 this.toclevel = toclevel;
581 function tocEntries(el, toclevels) {
582 var result = new Array;
583 var re = new RegExp('[hH]([
1-'+(toclevels+
1)+'])');
584 // Function that scans the DOM tree for header elements (the DOM2
585 // nodeIterator API would be a better technique but not supported by all
587 var iterate = function (el) {
588 for (var i = el.firstChild; i != null; i = i.nextSibling) {
589 if (i.nodeType ==
1 /* Node.ELEMENT_NODE */) {
590 var mo = re.exec(i.tagName);
591 if (mo && (i.getAttribute(
"class") || i.getAttribute(
"className")) !=
"float") {
592 result[result.length] = new TocEntry(i, getText(i), mo[
1]-
1);
602 var toc = document.getElementById(
"toc");
607 // Delete existing TOC entries in case we're reloading the TOC.
608 var tocEntriesToRemove = [];
610 for (i =
0; i < toc.childNodes.length; i++) {
611 var entry = toc.childNodes[i];
612 if (entry.nodeName.toLowerCase() == 'div'
613 && entry.getAttribute(
"class")
614 && entry.getAttribute(
"class").match(/^toclevel/))
615 tocEntriesToRemove.push(entry);
617 for (i =
0; i < tocEntriesToRemove.length; i++) {
618 toc.removeChild(tocEntriesToRemove[i]);
621 // Rebuild TOC entries.
622 var entries = tocEntries(document.getElementById(
"content"), toclevels);
623 for (var i =
0; i < entries.length; ++i) {
624 var entry = entries[i];
625 if (entry.element.id ==
"")
626 entry.element.id =
"_toc_" + i;
627 var a = document.createElement(
"a");
628 a.href =
"#" + entry.element.id;
629 a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(entry.text));
630 var div = document.createElement(
"div");
632 div.className =
"toclevel" + entry.toclevel;
633 toc.appendChild(div);
635 if (entries.length ==
0)
636 toc.parentNode.removeChild(toc);
640 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
641 // Footnotes generator
642 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
644 /* Based on footnote generation code from:
645 * http://www.brandspankingnew.net/archive/
2005/
07/format_footnote.html
648 footnotes: function () {
649 // Delete existing footnote entries in case we're reloading the footnodes.
651 var noteholder = document.getElementById(
"footnotes");
655 var entriesToRemove = [];
656 for (i =
0; i < noteholder.childNodes.length; i++) {
657 var entry = noteholder.childNodes[i];
658 if (entry.nodeName.toLowerCase() == 'div' && entry.getAttribute(
"class") ==
"footnote")
659 entriesToRemove.push(entry);
661 for (i =
0; i < entriesToRemove.length; i++) {
662 noteholder.removeChild(entriesToRemove[i]);
665 // Rebuild footnote entries.
666 var cont = document.getElementById(
"content");
667 var spans = cont.getElementsByTagName(
"span");
670 for (i=
0; i
<spans.length; i++) {
671 if (spans[i].className ==
"footnote") {
673 var note = spans[i].getAttribute(
"data-note");
675 // Use [\s\S] in place of . so multi-line matches work.
676 // Because JavaScript has no s (dotall) regex flag.
677 note = spans[i].innerHTML.match(/\s*\[([\s\S]*)]\s*/)[
1];
679 "[<a id='_footnoteref_" + n +
"' href='#_footnote_" + n +
680 "' title='View footnote' class='footnote'>" + n +
"</a>]";
681 spans[i].setAttribute(
"data-note", note);
683 noteholder.innerHTML +=
684 "<div class='footnote' id='_footnote_" + n +
"'>" +
685 "<a href='#_footnoteref_" + n +
"' title='Return to text'>" +
686 n +
"</a>. " + note +
"</div>";
687 var id =spans[i].getAttribute(
"id");
688 if (id != null) refs[
"#"+id] = n;
692 noteholder.parentNode.removeChild(noteholder);
694 // Process footnoterefs.
695 for (i=
0; i
<spans.length; i++) {
696 if (spans[i].className ==
"footnoteref") {
697 var href = spans[i].getElementsByTagName(
"a")[
0].getAttribute(
"href");
698 href = href.match(/#.*/)[
0]; // Because IE return full URL.
701 "[<a href='#_footnote_" + n +
702 "' title='View footnote' class='footnote'>" + n +
"</a>]";
708 install: function(toclevels) {
711 function reinstall() {
712 asciidoc.footnotes();
714 asciidoc.toc(toclevels);
718 function reinstallAndRemoveTimer() {
719 clearInterval(timerId);
723 timerId = setInterval(reinstall,
500);
724 if (document.addEventListener)
725 document.addEventListener(
"DOMContentLoaded", reinstallAndRemoveTimer, false);
727 window.onload = reinstallAndRemoveTimer;
735 <body class=
"article">
737 <h1>Concerning Git
’s Packing Heuristics
</h1>
738 <span id=
"revdate">2024-
04-
22</span>
742 <div class=
"sectionbody">
743 <div class=
"literalblock">
744 <div class=
"content">
745 <pre><code>Oh, here's a really stupid question:
</code></pre>
747 <div class=
"literalblock">
748 <div class=
"content">
749 <pre><code> Where do I go
751 of Git's packing heuristics?
</code></pre>
753 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Be careful what you ask!
</p></div>
754 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Followers of the Git, please open the Git IRC Log and turn to
755 February
10,
2006.
</p></div>
756 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>It
’s a rare occasion, and we are joined by the King Git Himself,
757 Linus Torvalds (linus). Nathaniel Smith, (njs`), has the floor
758 and seeks enlightenment. Others are present, but silent.
</p></div>
759 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Let
’s listen in!
</p></div>
760 <div class=
"literalblock">
761 <div class=
"content">
762 <pre><code><njs`
> Oh, here's a really stupid question -- where do I go to
763 learn the details of Git's packing heuristics? google avails
764 me not, reading the source didn't help a lot, and wading
765 through the whole mailing list seems less efficient than any
766 of that.
</code></pre>
768 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>It is a bold start! A plea for help combined with a simultaneous
769 tri-part attack on some of the tried and true mainstays in the quest
770 for enlightenment. Brash accusations of google being useless. Hubris!
771 Maligning the source. Heresy! Disdain for the mailing list archives.
773 <div class=
"literalblock">
774 <div class=
"content">
775 <pre><code><pasky
> yes, the packing-related delta stuff is somewhat
776 mysterious even for me ;)
</code></pre>
778 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Ah! Modesty after all.
</p></div>
779 <div class=
"literalblock">
780 <div class=
"content">
781 <pre><code><linus
> njs, I don't think the docs exist. That's something where
782 I don't think anybody else than me even really got involved.
783 Most of the rest of Git others have been busy with (especially
784 Junio), but packing nobody touched after I did it.
</code></pre>
786 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>It
’s cryptic, yet vague. Linus in style for sure. Wise men
787 interpret this as an apology. A few argue it is merely a
788 statement of fact.
</p></div>
789 <div class=
"literalblock">
790 <div class=
"content">
791 <pre><code><njs`
> I guess the next step is
"read the source again", but I
792 have to build up a certain level of gumption first :-)
</code></pre>
794 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Indeed! On both points.
</p></div>
795 <div class=
"literalblock">
796 <div class=
"content">
797 <pre><code><linus
> The packing heuristic is actually really really simple.
</code></pre>
799 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Bait
…</p></div>
800 <div class=
"literalblock">
801 <div class=
"content">
802 <pre><code><linus
> But strange.
</code></pre>
804 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>And switch. That ought to do it!
</p></div>
805 <div class=
"literalblock">
806 <div class=
"content">
807 <pre><code><linus
> Remember: Git really doesn't follow files. So what it does is
808 - generate a list of all objects
809 - sort the list according to magic heuristics
810 - walk the list, using a sliding window, seeing if an object
811 can be diffed against another object in the window
812 - write out the list in recency order
</code></pre>
814 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>The traditional understatement:
</p></div>
815 <div class=
"literalblock">
816 <div class=
"content">
817 <pre><code><njs`
> I suspect that what I'm missing is the precise definition of
818 the word
"magic"</code></pre>
820 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>The traditional insight:
</p></div>
821 <div class=
"literalblock">
822 <div class=
"content">
823 <pre><code><pasky
> yes
</code></pre>
825 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>And Babel-like confusion flowed.
</p></div>
826 <div class=
"literalblock">
827 <div class=
"content">
828 <pre><code><njs`
> oh, hmm, and I'm not sure what this sliding window means either
</code></pre>
830 <div class=
"literalblock">
831 <div class=
"content">
832 <pre><code><pasky
> iirc, it appeared to me to be just the sha1 of the object
833 when reading the code casually ...
</code></pre>
835 <div class=
"olist lowerroman"><ol class=
"lowerroman">
838 which simply doesn
’t sound as a very good heuristics, though ;)
840 <div class=
"literalblock">
841 <div class=
"content">
842 <pre><code><njs`
> .....and recency order. okay, I think it's clear I didn't
843 even realize how much I wasn't realizing :-)
</code></pre>
847 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Ah, grasshopper! And thus the enlightenment begins anew.
</p></div>
848 <div class=
"literalblock">
849 <div class=
"content">
850 <pre><code><linus
> The
"magic" is actually in theory totally arbitrary.
851 ANY order will give you a working pack, but no, it's not
852 ordered by SHA-
1.
</code></pre>
854 <div class=
"literalblock">
855 <div class=
"content">
856 <pre><code>Before talking about the ordering for the sliding delta
857 window, let's talk about the recency order. That's more
858 important in one way.
</code></pre>
860 <div class=
"literalblock">
861 <div class=
"content">
862 <pre><code><njs`
> Right, but if all you want is a working way to pack things
863 together, you could just use cat and save yourself some
864 trouble...
</code></pre>
866 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Waaait for it
….
</p></div>
867 <div class=
"literalblock">
868 <div class=
"content">
869 <pre><code><linus
> The recency ordering (which is basically: put objects
870 _physically_ into the pack in the order that they are
871 "reachable" from the head) is important.
</code></pre>
873 <div class=
"literalblock">
874 <div class=
"content">
875 <pre><code><njs`
> okay
</code></pre>
877 <div class=
"literalblock">
878 <div class=
"content">
879 <pre><code><linus
> It's important because that's the thing that gives packs
880 good locality. It keeps the objects close to the head (whether
881 they are old or new, but they are _reachable_ from the head)
882 at the head of the pack. So packs actually have absolutely
883 _wonderful_ IO patterns.
</code></pre>
885 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Read that again, because it is important.
</p></div>
886 <div class=
"literalblock">
887 <div class=
"content">
888 <pre><code><linus
> But recency ordering is totally useless for deciding how
889 to actually generate the deltas, so the delta ordering is
890 something else.
</code></pre>
892 <div class=
"literalblock">
893 <div class=
"content">
894 <pre><code>The delta ordering is (wait for it):
895 - first sort by the
"basename" of the object, as defined by
896 the name the object was _first_ reached through when
897 generating the object list
898 - within the same basename, sort by size of the object
899 - but always sort different types separately (commits first).
</code></pre>
901 <div class=
"literalblock">
902 <div class=
"content">
903 <pre><code>That's not exactly it, but it's very close.
</code></pre>
905 <div class=
"literalblock">
906 <div class=
"content">
907 <pre><code><njs`
> The
"_first_ reached" thing is not too important, just you
908 need some way to break ties since the same objects may be
909 reachable many ways, yes?
</code></pre>
911 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>And as if to clarify:
</p></div>
912 <div class=
"literalblock">
913 <div class=
"content">
914 <pre><code><linus
> The point is that it's all really just any random
915 heuristic, and the ordering is totally unimportant for
916 correctness, but it helps a lot if the heuristic gives
917 "clumping" for things that are likely to delta well against
918 each other.
</code></pre>
920 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>It is an important point, so secretly, I did my own research and have
921 included my results below. To be fair, it has changed some over time.
922 And through the magic of Revisionistic History, I draw upon this entry
923 from The Git IRC Logs on my father
’s birthday, March
1:
</p></div>
924 <div class=
"literalblock">
925 <div class=
"content">
926 <pre><code><gitster
> The quote from the above linus should be rewritten a
928 - first sort by type. Different objects never delta with
930 - then sort by filename/dirname. hash of the basename
931 occupies the top BITS_PER_INT-DIR_BITS bits, and bottom
932 DIR_BITS are for the hash of leading path elements.
933 - then if we are doing
"thin" pack, the objects we are _not_
934 going to pack but we know about are sorted earlier than
936 - and finally sort by size, larger to smaller.
</code></pre>
938 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>In one swell-foop, clarification and obscurification! Nonetheless,
939 authoritative. Cryptic, yet concise. It even solicits notions of
940 quotes from The Source Code. Clearly, more study is needed.
</p></div>
941 <div class=
"literalblock">
942 <div class=
"content">
943 <pre><code><gitster
> That's the sort order. What this means is:
944 - we do not delta different object types.
945 - we prefer to delta the objects with the same full path, but
946 allow files with the same name from different directories.
947 - we always prefer to delta against objects we are not going
948 to send, if there are some.
949 - we prefer to delta against larger objects, so that we have
950 lots of removals.
</code></pre>
952 <div class=
"literalblock">
953 <div class=
"content">
954 <pre><code>The penultimate rule is for
"thin" packs. It is used when
955 the other side is known to have such objects.
</code></pre>
957 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>There it is again.
"Thin" packs. I
’m thinking to myself,
"What
958 is a <em>thin</em> pack?" So I ask:
</p></div>
959 <div class=
"literalblock">
960 <div class=
"content">
961 <pre><code><jdl
> What is a
"thin" pack?
</code></pre>
963 <div class=
"literalblock">
964 <div class=
"content">
965 <pre><code><gitster
> Use of --objects-edge to rev-list as the upstream of
966 pack-objects. The pack transfer protocol negotiates that.
</code></pre>
968 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Woo hoo! Cleared that
<em>right
</em> up!
</p></div>
969 <div class=
"literalblock">
970 <div class=
"content">
971 <pre><code><gitster
> There are two directions - push and fetch.
</code></pre>
973 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>There! Did you see it? It is not
<em>"push" and
"pull"</em>! How often the
974 confusion has started here. So casually mentioned, too!
</p></div>
975 <div class=
"literalblock">
976 <div class=
"content">
977 <pre><code><gitster
> For push, git-send-pack invokes git-receive-pack on the
978 other end. The receive-pack says
"I have up to these commits".
979 send-pack looks at them, and computes what are missing from
980 the other end. So
"thin" could be the default there.
</code></pre>
982 <div class=
"literalblock">
983 <div class=
"content">
984 <pre><code>In the other direction, fetch, git-fetch-pack and
985 git-clone-pack invokes git-upload-pack on the other end
986 (via ssh or by talking to the daemon).
</code></pre>
988 <div class=
"literalblock">
989 <div class=
"content">
990 <pre><code>There are two cases: fetch-pack with -k and clone-pack is one,
991 fetch-pack without -k is the other. clone-pack and fetch-pack
992 with -k will keep the downloaded packfile without expanded, so
993 we do not use thin pack transfer. Otherwise, the generated
994 pack will have delta without base object in the same pack.
</code></pre>
996 <div class=
"literalblock">
997 <div class=
"content">
998 <pre><code>But fetch-pack without -k will explode the received pack into
999 individual objects, so we automatically ask upload-pack to
1000 give us a thin pack if upload-pack supports it.
</code></pre>
1002 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>OK then.
</p></div>
1003 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Uh.
</p></div>
1004 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Let
’s return to the previous conversation still in progress.
</p></div>
1005 <div class=
"literalblock">
1006 <div class=
"content">
1007 <pre><code><njs`
> and
"basename" means something like
"the tail of end of
1008 path of file objects and dir objects, as per basename(3), and
1009 we just declare all commit and tag objects to have the same
1010 basename" or something?
</code></pre>
1012 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Luckily, that too is a point that gitster clarified for us!
</p></div>
1013 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>If I might add, the trick is to make files that
<em>might
</em> be similar be
1014 located close to each other in the hash buckets based on their file
1015 names. It used to be that
"foo/Makefile",
"bar/baz/quux/Makefile" and
1016 "Makefile" all landed in the same bucket due to their common basename,
1017 "Makefile". However, now they land in
"close" buckets.
</p></div>
1018 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>The algorithm allows not just for the
<em>same
</em> bucket, but for
<em>close
</em>
1019 buckets to be considered delta candidates. The rationale is
1020 essentially that files, like Makefiles, often have very similar
1021 content no matter what directory they live in.
</p></div>
1022 <div class=
"literalblock">
1023 <div class=
"content">
1024 <pre><code><linus
> I played around with different delta algorithms, and with
1025 making the
"delta window" bigger, but having too big of a
1026 sliding window makes it very expensive to generate the pack:
1027 you need to compare every object with a _ton_ of other objects.
</code></pre>
1029 <div class=
"literalblock">
1030 <div class=
"content">
1031 <pre><code>There are a number of other trivial heuristics too, which
1032 basically boil down to
"don't bother even trying to delta this
1033 pair" if we can tell before-hand that the delta isn't worth it
1034 (due to size differences, where we can take a previous delta
1035 result into account to decide that
"ok, no point in trying
1036 that one, it will be worse").
</code></pre>
1038 <div class=
"literalblock">
1039 <div class=
"content">
1040 <pre><code>End result: packing is actually very size efficient. It's
1041 somewhat CPU-wasteful, but on the other hand, since you're
1042 really only supposed to do it maybe once a month (and you can
1043 do it during the night), nobody really seems to care.
</code></pre>
1045 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Nice Engineering Touch, there. Find when it doesn
’t matter, and
1046 proclaim it a non-issue. Good style too!
</p></div>
1047 <div class=
"literalblock">
1048 <div class=
"content">
1049 <pre><code><njs`
> So, just to repeat to see if I'm following, we start by
1050 getting a list of the objects we want to pack, we sort it by
1051 this heuristic (basically lexicographically on the tuple
1052 (type, basename, size)).
</code></pre>
1054 <div class=
"literalblock">
1055 <div class=
"content">
1056 <pre><code>Then we walk through this list, and calculate a delta of
1057 each object against the last n (tunable parameter) objects,
1058 and pick the smallest of these deltas.
</code></pre>
1060 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Vastly simplified, but the essence is there!
</p></div>
1061 <div class=
"literalblock">
1062 <div class=
"content">
1063 <pre><code><linus
> Correct.
</code></pre>
1065 <div class=
"literalblock">
1066 <div class=
"content">
1067 <pre><code><njs`
> And then once we have picked a delta or fulltext to
1068 represent each object, we re-sort by recency, and write them
1069 out in that order.
</code></pre>
1071 <div class=
"literalblock">
1072 <div class=
"content">
1073 <pre><code><linus
> Yup. Some other small details:
</code></pre>
1075 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>And of course there is the
"Other Shoe" Factor too.
</p></div>
1076 <div class=
"literalblock">
1077 <div class=
"content">
1078 <pre><code><linus
> - We limit the delta depth to another magic value (right
1079 now both the window and delta depth magic values are just
"10")
</code></pre>
1081 <div class=
"literalblock">
1082 <div class=
"content">
1083 <pre><code><njs`
> Hrm, my intuition is that you'd end up with really _bad_ IO
1084 patterns, because the things you want are near by, but to
1085 actually reconstruct them you may have to jump all over in
1086 random ways.
</code></pre>
1088 <div class=
"literalblock">
1089 <div class=
"content">
1090 <pre><code><linus
> - When we write out a delta, and we haven't yet written
1091 out the object it is a delta against, we write out the base
1092 object first. And no, when we reconstruct them, we actually
1093 get nice IO patterns, because:
1094 - larger objects tend to be
"more recent" (Linus' law: files grow)
1095 - we actively try to generate deltas from a larger object to a
1097 - this means that the top-of-tree very seldom has deltas
1098 (i.e. deltas in _practice_ are
"backwards deltas")
</code></pre>
1100 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Again, we should reread that whole paragraph. Not just because
1101 Linus has slipped Linus
’s Law in there on us, but because it is
1102 important. Let
’s make sure we clarify some of the points here:
</p></div>
1103 <div class=
"literalblock">
1104 <div class=
"content">
1105 <pre><code><njs`
> So the point is just that in practice, delta order and
1106 recency order match each other quite well.
</code></pre>
1108 <div class=
"literalblock">
1109 <div class=
"content">
1110 <pre><code><linus
> Yes. There's another nice side to this (and yes, it was
1111 designed that way ;):
1112 - the reason we generate deltas against the larger object is
1113 actually a big space saver too!
</code></pre>
1115 <div class=
"literalblock">
1116 <div class=
"content">
1117 <pre><code><njs`
> Hmm, but your last comment (if
"we haven't yet written out
1118 the object it is a delta against, we write out the base object
1119 first"), seems like it would make these facts mostly
1120 irrelevant because even if in practice you would not have to
1121 wander around much, in fact you just brute-force say that in
1122 the cases where you might have to wander, don't do that :-)
</code></pre>
1124 <div class=
"literalblock">
1125 <div class=
"content">
1126 <pre><code><linus
> Yes and no. Notice the rule: we only write out the base
1127 object first if the delta against it was more recent. That
1128 means that you can actually have deltas that refer to a base
1129 object that is _not_ close to the delta object, but that only
1130 happens when the delta is needed to generate an _old_ object.
</code></pre>
1132 <div class=
"literalblock">
1133 <div class=
"content">
1134 <pre><code><linus
> See?
</code></pre>
1136 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Yeah, no. I missed that on the first two or three readings myself.
</p></div>
1137 <div class=
"literalblock">
1138 <div class=
"content">
1139 <pre><code><linus
> This keeps the front of the pack dense. The front of the
1140 pack never contains data that isn't relevant to a
"recent"
1141 object. The size optimization comes from our use of xdelta
1142 (but is true for many other delta algorithms): removing data
1143 is cheaper (in size) than adding data.
</code></pre>
1145 <div class=
"literalblock">
1146 <div class=
"content">
1147 <pre><code>When you remove data, you only need to say
"copy bytes n--m".
1148 In contrast, in a delta that _adds_ data, you have to say
"add
1149 these bytes: 'actual data goes here'"</code></pre>
1151 <div class=
"ulist"><ul>
1154 njs` has quit: Read error:
104 (Connection reset by peer)
1156 <div class=
"literalblock">
1157 <div class=
"content">
1158 <pre><code><linus
> Uhhuh. I hope I didn't blow njs` mind.
</code></pre>
1163 njs` has joined channel #git
1165 <div class=
"literalblock">
1166 <div class=
"content">
1167 <pre><code><pasky
> :)
</code></pre>
1171 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>The silent observers are amused. Of course.
</p></div>
1172 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>And as if njs` was expected to be omniscient:
</p></div>
1173 <div class=
"literalblock">
1174 <div class=
"content">
1175 <pre><code><linus
> njs - did you miss anything?
</code></pre>
1177 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>OK, I
’ll spell it out. That
’s Geek Humor. If njs` was not actually
1178 connected for a little bit there, how would he know if missed anything
1179 while he was disconnected? He
’s a benevolent dictator with a sense of
1180 humor! Well noted!
</p></div>
1181 <div class=
"literalblock">
1182 <div class=
"content">
1183 <pre><code><njs`
> Stupid router. Or gremlins, or whatever.
</code></pre>
1185 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>It
’s a cheap shot at Cisco. Take 'em when you can.
</p></div>
1186 <div class=
"literalblock">
1187 <div class=
"content">
1188 <pre><code><njs`
> Yes and no. Notice the rule: we only write out the base
1189 object first if the delta against it was more recent.
</code></pre>
1191 <div class=
"literalblock">
1192 <div class=
"content">
1193 <pre><code>I'm getting lost in all these orders, let me re-read :-)
1194 So the write-out order is from most recent to least recent?
1195 (Conceivably it could be the opposite way too, I'm not sure if
1196 we've said) though my connection back at home is logging, so I
1197 can just read what you said there :-)
</code></pre>
1199 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>And for those of you paying attention, the Omniscient Trick has just
1200 been detailed!
</p></div>
1201 <div class=
"literalblock">
1202 <div class=
"content">
1203 <pre><code><linus
> Yes, we always write out most recent first
</code></pre>
1205 <div class=
"literalblock">
1206 <div class=
"content">
1207 <pre><code><njs`
> And, yeah, I got the part about deeper-in-history stuff
1208 having worse IO characteristics, one sort of doesn't care.
</code></pre>
1210 <div class=
"literalblock">
1211 <div class=
"content">
1212 <pre><code><linus
> With the caveat that if the
"most recent" needs an older
1213 object to delta against (hey, shrinking sometimes does
1214 happen), we write out the old object with the delta.
</code></pre>
1216 <div class=
"literalblock">
1217 <div class=
"content">
1218 <pre><code><njs`
> (if only it happened more...)
</code></pre>
1220 <div class=
"literalblock">
1221 <div class=
"content">
1222 <pre><code><linus
> Anyway, the pack-file could easily be denser still, but
1223 because it's used both for streaming (the Git protocol) and
1224 for on-disk, it has a few pessimizations.
</code></pre>
1226 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Actually, it is a made-up word. But it is a made-up word being
1227 used as setup for a later optimization, which is a real word:
</p></div>
1228 <div class=
"literalblock">
1229 <div class=
"content">
1230 <pre><code><linus
> In particular, while the pack-file is then compressed,
1231 it's compressed just one object at a time, so the actual
1232 compression factor is less than it could be in theory. But it
1233 means that it's all nice random-access with a simple index to
1234 do
"object name->location in packfile" translation.
</code></pre>
1236 <div class=
"literalblock">
1237 <div class=
"content">
1238 <pre><code><njs`
> I'm assuming the real win for delta-ing large-
>small is
1239 more homogeneous statistics for gzip to run over?
</code></pre>
1241 <div class=
"literalblock">
1242 <div class=
"content">
1243 <pre><code>(You have to put the bytes in one place or another, but
1244 putting them in a larger blob wins on compression)
</code></pre>
1246 <div class=
"literalblock">
1247 <div class=
"content">
1248 <pre><code>Actually, what is the compression strategy -- each delta
1249 individually gzipped, the whole file gzipped, somewhere in
1250 between, no compression at all, ....?
</code></pre>
1252 <div class=
"literalblock">
1253 <div class=
"content">
1254 <pre><code>Right.
</code></pre>
1256 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Reality IRC sets in. For example:
</p></div>
1257 <div class=
"literalblock">
1258 <div class=
"content">
1259 <pre><code><pasky
> I'll read the rest in the morning, I really have to go
1260 sleep or there's no hope whatsoever for me at the today's
1261 exam... g'nite all.
</code></pre>
1263 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Heh.
</p></div>
1264 <div class=
"literalblock">
1265 <div class=
"content">
1266 <pre><code><linus
> pasky: g'nite
</code></pre>
1268 <div class=
"literalblock">
1269 <div class=
"content">
1270 <pre><code><njs`
> pasky: 'luck
</code></pre>
1272 <div class=
"literalblock">
1273 <div class=
"content">
1274 <pre><code><linus
> Right: large-
>small matters exactly because of compression
1275 behaviour. If it was non-compressed, it probably wouldn't make
1276 any difference.
</code></pre>
1278 <div class=
"literalblock">
1279 <div class=
"content">
1280 <pre><code><njs`
> yeah
</code></pre>
1282 <div class=
"literalblock">
1283 <div class=
"content">
1284 <pre><code><linus
> Anyway: I'm not even trying to claim that the pack-files
1285 are perfect, but they do tend to have a nice balance of
1286 density vs ease-of use.
</code></pre>
1288 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Gasp! OK, saved. That
’s a fair Engineering trade off. Close call!
1289 In fact, Linus reflects on some Basic Engineering Fundamentals,
1290 design options, etc.
</p></div>
1291 <div class=
"literalblock">
1292 <div class=
"content">
1293 <pre><code><linus
> More importantly, they allow Git to still _conceptually_
1294 never deal with deltas at all, and be a
"whole object" store.
</code></pre>
1296 <div class=
"literalblock">
1297 <div class=
"content">
1298 <pre><code>Which has some problems (we discussed bad huge-file
1299 behaviour on the Git lists the other day), but it does mean
1300 that the basic Git concepts are really really simple and
1301 straightforward.
</code></pre>
1303 <div class=
"literalblock">
1304 <div class=
"content">
1305 <pre><code>It's all been quite stable.
</code></pre>
1307 <div class=
"literalblock">
1308 <div class=
"content">
1309 <pre><code>Which I think is very much a result of having very simple
1310 basic ideas, so that there's never any confusion about what's
1311 going on.
</code></pre>
1313 <div class=
"literalblock">
1314 <div class=
"content">
1315 <pre><code>Bugs happen, but they are
"simple" bugs. And bugs that
1316 actually get some object store detail wrong are almost always
1317 so obvious that they never go anywhere.
</code></pre>
1319 <div class=
"literalblock">
1320 <div class=
"content">
1321 <pre><code><njs`
> Yeah.
</code></pre>
1323 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Nuff said.
</p></div>
1324 <div class=
"literalblock">
1325 <div class=
"content">
1326 <pre><code><linus
> Anyway. I'm off for bed. It's not
6AM here, but I've got
1327 three kids, and have to get up early in the morning to send
1328 them off. I need my beauty sleep.
</code></pre>
1330 <div class=
"literalblock">
1331 <div class=
"content">
1332 <pre><code><njs`
> :-)
</code></pre>
1334 <div class=
"literalblock">
1335 <div class=
"content">
1336 <pre><code><njs`
> appreciate the infodump, I really was failing to find the
1337 details on Git packs :-)
</code></pre>
1339 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>And now you know the rest of the story.
</p></div>
1343 <div id=
"footnotes"><hr /></div>
1345 <div id=
"footer-text">
1347 2020-
03-
10 15:
02:
33 PDT