While it is now possible to filter objects by type, this mechanism is
for now mostly a convenience. Most importantly, we still have to iterate
through the whole packfile to find all objects of a specific type. This
can be prohibitively expensive depending on the size of the packfiles.
It isn't really possible to do better than this when only considering a
packfile itself, as the order of objects is not fixed. But when we have
a packfile with a corresponding bitmap, either because the packfile
itself has one or because the multi-pack index has a bitmap for it, then
we can use these bitmaps to improve the runtime.
While bitmaps are typically used to compute reachability of objects,
they also contain one bitmap per object type that encodes which object
has what type. So instead of reading through the whole packfile(s), we
can use the bitmaps and iterate through the type-specific bitmap.
Typically, only a subset of packfiles will have a bitmap. But this isn't
really much of a problem: we can use bitmaps when available, and then
use the non-bitmap walk for every packfile that isn't covered by one.
Overall, this leads to quite a significant speedup depending on how many
objects of a certain type exist. The following benchmarks have been
executed in the Chromium repository, which has a 50GB packfile with
almost 25 million objects. As expected, there isn't really much of a
change in performance without an object filter:
Benchmark 1: cat-file with no-filter (revision = HEAD~)
Time (mean ± σ): 89.675 s ± 4.527 s [User: 40.807 s, System: 10.782 s]
Range (min … max): 83.052 s … 96.084 s 10 runs
Benchmark 2: cat-file with no-filter (revision = HEAD)
Time (mean ± σ): 88.991 s ± 2.488 s [User: 42.278 s, System: 10.305 s]
Range (min … max): 82.843 s … 91.271 s 10 runs
Summary
cat-file with no-filter (revision = HEAD) ran
1.01 ± 0.06 times faster than cat-file with no-filter (revision = HEAD~)
We still have to scan through all objects as we yield all of them, so
using the bitmap in this case doesn't really buy us anything. What is
noticeable in this benchmark is that we're I/O-bound, not CPU-bound, as
can be seen from the user/system runtimes, which combined are way lower
than the overall benchmarked runtime.
But when we do use a filter we can see a significant improvement:
Benchmark 1: cat-file with filter=object:type=commit (revision = HEAD~)
Time (mean ± σ): 86.444 s ± 4.081 s [User: 36.830 s, System: 11.312 s]
Range (min … max): 80.305 s … 93.104 s 10 runs
Benchmark 2: cat-file with filter=object:type=commit (revision = HEAD)
Time (mean ± σ): 2.089 s ± 0.015 s [User: 1.872 s, System: 0.207 s]
Range (min … max): 2.073 s … 2.119 s 10 runs
Summary
cat-file with filter=object:type=commit (revision = HEAD) ran
41.38 ± 1.98 times faster than cat-file with filter=object:type=commit (revision = HEAD~)
This is because we don't have to scan through all packfiles anymore, but
can instead directly look up relevant objects.
Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Git - fast, scalable, distributed revision control system
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and full access to internals.
Git is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public License version 2 (some parts of it are under different licenses, compatible with the GPLv2). It was originally written by Linus Torvalds with help of a group of hackers around the net.
Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions.
Many Git online resources are accessible from https://git-scm.com/ including full documentation and Git related tools.
See Documentation/gittutorial.adoc to get started, then see
Documentation/giteveryday.adoc for a useful minimum set of commands, and
Documentation/git-<commandname>.adoc for documentation of each command.
If git has been correctly installed, then the tutorial can also be
read with man gittutorial or git help tutorial, and the
documentation of each command with man git-<commandname> or git help <commandname>.
CVS users may also want to read Documentation/gitcvs-migration.adoc
(man gitcvs-migration or git help cvs-migration if git is
installed).
The user discussion and development of Git take place on the Git mailing list -- everyone is welcome to post bug reports, feature requests, comments and patches to git@vger.kernel.org (read Documentation/SubmittingPatches for instructions on patch submission and Documentation/CodingGuidelines).
Those wishing to help with error message, usage and informational message
string translations (localization l10) should see po/README.md
(a po file is a Portable Object file that holds the translations).
To subscribe to the list, send an email to git+subscribe@vger.kernel.org (see https://subspace.kernel.org/subscribing.html for details). The mailing list archives are available at https://lore.kernel.org/git/, https://marc.info/?l=git and other archival sites.
Issues which are security relevant should be disclosed privately to the Git Security mailing list git-security@googlegroups.com.
The maintainer frequently sends the "What's cooking" reports that list the current status of various development topics to the mailing list. The discussion following them give a good reference for project status, development direction and remaining tasks.
The name "git" was given by Linus Torvalds when he wrote the very first version. He described the tool as "the stupid content tracker" and the name as (depending on your mood):
- random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a mispronunciation of "get" may or may not be relevant.
- stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the dictionary of slang.
- "global information tracker": you're in a good mood, and it actually works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- "goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t": when it breaks