`git repack` supports a `--pack-kept-objects` flag which more or less
translates to whether or not we pass `--honor-pack-keep` down to `git
pack-objects` when assembling a new pack.
This behavior has existed since ee34a2bead (repack: add
`repack.packKeptObjects` config var, 2014-03-03). In that commit, the
documentation was extended to say:
[...] Note that we still do not delete `.keep` packs after
`pack-objects` finishes.
Unfortunately, this is not the case when `--pack-kept-objects` is
combined with a `--geometric` repack. When doing a geometric repack, we
include `.keep` packs when enumerating available packs only when
`pack_kept_objects` is set.
So this all works fine when `--no-pack-kept-objects` (or similar) is
given. Kept packs are excluded from the geometric roll-up, so when we go
to delete redundant packs (with `-d`), no `.keep` packs appear "below
the split" in our geometric progression.
But when `--pack-kept-objects` is given, things can go awry. Namely,
when a kept pack is included in the list of packs tracked by the
`pack_geometry` struct *and* part of the pack roll-up, we will delete
the `.keep` pack when we shouldn't.
Note that this *doesn't* result in object corruption, since the `.keep`
pack's objects are still present in the new pack. But the `.keep` pack
itself is removed, which violates our promise from back in ee34a2bead.
But there's more. Because `repack` computes the geometric roll-up
independently from selecting which packs belong in a MIDX (with
`--write-midx`), this can lead to odd behavior. Consider when a `.keep`
pack appears below the geometric split (ie., its objects will be part of
the new pack we generate).
We'll write a MIDX containing the new pack along with the existing
`.keep` pack. But because the `.keep` pack appears below the geometric
split line, we'll (incorrectly) try to remove it. While this doesn't
corrupt the repository, it does cause us to remove the MIDX we just
wrote, since removing that pack would invalidate the new MIDX.
Funny enough, this behavior became far less noticeable after e4d0c11c04
(repack: respect kept objects with '--write-midx -b', 2021-12-20), which
made `pack_kept_objects` be enabled by default only when we were writing
a non-MIDX bitmap.
But e4d0c11c04 didn't resolve this bug, it just made it harder to notice
unless callers explicitly passed `--pack-kept-objects`.
The solution is to avoid trying to remove `.keep` packs during
`--geometric` repacks, even when they appear below the geometric split
line, which is the approach this patch implements.
Co-authored-by: Victoria Dye <vdye@github.com>
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
The previous patch demonstrates a scenario where the list of packs
written by `pack-objects` (and stored in the `names` string_list) is
out-of-order, and can thus cause us to delete packs we shouldn't.
This patch resolves that bug by ensuring that `names` is sorted in all
cases, not just when
delete_redundant && pack_everything & ALL_INTO_ONE
is true.
Because we did sort `names` in that case (which, prior to `--geometric`
repacks, was the only time we would actually delete packs, this is only
a bug for `--geometric` repacks.
It would be sufficient to only sort `names` when `delete_redundant` is
set to a non-zero value. But sorting a small list of strings is cheap,
and it is defensive against future calls to `string_list_has_string()`
on this list.
Co-discovered-by: Victoria Dye <vdye@github.com>
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
When doing a `--geometric=<d>` repack, `git repack` determines a
splitting point among packs ordered by their object count such that:
- each pack above the split has at least `<d>` times as many objects
as the next-largest pack by object count, and
- the first pack above the split has at least `<d>` times as many
object as the sum of all packs below the split line combined
`git repack` then creates a pack containing all of the objects contained
in packs below the split line by running `git pack-objects
--stdin-packs` underneath. Once packs are moved into place, then any
packs below the split line are removed, since their objects were just
combined into a new pack.
But `git repack` tries to be careful to avoid removing a pack that it
just wrote, by checking:
struct packed_git *p = geometry->pack[i];
if (string_list_has_string(&names, hash_to_hex(p->hash)))
continue;
in the `delete_redundant` and `geometric` conditional towards the end of
`cmd_repack`.
But it's possible to trick `git repack` into not recognizing a pack that
it just wrote when `names` is out-of-order (which violates
`string_list_has_string()`'s assumption that the list is sorted and thus
binary search-able).
When this happens in just the right circumstances, it is possible to
remove a pack that we just wrote, leading to object corruption.
Luckily, this is quite difficult to provoke in practice (for a couple of
reasons):
- we ordinarily write just one pack, so `names` usually contains just
one entry, and is thus sorted
- when we do write more than one pack (e.g., due to `--max-pack-size`)
we have to: (a) write a pack identical to one that already
exists, (b) have that pack be below the split line, and (c) have
the set of packs written by `pack-objects` occur in an order which
tricks `string_list_has_string()`.
Demonstrate the above scenario in a failing test, which causes `git
repack --geometric` to write a pack which occurs below the split line,
_and_ fail to recognize that it wrote that pack.
The following patch will fix this bug.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Update 'repack' to ignore packs named on the command line with the
'--keep-pack' option. Specifically, modify 'init_pack_geometry()' to treat
command line-kept packs the same way it treats packs with an on-disk '.keep'
file (that is, skip the pack and do not include it in the 'geometry'
structure).
Without this handling, a '--keep-pack' pack would be included in the
'geometry' structure. If the pack is *before* the geometry split line (with
at least one other pack and/or loose objects present), 'repack' assumes the
pack's contents are "rolled up" into another pack via 'pack-objects'.
However, because the internally-invoked 'pack-objects' properly excludes
'--keep-pack' objects, any new pack it creates will not contain the kept
objects. Finally, 'repack' deletes the '--keep-pack' as "redundant" (since
it assumes 'pack-objects' created a new pack with its contents), resulting
in possible object loss and repository corruption.
Add a test ensuring that '--keep-pack' packs are now appropriately handled.
Co-authored-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Victoria Dye <vdye@github.com>
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
When repacking into a geometric series and writing a multi-pack bitmap,
it is beneficial to have the largest resulting pack be the preferred
object source in the bitmap's MIDX, since selecting the large packs can
lead to fewer broken delta chains and better compression.
Teach 'git repack' to identify this pack and pass it to the MIDX write
machinery in order to mark it as preferred.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Teach `git repack` a new `--write-midx` option for callers that wish to
persist a multi-pack index in their repository while repacking.
There are two existing alternatives to this new flag, but they don't
cover our particular use-case. These alternatives are:
- Call 'git multi-pack-index write' after running 'git repack', or
- Set 'GIT_TEST_MULTI_PACK_INDEX=1' in your environment when running
'git repack'.
The former works, but introduces a gap in bitmap coverage between
repacking and writing a new MIDX (since the repack may have deleted a
pack included in the existing MIDX, invalidating it altogether).
Setting the 'GIT_TEST_' environment variable is obviously unsupported.
In fact, even if it were supported officially, it still wouldn't work,
because it generates the MIDX *after* redundant packs have been dropped,
leading to the same issue as above.
Introduce a new option which eliminates this race by teaching `git
repack` to generate the MIDX at the critical point: after the new packs
have been written and moved into place, but before the redundant packs
have been removed.
This option is compatible with `git repack`'s '--bitmap' option (it
changes the interpretation to be: "write a bitmap corresponding to the
MIDX after one has been generated").
There is a little bit of additional noise in the patch below to avoid
repeating ourselves when selecting which packs to delete. Instead of a
single loop as before (where we iterate over 'existing_packs', decide if
a pack is worth deleting, and if so, delete it), we have two loops (the
first where we decide which ones are worth deleting, and the second
where we actually do the deleting). This makes it so we have a single
check we can make consistently when (1) telling the MIDX which packs we
want to exclude, and (2) actually unlinking the redundant packs.
There is also a tiny change to short-circuit the body of
write_midx_included_packs() when no packs remain in the case of an empty
repository. The MIDX code does not handle this, so avoid trying to
generate a MIDX covering zero packs in the first place.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
We don't currently have a test that demonstrates the non-idempotent
behavior of 'git repack --geometric' with loose objects, so add one here
to make sure we don't regress in this area.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
In 0fabafd0b9 (builtin/repack.c: add '--geometric' option, 2021-02-22),
the 'git repack --geometric' code aborts early when there is zero or one
pack.
When there are no packs, this code does the right thing by placing the
split at "0". But when there is exactly one pack, the split is placed at
"1", which means that "git repack --geometric" (with any factor)
repacks all of the objects in a single pack.
This is wasteful, and the remaining code in split_pack_geometry() does
the right thing (not repacking the objects in a single pack) even when
only one pack is present.
Loosen the guard to only stop when there aren't any packs, and let the
rest of the code do the right thing. Add a test to ensure that this is
the case.
Noticed-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Often it is useful to both:
- have relatively few packfiles in a repository, and
- avoid having so few packfiles in a repository that we repack its
entire contents regularly
This patch implements a '--geometric=<n>' option in 'git repack'. This
allows the caller to specify that they would like each pack to be at
least a factor times as large as the previous largest pack (by object
count).
Concretely, say that a repository has 'n' packfiles, labeled P1, P2,
..., up to Pn. Each packfile has an object count equal to 'objects(Pn)'.
With a geometric factor of 'r', it should be that:
objects(Pi) > r*objects(P(i-1))
for all i in [1, n], where the packs are sorted by
objects(P1) <= objects(P2) <= ... <= objects(Pn).
Since finding a true optimal repacking is NP-hard, we approximate it
along two directions:
1. We assume that there is a cutoff of packs _before starting the
repack_ where everything to the right of that cut-off already forms
a geometric progression (or no cutoff exists and everything must be
repacked).
2. We assume that everything smaller than the cutoff count must be
repacked. This forms our base assumption, but it can also cause
even the "heavy" packs to get repacked, for e.g., if we have 6
packs containing the following number of objects:
1, 1, 1, 2, 4, 32
then we would place the cutoff between '1, 1' and '1, 2, 4, 32',
rolling up the first two packs into a pack with 2 objects. That
breaks our progression and leaves us:
2, 1, 2, 4, 32
^
(where the '^' indicates the position of our split). To restore a
progression, we move the split forward (towards larger packs)
joining each pack into our new pack until a geometric progression
is restored. Here, that looks like:
2, 1, 2, 4, 32 ~> 3, 2, 4, 32 ~> 5, 4, 32 ~> ... ~> 9, 32
^ ^ ^ ^
This has the advantage of not repacking the heavy-side of packs too
often while also only creating one new pack at a time. Another wrinkle
is that we assume that loose, indexed, and reflog'd objects are
insignificant, and lump them into any new pack that we create. This can
lead to non-idempotent results.
Suggested-by: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Reviewed-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
