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Taylor Blau 2f4ba2a867 packfile: prepare for the existence of '*.rev' files
Specify the format of the on-disk reverse index 'pack-*.rev' file, as
well as prepare the code for the existence of such files.

The reverse index maps from pack relative positions (i.e., an index into
the array of object which is sorted by their offsets within the
packfile) to their position within the 'pack-*.idx' file. Today, this is
done by building up a list of (off_t, uint32_t) tuples for each object
(the off_t corresponding to that object's offset, and the uint32_t
corresponding to its position in the index). To convert between pack and
index position quickly, this array of tuples is radix sorted based on
its offset.

This has two major drawbacks:

First, the in-memory cost scales linearly with the number of objects in
a pack.  Each 'struct revindex_entry' is sizeof(off_t) +
sizeof(uint32_t) + padding bytes for a total of 16.

To observe this, force Git to load the reverse index by, for e.g.,
running 'git cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)"'. When asking
for a single object in a fresh clone of the kernel, Git needs to
allocate 120+ MB of memory in order to hold the reverse index in memory.

Second, the cost to sort also scales with the size of the pack.
Luckily, this is a linear function since 'load_pack_revindex()' uses a
radix sort, but this cost still must be paid once per pack per process.

As an example, it takes ~60x longer to print the _size_ of an object as
it does to print that entire object's _contents_:

  Benchmark #1: git.compile cat-file --batch <obj
    Time (mean ± σ):       3.4 ms ±   0.1 ms    [User: 3.3 ms, System: 2.1 ms]
    Range (min … max):     3.2 ms …   3.7 ms    726 runs

  Benchmark #2: git.compile cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <obj
    Time (mean ± σ):     210.3 ms ±   8.9 ms    [User: 188.2 ms, System: 23.2 ms]
    Range (min … max):   193.7 ms … 224.4 ms    13 runs

Instead, avoid computing and sorting the revindex once per process by
writing it to a file when the pack itself is generated.

The format is relatively straightforward. It contains an array of
uint32_t's, the length of which is equal to the number of objects in the
pack.  The ith entry in this table contains the index position of the
ith object in the pack, where "ith object in the pack" is determined by
pack offset.

One thing that the on-disk format does _not_ contain is the full (up to)
eight-byte offset corresponding to each object. This is something that
the in-memory revindex contains (it stores an off_t in 'struct
revindex_entry' along with the same uint32_t that the on-disk format
has). Omit it in the on-disk format, since knowing the index position
for some object is sufficient to get a constant-time lookup in the
pack-*.idx file to ask for an object's offset within the pack.

This trades off between the on-disk size of the 'pack-*.rev' file for
runtime to chase down the offset for some object. Even though the lookup
is constant time, the constant is heavier, since it can potentially
involve two pointer walks in v2 indexes (one to access the 4-byte offset
table, and potentially a second to access the double wide offset table).

Consider trying to map an object's pack offset to a relative position
within that pack. In a cold-cache scenario, more page faults occur while
switching between binary searching through the reverse index and
searching through the *.idx file for an object's offset. Sure enough,
with a cold cache (writing '3' into '/proc/sys/vm/drop_caches' after
'sync'ing), printing out the entire object's contents is still
marginally faster than printing its size:

  Benchmark #1: git.compile cat-file --batch-check="%(objectsize:disk)" <obj >/dev/null
    Time (mean ± σ):      22.6 ms ±   0.5 ms    [User: 2.4 ms, System: 7.9 ms]
    Range (min … max):    21.4 ms …  23.5 ms    41 runs

  Benchmark #2: git.compile cat-file --batch <obj >/dev/null
    Time (mean ± σ):      17.2 ms ±   0.7 ms    [User: 2.8 ms, System: 5.5 ms]
    Range (min … max):    15.6 ms …  18.2 ms    45 runs

(Numbers taken in the kernel after cheating and using the next patch to
generate a reverse index). There are a couple of approaches to improve
cold cache performance not pursued here:

  - We could include the object offsets in the reverse index format.
    Predictably, this does result in fewer page faults, but it triples
    the size of the file, while simultaneously duplicating a ton of data
    already available in the .idx file. (This was the original way I
    implemented the format, and it did show
    `--batch-check='%(objectsize:disk)'` winning out against `--batch`.)

    On the other hand, this increase in size also results in a large
    block-cache footprint, which could potentially hurt other workloads.

  - We could store the mapping from pack to index position in more
    cache-friendly way, like constructing a binary search tree from the
    table and writing the values in breadth-first order. This would
    result in much better locality, but the price you pay is trading
    O(1) lookup in 'pack_pos_to_index()' for an O(log n) one (since you
    can no longer directly index the table).

So, neither of these approaches are taken here. (Thankfully, the format
is versioned, so we are free to pursue these in the future.) But, cold
cache performance likely isn't interesting outside of one-off cases like
asking for the size of an object directly. In real-world usage, Git is
often performing many operations in the revindex (i.e., asking about
many objects rather than a single one).

The trade-off is worth it, since we will avoid the vast majority of the
cost of generating the revindex that the extra pointer chase will look
like noise in the following patch's benchmarks.

This patch describes the format and prepares callers (like in
pack-revindex.c) to be able to read *.rev files once they exist. An
implementation of the writer will appear in the next patch, and callers
will gradually begin to start using the writer in the patches that
follow after that.

Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2021-01-25 18:32:43 -08:00
.github Merge branch 'da/vs-build-iconv-fix' 2020-12-14 10:21:38 -08:00
block-sha1
builtin packfile: prepare for the existence of '*.rev' files 2021-01-25 18:32:43 -08:00
ci Merge branch 'js/default-branch-name-tests-final-stretch' 2021-01-25 14:19:18 -08:00
compat Merge branch 'da/vs-build-iconv-fix' 2020-12-14 10:21:38 -08:00
contrib completion: add proper public __git_complete 2021-01-04 15:25:56 -08:00
Documentation packfile: prepare for the existence of '*.rev' files 2021-01-25 18:32:43 -08:00
ewah
git-gui Merge https://github.com/prati0100/git-gui 2020-12-18 15:07:10 -08:00
gitk-git
gitweb gitweb/Makefile: conditionally include ../GIT-VERSION-FILE 2020-12-08 16:56:56 -08:00
mergetools
negotiator
perl
po l10n: zh_CN: for git v2.30.0 l10n round 1 and 2 2020-12-27 19:23:27 +08:00
ppc
refs refs/files-backend: don't peek into struct lock_file 2021-01-06 13:53:32 -08:00
sha1collisiondetection@855827c583
sha1dc
sha256
t Merge branch 'ab/mailmap-fixup' 2021-01-25 14:19:20 -08:00
templates
trace2 trace2: teach Git to log environment variables 2020-03-23 13:14:53 -07:00
vcs-svn
xdiff diff: add -I<regex> that ignores matching changes 2020-10-20 12:53:26 -07:00
.cirrus.yml
.clang-format
.editorconfig
.gitattributes CoC: explicitly take any whitespace breakage 2021-01-04 09:44:49 -08:00
.gitignore Merge branch 'fc/random-cleanup' 2020-12-08 15:11:21 -08:00
.gitmodules
.mailmap
.travis.yml
.tsan-suppressions
abspath.c abspath: add a function to resolve paths with missing components 2020-12-12 23:35:47 -08:00
aclocal.m4 configure: use AC_LANG_PROGRAM consistently 2011-02-14 10:55:15 -08:00
add-interactive.c Merge branch 'js/add-i-color-fix' 2020-12-08 15:11:17 -08:00
add-interactive.h
add-patch.c Merge branch 'js/add-i-color-fix' 2020-12-08 15:11:17 -08:00
advice.c
advice.h
alias.c
alias.h
alloc.c commit: move members graph_pos, generation to a slab 2020-06-17 14:37:30 -07:00
alloc.h
apply.c Merge branch 'ab/unreachable-break' 2020-12-18 15:15:18 -08:00
apply.h
archive-tar.c
archive-zip.c
archive.c
archive.h
attr.c
attr.h
banned.h banned.h: mark ctime_r() and asctime_r() as banned 2020-12-02 14:30:39 -08:00
base85.c
bisect.c hash-lookup: rename from sha1-lookup 2021-01-04 13:01:55 -08:00
bisect.h
blame.c
blame.h
blob.c
blob.h
bloom.c
bloom.h
branch.c
branch.h
builtin.h
bulk-checkin.c
bulk-checkin.h
bundle.c bundle: arguments can be read from stdin 2021-01-11 21:50:41 -08:00
bundle.h
cache-tree.c
cache-tree.h
cache.h Merge branch 'ps/config-env-pairs' 2021-01-25 14:19:19 -08:00
chdir-notify.c
chdir-notify.h
check_bindir
check-builtins.sh
checkout.c
checkout.h
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md CoC: update to version 2.0 + local changes 2021-01-13 17:45:04 -08:00
color.c
color.h
column.c
column.h
combine-diff.c
command-list.txt mailmap doc: create a new "gitmailmap(5)" man page 2021-01-12 14:04:39 -08:00
commit-graph.c Merge branch 'ma/more-opaque-lock-file' 2021-01-25 14:19:17 -08:00
commit-graph.h
commit-reach.c
commit-reach.h
commit-slab-decl.h
commit-slab-impl.h
commit-slab.h
commit.c Merge branch 'ma/sha1-is-a-hash' 2021-01-15 15:20:29 -08:00
commit.h Merge branch 'en/merge-ort-recursive' 2021-01-06 23:33:44 -08:00
common-main.c
config.c Merge branch 'ps/config-env-pairs' 2021-01-25 14:19:19 -08:00
config.h Merge branch 'ps/config-env-pairs' 2021-01-25 14:19:19 -08:00
config.mak.dev
config.mak.in
config.mak.uname Merge branch 'rb/nonstop-config-mak-uname-update' 2020-12-18 15:15:18 -08:00
configure.ac
connect.c Merge branch 'jk/forbid-lf-in-git-url' 2021-01-25 14:19:17 -08:00
connect.h
connected.c
connected.h
convert.c
convert.h
copy.c
COPYING
credential.c
credential.h
csum-file.c
csum-file.h csum-file: add hashwrite_be64() 2020-11-12 09:40:06 -08:00
ctype.c
daemon.c strvec: rename struct fields 2020-07-30 19:18:06 -07:00
date.c
decorate.c
decorate.h
delta-islands.c
delta-islands.h
delta.h
detect-compiler
diff-delta.c
diff-lib.c
diff-no-index.c
diff.c Merge branch 'sj/untracked-files-in-submodule-directory-is-not-dirty' 2021-01-25 14:19:18 -08:00
diff.h Merge branch 'sj/untracked-files-in-submodule-directory-is-not-dirty' 2021-01-25 14:19:18 -08:00
diffcore-break.c
diffcore-delta.c
diffcore-order.c
diffcore-pickaxe.c
diffcore-rename.c diffcore-rename: remove unnecessary duplicate entry checks 2021-01-04 12:59:34 -08:00
diffcore.h
dir-iterator.c
dir-iterator.h
dir.c
dir.h
editor.c
entry.c
environment.c config: allow specifying config entries via envvar pairs 2021-01-15 13:03:45 -08:00
environment.h environment: make getenv_safe() a public function 2021-01-15 13:03:45 -08:00
exec-cmd.c
exec-cmd.h
fetch-negotiator.c
fetch-negotiator.h
fetch-pack.c fetch-pack: refactor writing promisor file 2021-01-12 16:01:07 -08:00
fetch-pack.h
fmt-merge-msg.c
fmt-merge-msg.h
fsck.c Merge branch 'jk/forbid-lf-in-git-url' 2021-01-25 14:19:17 -08:00
fsck.h fsck: make fsck_config() re-usable 2021-01-05 14:58:29 -08:00
fsmonitor.c
fsmonitor.h
fuzz-commit-graph.c
fuzz-pack-headers.c
fuzz-pack-idx.c
generate-cmdlist.sh
generate-configlist.sh
gettext.c gettext.c: remove/reword a mostly-useless comment 2021-01-11 13:07:33 -08:00
gettext.h
git-add--interactive.perl Merge branch 'js/add-i-color-fix' 2020-12-08 15:11:17 -08:00
git-archimport.perl
git-bisect.sh
git-compat-util.h Merge branch 'jc/compat-util-setitimer-fix' 2020-12-18 15:15:17 -08:00
git-cvsexportcommit.perl
git-cvsimport.perl
git-cvsserver.perl
git-difftool--helper.sh
git-filter-branch.sh
git-instaweb.sh
git-merge-octopus.sh
git-merge-one-file.sh
git-merge-resolve.sh
git-mergetool--lib.sh Merge branch 'pb/mergetool-tool-help-fix' 2021-01-15 21:48:46 -08:00
git-mergetool.sh
git-p4.py Merge branch 'dl/p4-encode-after-kw-expansion' 2021-01-15 21:48:47 -08:00
git-quiltimport.sh
git-rebase--preserve-merges.sh
git-request-pull.sh
git-send-email.perl
git-sh-i18n.sh
git-sh-setup.sh
git-submodule.sh
git-svn.perl
GIT-VERSION-GEN The first batch in 2.31 cycle 2021-01-06 23:33:44 -08:00
git-web--browse.sh
git.c Merge branch 'ps/config-env-pairs' 2021-01-25 14:19:19 -08:00
git.rc
gpg-interface.c
gpg-interface.h
graph.c
graph.h
grep.c
grep.h
hash-lookup.c hash-lookup: rename from sha1-lookup 2021-01-04 13:01:55 -08:00
hash-lookup.h hash-lookup: rename from sha1-lookup 2021-01-04 13:01:55 -08:00
hash.h
hashmap.c
hashmap.h
help.c
help.h
hex.c
http-backend.c
http-fetch.c
http-push.c
http-walker.c
http.c
http.h
ident.c
imap-send.c
INSTALL doc: mention Python 3.x supports 2020-12-14 15:01:03 -08:00
iterator.h
json-writer.c
json-writer.h
khash.h
kwset.c
kwset.h kset.h, tar.h: add missing header guard to prevent multiple inclusion 2019-11-07 20:12:04 +09:00
levenshtein.c
levenshtein.h
LGPL-2.1
line-log.c
line-log.h
line-range.c
line-range.h
linear-assignment.c
linear-assignment.h
list-objects-filter-options.c list-objects-filter-options: fix function name in BUG 2020-11-16 14:28:25 -08:00
list-objects-filter-options.h
list-objects-filter.c object-name.c: rename from sha1-name.c 2021-01-04 13:01:55 -08:00
list-objects-filter.h
list-objects.c
list-objects.h
list.h
ll-merge.c
ll-merge.h
lockfile.c
lockfile.h
log-tree.c
log-tree.h
ls-refs.c
ls-refs.h
mailinfo.c
mailinfo.h
mailmap.c shortlog: remove unused(?) "repo-abbrev" feature 2021-01-12 14:04:42 -08:00
mailmap.h shortlog: remove unused(?) "repo-abbrev" feature 2021-01-12 14:04:42 -08:00
Makefile Merge branch 'ab/gettext-charset-comment-fix' 2021-01-15 21:48:46 -08:00
match-trees.c
mem-pool.c
mem-pool.h
merge-blobs.c
merge-blobs.h
merge-ort-wrappers.c
merge-ort-wrappers.h
merge-ort.c Merge branch 'en/merge-ort-3' 2021-01-25 14:19:17 -08:00
merge-ort.h merge-ort: implement merge_incore_recursive() 2020-12-16 21:56:39 -08:00
merge-recursive.c commit: move reverse_commit_list() from merge-recursive 2020-12-16 21:56:39 -08:00
merge-recursive.h
merge.c
mergesort.c
mergesort.h
midx.c Merge branch 'ma/more-opaque-lock-file' 2021-01-25 14:19:17 -08:00
midx.h
name-hash.c
notes-cache.c
notes-cache.h
notes-merge.c
notes-merge.h
notes-utils.c
notes-utils.h
notes.c
notes.h
object-file.c hash-lookup: rename from sha1-lookup 2021-01-04 13:01:55 -08:00
object-name.c object-name.c: rename from sha1-name.c 2021-01-04 13:01:55 -08:00
object-store.h packfile: prepare for the existence of '*.rev' files 2021-01-25 18:32:43 -08:00
object.c bundle: lost objects when removing duplicate pendings 2021-01-11 21:50:41 -08:00
object.h
oid-array.c hash-lookup: rename from sha1-lookup 2021-01-04 13:01:55 -08:00
oid-array.h oid-array: provide a for-loop iterator 2020-12-07 12:32:04 -08:00
oidmap.c
oidmap.h
oidset.c
oidset.h
pack-bitmap-write.c Merge branch 'ma/sha1-is-a-hash' 2021-01-15 15:20:29 -08:00
pack-bitmap.c rebuild_existing_bitmaps(): convert to new revindex API 2021-01-13 21:53:46 -08:00
pack-bitmap.h
pack-check.c
pack-objects.c
pack-objects.h
pack-revindex.c packfile: prepare for the existence of '*.rev' files 2021-01-25 18:32:43 -08:00
pack-revindex.h packfile: prepare for the existence of '*.rev' files 2021-01-25 18:32:43 -08:00
pack-write.c pack-write: die on error in write_promisor_file() 2021-01-14 17:02:22 -08:00
pack.h fetch-pack: refactor writing promisor file 2021-01-12 16:01:07 -08:00
packfile.c packfile: prepare for the existence of '*.rev' files 2021-01-25 18:32:43 -08:00
packfile.h packfile: prepare for the existence of '*.rev' files 2021-01-25 18:32:43 -08:00
pager.c
parse-options-cb.c
parse-options.c
parse-options.h parse-options: format argh like error messages 2021-01-06 15:10:27 -08:00
patch-delta.c
patch-ids.c Merge branch 'jk/log-cherry-pick-duplicate-patches' 2021-01-25 14:19:19 -08:00
patch-ids.h patch-ids: handle duplicate hashmap entries 2021-01-12 11:13:32 -08:00
path.c
path.h
pathspec.c
pathspec.h
pkt-line.c
pkt-line.h
preload-index.c
pretty.c shortlog: remove unused(?) "repo-abbrev" feature 2021-01-12 14:04:42 -08:00
pretty.h
prio-queue.c
prio-queue.h *.[ch]: remove extern from function declarations using spatch 2019-05-05 15:20:06 +09:00
progress.c
progress.h
promisor-remote.c
promisor-remote.h
prompt.c
prompt.h
protocol.c
protocol.h
prune-packed.c
prune-packed.h
quote.c quote: make sq_dequote_step() a public function 2021-01-12 12:03:18 -08:00
quote.h quote: make sq_dequote_step() a public function 2021-01-12 12:03:18 -08:00
range-diff.c
range-diff.h
reachable.c
reachable.h
read-cache.c read-cache: try not to peek into struct {lock_,temp}file 2021-01-06 13:53:32 -08:00
README.md
rebase-interactive.c
rebase-interactive.h
rebase.c
rebase.h
ref-filter.c branch: show "HEAD detached" first under reverse sort 2021-01-07 15:13:21 -08:00
ref-filter.h branch: sort detached HEAD based on a flag 2021-01-07 15:13:21 -08:00
reflog-walk.c
reflog-walk.h
refs.c refs: allow @{n} to work with n-sized reflog 2021-01-11 14:13:50 -08:00
refs.h get_default_branch_name(): prepare for showing some advice 2020-12-13 15:53:50 -08:00
refspec.c Merge branch 'fc/atmark-in-refspec' 2020-12-14 10:21:36 -08:00
refspec.h
RelNotes The first batch in 2.31 cycle 2021-01-06 23:33:44 -08:00
remote-curl.c
remote.c Merge branch 'nk/refspecs-negative-fix' 2020-12-23 13:59:46 -08:00
remote.h fetch: extract writing to FETCH_HEAD 2021-01-12 12:06:14 -08:00
replace-object.c
replace-object.h replace-object: make replace operations thread-safe 2020-01-17 13:52:14 -08:00
repo-settings.c
repository.c
repository.h
rerere.c hash-lookup: rename from sha1-lookup 2021-01-04 13:01:55 -08:00
rerere.h
reset.c Merge branch 'dl/merge-autostash' 2020-04-29 16:15:27 -07:00
reset.h
resolve-undo.c
resolve-undo.h
revision.c Merge branch 'jk/log-cherry-pick-duplicate-patches' 2021-01-25 14:19:19 -08:00
revision.h
run-command.c
run-command.h
send-pack.c Merge branch 'js/trace2-session-id' 2020-12-08 15:11:20 -08:00
send-pack.h
sequencer.c
sequencer.h
serve.c
serve.h
server-info.c
setup.c
sh-i18n--envsubst.c
sha1dc_git.c
sha1dc_git.h
shallow.c
shallow.h
shell.c
shortlog.h shortlog: remove unused(?) "repo-abbrev" feature 2021-01-12 14:04:42 -08:00
sideband.c
sideband.h
sigchain.c
sigchain.h
split-index.c
split-index.h
stable-qsort.c Move git_sort(), a stable sort, into into libgit.a 2019-10-02 14:44:51 +09:00
strbuf.c
strbuf.h
streaming.c
streaming.h
string-list.c
string-list.h
strmap.c
strmap.h strmap: make callers of strmap_remove() to call it in void context 2020-12-15 15:30:44 -08:00
strvec.c
strvec.h
sub-process.c
sub-process.h
submodule-config.c
submodule-config.h
submodule.c Merge branch 'sj/untracked-files-in-submodule-directory-is-not-dirty' 2021-01-25 14:19:18 -08:00
submodule.h
symlinks.c
tag.c
tag.h
tar.h
tempfile.c
tempfile.h
thread-utils.c
thread-utils.h
tmp-objdir.c packfile: prepare for the existence of '*.rev' files 2021-01-25 18:32:43 -08:00
tmp-objdir.h
trace2.c
trace2.h
trace.c
trace.h
trailer.c pretty format %(trailers): add a "key_value_separator" 2020-12-09 14:16:42 -08:00
trailer.h pretty format %(trailers): add a "key_value_separator" 2020-12-09 14:16:42 -08:00
transport-helper.c
transport-internal.h
transport.c
transport.h
tree-diff.c
tree-walk.c
tree-walk.h
tree.c tree: enable cmp_cache_name_compare() to be used elsewhere 2020-12-13 14:18:20 -08:00
tree.h tree: enable cmp_cache_name_compare() to be used elsewhere 2020-12-13 14:18:20 -08:00
unicode-width.h
unimplemented.sh
unix-socket.c
unix-socket.h
unpack-trees.c
unpack-trees.h
upload-pack.c Merge branch 'tb/partial-clone-filters-fix' 2020-12-17 15:06:40 -08:00
upload-pack.h
url.c
url.h list-objects-filter: implement composite filters 2019-06-28 08:41:53 -07:00
urlmatch.c
urlmatch.h
usage.c
userdiff.c
userdiff.h
utf8.c
utf8.h
varint.c
varint.h
version.c
version.h
versioncmp.c
walker.c
walker.h
wildmatch.c wildmatch: change behavior of "foo**bar" in WM_PATHNAME mode 2018-10-29 13:19:22 +09:00
wildmatch.h
worktree.c worktree: teach repair to fix multi-directional breakage 2020-12-21 13:44:28 -08:00
worktree.h
wrap-for-bin.sh
wrapper.c
write-or-die.c
ws.c
wt-status.c Merge branch 'sj/untracked-files-in-submodule-directory-is-not-dirty' 2021-01-25 14:19:18 -08:00
wt-status.h branch: sort detached HEAD based on a flag 2021-01-07 15:13:21 -08:00
xdiff-interface.c xdiff: avoid computing non-zero offset from NULL pointer 2020-01-28 23:13:25 -08:00
xdiff-interface.h
zlib.c

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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.txt to get started, then see Documentation/giteveryday.txt for a useful minimum set of commands, and Documentation/git-<commandname>.txt 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.txt (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). To subscribe to the list, send an email with just "subscribe git" in the body to majordomo@vger.kernel.org. The mailing list archives are available at https://lore.kernel.org/git/, http://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