When a multi-pack bitmap is used to implement verbatim pack reuse (that
is, when verbatim chunks from an on-disk packfile are copied
directly[^1]), it does so by using its "preferred pack" as the source
for pack-reuse.
This allows repositories to pack the majority of their objects into a
single (often large) pack, and then use it as the single source for
verbatim pack reuse. This increases the amount of objects that are
reused verbatim (and consequently, decrease the amount of time it takes
to generate many packs). But this performance comes at a cost, which is
that the preferred packfile must pace its growth with that of the entire
repository in order to maintain the utility of verbatim pack reuse.
As repositories grow beyond what we can reasonably store in a single
packfile, the utility of verbatim pack reuse diminishes. Or, at the very
least, it becomes increasingly more expensive to maintain as the pack
grows larger and larger.
It would be beneficial to be able to perform this same optimization over
multiple packs, provided some modest constraints (most importantly, that
the set of packs eligible for verbatim reuse are disjoint with respect
to the subset of their objects being sent).
If we assume that the packs which we treat as candidates for verbatim
reuse are disjoint with respect to any of their objects we may output,
we need to make only modest modifications to the verbatim pack-reuse
code itself. Most notably, we need to remove the assumption that the
bits in the reachability bitmap corresponding to objects from the single
reuse pack begin at the first bit position.
Future patches will unwind these assumptions and reimplement their
existing functionality as special cases of the more general assumptions
(e.g. that reuse bits can start anywhere within the bitset, but happen
to start at 0 for all existing cases).
This patch does not yet relax any of those assumptions. Instead, it
implements a foundational data-structure, the "Bitampped Packs" (`BTMP`)
chunk of the multi-pack index. The `BTMP` chunk's contents are described
in detail here. Importantly, the `BTMP` chunk contains information to
map regions of a multi-pack index's reachability bitmap to the packs
whose objects they represent.
For now, this chunk is only written, not read (outside of the test-tool
used in this patch to test the new chunk's behavior). Future patches
will begin to make use of this new chunk.
[^1]: Modulo patching any `OFS_DELTA`'s that cross over a region of the
pack that wasn't used verbatim.
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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