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| 1 | +Multi-Pack-Index (MIDX) Design Notes |
| 2 | +==================================== |
| 3 | + |
| 4 | +The Git object directory contains a 'pack' directory containing |
| 5 | +packfiles (with suffix ".pack") and pack-indexes (with suffix |
| 6 | +".idx"). The pack-indexes provide a way to lookup objects and |
| 7 | +navigate to their offset within the pack, but these must come |
| 8 | +in pairs with the packfiles. This pairing depends on the file |
| 9 | +names, as the pack-index differs only in suffix with its pack- |
| 10 | +file. While the pack-indexes provide fast lookup per packfile, |
| 11 | +this performance degrades as the number of packfiles increases, |
| 12 | +because abbreviations need to inspect every packfile and we are |
| 13 | +more likely to have a miss on our most-recently-used packfile. |
| 14 | +For some large repositories, repacking into a single packfile |
| 15 | +is not feasible due to storage space or excessive repack times. |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +The multi-pack-index (MIDX for short) stores a list of objects |
| 18 | +and their offsets into multiple packfiles. It contains: |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +- A list of packfile names. |
| 21 | +- A sorted list of object IDs. |
| 22 | +- A list of metadata for the ith object ID including: |
| 23 | + - A value j referring to the jth packfile. |
| 24 | + - An offset within the jth packfile for the object. |
| 25 | +- If large offsets are required, we use another list of large |
| 26 | + offsets similar to version 2 pack-indexes. |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +Thus, we can provide O(log N) lookup time for any number |
| 29 | +of packfiles. |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +Design Details |
| 32 | +-------------- |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +- The MIDX is stored in a file named 'multi-pack-index' in the |
| 35 | + .git/objects/pack directory. This could be stored in the pack |
| 36 | + directory of an alternate. It refers only to packfiles in that |
| 37 | + same directory. |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +- The pack.multiIndex config setting must be on to consume MIDX files. |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +- The file format includes parameters for the object ID hash |
| 42 | + function, so a future change of hash algorithm does not require |
| 43 | + a change in format. |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +- The MIDX keeps only one record per object ID. If an object appears |
| 46 | + in multiple packfiles, then the MIDX selects the copy in the most- |
| 47 | + recently modified packfile. |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | +- If there exist packfiles in the pack directory not registered in |
| 50 | + the MIDX, then those packfiles are loaded into the `packed_git` |
| 51 | + list and `packed_git_mru` cache. |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +- The pack-indexes (.idx files) remain in the pack directory so we |
| 54 | + can delete the MIDX file, set core.midx to false, or downgrade |
| 55 | + without any loss of information. |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +- The MIDX file format uses a chunk-based approach (similar to the |
| 58 | + commit-graph file) that allows optional data to be added. |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | +Future Work |
| 61 | +----------- |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +- Add a 'verify' subcommand to the 'git midx' builtin to verify the |
| 64 | + contents of the multi-pack-index file match the offsets listed in |
| 65 | + the corresponding pack-indexes. |
| 66 | + |
| 67 | +- The multi-pack-index allows many packfiles, especially in a context |
| 68 | + where repacking is expensive (such as a very large repo), or |
| 69 | + unexpected maintenance time is unacceptable (such as a high-demand |
| 70 | + build machine). However, the multi-pack-index needs to be rewritten |
| 71 | + in full every time. We can extend the format to be incremental, so |
| 72 | + writes are fast. By storing a small "tip" multi-pack-index that |
| 73 | + points to large "base" MIDX files, we can keep writes fast while |
| 74 | + still reducing the number of binary searches required for object |
| 75 | + lookups. |
| 76 | + |
| 77 | +- The reachability bitmap is currently paired directly with a single |
| 78 | + packfile, using the pack-order as the object order to hopefully |
| 79 | + compress the bitmaps well using run-length encoding. This could be |
| 80 | + extended to pair a reachability bitmap with a multi-pack-index. If |
| 81 | + the multi-pack-index is extended to store a "stable object order" |
| 82 | + (a function Order(hash) = integer that is constant for a given hash, |
| 83 | + even as the multi-pack-index is updated) then a reachability bitmap |
| 84 | + could point to a multi-pack-index and be updated independently. |
| 85 | + |
| 86 | +- Packfiles can be marked as "special" using empty files that share |
| 87 | + the initial name but replace ".pack" with ".keep" or ".promisor". |
| 88 | + We can add an optional chunk of data to the multi-pack-index that |
| 89 | + records flags of information about the packfiles. This allows new |
| 90 | + states, such as 'repacked' or 'redeltified', that can help with |
| 91 | + pack maintenance in a multi-pack environment. It may also be |
| 92 | + helpful to organize packfiles by object type (commit, tree, blob, |
| 93 | + etc.) and use this metadata to help that maintenance. |
| 94 | + |
| 95 | +- The partial clone feature records special "promisor" packs that |
| 96 | + may point to objects that are not stored locally, but available |
| 97 | + on request to a server. The multi-pack-index does not currently |
| 98 | + track these promisor packs. |
| 99 | + |
| 100 | +Related Links |
| 101 | +------------- |
| 102 | +[0] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/git/issues/detail?id=6 |
| 103 | + Chromium work item for: Multi-Pack Index (MIDX) |
| 104 | + |
| 105 | +[1] https://public-inbox.org/git/ [email protected]/ |
| 106 | + An earlier RFC for the multi-pack-index feature |
| 107 | + |
| 108 | +[2] https://public-inbox.org/git/alpine.DEB.2.20.1803091557510.23109@alexmv-linux/ |
| 109 | + Git Merge 2018 Contributor's summit notes (includes discussion of MIDX) |
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