diff: cache textconv output

Running a textconv filter can take a long time. It's
particularly bad for a large file which needs to be spooled
to disk, but even for small files, the fork+exec overhead
can add up for something like "git log -p".

This patch uses the notes-cache mechanism to keep a fast
cache of textconv output. Caches are stored in
refs/notes/textconv/$x, where $x is the userdiff driver
defined in gitattributes.

Caching is enabled only if diff.$x.cachetextconv is true.

In my test repo, on a commit with 45 jpg and avi files
changed and a textconv to show their exif tags:

  [before]
  $ time git show >/dev/null
  real    0m13.724s
  user    0m12.057s
  sys     0m1.624s

  [after, first run]
  $ git config diff.mfo.cachetextconv true
  $ time git show >/dev/null
  real    0m14.252s
  user    0m12.197s
  sys     0m1.800s

  [after, subsequent runs]
  $ time git show >/dev/null
  real    0m0.352s
  user    0m0.148s
  sys     0m0.200s

So for a slight (3.8%) cost on the first run, we achieve an
almost 40x speed up on subsequent runs.

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 20 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/gitattributes.txt b/Documentation/gitattributes.txt
index d892e642ed..a8500d1772 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitattributes.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitattributes.txt
@@ -414,6 +414,26 @@ because it quickly conveys the changes you have made), you
 should generate it separately and send it as a comment _in
 addition to_ the usual binary diff that you might send.
 
+Because text conversion can be slow, especially when doing a
+large number of them with `git log -p`, git provides a mechanism
+to cache the output and use it in future diffs.  To enable
+caching, set the "cachetextconv" variable in your diff driver's
+config. For example:
+
+------------------------
+[diff "jpg"]
+	textconv = exif
+	cachetextconv = true
+------------------------
+
+This will cache the result of running "exif" on each blob
+indefinitely. If you change the textconv config variable for a
+diff driver, git will automatically invalidate the cache entries
+and re-run the textconv filter. If you want to invalidate the
+cache manually (e.g., because your version of "exif" was updated
+and now produces better output), you can remove the cache
+manually with `git update-ref -d refs/notes/textconv/jpg` (where
+"jpg" is the name of the diff driver, as in the example above).
 
 Performing a three-way merge
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~