diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/technical/sparse-index.txt | 37 |
1 files changed, 35 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/technical/sparse-index.txt b/Documentation/technical/sparse-index.txt index 8d3d808046..3b24c1a219 100644 --- a/Documentation/technical/sparse-index.txt +++ b/Documentation/technical/sparse-index.txt @@ -85,8 +85,41 @@ index, as well. Next, consumers of the index will be guarded against operating on a sparse-index by inserting calls to `ensure_full_index()` or -`expand_index_to_path()`. After these guards are in place, we can begin -leaving sparse-directory entries in the in-memory index structure. +`expand_index_to_path()`. If a specific path is requested, then those will +be protected from within the `index_file_exists()` and `index_name_pos()` +API calls: they will call `ensure_full_index()` if necessary. The +intention here is to preserve existing behavior when interacting with a +sparse-checkout. We don't want a change to happen by accident, without +tests. Many of these locations may not need any change before removing the +guards, but we should not do so without tests to ensure the expected +behavior happens. + +It may be desirable to _change_ the behavior of some commands in the +presence of a sparse index or more generally in any sparse-checkout +scenario. In such cases, these should be carefully communicated and +tested. No such behavior changes are intended during this phase. + +During a scan of the codebase, not every iteration of the cache entries +needs an `ensure_full_index()` check. The basic reasons include: + +1. The loop is scanning for entries with non-zero stage. These entries + are not collapsed into a sparse-directory entry. + +2. The loop is scanning for submodules. These entries are not collapsed + into a sparse-directory entry. + +3. The loop is part of the index API, especially around reading or + writing the format. + +4. The loop is checking for correct order of cache entries and that is + correct if and only if the sparse-directory entries are in the correct + location. + +5. The loop ignores entries with the `SKIP_WORKTREE` bit set, or is + otherwise already aware of sparse directory entries. + +6. The sparse-index is disabled at this point when using the split-index + feature, so no effort is made to protect the split-index API. Even after inserting these guards, we will keep expanding sparse-indexes for most Git commands using the `command_requires_full_index` repository |