summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/git-maintenance.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/git-maintenance.txt127
1 files changed, 127 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt b/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3f5d8946b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+git-maintenance(1)
+==================
+
+NAME
+----
+git-maintenance - Run tasks to optimize Git repository data
+
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+[verse]
+'git maintenance' run [<options>]
+
+
+DESCRIPTION
+-----------
+Run tasks to optimize Git repository data, speeding up other Git commands
+and reducing storage requirements for the repository.
+
+Git commands that add repository data, such as `git add` or `git fetch`,
+are optimized for a responsive user experience. These commands do not take
+time to optimize the Git data, since such optimizations scale with the full
+size of the repository while these user commands each perform a relatively
+small action.
+
+The `git maintenance` command provides flexibility for how to optimize the
+Git repository.
+
+SUBCOMMANDS
+-----------
+
+run::
+ Run one or more maintenance tasks. If one or more `--task` options
+ are specified, then those tasks are run in that order. Otherwise,
+ the tasks are determined by which `maintenance.<task>.enabled`
+ config options are true. By default, only `maintenance.gc.enabled`
+ is true.
+
+TASKS
+-----
+
+commit-graph::
+ The `commit-graph` job updates the `commit-graph` files incrementally,
+ then verifies that the written data is correct. The incremental
+ write is safe to run alongside concurrent Git processes since it
+ will not expire `.graph` files that were in the previous
+ `commit-graph-chain` file. They will be deleted by a later run based
+ on the expiration delay.
+
+prefetch::
+ The `prefetch` task updates the object directory with the latest
+ objects from all registered remotes. For each remote, a `git fetch`
+ command is run. The refmap is custom to avoid updating local or remote
+ branches (those in `refs/heads` or `refs/remotes`). Instead, the
+ remote refs are stored in `refs/prefetch/<remote>/`. Also, tags are
+ not updated.
++
+This is done to avoid disrupting the remote-tracking branches. The end users
+expect these refs to stay unmoved unless they initiate a fetch. With prefetch
+task, however, the objects necessary to complete a later real fetch would
+already be obtained, so the real fetch would go faster. In the ideal case,
+it will just become an update to bunch of remote-tracking branches without
+any object transfer.
+
+gc::
+ Clean up unnecessary files and optimize the local repository. "GC"
+ stands for "garbage collection," but this task performs many
+ smaller tasks. This task can be expensive for large repositories,
+ as it repacks all Git objects into a single pack-file. It can also
+ be disruptive in some situations, as it deletes stale data. See
+ linkgit:git-gc[1] for more details on garbage collection in Git.
+
+loose-objects::
+ The `loose-objects` job cleans up loose objects and places them into
+ pack-files. In order to prevent race conditions with concurrent Git
+ commands, it follows a two-step process. First, it deletes any loose
+ objects that already exist in a pack-file; concurrent Git processes
+ will examine the pack-file for the object data instead of the loose
+ object. Second, it creates a new pack-file (starting with "loose-")
+ containing a batch of loose objects. The batch size is limited to 50
+ thousand objects to prevent the job from taking too long on a
+ repository with many loose objects. The `gc` task writes unreachable
+ objects as loose objects to be cleaned up by a later step only if
+ they are not re-added to a pack-file; for this reason it is not
+ advisable to enable both the `loose-objects` and `gc` tasks at the
+ same time.
+
+incremental-repack::
+ The `incremental-repack` job repacks the object directory
+ using the `multi-pack-index` feature. In order to prevent race
+ conditions with concurrent Git commands, it follows a two-step
+ process. First, it calls `git multi-pack-index expire` to delete
+ pack-files unreferenced by the `multi-pack-index` file. Second, it
+ calls `git multi-pack-index repack` to select several small
+ pack-files and repack them into a bigger one, and then update the
+ `multi-pack-index` entries that refer to the small pack-files to
+ refer to the new pack-file. This prepares those small pack-files
+ for deletion upon the next run of `git multi-pack-index expire`.
+ The selection of the small pack-files is such that the expected
+ size of the big pack-file is at least the batch size; see the
+ `--batch-size` option for the `repack` subcommand in
+ linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1]. The default batch-size is zero,
+ which is a special case that attempts to repack all pack-files
+ into a single pack-file.
+
+OPTIONS
+-------
+--auto::
+ When combined with the `run` subcommand, run maintenance tasks
+ only if certain thresholds are met. For example, the `gc` task
+ runs when the number of loose objects exceeds the number stored
+ in the `gc.auto` config setting, or when the number of pack-files
+ exceeds the `gc.autoPackLimit` config setting.
+
+--quiet::
+ Do not report progress or other information over `stderr`.
+
+--task=<task>::
+ If this option is specified one or more times, then only run the
+ specified tasks in the specified order. If no `--task=<task>`
+ arguments are specified, then only the tasks with
+ `maintenance.<task>.enabled` configured as `true` are considered.
+ See the 'TASKS' section for the list of accepted `<task>` values.
+
+GIT
+---
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite