1 files changed, 117 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt b/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt
index d1f9b5172d..3b432171d6 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ register::
 	for running in the background without disrupting foreground
 	processes.
 +
-The `register` subcomand will also set the `maintenance.strategy` config
+The `register` subcommand will also set the `maintenance.strategy` config
 value to `incremental`, if this value is not previously set. The
 `incremental` strategy uses the following schedule for each maintenance
 task:
@@ -218,6 +218,122 @@ Further, the `git gc` command should not be combined with
 but does not take the lock in the same way as `git maintenance run`. If
 possible, use `git maintenance run --task=gc` instead of `git gc`.
 
+The following sections describe the mechanisms put in place to run
+background maintenance by `git maintenance start` and how to customize
+them.
+
+BACKGROUND MAINTENANCE ON POSIX SYSTEMS
+---------------------------------------
+
+The standard mechanism for scheduling background tasks on POSIX systems
+is cron(8). This tool executes commands based on a given schedule. The
+current list of user-scheduled tasks can be found by running `crontab -l`.
+The schedule written by `git maintenance start` is similar to this:
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+# BEGIN GIT MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE
+# The following schedule was created by Git
+# Any edits made in this region might be
+# replaced in the future by a Git command.
+
+0 1-23 * * * "/<path>/git" --exec-path="/<path>" for-each-repo --config=maintenance.repo maintenance run --schedule=hourly
+0 0 * * 1-6 "/<path>/git" --exec-path="/<path>" for-each-repo --config=maintenance.repo maintenance run --schedule=daily
+0 0 * * 0 "/<path>/git" --exec-path="/<path>" for-each-repo --config=maintenance.repo maintenance run --schedule=weekly
+
+# END GIT MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The comments are used as a region to mark the schedule as written by Git.
+Any modifications within this region will be completely deleted by
+`git maintenance stop` or overwritten by `git maintenance start`.
+
+The `crontab` entry specifies the full path of the `git` executable to
+ensure that the executed `git` command is the same one with which
+`git maintenance start` was issued independent of `PATH`. If the same user
+runs `git maintenance start` with multiple Git executables, then only the
+latest executable is used.
+
+These commands use `git for-each-repo --config=maintenance.repo` to run
+`git maintenance run --schedule=<frequency>` on each repository listed in
+the multi-valued `maintenance.repo` config option. These are typically
+loaded from the user-specific global config. The `git maintenance` process
+then determines which maintenance tasks are configured to run on each
+repository with each `<frequency>` using the `maintenance.<task>.schedule`
+config options. These values are loaded from the global or repository
+config values.
+
+If the config values are insufficient to achieve your desired background
+maintenance schedule, then you can create your own schedule. If you run
+`crontab -e`, then an editor will load with your user-specific `cron`
+schedule. In that editor, you can add your own schedule lines. You could
+start by adapting the default schedule listed earlier, or you could read
+the crontab(5) documentation for advanced scheduling techniques. Please
+do use the full path and `--exec-path` techniques from the default
+schedule to ensure you are executing the correct binaries in your
+schedule.
+
+
+BACKGROUND MAINTENANCE ON MACOS SYSTEMS
+---------------------------------------
+
+While macOS technically supports `cron`, using `crontab -e` requires
+elevated privileges and the executed process does not have a full user
+context. Without a full user context, Git and its credential helpers
+cannot access stored credentials, so some maintenance tasks are not
+functional.
+
+Instead, `git maintenance start` interacts with the `launchctl` tool,
+which is the recommended way to schedule timed jobs in macOS. Scheduling
+maintenance through `git maintenance (start|stop)` requires some
+`launchctl` features available only in macOS 10.11 or later.
+
+Your user-specific scheduled tasks are stored as XML-formatted `.plist`
+files in `~/Library/LaunchAgents/`. You can see the currently-registered
+tasks using the following command:
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+$ ls ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.git-scm.git*
+org.git-scm.git.daily.plist
+org.git-scm.git.hourly.plist
+org.git-scm.git.weekly.plist
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+One task is registered for each `--schedule=<frequency>` option. To
+inspect how the XML format describes each schedule, open one of these
+`.plist` files in an editor and inspect the `<array>` element following
+the `<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>` element.
+
+`git maintenance start` will overwrite these files and register the
+tasks again with `launchctl`, so any customizations should be done by
+creating your own `.plist` files with distinct names. Similarly, the
+`git maintenance stop` command will unregister the tasks with `launchctl`
+and delete the `.plist` files.
+
+To create more advanced customizations to your background tasks, see
+launchctl.plist(5) for more information.
+
+
+BACKGROUND MAINTENANCE ON WINDOWS SYSTEMS
+-----------------------------------------
+
+Windows does not support `cron` and instead has its own system for
+scheduling background tasks. The `git maintenance start` command uses
+the `schtasks` command to submit tasks to this system. You can inspect
+all background tasks using the Task Scheduler application. The tasks
+added by Git have names of the form `Git Maintenance (<frequency>)`.
+The Task Scheduler GUI has ways to inspect these tasks, but you can also
+export the tasks to XML files and view the details there.
+
+Note that since Git is a console application, these background tasks
+create a console window visible to the current user. This can be changed
+manually by selecting the "Run whether user is logged in or not" option
+in Task Scheduler. This change requires a password input, which is why
+`git maintenance start` does not select it by default.
+
+If you want to customize the background tasks, please rename the tasks
+so future calls to `git maintenance (start|stop)` do not overwrite your
+custom tasks.
+
 
 GIT
 ---