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-rw-r--r--Documentation/technical/index-format.txt252
1 files changed, 229 insertions, 23 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/technical/index-format.txt b/Documentation/technical/index-format.txt
index dcd51b97d9..65da0daaa5 100644
--- a/Documentation/technical/index-format.txt
+++ b/Documentation/technical/index-format.txt
@@ -1,10 +1,13 @@
-GIT index format
+Git index format
================
-== The git index file has the following format
+== The Git index file has the following format
- All binary numbers are in network byte order. Version 2 is described
- here unless stated otherwise.
+ All binary numbers are in network byte order.
+ In a repository using the traditional SHA-1, checksums and object IDs
+ (object names) mentioned below are all computed using SHA-1. Similarly,
+ in SHA-256 repositories, these values are computed using SHA-256.
+ Version 2 is described here unless stated otherwise.
- A 12-byte header consisting of
@@ -21,9 +24,9 @@ GIT index format
- Extensions
Extensions are identified by signature. Optional extensions can
- be ignored if GIT does not understand them.
+ be ignored if Git does not understand them.
- GIT currently supports cached tree and resolve undo extensions.
+ Git currently supports cache tree and resolve undo extensions.
4-byte extension signature. If the first byte is 'A'..'Z' the
extension is optional and can be ignored.
@@ -32,8 +35,7 @@ GIT index format
Extension data
- - 160-bit SHA-1 over the content of the index file before this
- checksum.
+ - Hash checksum over the content of the index file before this checksum.
== Index entry
@@ -42,6 +44,13 @@ GIT index format
localization, no special casing of directory separator '/'). Entries
with the same name are sorted by their stage field.
+ An index entry typically represents a file. However, if sparse-checkout
+ is enabled in cone mode (`core.sparseCheckoutCone` is enabled) and the
+ `extensions.sparseIndex` extension is enabled, then the index may
+ contain entries for directories outside of the sparse-checkout definition.
+ These entries have mode `040000`, include the `SKIP_WORKTREE` bit, and
+ the path ends in a directory separator.
+
32-bit ctime seconds, the last time a file's metadata changed
this is stat(2) data
@@ -80,7 +89,7 @@ GIT index format
32-bit file size
This is the on-disk size from stat(2), truncated to 32-bit.
- 160-bit SHA-1 for the represented object
+ Object name for the represented object
A 16-bit 'flags' field split into (high to low bits)
@@ -129,16 +138,40 @@ GIT index format
(Version 4) In version 4, the padding after the pathname does not
exist.
-== Extensions
-
-=== Cached tree
+ Interpretation of index entries in split index mode is completely
+ different. See below for details.
- Cached tree extension contains pre-computed hashes for trees that can
- be derived from the index. It helps speed up tree object generation
- from index for a new commit.
+== Extensions
- When a path is updated in index, the path must be invalidated and
- removed from tree cache.
+=== Cache tree
+
+ Since the index does not record entries for directories, the cache
+ entries cannot describe tree objects that already exist in the object
+ database for regions of the index that are unchanged from an existing
+ commit. The cache tree extension stores a recursive tree structure that
+ describes the trees that already exist and completely match sections of
+ the cache entries. This speeds up tree object generation from the index
+ for a new commit by only computing the trees that are "new" to that
+ commit. It also assists when comparing the index to another tree, such
+ as `HEAD^{tree}`, since sections of the index can be skipped when a tree
+ comparison demonstrates equality.
+
+ The recursive tree structure uses nodes that store a number of cache
+ entries, a list of subnodes, and an object ID (OID). The OID references
+ the existing tree for that node, if it is known to exist. The subnodes
+ correspond to subdirectories that themselves have cache tree nodes. The
+ number of cache entries corresponds to the number of cache entries in
+ the index that describe paths within that tree's directory.
+
+ The extension tracks the full directory structure in the cache tree
+ extension, but this is generally smaller than the full cache entry list.
+
+ When a path is updated in index, Git invalidates all nodes of the
+ recursive cache tree corresponding to the parent directories of that
+ path. We store these tree nodes as being "invalid" by using "-1" as the
+ number of cache entries. Invalid nodes still store a span of index
+ entries, allowing Git to focus its efforts when reconstructing a full
+ cache tree.
The signature for this extension is { 'T', 'R', 'E', 'E' }.
@@ -157,8 +190,8 @@ GIT index format
- A newline (ASCII 10); and
- - 160-bit object name for the object that would result from writing
- this span of index as a tree.
+ - Object name for the object that would result from writing this span
+ of index as a tree.
An entry can be in an invalidated state and is represented by having
a negative number in the entry_count field. In this case, there is no
@@ -167,15 +200,16 @@ GIT index format
The entries are written out in the top-down, depth-first order. The
first entry represents the root level of the repository, followed by the
- first subtree---let's call this A---of the root level (with its name
+ first subtree--let's call this A--of the root level (with its name
relative to the root level), followed by the first subtree of A (with
- its name relative to A), ...
+ its name relative to A), and so on. The specified number of subtrees
+ indicates when the current level of the recursive stack is complete.
=== Resolve undo
A conflict is represented in the index as a set of higher stage entries.
When a conflict is resolved (e.g. with "git add path"), these higher
- stage entries will be removed and a stage-0 entry with proper resoluton
+ stage entries will be removed and a stage-0 entry with proper resolution
is added.
When these higher stage entries are removed, they are saved in the
@@ -195,6 +229,178 @@ GIT index format
stage 1 to 3 (a missing stage is represented by "0" in this field);
and
- - At most three 160-bit object names of the entry in stages from 1 to 3
+ - At most three object names of the entry in stages from 1 to 3
(nothing is written for a missing stage).
+=== Split index
+
+ In split index mode, the majority of index entries could be stored
+ in a separate file. This extension records the changes to be made on
+ top of that to produce the final index.
+
+ The signature for this extension is { 'l', 'i', 'n', 'k' }.
+
+ The extension consists of:
+
+ - Hash of the shared index file. The shared index file path
+ is $GIT_DIR/sharedindex.<hash>. If all bits are zero, the
+ index does not require a shared index file.
+
+ - An ewah-encoded delete bitmap, each bit represents an entry in the
+ shared index. If a bit is set, its corresponding entry in the
+ shared index will be removed from the final index. Note, because
+ a delete operation changes index entry positions, but we do need
+ original positions in replace phase, it's best to just mark
+ entries for removal, then do a mass deletion after replacement.
+
+ - An ewah-encoded replace bitmap, each bit represents an entry in
+ the shared index. If a bit is set, its corresponding entry in the
+ shared index will be replaced with an entry in this index
+ file. All replaced entries are stored in sorted order in this
+ index. The first "1" bit in the replace bitmap corresponds to the
+ first index entry, the second "1" bit to the second entry and so
+ on. Replaced entries may have empty path names to save space.
+
+ The remaining index entries after replaced ones will be added to the
+ final index. These added entries are also sorted by entry name then
+ stage.
+
+== Untracked cache
+
+ Untracked cache saves the untracked file list and necessary data to
+ verify the cache. The signature for this extension is { 'U', 'N',
+ 'T', 'R' }.
+
+ The extension starts with
+
+ - A sequence of NUL-terminated strings, preceded by the size of the
+ sequence in variable width encoding. Each string describes the
+ environment where the cache can be used.
+
+ - Stat data of $GIT_DIR/info/exclude. See "Index entry" section from
+ ctime field until "file size".
+
+ - Stat data of core.excludesFile
+
+ - 32-bit dir_flags (see struct dir_struct)
+
+ - Hash of $GIT_DIR/info/exclude. A null hash means the file
+ does not exist.
+
+ - Hash of core.excludesFile. A null hash means the file does
+ not exist.
+
+ - NUL-terminated string of per-dir exclude file name. This usually
+ is ".gitignore".
+
+ - The number of following directory blocks, variable width
+ encoding. If this number is zero, the extension ends here with a
+ following NUL.
+
+ - A number of directory blocks in depth-first-search order, each
+ consists of
+
+ - The number of untracked entries, variable width encoding.
+
+ - The number of sub-directory blocks, variable width encoding.
+
+ - The directory name terminated by NUL.
+
+ - A number of untracked file/dir names terminated by NUL.
+
+The remaining data of each directory block is grouped by type:
+
+ - An ewah bitmap, the n-th bit marks whether the n-th directory has
+ valid untracked cache entries.
+
+ - An ewah bitmap, the n-th bit records "check-only" bit of
+ read_directory_recursive() for the n-th directory.
+
+ - An ewah bitmap, the n-th bit indicates whether hash and stat data
+ is valid for the n-th directory and exists in the next data.
+
+ - An array of stat data. The n-th data corresponds with the n-th
+ "one" bit in the previous ewah bitmap.
+
+ - An array of hashes. The n-th hash corresponds with the n-th "one" bit
+ in the previous ewah bitmap.
+
+ - One NUL.
+
+== File System Monitor cache
+
+ The file system monitor cache tracks files for which the core.fsmonitor
+ hook has told us about changes. The signature for this extension is
+ { 'F', 'S', 'M', 'N' }.
+
+ The extension starts with
+
+ - 32-bit version number: the current supported versions are 1 and 2.
+
+ - (Version 1)
+ 64-bit time: the extension data reflects all changes through the given
+ time which is stored as the nanoseconds elapsed since midnight,
+ January 1, 1970.
+
+ - (Version 2)
+ A null terminated string: an opaque token defined by the file system
+ monitor application. The extension data reflects all changes relative
+ to that token.
+
+ - 32-bit bitmap size: the size of the CE_FSMONITOR_VALID bitmap.
+
+ - An ewah bitmap, the n-th bit indicates whether the n-th index entry
+ is not CE_FSMONITOR_VALID.
+
+== End of Index Entry
+
+ The End of Index Entry (EOIE) is used to locate the end of the variable
+ length index entries and the beginning of the extensions. Code can take
+ advantage of this to quickly locate the index extensions without having
+ to parse through all of the index entries.
+
+ Because it must be able to be loaded before the variable length cache
+ entries and other index extensions, this extension must be written last.
+ The signature for this extension is { 'E', 'O', 'I', 'E' }.
+
+ The extension consists of:
+
+ - 32-bit offset to the end of the index entries
+
+ - Hash over the extension types and their sizes (but not
+ their contents). E.g. if we have "TREE" extension that is N-bytes
+ long, "REUC" extension that is M-bytes long, followed by "EOIE",
+ then the hash would be:
+
+ Hash("TREE" + <binary representation of N> +
+ "REUC" + <binary representation of M>)
+
+== Index Entry Offset Table
+
+ The Index Entry Offset Table (IEOT) is used to help address the CPU
+ cost of loading the index by enabling multi-threading the process of
+ converting cache entries from the on-disk format to the in-memory format.
+ The signature for this extension is { 'I', 'E', 'O', 'T' }.
+
+ The extension consists of:
+
+ - 32-bit version (currently 1)
+
+ - A number of index offset entries each consisting of:
+
+ - 32-bit offset from the beginning of the file to the first cache entry
+ in this block of entries.
+
+ - 32-bit count of cache entries in this block
+
+== Sparse Directory Entries
+
+ When using sparse-checkout in cone mode, some entire directories within
+ the index can be summarized by pointing to a tree object instead of the
+ entire expanded list of paths within that tree. An index containing such
+ entries is a "sparse index". Index format versions 4 and less were not
+ implemented with such entries in mind. Thus, for these versions, an
+ index containing sparse directory entries will include this extension
+ with signature { 's', 'd', 'i', 'r' }. Like the split-index extension,
+ tools should avoid interacting with a sparse index unless they understand
+ this extension.