Git server eats all memory

[Ivan Kanis <expire-by-2010-08-09@kanis.fr>]

Hello,

I am running git 1.7.0.4 on Debian stable. I have compiled git from
source. I am cloning using ssh.The client and the server are running
the same version. The bare repository is 4.5G with various binary files,
I have 6G of memory on my server.

I am having problem with memory ballooning when receiving object
from the server. The amount of memory used on the server seems to be same
size as the object received.

I have been discussing this quite a bit on #git at freenode. Hilary said
it was maybe due to file mmap that caused the memory reported on top to
be skewed.

I have ran two clones side by side and noticed that the server started
to swap and performance were awful. This means that if two developers
are doing a clone at the same time they will notice the slowness. 

Another worry is that we're planning to have more repositories of the
same size and the server just won't scale.

I am wondering if anyone has seen this behavior? I'll do whatever I can
to troubleshoot the problem. I know C but I just don't know where to
look at. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Kind regards,
-- 
Ivan Kanis

Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
    -- Publilius Syrus