Re: [ANNOUNCE] GIT 1.5.5.1

[Brandon Casey <casey@nrlssc.navy.mil>]

Dmitry Potapov wrote:

> Johannes' patch removed this option, which IMHO was a significant user
> interface improvement.

Unless I missed something, this option has not been removed. The original
purpose for its existence (which was to cause git-gc to call git-prune)
has been removed. The call to git-prune within git-gc will remove _loose_
unreferenced objects, but _packed_ unreferenced objects are removed by
repack. The --prune option to git-gc is still used to adjust the call to
git-repack so that packed unreferenced objects are discarded.

> diff --git a/Documentation/git-clone.txt b/Documentation/git-clone.txt
> index 9758243..c1bf814 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-clone.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/git-clone.txt
> @@ -65,10 +65,12 @@ OPTIONS
>  +
>  *NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use
>  it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your
> -repository using this option, then delete branches in the
> -source repository and then run linkgit:git-gc[1] using the
> -'--prune' option in the source repository, it may remove
> -objects which are referenced by the cloned repository.
> +repository using this option and then delete a branch or use
> +any other git command that makes any previous existing commit
> +unreachable, then after some time linkgit:git-gc[1] may remove
> +unreachable objects, and this will break the cloned repository.
> +Because some git commands may run git-gc, it may happen at any
> +time after gc.pruneExpire time since commits became unreachable.

I agree that something should be said here about shared repositories,
but I think this wording is a little complicated (disclosure: I also
submitted some text for this a few weeks ago :). Of course something
is better than nothing.

Here's the blurb I submitted if you're interested:
+repository using this option and then delete branches in the
+source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling).
+These objects may be removed by normal git operations (such as git-commit[1])
+which automatically call git-gc[1]. If these objects are removed and
+were referenced by the cloned repository, then the cloned repository
+will become corrupt.

-brandon