Re: [PATCHv6 10/10] gitweb: group remote heads by remote

[Giuseppe Bilotta <giuseppe.bilotta@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 12:05 PM, Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 8 Nov 2010, Giuseppe Bilotta wrote:
>> On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 11:41 AM, Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Wed, 3 Nov 2010, Giuseppe Bilotta wrote:
>
>>> I think remote_heads feature is more important for _local_ use, for
>>> example browsing one own repository using git-instaweb.  In such cases
>>> number of remotes and of remote-tracking branches might be large (I have
>>> 11 remotes, not all active, and 58 remote-tracking branches).
>>>
>>> BTW. would next version of this series include patch to git-instaweb
>>> enabling 'remote_heads' feature for it (gitweb_conf function)?
>>
>> I will look into that.
>
> It can be as simple as
>
> diff --git i/git-instaweb.sh w/git-instaweb.sh
> index e6f6ecd..50f65b1 100755
> --- i/git-instaweb.sh
> +++ w/git-instaweb.sh
> @@ -580,6 +580,8 @@ gitweb_conf() {
>  our \$projectroot = "$(dirname "$fqgitdir")";
>  our \$git_temp = "$fqgitdir/gitweb/tmp";
>  our \$projects_list = \$projectroot;
> +
> +$feature{'remote_heads'}{'default'} = [1]
>  EOF
>  }

Thanks.

> We might want to enable more features for git-instaweb, but I think
> it would out of scope for planned commit (for 'remote heads' series).

Definitely 8-)

>> Either solution is fine, but it would require grabbing all the remote
>> heads. The real issue here is, I think understanding what is the
>> purpose of limiting in gitweb. Is it to reduce runtime? is it to
>> reduce clutter on the screen? In the first case, the limiting should
>> be done as early as possible (i.e. during the git call that retrieves
>> the data); in the latter case, is it _really_ needed at all?
>
> It is to reduce clutter on the screen, or rather have 'summary' view
> for a project (for a repository) to be really a _summary_.  That's why
> there is limit of 15 commits in shortlog, of 15 branches in heads, of
> 15 tags.  This action is meant to present balanced overview of
> repository.

Ok.

> Regarding gitweb performance, it is quite important to pass limit to
> git-log / git-rev-list needed also for 'summary' view; passing limit
> to git command really matters here.
>
> git_get_heads_list passes '--count='.($limit+1) to git-for-each-ref,
> but I don't think that it improves performance in any measurable way.
> Similar with saving a memory: it is negligible amount.  So if we can
> do better at the cost of running git_get_heads_list without a limit,
> I say go for it.

The gain in performance is, I believe, related to the number of heads
and the number of remotes that are to be enumerated. 11 remotes with a
total of 58 remote branches (the case you mentioned, for example)
might not feel much of a difference between pre- and post-filtering,
but something bigger might start to feel the effect.

I think the strongest point in favour of post-filtering is that the
feature is intended for use mostly for local repositories anyway.

> Note that the costly part of git_get_heads_list is forking git command,
> so it makes absolutely no sense to run git_get_heads_list once per
> remote instead of doing limiting per-remote in Perl.  The former would
> affect performance badly, I can guess.

That is indeed the reason why I chose to go the single call way, even
though it meant having the limit end up being used somewhat
incorrectly.

-- 
Giuseppe "Oblomov" Bilotta