7a86bd77d5cfc35c2a975638d4389a0d47e22f47
   1GIT bitmap v1 format
   2====================
   3
   4        - A header appears at the beginning:
   5
   6                4-byte signature: {'B', 'I', 'T', 'M'}
   7
   8                2-byte version number (network byte order)
   9                        The current implementation only supports version 1
  10                        of the bitmap index (the same one as JGit).
  11
  12                2-byte flags (network byte order)
  13
  14                        The following flags are supported:
  15
  16                        - BITMAP_OPT_FULL_DAG (0x1) REQUIRED
  17                        This flag must always be present. It implies that the bitmap
  18                        index has been generated for a packfile with full closure
  19                        (i.e. where every single object in the packfile can find
  20                         its parent links inside the same packfile). This is a
  21                        requirement for the bitmap index format, also present in JGit,
  22                        that greatly reduces the complexity of the implementation.
  23
  24                4-byte entry count (network byte order)
  25
  26                        The total count of entries (bitmapped commits) in this bitmap index.
  27
  28                20-byte checksum
  29
  30                        The SHA1 checksum of the pack this bitmap index belongs to.
  31
  32        - 4 EWAH bitmaps that act as type indexes
  33
  34                Type indexes are serialized after the hash cache in the shape
  35                of four EWAH bitmaps stored consecutively (see Appendix A for
  36                the serialization format of an EWAH bitmap).
  37
  38                There is a bitmap for each Git object type, stored in the following
  39                order:
  40
  41                        - Commits
  42                        - Trees
  43                        - Blobs
  44                        - Tags
  45
  46                In each bitmap, the `n`th bit is set to true if the `n`th object
  47                in the packfile is of that type.
  48
  49                The obvious consequence is that the OR of all 4 bitmaps will result
  50                in a full set (all bits set), and the AND of all 4 bitmaps will
  51                result in an empty bitmap (no bits set).
  52
  53        - N entries with compressed bitmaps, one for each indexed commit
  54
  55                Where `N` is the total amount of entries in this bitmap index.
  56                Each entry contains the following:
  57
  58                - 4-byte object position (network byte order)
  59                        The position **in the index for the packfile** where the
  60                        bitmap for this commit is found.
  61
  62                - 1-byte XOR-offset
  63                        The xor offset used to compress this bitmap. For an entry
  64                        in position `x`, a XOR offset of `y` means that the actual
  65                        bitmap representing this commit is composed by XORing the
  66                        bitmap for this entry with the bitmap in entry `x-y` (i.e.
  67                        the bitmap `y` entries before this one).
  68
  69                        Note that this compression can be recursive. In order to
  70                        XOR this entry with a previous one, the previous entry needs
  71                        to be decompressed first, and so on.
  72
  73                        The hard-limit for this offset is 160 (an entry can only be
  74                        xor'ed against one of the 160 entries preceding it). This
  75                        number is always positive, and hence entries are always xor'ed
  76                        with **previous** bitmaps, not bitmaps that will come afterwards
  77                        in the index.
  78
  79                - 1-byte flags for this bitmap
  80                        At the moment the only available flag is `0x1`, which hints
  81                        that this bitmap can be re-used when rebuilding bitmap indexes
  82                        for the repository.
  83
  84                - The compressed bitmap itself, see Appendix A.
  85
  86== Appendix A: Serialization format for an EWAH bitmap
  87
  88Ewah bitmaps are serialized in the same protocol as the JAVAEWAH
  89library, making them backwards compatible with the JGit
  90implementation:
  91
  92        - 4-byte number of bits of the resulting UNCOMPRESSED bitmap
  93
  94        - 4-byte number of words of the COMPRESSED bitmap, when stored
  95
  96        - N x 8-byte words, as specified by the previous field
  97
  98                This is the actual content of the compressed bitmap.
  99
 100        - 4-byte position of the current RLW for the compressed
 101                bitmap
 102
 103All words are stored in network byte order for their corresponding
 104sizes.
 105
 106The compressed bitmap is stored in a form of run-length encoding, as
 107follows.  It consists of a concatenation of an arbitrary number of
 108chunks.  Each chunk consists of one or more 64-bit words
 109
 110     H  L_1  L_2  L_3 .... L_M
 111
 112H is called RLW (run length word).  It consists of (from lower to higher
 113order bits):
 114
 115     - 1 bit: the repeated bit B
 116
 117     - 32 bits: repetition count K (unsigned)
 118
 119     - 31 bits: literal word count M (unsigned)
 120
 121The bitstream represented by the above chunk is then:
 122
 123     - K repetitions of B
 124
 125     - The bits stored in `L_1` through `L_M`.  Within a word, bits at
 126       lower order come earlier in the stream than those at higher
 127       order.
 128
 129The next word after `L_M` (if any) must again be a RLW, for the next
 130chunk.  For efficient appending to the bitstream, the EWAH stores a
 131pointer to the last RLW in the stream.