space utilization and performance. This option will cause
'git gc' to more aggressively optimize the repository at the expense
of taking much more time. The effects of this optimization are
- persistent, so this option only needs to be used occasionally; every
- few hundred changesets or so.
+ mostly persistent. See the "AGGRESSIVE" section below for details.
--auto::
With this option, 'git gc' checks whether any housekeeping is
required; if not, it exits without performing any work.
- Some git commands run `git gc --auto` after performing
- operations that could create many loose objects. Housekeeping
- is required if there are too many loose objects or too many
- packs in the repository.
+
-If the number of loose objects exceeds the value of the `gc.auto`
-configuration variable, then all loose objects are combined into a
-single pack. Setting the value of `gc.auto`
-to 0 disables automatic packing of loose objects.
+See the `gc.auto` option in the "CONFIGURATION" section below for how
+this heuristic works.
+
-If the number of packs exceeds the value of `gc.autoPackLimit`,
-then existing packs (except those marked with a `.keep` file
-or over `gc.bigPackThreshold` limit)
-are consolidated into a single pack.
-If the amount of memory is estimated not enough for `git repack` to
-run smoothly and `gc.bigPackThreshold` is not set, the largest
-pack will also be excluded (this is the equivalent of running `git gc`
-with `--keep-base-pack`).
-Setting `gc.autoPackLimit` to 0 disables automatic consolidation of
-packs.
-+
-If houskeeping is required due to many loose objects or packs, all
+Once housekeeping is triggered by exceeding the limits of
+configuration options such as `gc.auto` and `gc.autoPackLimit`, all
other housekeeping tasks (e.g. rerere, working trees, reflog...) will
be performed as well.
`.keep` files are consolidated into a single pack. When this
option is used, `gc.bigPackThreshold` is ignored.
+AGGRESSIVE
+----------
+
+When the `--aggressive` option is supplied, linkgit:git-repack[1] will
+be invoked with the `-f` flag, which in turn will pass
+`--no-reuse-delta` to linkgit:git-pack-objects[1]. This will throw
+away any existing deltas and re-compute them, at the expense of
+spending much more time on the repacking.
+
+The effects of this are mostly persistent, e.g. when packs and loose
+objects are coalesced into one another pack the existing deltas in
+that pack might get re-used, but there are also various cases where we
+might pick a sub-optimal delta from a newer pack instead.
+
+Furthermore, supplying `--aggressive` will tweak the `--depth` and
+`--window` options passed to linkgit:git-repack[1]. See the
+`gc.aggressiveDepth` and `gc.aggressiveWindow` settings below. By
+using a larger window size we're more likely to find more optimal
+deltas.
+
+It's probably not worth it to use this option on a given repository
+without running tailored performance benchmarks on it. It takes a lot
+more time, and the resulting space/delta optimization may or may not
+be worth it. Not using this at all is the right trade-off for most
+users and their repositories.
+
CONFIGURATION
-------------
-The optional configuration variable `gc.reflogExpire` can be
-set to indicate how long historical entries within each branch's
-reflog should remain available in this repository. The setting is
-expressed as a length of time, for example '90 days' or '3 months'.
-It defaults to '90 days'.
-
-The optional configuration variable `gc.reflogExpireUnreachable`
-can be set to indicate how long historical reflog entries which
-are not part of the current branch should remain available in
-this repository. These types of entries are generally created as
-a result of using `git commit --amend` or `git rebase` and are the
-commits prior to the amend or rebase occurring. Since these changes
-are not part of the current project most users will want to expire
-them sooner. This option defaults to '30 days'.
-
-The above two configuration variables can be given to a pattern. For
-example, this sets non-default expiry values only to remote-tracking
-branches:
-
-------------
-[gc "refs/remotes/*"]
- reflogExpire = never
- reflogExpireUnreachable = 3 days
-------------
-
-The optional configuration variable `gc.rerereResolved` indicates
-how long records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
-kept. This defaults to 60 days.
-
-The optional configuration variable `gc.rerereUnresolved` indicates
-how long records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
-kept. This defaults to 15 days.
-
-The optional configuration variable `gc.packRefs` determines if
-'git gc' runs 'git pack-refs'. This can be set to "notbare" to enable
-it within all non-bare repos or it can be set to a boolean value.
-This defaults to true.
-
-The optional configuration variable `gc.writeCommitGraph` determines if
-'git gc' should run 'git commit-graph write'. This can be set to a
-boolean value. This defaults to false.
-
-The optional configuration variable `gc.aggressiveWindow` controls how
-much time is spent optimizing the delta compression of the objects in
-the repository when the --aggressive option is specified. The larger
-the value, the more time is spent optimizing the delta compression. See
-the documentation for the --window option in linkgit:git-repack[1] for
-more details. This defaults to 250.
-
-Similarly, the optional configuration variable `gc.aggressiveDepth`
-controls --depth option in linkgit:git-repack[1]. This defaults to 50.
-
-The optional configuration variable `gc.pruneExpire` controls how old
-the unreferenced loose objects have to be before they are pruned. The
-default is "2 weeks ago".
-
-Optional configuration variable `gc.worktreePruneExpire` controls how
-old a stale working tree should be before `git worktree prune` deletes
-it. Default is "3 months ago".
+The below documentation is the same as what's found in
+linkgit:git-config[1]:
+include::config/gc.txt[]
NOTES
-----
particular, it will keep not only objects referenced by your current set
of branches and tags, but also objects referenced by the index,
remote-tracking branches, refs saved by 'git filter-branch' in
-refs/original/, or reflogs (which may reference commits in branches
-that were later amended or rewound).
+refs/original/, reflogs (which may reference commits in branches
+that were later amended or rewound), and anything else in the refs/* namespace.
If you are expecting some objects to be deleted and they aren't, check
all of those locations and decide whether it makes sense in your case to
remove those references.
However, these features fall short of a complete solution, so users who
run commands concurrently have to live with some risk of corruption (which
-seems to be low in practice) unless they turn off automatic garbage
-collection with 'git config gc.auto 0'.
+seems to be low in practice).
HOOKS
-----