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List:       git
Subject:    [PATCH] Documentation/git-gc.txt: change --aggressive description
From:       Pieter de Bie <pdebie () ai ! rug ! nl>
Date:       2008-05-13 9:53:33
Message-ID: 1210672413-8761-1-git-send-email-pdebie () ai ! rug ! nl
[Download RAW message or body]

The documentation for the --aggressive flag was misleading, hinting that
running git gc with --aggressive is a good thing. However, --aggressive only
really makes sense if you have a bad pack file, such as from git-fast-import.
---

I keep seeing people regularly packing their repo with git gc --aggressive.
However, in my experience, this seldom results in a smaller repository. This
can be because the repository was repacked tightly previously (for example,
with a high --window value) or because incremental "git gc" just makes better
packs anyway. Throwing away that information is often not a good idea.

The documentation for the --aggressive flag was misleading, in that it hints that \
you'll get a smaller pack, which is often not the case.



 Documentation/git-gc.txt |    8 +++++---
 1 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git-gc.txt b/Documentation/git-gc.txt
index b6b5ce1..ebf972c 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-gc.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-gc.txt
@@ -36,9 +36,11 @@ OPTIONS
 	Usually 'git-gc' runs very quickly while providing good disk
 	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.
+	of taking much more time. Note that this will throw away all previous
+	optimizations. As a result, running git gc with --aggressive will not
+	necessarily create a smaller pack file, especially when the repository was
+	packed tightly already. Using --aggressive only makes sense if you have a
+	badly packed repository, such as created by git-fast-import.
 
 --auto::
 	With this option, `git gc` checks whether any housekeeping is
-- 
1.5.5.1.174.g32fa0.dirty


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