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NAME
gitformat-pack - Git pack format
SYNOPSIS
$GIT_DIR/objects/pack/pack-.{pack,idx}
$GIT_DIR/objects/pack/pack-.rev
$GIT_DIR/objects/pack/pack-*.mtimes
$GIT_DIR/objects/pack/multi-pack-index
DESCRIPTION
The Git pack format is how Git stores most of its primary repository data. Over the
lifetime of a repository, loose objects (if any) and smaller packs are consolidated into
larger pack(s). See git-gc(1) and git-pack-objects(1).
The pack format is also used over-the-wire, see e.g. gitprotocol-v2(5), as well as being a
part of other container formats in the case of gitformat-bundle(5).
CHECKSUMS AND OBJECT IDS
In a repository using the traditional SHA-1, pack checksums, index checksums, and object
IDs (object names) mentioned below are all computed using SHA-1. Similarly, in SHA-256
repositories, these values are computed using SHA-256.
PACK-*.PACK FILES HAVE THE FOLLOWING FORMAT:
• A header appears at the beginning and consists of the following:
4-byte signature:
The signature is: {'P', 'A', 'C', 'K'}
4-byte version number (network byte order):
Git currently accepts version number 2 or 3 but
generates version 2 only.
4-byte number of objects contained in the pack (network byte order)
Observation: we cannot have more than 4G versions ;-) and
more than 4G objects in a pack.
• The header is followed by a number of object entries, each of which looks like this:
(undeltified representation)
n-byte type and length (3-bit type, (n-1)*7+4-bit length)
compressed data
(deltified representation)
n-byte type and length (3-bit type, (n-1)*7+4-bit length)
base object name if OBJ_REF_DELTA or a negative relative
offset from the delta object's position in the pack if this
is an OBJ_OFS_DELTA object
compressed delta data
Observation: the length of each object is encoded in a variable
length format and is not constrained to 32-bit or anything.
• The trailer records a pack checksum of all of the above.
Object types
Valid object types are:
• OBJ_COMMIT (1)
• OBJ_TREE (2)
• OBJ_BLOB (3)
• OBJ_TAG (4)
• OBJ_OFS_DELTA (6)
• OBJ_REF_DELTA (7)
Type 5 is reserved for future expansion. Type 0 is invalid.
Size encoding
This document uses the following "size encoding" of non-negative integers: From each byte,
the seven least significant bits are used to form the resulting integer. As long as the
most significant bit is 1, this process continues; the byte with MSB 0 provides the last
seven bits. The seven-bit chunks are concatenated. Later values are more significant.
This size encoding should not be confused with the "offset encoding", which is also used
in this document.
Deltified representation
Conceptually there are only four object types: commit, tree, tag and blob. However to save
space, an object could be stored as a "delta" of another "base" object. These
representations are assigned new types ofs-delta and ref-delta, which is only valid in a
pack file.
Both ofs-delta and ref-delta store the "delta" to be applied to another object (called
base object) to reconstruct the object. The difference between them is, ref-delta directly
encodes base object name. If the base object is in the same pack, ofs-delta encodes the
offset of the base object in the pack instead.
The base object could also be deltified if it’s in the same pack. Ref-delta can also refer
to an object outside the pack (i.e. the so-called "thin pack"). When stored on disk
however, the pack should be self contained to avoid cyclic dependency.
The delta data starts with the size of the base object and the size of the object to be
reconstructed. These sizes are encoded using the size encoding from above. The remainder
of the delta data is a sequence of instructions to reconstruct the object from the base
object. If the base object is deltified, it must be converted to canonical form first.
Each instruction appends more and more data to the target object until it’s complete.
There are two supported instructions so far: one for copying a byte range from the source
object and one for inserting new data embedded in the instruction itself.
Each instruction has variable length. Instruction type is determined by the seventh bit of
the first octet. The following diagrams follow the convention in RFC 1951 (Deflate
compressed data format).
Instruction to copy from base object
+----------+---------+---------+---------+---------+-------+-------+-------+
| 1xxxxxxx | offset1 | offset2 | offset3 | offset4 | size1 | size2 | size3 |
+----------+---------+---------+---------+---------+-------+-------+-------+
This is the instruction format to copy a byte range from the source object. It encodes
the offset to copy from and the number of bytes to copy. Offset and size are in
little-endian order.
All offset and size bytes are optional. This is to reduce the instruction size when
encoding small offsets or sizes. The first seven bits in the first octet determine
which of the next seven octets is present. If bit zero is set, offset1 is present. If
bit one is set offset2 is present and so on.
Note that a more compact instruction does not change offset and size encoding. For
example, if only offset2 is omitted like below, offset3 still contains bits 16-23. It
does not become offset2 and contains bits 8-15 even if it’s right next to offset1.
+----------+---------+---------+
| 10000101 | offset1 | offset3 |
+----------+---------+---------+
In its most compact form, this instruction only takes up one byte (0x80) with both
offset and size omitted, which will have default values zero. There is another
exception: size zero is automatically converted to 0x10000.
Instruction to add new data
+----------+============+
| 0xxxxxxx | data |
+----------+============+
This is the instruction to construct the target object without the base object. The
following data is appended to the target object. The first seven bits of the first
octet determine the size of data in bytes. The size must be non-zero.
Reserved instruction
+----------+============
| 00000000 |
+----------+============
This is the instruction reserved for future expansion.
ORIGINAL (VERSION 1) PACK-*.IDX FILES HAVE THE FOLLOWING FORMAT:
• The header consists of 256 4-byte network byte order integers. N-th entry of this
table records the number of objects in the corresponding pack, the first byte of whose
object name is less than or equal to N. This is called the first-level fan-out table.
• The header is followed by sorted 24-byte entries, one entry per object in the pack.
Each entry is:
4-byte network byte order integer, recording where the
object is stored in the packfile as the offset from the
beginning.
one object name of the appropriate size.
• The file is concluded with a trailer:
A copy of the pack checksum at the end of the corresponding
packfile.
Index checksum of all of the above.
Pack Idx file:
-- +--------------------------------+
fanout | fanout[0] = 2 (for example) |-.
table +--------------------------------+ |
| fanout[1] | |
+--------------------------------+ |
| fanout[2] | |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| fanout[255] = total objects |---.
-- +--------------------------------+ | |
main | offset | | |
index | object name 00XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX | | |
table +--------------------------------+ | |
| offset | | |
| object name 00XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX | | |
+--------------------------------+<+ |
.-| offset | |
| | object name 01XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX | |
| +--------------------------------+ |
| | offset | |
| | object name 01XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| | offset | |
| | object name FFXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX | |
--| +--------------------------------+<--+
trailer | | packfile checksum |
| +--------------------------------+
| | idxfile checksum |
| +--------------------------------+
.-------.
|
Pack file entry: <+
packed object header:
1-byte size extension bit (MSB)
type (next 3 bit)
size0 (lower 4-bit)
n-byte sizeN (as long as MSB is set, each 7-bit)
size0..sizeN form 4+7+7+..+7 bit integer, size0
is the least significant part, and sizeN is the
most significant part.
packed object data:
If it is not DELTA, then deflated bytes (the size above
is the size before compression).
If it is REF_DELTA, then
base object name (the size above is the
size of the delta data that follows).
delta data, deflated.
If it is OFS_DELTA, then
n-byte offset (see below) interpreted as a negative
offset from the type-byte of the header of the
ofs-delta entry (the size above is the size of
the delta data that follows).
delta data, deflated.
offset encoding:
n bytes with MSB set in all but the last one.
The offset is then the number constructed by
concatenating the lower 7 bit of each byte, and
for n >= 2 adding 2^7 + 2^14 + ... + 2^(7*(n-1))
to the result.
VERSION 2 PACK-*.IDX FILES SUPPORT PACKS LARGER THAN 4 GIB, AND
have some other reorganizations. They have the format:
• A 4-byte magic number \377tOc which is an unreasonable fanout[0] value.
• A 4-byte version number (= 2)
• A 256-entry fan-out table just like v1.
• A table of sorted object names. These are packed together without offset values to
reduce the cache footprint of the binary search for a specific object name.
• A table of 4-byte CRC32 values of the packed object data. This is new in v2 so
compressed data can be copied directly from pack to pack during repacking without
undetected data corruption.
• A table of 4-byte offset values (in network byte order). These are usually 31-bit pack
file offsets, but large offsets are encoded as an index into the next table with the
msbit set.
• A table of 8-byte offset entries (empty for pack files less than 2 GiB). Pack files
are organized with heavily used objects toward the front, so most object references
should not need to refer to this table.
• The same trailer as a v1 pack file:
A copy of the pack checksum at the end of the
corresponding packfile.
Index checksum of all of the above.
PACK-*.REV FILES HAVE THE FORMAT:
• A 4-byte magic number 0x52494458 (RIDX).
• A 4-byte version identifier (= 1).
• A 4-byte hash function identifier (= 1 for SHA-1, 2 for SHA-256).
• A table of index positions (one per packed object, num_objects in total, each a 4-byte
unsigned integer in network order), sorted by their corresponding offsets in the
packfile.
• A trailer, containing a:
checksum of the corresponding packfile, and
a checksum of all of the above.
All 4-byte numbers are in network order.
PACK-*.MTIMES FILES HAVE THE FORMAT:
All 4-byte numbers are in network byte order.
• A 4-byte magic number 0x4d544d45 (MTME).
• A 4-byte version identifier (= 1).
• A 4-byte hash function identifier (= 1 for SHA-1, 2 for SHA-256).
• A table of 4-byte unsigned integers. The ith value is the modification time (mtime) of
the ith object in the corresponding pack by lexicographic (index) order. The mtimes
count standard epoch seconds.
• A trailer, containing a checksum of the corresponding packfile, and a checksum of all
of the above (each having length according to the specified hash function).
MULTI-PACK-INDEX (MIDX) FILES HAVE THE FOLLOWING FORMAT:
The multi-pack-index files refer to multiple pack-files and loose objects.
In order to allow extensions that add extra data to the MIDX, we organize the body into
"chunks" and provide a lookup table at the beginning of the body. The header includes
certain length values, such as the number of packs, the number of base MIDX files, hash
lengths and types.
All 4-byte numbers are in network order.
HEADER:
4-byte signature:
The signature is: {'M', 'I', 'D', 'X'}
1-byte version number:
Git only writes or recognizes version 1.
1-byte Object Id Version
We infer the length of object IDs (OIDs) from this value:
1 => SHA-1
2 => SHA-256
If the hash type does not match the repository's hash algorithm,
the multi-pack-index file should be ignored with a warning
presented to the user.
1-byte number of "chunks"
1-byte number of base multi-pack-index files:
This value is currently always zero.
4-byte number of pack files
CHUNK LOOKUP:
(C + 1) * 12 bytes providing the chunk offsets:
First 4 bytes describe chunk id. Value 0 is a terminating label.
Other 8 bytes provide offset in current file for chunk to start.
(Chunks are provided in file-order, so you can infer the length
using the next chunk position if necessary.)
The CHUNK LOOKUP matches the table of contents from
the chunk-based file format, see linkgit:gitformat-chunk[5].
The remaining data in the body is described one chunk at a time, and
these chunks may be given in any order. Chunks are required unless
otherwise specified.
CHUNK DATA:
Packfile Names (ID: {'P', 'N', 'A', 'M'})
Store the names of packfiles as a sequence of NUL-terminated
strings. There is no extra padding between the filenames,
and they are listed in lexicographic order. The chunk itself
is padded at the end with between 0 and 3 NUL bytes to make the
chunk size a multiple of 4 bytes.
OID Fanout (ID: {'O', 'I', 'D', 'F'})
The ith entry, F[i], stores the number of OIDs with first
byte at most i. Thus F[255] stores the total
number of objects.
OID Lookup (ID: {'O', 'I', 'D', 'L'})
The OIDs for all objects in the MIDX are stored in lexicographic
order in this chunk.
Object Offsets (ID: {'O', 'O', 'F', 'F'})
Stores two 4-byte values for every object.
1: The pack-int-id for the pack storing this object.
2: The offset within the pack.
If all offsets are less than 2^32, then the large offset chunk
will not exist and offsets are stored as in IDX v1.
If there is at least one offset value larger than 2^32-1, then
the large offset chunk must exist, and offsets larger than
2^31-1 must be stored in it instead. If the large offset chunk
exists and the 31st bit is on, then removing that bit reveals
the row in the large offsets containing the 8-byte offset of
this object.
[Optional] Object Large Offsets (ID: {'L', 'O', 'F', 'F'})
8-byte offsets into large packfiles.
[Optional] Bitmap pack order (ID: {'R', 'I', 'D', 'X'})
A list of MIDX positions (one per object in the MIDX, num_objects in
total, each a 4-byte unsigned integer in network byte order), sorted
according to their relative bitmap/pseudo-pack positions.
TRAILER:
Index checksum of the above contents.
MULTI-PACK-INDEX REVERSE INDEXES
Similar to the pack-based reverse index, the multi-pack index can also be used to generate
a reverse index.
Instead of mapping between offset, pack-, and index position, this reverse index maps
between an object’s position within the MIDX, and that object’s position within a
pseudo-pack that the MIDX describes (i.e., the ith entry of the multi-pack reverse index
holds the MIDX position of ith object in pseudo-pack order).
To clarify the difference between these orderings, consider a multi-pack reachability
bitmap (which does not yet exist, but is what we are building towards here). Each bit
needs to correspond to an object in the MIDX, and so we need an efficient mapping from bit
position to MIDX position.
One solution is to let bits occupy the same position in the oid-sorted index stored by the
MIDX. But because oids are effectively random, their resulting reachability bitmaps would
have no locality, and thus compress poorly. (This is the reason that single-pack bitmaps
use the pack ordering, and not the .idx ordering, for the same purpose.)
So we’d like to define an ordering for the whole MIDX based around pack ordering, which
has far better locality (and thus compresses more efficiently). We can think of a
pseudo-pack created by the concatenation of all of the packs in the MIDX. E.g., if we had
a MIDX with three packs (a, b, c), with 10, 15, and 20 objects respectively, we can
imagine an ordering of the objects like:
|a,0|a,1|...|a,9|b,0|b,1|...|b,14|c,0|c,1|...|c,19|
where the ordering of the packs is defined by the MIDX’s pack list, and then the ordering
of objects within each pack is the same as the order in the actual packfile.
Given the list of packs and their counts of objects, you can naïvely reconstruct that
pseudo-pack ordering (e.g., the object at position 27 must be (c,1) because packs "a" and
"b" consumed 25 of the slots). But there’s a catch. Objects may be duplicated between
packs, in which case the MIDX only stores one pointer to the object (and thus we’d want
only one slot in the bitmap).
Callers could handle duplicates themselves by reading objects in order of their
bit-position, but that’s linear in the number of objects, and much too expensive for
ordinary bitmap lookups. Building a reverse index solves this, since it is the logical
inverse of the index, and that index has already removed duplicates. But, building a
reverse index on the fly can be expensive. Since we already have an on-disk format for
pack-based reverse indexes, let’s reuse it for the MIDX’s pseudo-pack, too.
Objects from the MIDX are ordered as follows to string together the pseudo-pack. Let
pack(o) return the pack from which o was selected by the MIDX, and define an ordering of
packs based on their numeric ID (as stored by the MIDX). Let offset(o) return the object
offset of o within pack(o). Then, compare o1 and o2 as follows:
• If one of pack(o1) and pack(o2) is preferred and the other is not, then the preferred
one sorts first.
(This is a detail that allows the MIDX bitmap to determine which pack should be used
by the pack-reuse mechanism, since it can ask the MIDX for the pack containing the
object at bit position 0).
• If pack(o1) ≠ pack(o2), then sort the two objects in descending order based on the
pack ID.
• Otherwise, pack(o1) = pack(o2), and the objects are sorted in pack-order (i.e., o1
sorts ahead of o2 exactly when offset(o1) < offset(o2)).
In short, a MIDX’s pseudo-pack is the de-duplicated concatenation of objects in packs
stored by the MIDX, laid out in pack order, and the packs arranged in MIDX order (with the
preferred pack coming first).
The MIDX’s reverse index is stored in the optional RIDX chunk within the MIDX itself.
CRUFT PACKS
The cruft packs feature offer an alternative to Git’s traditional mechanism of removing
unreachable objects. This document provides an overview of Git’s pruning mechanism, and
how a cruft pack can be used instead to accomplish the same.
Background
To remove unreachable objects from your repository, Git offers git repack -Ad (see git-
repack(1)). Quoting from the documentation:
[...] unreachable objects in a previous pack become loose, unpacked objects,
instead of being left in the old pack. [...] loose unreachable objects will be
pruned according to normal expiry rules with the next 'git gc' invocation.
Unreachable objects aren’t removed immediately, since doing so could race with an incoming
push which may reference an object which is about to be deleted. Instead, those
unreachable objects are stored as loose objects and stay that way until they are older
than the expiration window, at which point they are removed by git-prune(1).
Git must store these unreachable objects loose in order to keep track of their per-object
mtimes. If these unreachable objects were written into one big pack, then either
freshening that pack (because an object contained within it was re-written) or creating a
new pack of unreachable objects would cause the pack’s mtime to get updated, and the
objects within it would never leave the expiration window. Instead, objects are stored
loose in order to keep track of the individual object mtimes and avoid a situation where
all cruft objects are freshened at once.
This can lead to undesirable situations when a repository contains many unreachable
objects which have not yet left the grace period. Having large directories in the shards
of .git/objects can lead to decreased performance in the repository. But given enough
unreachable objects, this can lead to inode starvation and degrade the performance of the
whole system. Since we can never pack those objects, these repositories often take up a
large amount of disk space, since we can only zlib compress them, but not store them in
delta chains.
Cruft packs
A cruft pack eliminates the need for storing unreachable objects in a loose state by
including the per-object mtimes in a separate file alongside a single pack containing all
loose objects.
A cruft pack is written by git repack --cruft when generating a new pack. git-pack-
objects(1)'s --cruft option. Note that git repack --cruft is a classic all-into-one
repack, meaning that everything in the resulting pack is reachable, and everything else is
unreachable. Once written, the --cruft option instructs git repack to generate another
pack containing only objects not packed in the previous step (which equates to packing all
unreachable objects together). This progresses as follows:
1. Enumerate every object, marking any object which is (a) not contained in a kept-pack,
and (b) whose mtime is within the grace period as a traversal tip.
2. Perform a reachability traversal based on the tips gathered in the previous step,
adding every object along the way to the pack.
3. Write the pack out, along with a .mtimes file that records the per-object timestamps.
This mode is invoked internally by git-repack(1) when instructed to write a cruft pack.
Crucially, the set of in-core kept packs is exactly the set of packs which will not be
deleted by the repack; in other words, they contain all of the repository’s reachable
objects.
When a repository already has a cruft pack, git repack --cruft typically only adds objects
to it. An exception to this is when git repack is given the --cruft-expiration option,
which allows the generated cruft pack to omit expired objects instead of waiting for git-
gc(1) to expire those objects later on.
It is git-gc(1) that is typically responsible for removing expired unreachable objects.
Alternatives
Notable alternatives to this design include:
• The location of the per-object mtime data.
On the location of mtime data, a new auxiliary file tied to the pack was chosen to avoid
complicating the .idx format. If the .idx format were ever to gain support for optional
chunks of data, it may make sense to consolidate the .mtimes format into the .idx itself.
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite