Hi John, On Wed, 9 Feb 2022 at 02:41, John Cai via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > This patch series makes partial clone more useful by making it possible to > run repack to remove objects from a repository (replacing it with promisor > objects). This is useful when we want to offload large blobs from a git > server onto another git server, or even use an http server through a remote > helper. > > In [A], a --refilter option on fetch and fetch-pack is being discussed where > either a less restrictive or more restrictive filter can be used. In the > more restrictive case, the objects that already exist will not be deleted. > But, one can imagine that users might want the ability to delete objects > when they apply a more restrictive filter in order to save space, and this > patch series would also allow that. This all makes sense to me, and the implementation is remarkably short - gluing together capabilities that are already there, and writing tests. *But*, running `repack --filter` drops objects from the object db. That seems like a capability Git shouldn't idly expose without people understanding the consequences - mostly that they really have another copy elsewhere or they will lose data, and it won't necessarily be obvious for a long time. Otherwise it is a footgun. I don't know whether that is just around naming (--delete-filter / --drop-filter / --expire-filter ?), and/or making the documentation very explicit that this isn't so much "omitting certain objects from a packfile" as irretrievably deleting objects. Rob :)
