pack-objects: use bitmaps when packing objects

In this patch, we use the bitmap API to perform the `Counting Objects`
phase in pack-objects, rather than a traditional walk through the object
graph. For a reasonably-packed large repo, the time to fetch and clone
is often dominated by the full-object revision walk during the Counting
Objects phase. Using bitmaps can reduce the CPU time required on the
server (and therefore start sending the actual pack data with less
delay).

For bitmaps to be used, the following must be true:

  1. We must be packing to stdout (as a normal `pack-objects` from
     `upload-pack` would do).

  2. There must be a .bitmap index containing at least one of the
     "have" objects that the client is asking for.

  3. Bitmaps must be enabled (they are enabled by default, but can be
     disabled by setting `pack.usebitmaps` to false, or by using
     `--no-use-bitmap-index` on the command-line).

If any of these is not true, we fall back to doing a normal walk of the
object graph.

Here are some sample timings from a full pack of `torvalds/linux` (i.e.
something very similar to what would be generated for a clone of the
repository) that show the speedup produced by various
methods:

    [existing graph traversal]
    $ time git pack-objects --all --stdout --no-use-bitmap-index \
			    </dev/null >/dev/null
    Counting objects: 3237103, done.
    Compressing objects: 100% (508752/508752), done.
    Total 3237103 (delta 2699584), reused 3237103 (delta 2699584)

    real    0m44.111s
    user    0m42.396s
    sys     0m3.544s

    [bitmaps only, without partial pack reuse; note that
     pack reuse is automatic, so timing this required a
     patch to disable it]
    $ time git pack-objects --all --stdout </dev/null >/dev/null
    Counting objects: 3237103, done.
    Compressing objects: 100% (508752/508752), done.
    Total 3237103 (delta 2699584), reused 3237103 (delta 2699584)

    real    0m5.413s
    user    0m5.604s
    sys     0m1.804s

    [bitmaps with pack reuse (what you get with this patch)]
    $ time git pack-objects --all --stdout </dev/null >/dev/null
    Reusing existing pack: 3237103, done.
    Total 3237103 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)

    real    0m1.636s
    user    0m1.460s
    sys     0m0.172s

Signed-off-by: Vicent Marti <tanoku@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 6 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index ab26963d6..a9813691b 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -1858,6 +1858,12 @@ pack.packSizeLimit::
 	Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are
 	supported.
 
+pack.useBitmaps::
+	When true, git will use pack bitmaps (if available) when packing
+	to stdout (e.g., during the server side of a fetch). Defaults to
+	true. You should not generally need to turn this off unless
+	you are debugging pack bitmaps.
+
 pager.<cmd>::
 	If the value is boolean, turns on or off pagination of the
 	output of a particular Git subcommand when writing to a tty.