Add path walk API and its use in 'git pack-objects' (#5171)

This is a follow up to #5157 as well as motivated by the RFC in
gitgitgadget#1786.

We have ways of walking all objects, but it is focused on visiting a
single commit and then expanding the new trees and blobs reachable from
that commit that have not been visited yet. This means that objects
arrive without any locality based on their path.

Add a new "path walk API" that focuses on walking objects in batches
according to their type and path. This will walk all annotated tags, all
commits, all root trees, and then start a depth-first search among all
paths in the repo to collect trees and blobs in batches.

The most important application for this is being fast-tracked to Git for
Windows: `git pack-objects --path-walk`. This application of the path
walk API discovers the objects to pack via this batched walk, and
automatically groups objects that appear at a common path so they can be
checked for delta comparisons.

This use completely avoids any name-hash collisions (even the collisions
that sometimes occur with the new `--full-name-hash` option) and can be
much faster to compute since the first pass of delta calculations does
not waste time on objects that are unlikely to be diffable.

Some statistics are available in the commit messages.

Author: derrickstolee

Documentation/config/feature.txt

@@ -20,6 +20,10 @@ walking fewer objects.
 +
 * `pack.allowPackReuse=multi` may improve the time it takes to create a pack by
 reusing objects from multiple packs instead of just one.
++
+* `pack.usePathWalk` may speed up packfile creation and make the packfiles be
+significantly smaller in the presence of certain filename collisions with Git's
+default name-hash.
 
 feature.manyFiles::
 	Enable config options that optimize for repos with many files in the

Documentation/config/pack.txt

@@ -155,6 +155,14 @@ pack.useSparse::
 	commits contain certain types of direct renames. Default is
 	`true`.
 
+pack.usePathWalk::
+	When true, git will default to using the '--path-walk' option in
+	'git pack-objects' when the '--revs' option is present. This
+	algorithm groups objects by path to maximize the ability to
+	compute delta chains across historical versions of the same
+	object. This may disable other options, such as using bitmaps to
+	enumerate objects.
+
 pack.preferBitmapTips::
 	When selecting which commits will receive bitmaps, prefer a
 	commit at the tip of any reference that is a suffix of any value

Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 	[--cruft] [--cruft-expiration=<time>]
 	[--stdout [--filter=<filter-spec>] | <base-name>]
 	[--shallow] [--keep-true-parents] [--[no-]sparse]
-	[--full-name-hash] < <object-list>
+	[--full-name-hash] [--path-walk] < <object-list>
 
 
 DESCRIPTION
@@ -346,6 +346,16 @@ raise an error.
 	Restrict delta matches based on "islands". See DELTA ISLANDS
 	below.
 
+--path-walk::
+	By default, `git pack-objects` walks objects in an order that
+	presents trees and blobs in an order unrelated to the path they
+	appear relative to a commit's root tree. The `--path-walk` option
+	enables a different walking algorithm that organizes trees and
+	blobs by path. This has the potential to improve delta compression
+	especially in the presence of filenames that cause collisions in
+	Git's default name-hash algorithm. Due to changing how the objects
+	are walked, this option is not compatible with `--delta-islands`,
+	`--shallow`, or `--filter`.
 
 DELTA ISLANDS
 -------------

Documentation/git-repack.txt

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 [verse]
 'git repack' [-a] [-A] [-d] [-f] [-F] [-l] [-n] [-q] [-b] [-m]
 	[--window=<n>] [--depth=<n>] [--threads=<n>] [--keep-pack=<pack-name>]
-	[--write-midx] [--full-name-hash]
+	[--write-midx] [--full-name-hash] [--path-walk]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
@@ -251,6 +251,19 @@ linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1]).
 	Write a multi-pack index (see linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1])
 	containing the non-redundant packs.
 
+--path-walk::
+	This option passes the `--path-walk` option to the underlying
+	`git pack-options` process (see linkgit:git-pack-objects[1]).
+	By default, `git pack-objects` walks objects in an order that
+	presents trees and blobs in an order unrelated to the path they
+	appear relative to a commit's root tree. The `--path-walk` option
+	enables a different walking algorithm that organizes trees and
+	blobs by path. This has the potential to improve delta compression
+	especially in the presence of filenames that cause collisions in
+	Git's default name-hash algorithm. Due to changing how the objects
+	are walked, this option is not compatible with `--delta-islands`
+	or `--filter`.
+
 CONFIGURATION
 -------------
 

Documentation/technical/api-path-walk.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+Path-Walk API
+=============
+
+The path-walk API is used to walk reachable objects, but to visit objects
+in batches based on a common path they appear in, or by type.
+
+For example, all reachable commits are visited in a group. All tags are
+visited in a group. Then, all root trees are visited. At some point, all
+blobs reachable via a path `my/dir/to/A` are visited. When there are
+multiple paths possible to reach the same object, then only one of those
+paths is used to visit the object.
+
+When walking a range of commits with some `UNINTERESTING` objects, the
+objects with the `UNINTERESTING` flag are included in these batches. In
+order to walk `UNINTERESTING` objects, the `--boundary` option must be
+used in the commit walk in order to visit `UNINTERESTING` commits.
+
+Basics
+------
+
+To use the path-walk API, include `path-walk.h` and call
+`walk_objects_by_path()` with a customized `path_walk_info` struct. The
+struct is used to set all of the options for how the walk should proceed.
+Let's dig into the different options and their use.
+
+`path_fn` and `path_fn_data`::
+	The most important option is the `path_fn` option, which is a
+	function pointer to the callback that can execute logic on the
+	object IDs for objects grouped by type and path. This function
+	also receives a `data` value that corresponds to the
+	`path_fn_data` member, for providing custom data structures to
+	this callback function.
+
+`revs`::
+	To configure the exact details of the reachable set of objects,
+	use the `revs` member and initialize it using the revision
+	machinery in `revision.h`. Initialize `revs` using calls such as
+	`setup_revisions()` or `parse_revision_opt()`. Do not call
+	`prepare_revision_walk()`, as that will be called within
+	`walk_objects_by_path()`.
++
+It is also important that you do not specify the `--objects` flag for the
+`revs` struct. The revision walk should only be used to walk commits, and
+the objects will be walked in a separate way based on those starting
+commits.
++
+If you want the path-walk API to emit `UNINTERESTING` objects based on the
+commit walk's boundary, be sure to set `revs.boundary` so the boundary
+commits are emitted.
+
+`commits`, `blobs`, `trees`, `tags`::
+	By default, these members are enabled and signal that the path-walk
+	API should call the `path_fn` on objects of these types. Specialized
+	applications could disable some options to make it simpler to walk
+	the objects or to have fewer calls to `path_fn`.
++
+While it is possible to walk only commits in this way, consumers would be
+better off using the revision walk API instead.
+
+`prune_all_uninteresting`::
+	By default, all reachable paths are emitted by the path-walk API.
+	This option allows consumers to declare that they are not
+	interested in paths where all included objects are marked with the
+	`UNINTERESTING` flag. This requires using the `boundary` option in
+	the revision walk so that the walk emits commits marked with the
+	`UNINTERESTING` flag.
+
+Examples
+--------
+
+See example usages in:
+	`t/helper/test-path-walk.c`,
+	`builtin/pack-objects.c`

Makefile

@@ -831,6 +831,7 @@ TEST_BUILTINS_OBJS += test-parse-options.o
 TEST_BUILTINS_OBJS += test-parse-pathspec-file.o
 TEST_BUILTINS_OBJS += test-partial-clone.o
 TEST_BUILTINS_OBJS += test-path-utils.o
+TEST_BUILTINS_OBJS += test-path-walk.o
 TEST_BUILTINS_OBJS += test-pcre2-config.o
 TEST_BUILTINS_OBJS += test-pkt-line.o
 TEST_BUILTINS_OBJS += test-proc-receive.o
@@ -1107,6 +1108,7 @@ LIB_OBJS += parse-options.o
 LIB_OBJS += patch-delta.o
 LIB_OBJS += patch-ids.o
 LIB_OBJS += path.o
+LIB_OBJS += path-walk.o
 LIB_OBJS += pathspec.o
 LIB_OBJS += pkt-line.o
 LIB_OBJS += preload-index.o