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status support in gix (crate) #1049

Merged
merged 7 commits into from
Nov 11, 2023
Merged

status support in gix (crate) #1049

merged 7 commits into from
Nov 11, 2023

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Byron
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@Byron Byron commented Oct 5, 2023

Based on #1030

Improve gix status to the point where it's suitable for use in reset functinoality.
Leads to a proper worktree reset implementation, eventually leading to a high-level reset similar to how git supports it.

Architecture

The reason this PR deals quite a bit with gix status is that for a safe implementation of reset() we need to be sure that the files we would want to touch don't don't carry modifications or are untracked files. In order to know what would need to be done, we have to diff the current-index with target-index. The set of files to touch can then be used to lookup information provided by git-status, like worktree modifications, index modifications, and untracked files, to know if we can proceed or not. Here is also where the reset-modes would affect the outcome, i.e. what to change and how.

This is a very modular approach which facilitates testing and understanding of what otherwise would be a very complex algorithm. Having a set of changes as output also allows to one day parallelize applying these changes.

This leaves us in a situation where the current checkout() implementation wants to become a fastpath for situations where the reset involves an empty tree as source (i.e. create everything and overwrite local changes).

On the way to reset() it's a valid choice to warm up more with the matter by improving on the current gix status implementation and assure correctness of what's there, which currently doesn't seem to be the case in comparison. Further, implementing gix status similarly to git status should be made possible.

Tasks

  • finally sort of ctime issue.
  • port gix_status::fs to gix_index and assure this form of metadata-retrieval is used everywhere (e.g. checkout…).
    • Note that it can't go behind a feature toggle (or gix-fs behind feature toggle) due to the per-platform dependencies
  • generalize rename-tracking to assure we will be able to integrate proper rename tracking later
  • make sure diffed blobs go through filters
  • skip diffs on binary files, which should be figured out before we get the data.
  • keep track of or implement diff-only conversions, like textconv, and gitattributes integration
  • status in gix crate
  • fun: a way to apply filters in cat-file equivalent, and possibly textconv conversions just like in `git cat-file.
  • diff index with index to learn what we would want to do in the worktree, or alternatively, diff tree with index (with reverse-diff functionality to simulate diff of index with tree), for better performance as it would avoid having to allocate a whole index even though we are only interested in a diff.

Next PR

  • reset() that checks if it's allowed to perform a worktree modification is allowed, or if an entry should be skipped. That way we can postpone safety checks like --hard

Postponed

What follows is important for resets, but won't be needed for cargo worktree resets.

  • what about index/worktree rename tracking? git2 can do that. Needs generalization of what's available for tree/tree diffs, at least learn from it.
  • gix status with actual submodule support - needs status in gix (crate) effectively
  • gix status with actual conflict support
  • a way to obtain untracked files to learn if changes can be made. What about the untracked files extension?

Limitations

  • It seems that when CTime is newer then MTime, that the Rust std implementation sets Ctime to mtime which then causes us to do extra-work and 'fight' git as we will write an index with the normalized Ctime, but git will rewrite that next time it runs. This can be fixed with core.trustCTime=false

Research

  • Ignored files are considered expandable and can be overwritten on reset
  • How to integrate submodules - probably easy to answer once gix status can deal a little better with submodules. Even though in this case a lot of submodule-related information is needed for a complete reset, probably only doable by a higher-level caller which orchestrates it.
  • How to deal with various modes like merge and keep? How to control refresh? Maybe partial (only the files we touch), and full, to also update the files we don't touch as part of status? Maybe it's part of status if that is run before.
  • Worthwhile to make explicit the difference between git reset and git checkout in terms of HEAD modifications. With the former changing HEADs referent, and the latter changing HEAD itself.
  • figure out how this relates to the current checkout() method as technically that's a reset --hard with optional overwrite check. Could it be rolled into one, with pathspec support added?
    • just keep them separate until it's clear that reset() performs just as well, which is unlikely as there is more overhead. But maybe it's not worth to maintain two versions over it. But if so, one should probably rename it.
  • for git status: what about rename tracking? It's available for tree-diffs and quite complex on its own. Probably only needs HEAD-vs-index rename tracking. No, also can have worktree rename tracking, even though it's hard to imagine how this can be fast unless it's tightly integrated with untracked-files handling. This screams for a generalization of the tracking code though as the testing and implementation is complex, but should be generalisable.

As opposed to the Rust standard library, this one will get the
ctime from the file itself, instead of from the inode.

That way, the index file written by `gix` will not continuously
be expensively rewritten by `git`, and vice versa.
They generalize reneame tracking to the point where it can work for different
kinds of changes.

There is still some way to go until it is truly correct though, as it still
lacks worktree conversions and diff filters.
Previously the rename tracking engine was integrated with tree-diffs,
but already operates in a stand-alone fashion.
Now it's officially generalized which allows it to be tested separately
and used when tracking renames for diffs between index and tree, index
and index, and index and worktree.
@Byron Byron merged commit c87f2cc into main Nov 11, 2023
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@Byron Byron mentioned this pull request Nov 11, 2023
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