config: set pack.useSparse=true by default

The pack.useSparse config option was introduced by 3d036eb
(pack-objects: create pack.useSparse setting, 2019-01-19) and was
first available in v2.21.0. When enabled, the pack-objects process
during 'git push' will use a sparse tree walk when deciding which
trees and blobs to send to the remote. The algorithm was introduced
by d5d2e93 (revision: implement sparse algorithm, 2019-01-16) and
has been in production use by VFS for Git since around that time.
The features.experimental config option also enabled pack.useSparse,
so hopefully that has also increased exposure.

It is worth noting that pack.useSparse has a possibility of
sending more objects across a push, but requires a special
arrangement of exact _copies_ across directories. There is a test
in t5322-pack-objects-sparse.sh that demonstrates this possibility.
This test uses the --sparse option to "git pack-objects" but we
can make it implied by the config value to demonstrate that the
default value has changed.

While updating that test, I noticed that the documentation did not
include an option for --no-sparse, which is now more important than
it was before.

Since the downside is unlikely but the upside is significant, set
the default value of pack.useSparse to true. Remove it from the
set of options implied by features.experimental.

Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <[email protected]>

Author: derrickstolee

Documentation/config/feature.txt

@@ -12,9 +12,6 @@ feature.experimental::
 	setting if you are interested in providing feedback on experimental
 	features. The new default values are:
 +
-* `pack.useSparse=true` uses a new algorithm when constructing a pack-file
-which can improve `git push` performance in repos with many files.
-+
 * `fetch.negotiationAlgorithm=skipping` may improve fetch negotiation times by
 skipping more commits at a time, reducing the number of round trips.
 +

Documentation/config/pack.txt

@@ -119,8 +119,8 @@ pack.useSparse::
 	objects. This can have significant performance benefits when
 	computing a pack to send a small change. However, it is possible
 	that extra objects are added to the pack-file if the included
-	commits contain certain types of direct renames. Default is `false`
-	unless `feature.experimental` is enabled.
+	commits contain certain types of direct renames. Default is
+	`true`.
 
 pack.writeBitmaps (deprecated)::
 	This is a deprecated synonym for `repack.writeBitmaps`.

Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ SYNOPSIS
 	[--local] [--incremental] [--window=<n>] [--depth=<n>]
 	[--revs [--unpacked | --all]] [--keep-pack=<pack-name>]
 	[--stdout [--filter=<filter-spec>] | base-name]
-	[--shallow] [--keep-true-parents] [--sparse] < object-list
+	[--shallow] [--keep-true-parents] [--[no-]sparse] < object-list
 
 
 DESCRIPTION
@@ -196,14 +196,16 @@ depth is 4095.
 	Add --no-reuse-object if you want to force a uniform compression
 	level on all data no matter the source.
 
---sparse::
-	Use the "sparse" algorithm to determine which objects to include in
+--[no-]sparse::
+	Toggle the "sparse" algorithm to determine which objects to include in
 	the pack, when combined with the "--revs" option. This algorithm
 	only walks trees that appear in paths that introduce new objects.
 	This can have significant performance benefits when computing
 	a pack to send a small change. However, it is possible that extra
 	objects are added to the pack-file if the included commits contain
-	certain types of direct renames.
+	certain types of direct renames. If this option is not included,
+	it defaults to the value of `pack.useSparse`, which is true unless
+	otherwise specified.
 
 --thin::
 	Create a "thin" pack by omitting the common objects between a

repo-settings.c

@@ -45,14 +45,15 @@ void prepare_repo_settings(struct repository *r)
 
 	if (!repo_config_get_bool(r, "pack.usesparse", &value))
 		r->settings.pack_use_sparse = value;
+	UPDATE_DEFAULT_BOOL(r->settings.pack_use_sparse, 1);
+
 	if (!repo_config_get_bool(r, "feature.manyfiles", &value) && value) {
 		UPDATE_DEFAULT_BOOL(r->settings.index_version, 4);
 		UPDATE_DEFAULT_BOOL(r->settings.core_untracked_cache, UNTRACKED_CACHE_WRITE);
 	}
 	if (!repo_config_get_bool(r, "fetch.writecommitgraph", &value))
 		r->settings.fetch_write_commit_graph = value;
 	if (!repo_config_get_bool(r, "feature.experimental", &value) && value) {
-		UPDATE_DEFAULT_BOOL(r->settings.pack_use_sparse, 1);
 		UPDATE_DEFAULT_BOOL(r->settings.fetch_negotiation_algorithm, FETCH_NEGOTIATION_SKIPPING);
 		UPDATE_DEFAULT_BOOL(r->settings.fetch_write_commit_graph, 1);
 	}

t/t5322-pack-objects-sparse.sh

@@ -105,14 +105,15 @@ test_expect_success 'non-sparse pack-objects' '
 	test_cmp required_objects.txt nonsparse_required_objects.txt
 '
 
+# --sparse is enabled by default by pack.useSparse
 test_expect_success 'sparse pack-objects' '
 	git rev-parse			\
 		topic1			\
 		topic1^{tree}		\
 		topic1:f3		\
 		topic1:f3/f4		\
 		topic1:f3/f4/data.txt | sort >expect_sparse_objects.txt &&
-	git pack-objects --stdout --revs --sparse <packinput.txt >sparse.pack &&
+	git pack-objects --stdout --revs <packinput.txt >sparse.pack &&
 	git index-pack -o sparse.idx sparse.pack &&
 	git show-index <sparse.idx | awk "{print \$2}" >sparse_objects.txt &&
 	test_cmp expect_sparse_objects.txt sparse_objects.txt