Subject: Re: [PATCH] sparse-checkout.txt: new document with sparse-checkout directions

From: Victoria Dye <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2022 13:08:59 -0700

Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget wrote:
> From: Elijah Newren <[email-masked]>
> 
> Once upon a time, Matheus wrote some patches to make
>    git grep [--cached | <REVISION>] ...
> restrict its output to the sparsity specification when working in a
> sparse checkout[1].  That effort got derailed by two things:
> 
>   (1) The --sparse-index work just beginning which we wanted to avoid
>       creating conflicts for
>   (2) Never deciding on flag and config names and planned high level
>       behavior for all commands.
> 
> More recently, Shaoxuan implemented a more limited form of Matheus'
> patches that only affected --cached, using a different flag name,
> but also changing the default behavior in line with what Matheus did.
> This again highlighted the fact that we never decided on command line
> flag names, config option names, and the big picture path forward.
> 
> The --sparse-index work has been mostly complete (or at least released
> into production even if some small edges remain) for quite some time
> now.  We have also had several discussions on flag and config names,
> though we never came to solid conclusions.  Stolee once upon a time
> suggested putting all these into some document in
> Documentation/technical[3], which Victoria recently also requested[4].
> I'm behind the times, but here's a patch attempting to finally do that.

Thank you so much for writing this!

> diff --git a/Documentation/technical/sparse-checkout.txt b/Documentation/technical/sparse-checkout.txt
> new file mode 100644
> index 00000000000..b213b2b3f35
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/Documentation/technical/sparse-checkout.txt
> @@ -0,0 +1,670 @@
> +Table of contents:
> +
> +  * Purpose of sparse-checkouts
> +  * Desired behavior
> +  * Subcommand-dependent defaults
> +  * Implementation Questions
> +  * Implementation Goals/Plans
> +  * Known bugs
> +  * Reference Emails
> +
> +
> +=== Purpose of sparse-checkouts ===
> +
> +sparse-checkouts exist to allow users to work with a subset of their
> +files.
> +
> +The idea is simple enough, but there are two different high-level
> +usecases which affect how some Git subcommands should behave.  Further,
> +even if we only considered one of those usecases, sparse-checkouts
> +modify different subcommands in over a half dozen different ways.  Let's
> +start by considering the high level usecases in this section:
> +
> +  A) Users are _only_ interested in the sparse portion of the repo
> +
> +  B) Users want a sparse working tree, but are working in a larger whole

Both of these use cases make sense to me! Two thoughts/comments:

1. This could be a "me" problem, but I regularly struggle with "sparse"
   having different meanings in similar contexts. For example, a "sparse
   directory" is one *with* 'SKIP_WORKTREE' applied vs. "the sparse portion
   of the repo"  here refers to the files *without* 'SKIP_WORKTREE' applied.
   A quick note/section outlining some standard terminology would be
   immensely helpful.
2. One detail I'd like this document to clarify is the similarity/difference
   between "in the sparse portion of the repo" and "does not have
   'SKIP_WORKTREE' applied." In a well-behaved sparse-checkout, these are
   one in the same. However, if a user removes 'SKIP_WORKTREE' from a file
   (either with 'update-index' or by checking it out on disk), commands
   *sometimes* treat it as inside the sparse checkout (e.g., 'git status'),
   and some treat it as outside (e.g., 'git add'). Technically, I think it
   comes down to whether a command uses sparse patterns + 'SKIP_WORKTREE' to
   determine sparsity vs. just 'SKIP_WORKTREE', but the varying behavior
   feels inconsistent as an end user. 

> +
> +=== Desired behavior ===
> +
> +As noted in the previous section, despite the simple idea of just
> +working with a subset of files, there are a range of different
> +behavioral changes that need to be made to different subcommands to work
> +well with such a feature.  See [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] for various
> +examples.  In particular, at [2], we saw that mere composition of other
> +commands that individually worked correctly in a sparse-checkout context
> +did not imply that the higher level command would work correctly; it
> +sometimes requires further tweaks.  So, understanding these differences
> +can be beneficial.
> +
> +* Commands behaving the same regardless of high-level use-case
> +
> +  * commands that only look at files within the sparsity specification
> +
> +      * status
> +      * diff (without --cached or REVISION arguments)
> +      * grep (without --cached or REVISION arguments)

'status' and 'diff' currently show information about untracked files outside
the working tree (since, not being in the index, they don't have a
'SKIP_WORKTREE' to use). Should that change with the proposed '--restrict'
option?

> +
> +  * commands that restore files to the working tree that match sparsity patterns, and
> +    remove unmodified files that don't match those patterns:
> +
> +      * switch
> +      * checkout (the switch-like half)
> +      * read-tree
> +      * reset --hard
> +
> +      * `restore` & the restore-like half of `checkout` SHOULD be in this above
> +	category, but are buggy (see the "Known bugs" section below)

These commands do behave differently if there are *modified* files outside
the sparsity patterns:

- 'switch', 'checkout' (switch-like), and 'read-tree -m' block the operation
  & advise on how to clean up the modified files to re-align with the
  sparsity patterns.
- 'reset --hard' silently drops the modified file and resets the
  'SKIP_WORKTREE' bit on the corresponding index entry.

With the exception of 'reset --hard' (aggressively and unconditionally
cleaning the worktree & index is an important aspect of the command, IMO),
I'd personally like to see commands in this category align with the behavior
of 'switch' where they don't already. Regardless of what we decide, though,
I think it's probably worth documenting the "modified outside of sparsity
patterns" case.

Also, 'read-tree' (no args) doesn't apply the 'SKIP_WORKTREE' bit to *any*
of the entries it reads into the index. Having all of your files suddenly
appear "deleted" probably isn't desired behavior, so it might be a good
candidate for the "Known bugs" section. 

> +
> +  * commands that write conflicted files to the working tree, but otherwise will
> +    omit writing files that do not match the sparsity patterns:
> +
> +      * merge
> +      * rebase
> +      * cherry-pick
> +      * revert
> +
> +    Note that this somewhat depends upon the merge strategy being used:
> +      * `ort` behaves as described above
> +      * `recursive` tries to not vivify files unnecessarily, but does sometimes
> +	vivify files without conflicts.
> +      * `octopus` and `resolve` will always vivify any file changed in the merge
> +	relative to the first parent, which is rather suboptimal.
> +
> +  * commands that always ignore sparsity since commits must be full-tree
> +
> +      * archive
> +      * bundle
> +      * commit
> +      * format-patch
> +      * fast-export
> +      * fast-import
> +      * commit-tree
> +
> +  * commands that write any modified file to the working tree (conflicted or not,
> +    and whether those paths match sparsity patterns or not):
> +
> +      * stash
> +
> +      * am/apply probably should be in the above category, but need to be fixed to
> +	auto-vivify instead of failing
> +
> +* Commands that differ for behavior A vs. behavior B:
> +
> +  * commands that make modifications:

nit: "make modifications" -> "make modifications to the index"? 

> +      * add
> +      * rm
> +      * mv
> +
> +  * commands that query history
> +      * diff (with --cached or REVISION arguments)
> +      * grep (with --cached or REVISION arguments)
> +      * show (when given commit arguments)
> +      * bisect
> +      * blame
> +	* and annotate
> +      * log
> +	* and variants: shortlog, gitk, show-branch, whatchanged
> +
> +* Comands I don't know how to classify
> +
> +  * ls-files
> +
> +    Shows all tracked files by default, and with an option can show
> +    sparse directory entries instead of expanding them.  Should there be
> +    a way to restrict to just the non SKIP_WORKTREE files?

Yes, I think "restricting to just non SKIP_WORKTREE files" would be what a
'--restrict' option would do. The existing '--sparse' flag really is
independent of the sparse patterns altogether - it just toggles whether
sparse directories are shown as-is or expanded. Given your analysis so far,
'--sparse' should probably be renamed to something that reflects its unique
behavior ('--no-expand-sparse-directories'? I'm sure someone more creative
than me could come up with a better name ;) ).

So, disregarding the special sparse index behavior, I think 'ls-files' fits
neatly in the "commands that query history" section.

> +
> +    Note that `git ls-files -t` is often used to see what is sparse and
> +    what is not, which only works with a non-restricted assumption.
> +
> +  * checkout-index
> +
> +    should it be like `checkout` and pay attention to sparsity paths, or
> +    be considered special and write to working tree anyway?  The
> +    interaction with --prefix, and the use of specifically named files
> +    (rather than globs) makes me wonder.

IMO, it should still pay attention to sparsity paths, even with '--prefix'.
My interpretation would be that '--restrict' tells it how to *read* the
index when determining what to write to disk - even with '--prefix', then,
it'd only write files matching the sparsity patterns. In that case, it seems
to fit alongside 'switch', 'restore', etc. in "commands that restore files
to the working tree that match sparsity patterns." 

> +
> +  * update-index
> +
> +    The --[no-]ignore-skip-worktree-entries default is totally bogus,
> +    but otherwise this command seems okay?  Not sure what category it
> +    would go under, though.

I'd probably call this a "makes modifications" command (like 'git add', 'git
rm', etc.), since it adds/removes/modifies items in the index (either their
content or their flags).

> +
> +  * range-diff
> +
> +    Is this like `log` or `format-patch`?
> +
> +  * cherry
> +
> +    See range-diff
> +
> +  * plumbing -- diff-files, diff-index, diff-tree, ls-tree, rev-list
> +
> +    should these be tweaked or always operate full-tree?

For these (and the other plumbing/plumbing-ish commands you have listed:
'checkout-index', 'update-index', 'read-tree'), I'd lean towards making them
respect the sparsity patterns consistently with the porcelain layer. Part of
that is because the line between "plumbing" and "porcelain" is sometimes
fuzzy (like with 'read-tree'?), so having _very_ different behavior around
that boundary would probably be confusing. The other part is that I think
plumbing-based scripts would still fit one of your "A" or "B" user
archetypes, so full-tree behavior might not be desired anyway.

> +=== Subcommand-dependent defaults ===
> +
> +Note that we have different defaults (for the desired behavior, not just
> +the current implementation) depending on the command:
> +
> +  * Commands defaulting to --restrict:
> +    * status
> +    * diff (without --cached or REVISION arguments)
> +    * grep (without --cached or REVISION arguments)
> +    * switch
> +    * checkout (the switch-like half)
> +    * read-tree
> +    * reset (--hard)
> +    * restore/checkout
> +    * checkout-index
> +
> +    This behavior makes sense; these interact with the working tree.
> +
> +  * Commands defaulting to --restrict-unless-conflicts
> +    * merge
> +    * rebase
> +    * cherry-pick
> +    * revert
> +
> +    These also interact with the working tree, but require slightly different
> +    behavior so that conflicts can be resolved.
> +
> +  * Commands defaulting to --no-restrict
> +    * archive
> +    * bundle
> +    * commit
> +    * format-patch
> +    * fast-export
> +    * fast-import
> +    * commit-tree
> +
> +    * ls-files

In line with what I wrote earlier, I think 'ls-files' would belong wherever
other "commands that query history" go (looks like "Commands whose default
for --restrict vs. --no-restrict should vary").

> +    * stash
> +    * am
> +    * apply
> +
> +    These have completely different defaults and perhaps deserve the most detailed
> +    explanation:
> +
> +    In the case of commands in the first group (format-patch,
> +    fast-export, bundle, archive, etc.), these are commands for
> +    communicating history, which will be broken if they restrict to a
> +    subset of the repository.  As such, they operate on full paths and
> +    have no `--restrict` option for overriding.  Some of these commands may
> +    take paths for manually restricting what is exported, but it needs to
> +    be very explicit.
> +
> +    In the case of stash, it needs to vivify files to avoid losing the
> +    user's changes.
> +
> +    In the case of am and apply, those commands only operate on the
> +    working tree, so they are kind of in the same boat as stash.
> +    Perhaps `git am` could run `git sparse-checkout reapply`
> +    automatically afterward and move into a category more similar to
> +    merge/rebase/cherry-pick, but it'd still be weird because it'd
> +    vivify files besides just conflicted ones when there are conflicts.
> +
> +    In the case of ls-files, `git ls-files -t` is often used to see what
> +    is sparse and not, in which case restricting would not make sense.
> +    Also, ls-files has traditionally been used to get a list of "all
> +    tracked files", which would suggest not restricting.  But it's
> +    slightly funny, because sparse-checkouts essentially split tracked
> +    files into two categories -- those in the sparse specification and
> +    those outside -- and how does the user specify which of those two
> +    types of tracked files they want?
> +
> +  * Commands defaulting to --restrict-but-warn (although Behavior A vs. Behavior B
> +    may affect how verbose the warnings are):
> +    * add
> +    * rm
> +    * mv

I was going to say that, if you consider 'update-index' part of the same
category as 'git add', it would belong here. However, the "but warn" part
seems a little weird with a mostly-plumbing command like 'update-index'. 

> +
> +    The defaults here perhaps make sense since they are nearly --restrict, but
> +    actually using --restrict could cause user confusion if users specify a
> +    specific filename, so they warn by default.  That logic may sound like
> +    --no-restrict should be the default, but that's prone to even bigger confusion:
> +      * `git add <somefile>` if honored and outside the sparse cone, can result in
> +	the file randomly disappearing later when some subsequent command is run
> +	(since various commands automatically clean up unmodified files outside
> +	the sparsity specification).
> +      * `git rm '*.jpg'` could very negatively surprise users if it deletes files
> +	outside the range of the user's interest.  Much better to operate on the
> +	sparsity specification and give the user warnings if other files could have
> +	matched.
> +      * `git mv` has similar surprises when moving into or out of the cone, so
> +	best to restrict and throw warnings if restriction might affect the result.
> +
> +    There may be a difference in here between behavior A and behavior B.
> +    For behavior A, we probably only want to warn if there were no
> +    suitable matches for files in the sparsity specification, whereas
> +    for behavior B, we may want to warn even if there are valid files to
> +    operate on if the result would have been different under
> +    `--no-restrict`.

I'm a bit confused why '--restrict-but-warn' needs to be separate from
'--restrict'. Couldn't the '--restrict' behavior for 'add'/'rm'/'mv' just be
what you described above, since behavior is set on a per-command (or
per-category) basis?

Also, I might be mistaken, but isn't the current behavior more like
'--restrict', in that it returns an error code & advisory message if it
tries to add files outside the sparse patterns? If this is already okay to
users, what's the benefit of relaxing the error to a warning?

Otherwise, I'm on board with the difference between behaviors A & B (i.e.,
"some files must be in the sparse-checkout to avoid a warning/error" vs.
"all files must be in the sparse-checkout to avoid a warning/error").

> +
> +  * Commands whose default for --restrict vs. --no-restrict should vary depending
> +    on Behavior A or Behavior B
> +    * diff (with --cached or REVISION arguments)
> +    * grep (with --cached or REVISION arguments)
> +    * show (when given commit arguments)
> +    * bisect
> +    * blame
> +      * and annotate
> +    * log
> +      * and variants: shortlog, gitk, show-branch, whatchanged
> +
> +    For now, we default to behavior B for these, which want a default of
> +    --no-restrict.
> +
> +    Note that two of these commands -- diff and grep -- also appeared in
> +    a different list with a default of --restrict, but only when limited
> +    to searching the working tree.  The working tree vs. history
> +    distinction is fundamental in how behavior B operates, so this is
> +    expected.
> +
> +    --restrict may make more sense as the long term default for
> +    these[12], but that's a fair amount of work to implement, and it'd
> +    be very problematic for behavior B users.  Making it the default
> +    now, and then slowly implementing that default in various
> +    subcommands over multiple releases would mean that behavior B users
> +    would need to learn to slowly add additional flags to their
> +    commands, depending on git version, to get the behavior they want.
> +    That gradual switchover would be painful, so we should avoid it at
> +    least until it's fully implemented.

I think transitioning to '--restrict' by default is a good plan - as far as
I can tell, user A types seem more common than user B types, and
'--restrict' creates a more consistent experience. 

Maybe '--restrict' could be made the default earlier in 'scalar' (which
already sets up a cone-mode sparse-checkout by default)? We'd still
gradually move towards making the option a global default, but 'scalar'
might get it some early exposure with users that'd benefit the most from it.

> +
> +
> +=== Implementation Questions ===
> +
> +  * Does the name --[no-]restrict sound good to others?  Are there better options?
> +    * Names in use, or appearing in patches, or previously suggested:
> +      * --sparse/--dense
> +      * --ignore-skip-worktree-bits
> +      * --ignore-skip-worktree-entries
> +      * --ignore-sparsity
> +      * --[no-]restrict-to-sparse-paths
> +      * --full-tree/--sparse-tree
> +      * --[no-]restrict
> +    * Rationale making me lean slightly towards --[no-]restrict:
> +      * We want a name that works for many commands, so we need a name that
> +	does not conflict
> +      * --[no-]restrict isn't overly long and seems relatively explanatory
> +      * `--sparse`, as used in add/rm/mv, is totally backwards for
> +	grep/log/etc.  Changing the meaning of `--sparse` for these
> +	commands would fix the backwardness, but possibly break existing
> +	scripts.  Using a new name pairing would allow us to treat
> +	`--sparse` in these commands as a deprecated alias.
> +      * There is a different `--sparse`/`--dense` pair for commands using
> +	revision machinery, so using that naming might cause confusion
> +      * There is also a `--sparse` in both pack-objects and show-branch, which
> +	don't conflict but do suggest that `--sparse` is overloaded
> +      * The name --ignore-skip-worktree-bits is a double negative, is
> +	quite a mouthful, refers to an implementation detail that many
> +	users may not be familiar with, and we'd need a negation for it
> +	which would probably be even more ridiculously long.  (But we
> +	can make --ignore-skip-worktree-bits a deprecated alias for
> +	--no-restrict.)

I think '--[no-]restrict' is a good choice - it doesn't have the ambiguity
of '--sparse' or the so-verbose-it's-confusing nature of
'--ignore-skip-worktree-(bits|entries)'. My only concern would be with the
fact that '--[no-]restrict' doesn't clearly indicate its relationship to
sparse-checkout, but a longer name (like
'--[no-]restrict-to-sparse-checkout') would be cumbersome, not worth it for
the little bit of extra info a user would get.

> +
> +  * Should --[no-]restrict be a git global option, or added as options to each
> +    relevant command?  (Does that make sense given the multitude of different
> +    default behaviors we have for different options?)

That's an interesting idea! I'd be fine either way, there are pros and cons
to each. E.g., it feels a little weird putting the option before the command
('git --no-restrict add' vs. 'git add --no-restrict'), but the option does
apply to nearly every command (and it's easier to describe/document from a
Git-wide perspective than a per-command perspective).

> +
> +  * If a config option is added (core.restrictToSparsity?) what should
> +    the values and description be?  There's a risk of confusion, because
> +    we only want this config option to affect the history-querying
> +    commands (log/diff/grep) and maybe the path-modifying worktree
> +    commands (add/rm/mv), but certainly not most the others.  Previous config
> +    suggestion here: [13]

For values, maybe 'strict' (for behavior A/'--restrict' across the board),
'loose' (for behavior B), 'off'/'none' (for '--no-restrict' across the
board)? For the description, it could outline each of the use cases and
highlight notable command behavior differences? Kind of like what you
already have in [13].

> +
> +  * Should --sparse in ls-files be made an alias for --restrict?
> +    `--restrict` is certainly a near synonym in cone-mode, but even then
> +    it's not quite the same.  In non-cone mode, ls-files' `--sparse`
> +    option has no effect, and in cone-mode it still shows the sparse
> +    directory entries which are technically outside the sparsity
> +    specification.

I don't think so (for the reasons I mentioned earlier - tl;dr --sparse and
--restrict are conceptually quite different, and functionally independent).
I do think '--sparse' should be renamed as part of the "Implementation
Goals/Plans", though.

> +
> +  * Should --ignore-skip-worktree-bits in checkout-index, checkout, and
> +    restore be made deprecated aliases for --no-restrict?  (They have the
> +    same meaning.)
> +
> +  * Should --ignore-skip-worktree-entries in update-index be made a
> +    deprecated alias for --no-restrict?  (Or, better yet, should the
> +    option just be nuked from orbit after flipping the default, since
> +    the reverse option is never wanted and the sole purpose of this
> +    option was to turn off a bug?)

That's an interesting bit of history! I tend to think of 'update-index' as
"plumbing add/rm", so I think there's still a benefit to having a
'--restrict' mode.

In any case, if I'm reading this correctly, these two options are subtly
different than what's proposed for '--restrict', since IIRC they don't take
into account the sparse patterns at all (only operating based on
'SKIP_WORKTREE'). If '--restrict' will involve also using the sparse
patterns, the behavior would change. I'm happy with doing that (I think the
change would be beneficial), but it should probably be explicitly noted
either here or whenever those commands are updated.

> +
> +  * sparse-checkout: once behavior A is fully implemented, should we
> +    take an interim measure to easy people into switching the default?

nit: s/easy/ease/

> +    Namely, if folks are not already in a sparse checkout, then require
> +    `sparse-checkout init/set` to take a `--[no-]restrict` flag (which
> +    would set core.restrictToSparse according to the setting given), and
> +    throw an error if the flag is not provided?  That error would be a
> +    great place to warn folks that the default may change in the future,
> +    and get them used to specifying what they want so that the eventual
> +    default switch is seamless for them.

Sounds like a good approach to me! It avoids needing to constantly
re-specify '--[no-]restrict' on every 'sparse-checkout set' (because it sets
the config), and also provides visibility to users. 

> +
> +  * clone: should we provide some mechanism for tying partial clones and
> +    sparse checkouts together better.  Maybe an option
> +	--sparse=dir1,dir2,...,dirN
> +    which:
> +       * Does initial fetch with `--filter=blob:none`
> +       * Does the `sparse-checkout set --cone dir1 dir2 ... dirN` thing
> +       * Runs a `git rev-list --objects --all -- dir1 dir2 ... dirN` to
> +	 fault in the missing blobs within the sparse
> +	 specification...except that rev-list needs some kind of options
> +	 to also get files from leading directories too.
> +       * Sets --restrict mode to allow focusing on the cone of interest
> +	 (and to permit disconnected development)

Similar to the '--restrict' default, this could also be a good fit for
'scalar clone'.

> +
> +
> +=== Implementation Goals/Plans ===

The rest of this (+the "Known bugs" section) all look good to me.

Thanks again for writing this document, I really appreciate the time &
effort you put into it! It'll serve as a clear reference for work on
sparse-checkout going forward, and ultimately make sparse-checkout usage a
much better experience for users.

> base-commit: 1b3d6e17fe83eb6f79ffbac2f2c61bbf1eaef5f8