Subject: [PATCH] index-pack: retain child bases in delta cache

From: "Arijit Banerjee via GitGitGadget" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 May 2026 16:06:02 +0000

From: Arijit Banerjee <[email-masked]>

When resolving a delta whose result has children of its own,
index-pack adds the result to work_head, accounts its data in
base_cache_used, and calls prune_base_data(). It then immediately
frees that same data.

This bypasses the existing delta base cache policy and can force later
descendants to reconstruct the queued base again. Let the existing
delta_base_cache_limit pruning policy decide whether to keep or evict
the data instead.

Signed-off-by: Arijit Banerjee <[email-masked]>
---
    index-pack: retain child bases in delta cache
    
    Speed up the local pack indexing phase of clone/fetch for large
    delta-compressed packs by keeping reconstructed delta bases available
    for reuse when they are queued for later delta resolution.
    
    When index-pack reconstructs a child base and queues it for resolving
    descendant deltas, it currently frees that data immediately. This can
    force the same base to be reconstructed again. Instead, keep it in the
    existing delta base cache and let the existing delta_base_cache_limit
    policy decide whether to retain or evict it.
    
    This does not add a new cache or increase the cache limit. The object
    data is already accounted in base_cache_used, and prune_base_data() is
    already called at this point.
    
    Correctness:
    
     * t/t5302-pack-index.sh passed all 36 tests.
    
    Benchmarks on a quiet Ubuntu 24.04 VM, 16 vCPU, 32 GiB RAM, local SSD:
    
    pack baseline patched wall-time change RSS change linux blobless 69.17s
    57.98s 16.2% faster -0.0% linux full 280.72s 236.32s 15.8% faster +1.9%
    
    Five-repeat public-repo medians also improved: git.git 13.1%, libgit2
    14.0%, redis 13.5%, cpython 4.8%.
    
    Perf on the linux blobless pack showed the same direction under
    profiling: 76.64s baseline vs 61.09s patched, with similar RSS.

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2131%2Farijit91%2Findex-pack-retain-child-base-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2131/arijit91/index-pack-retain-child-base-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2131

 builtin/index-pack.c | 1 -
 1 file changed, 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/builtin/index-pack.c b/builtin/index-pack.c
index cf0bd8280d..027c64b522 100644
--- a/builtin/index-pack.c
+++ b/builtin/index-pack.c
@@ -1212,7 +1212,6 @@ static void *threaded_second_pass(void *data)
 			list_add(&child->list, &work_head);
 			base_cache_used += child->size;
 			prune_base_data(NULL);
-			free_base_data(child);
 		} else if (child) {
 			/*
 			 * This child does not have its own children. It may be

base-commit: c69baaf57ba26cf117c2b6793802877f19738b0d
-- 
gitgitgadget