Mercurial > hgbook
annotate en/concepts.tex @ 111:34b8b7a15ea1
More material.
author | Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com> |
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date | Fri, 10 Nov 2006 15:32:33 -0800 |
parents | 75c076c7a374 |
children | 2fcead053b7a |
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1 \chapter{Behind the scenes} |
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2 \label{chap:concepts} |
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3 |
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4 Unlike many revision control systems, the concepts upon which |
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5 Mercurial is built are simple enough that it's easy to understand how |
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6 the software really works. Knowing this certainly isn't necessary, |
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7 but I find it useful to have a ``mental model'' of what's going on. |
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8 |
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9 This understanding gives me confidence that Mercurial has been |
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10 carefully designed to be both \emph{safe} and \emph{efficient}. And |
111 | 11 just as importantly, if it's easy for me to retain a good idea of what |
12 the software is doing when I perform a revision control task, I'm less | |
13 likely to be surprised by its behaviour. | |
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14 |
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15 \section{Mercurial's historical record} |
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16 |
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17 \subsection{Tracking the history of a single file} |
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18 |
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19 When Mercurial tracks modifications to a file, it stores the history |
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20 of that file in a metadata object called a \emph{filelog}. Each entry |
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21 in the filelog contains enough information to reconstruct one revision |
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22 of the file that is being tracked. Filelogs are stored as files in |
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23 the \sdirname{.hg/data} directory. A filelog contains two kinds of |
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24 information: revision data, and an index to help Mercurial to find a |
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25 revision efficiently. |
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26 |
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27 A file that is large, or has a lot of history, has its filelog stored |
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28 in separate data (``\texttt{.d}'' suffix) and index (``\texttt{.i}'' |
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29 suffix) files. For small files without much history, the revision |
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30 data and index are combined in a single ``\texttt{.i}'' file. The |
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31 correspondence between a file in the working directory and the filelog |
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32 that tracks its history in the repository is illustrated in |
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33 figure~\ref{fig:concepts:filelog}. |
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34 |
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35 \begin{figure}[ht] |
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36 \centering |
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37 \grafix{filelog} |
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38 \caption{Relationships between files in working directory and |
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39 filelogs in repository} |
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40 \label{fig:concepts:filelog} |
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41 \end{figure} |
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42 |
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43 \subsection{Managing tracked files} |
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44 |
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45 Mercurial uses a structure called a \emph{manifest} to collect |
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46 together information about the files that it tracks. Each entry in |
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47 the manifest contains information about the files present in a single |
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48 changeset. An entry records which files are present in the changeset, |
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49 the revision of each file, and a few other pieces of file metadata. |
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50 |
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51 \subsection{Recording changeset information} |
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52 |
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53 The \emph{changelog} contains information about each changeset. Each |
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54 revision records who committed a change, the changeset comment, other |
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55 pieces of changeset-related information, and the revision of the |
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56 manifest to use. |
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57 |
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58 \subsection{Relationships between revisions} |
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59 |
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60 Within a changelog, a manifest, or a filelog, each revision stores a |
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61 pointer to its immediate parent (or to its two parents, if it's a |
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62 merge revision). As I mentioned above, there are also relationships |
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63 between revisions \emph{across} these structures, and they are |
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64 hierarchical in nature. |
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65 |
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66 For every changeset in a repository, there is exactly one revision |
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67 stored in the changelog. Each revision of the changelog contains a |
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68 pointer to a single revision of the manifest. A revision of the |
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69 manifest stores a pointer to a single revision of each filelog tracked |
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70 when that changeset was created. These relationships are illustrated |
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71 in figure~\ref{fig:concepts:metadata}. |
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72 |
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73 \begin{figure}[ht] |
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74 \centering |
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75 \grafix{metadata} |
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76 \caption{Metadata relationships} |
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77 \label{fig:concepts:metadata} |
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78 \end{figure} |
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79 |
110 | 80 As the illustration shows, there is \emph{not} a ``one to one'' |
81 relationship between revisions in the changelog, manifest, or filelog. | |
82 If the manifest hasn't changed between two changesets, the changelog | |
83 entries for those changesets will point to the same revision of the | |
84 manifest. If a file that Mercurial tracks hasn't changed between two | |
85 changesets, the entry for that file in the two revisions of the | |
86 manifest will point to the same revision of its filelog. | |
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87 |
110 | 88 \section{Safe, efficient storage} |
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89 |
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90 The underpinnings of changelogs, manifests, and filelogs are provided |
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91 by a single structure called the \emph{revlog}. |
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92 |
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93 \subsection{Efficient storage} |
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94 |
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95 The revlog provides efficient storage of revisions using a |
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96 \emph{delta} mechanism. Instead of storing a complete copy of a file |
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97 for each revision, it stores the changes needed to transform an older |
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98 revision into the new revision. For many kinds of file data, these |
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99 deltas are typically a fraction of a percent of the size of a full |
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100 copy of a file. |
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101 |
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102 Some obsolete revision control systems can only work with deltas of |
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103 text files. They must either store binary files as complete snapshots |
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104 or encoded into a text representation, both of which are wasteful |
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105 approaches. Mercurial can efficiently handle deltas of files with |
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106 arbitrary binary contents; it doesn't need to treat text as special. |
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107 |
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108 \subsection{Safe operation} |
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109 |
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110 Mercurial only ever \emph{appends} data to the end of a revlog file. |
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111 It never modifies a section of a file after it has written it. This |
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112 is both more robust and efficient than schemes that need to modify or |
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113 rewrite data. |
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114 |
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115 In addition, Mercurial treats every write as part of a |
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116 \emph{transaction} that can span a number of files. A transaction is |
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117 \emph{atomic}: either the entire transaction succeeds and its effects |
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118 are all visible to readers in one go, or the whole thing is undone. |
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119 This guarantee of atomicity means that if you're running two copies of |
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120 Mercurial, where one is reading data and one is writing it, the reader |
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121 will never see a partially written result that might confuse it. |
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122 |
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123 The fact that Mercurial only appends to files makes it easier to |
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124 provide this transactional guarantee. The easier it is to do stuff |
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125 like this, the more confident you should be that it's done correctly. |
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126 |
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127 \subsection{Fast retrieval} |
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128 |
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129 Mercurial cleverly avoids a pitfall common to all earlier |
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130 revision control systems: the problem of \emph{inefficient retrieval}. |
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131 Most revision control systems store the contents of a revision as an |
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132 incremental series of modifications against a ``snapshot''. To |
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133 reconstruct a specific revision, you must first read the snapshot, and |
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134 then every one of the revisions between the snapshot and your target |
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135 revision. The more history that a file accumulates, the more |
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136 revisions you must read, hence the longer it takes to reconstruct a |
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137 particular revision. |
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138 |
110 | 139 \begin{figure}[ht] |
140 \centering | |
141 \grafix{snapshot} | |
142 \caption{Snapshot of a revlog, with incremental deltas} | |
143 \label{fig:concepts:snapshot} | |
144 \end{figure} | |
145 | |
109
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146 The innovation that Mercurial applies to this problem is simple but |
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147 effective. Once the cumulative amount of delta information stored |
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148 since the last snapshot exceeds a fixed threshold, it stores a new |
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149 snapshot (compressed, of course), instead of another delta. This |
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150 makes it possible to reconstruct \emph{any} revision of a file |
110 | 151 quickly. This approach works so well that it has since been copied by |
152 several other revision control systems. | |
153 | |
154 Figure~\ref{fig:concepts:snapshot} illustrates the idea. In an entry | |
155 in a revlog's index file, Mercurial stores the range of entries from | |
156 the data file that it must read to reconstruct a particular revision. | |
109
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157 |
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158 \subsubsection{Aside: the influence of video compression} |
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159 |
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160 If you're familiar with video compression or have ever watched a TV |
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161 feed through a digital cable or satellite service, you may know that |
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162 most video compression schemes store each frame of video as a delta |
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163 against its predecessor frame. In addition, these schemes use |
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164 ``lossy'' compression techniques to increase the compression ratio, so |
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165 visual errors accumulate over the course of a number of inter-frame |
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166 deltas. |
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167 |
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168 Because it's possible for a video stream to ``drop out'' occasionally |
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169 due to signal glitches, and to limit the accumulation of artefacts |
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170 introduced by the lossy compression process, video encoders |
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171 periodically insert a complete frame (called a ``key frame'') into the |
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172 video stream; the next delta is generated against that frame. This |
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173 means that if the video signal gets interrupted, it will resume once |
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174 the next key frame is received. Also, the accumulation of encoding |
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175 errors restarts anew with each key frame. |
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176 |
110 | 177 \subsection{Strong integrity} |
178 | |
179 Along with delta or snapshot information, a revlog entry contains a | |
180 cryptographic hash of the data that it represents. This makes it | |
181 difficult to forge the contents of a revision, and easy to detect | |
111 | 182 accidental corruption. The hash that Mercurial uses is SHA-1, which |
183 is 160 bits long. Although all revision data is hashed, the changeset | |
184 hashes that you see as an end user are from revisions of the | |
185 changelog. Manifest and file hashes are only used behind the scenes. | |
110 | 186 |
187 Mercurial checks these hashes when retrieving file revisions and when | |
188 pulling changes from a repository. If it encounters an integrity | |
189 problem, it will complain and stop whatever it's doing. | |
190 | |
191 In addition to the effect it has on retrieval efficiency, Mercurial's | |
192 use of periodic snapshots makes it more robust against partial data | |
193 corruption. If a revlog becomes partly corrupted due to a hardware | |
194 error or system bug, it's often possible to reconstruct some or most | |
195 revisions from the uncorrupted sections of the revlog, both before and | |
196 after the corrupted section. This would not be possible with a | |
197 delta-only storage model. | |
198 | |
199 \section{The working directory} | |
200 | |
201 Mercurial's good ideas are not confined to the repository; it also | |
202 needs to manage the working directory. The \emph{dirstate} contains | |
203 Mercurial's knowledge of the working directory. This details which | |
204 revision(s) the working directory is updated to, and all files that | |
205 Mercurial is tracking in the working directory. | |
206 | |
207 Because Mercurial doesn't force you to tell it when you're modifying a | |
208 file, it uses the dirstate to store some extra information so it can | |
209 determine efficiently whether you have modified a file. For each file | |
210 in the working directory, it stores the time that it last modified the | |
211 file itself, and the size of the file at that time. | |
212 | |
213 When Mercurial is checking the states of files in the working | |
214 directory, it first checks a file's modification time. If that has | |
215 not changed, the file must not have been modified. If the file's size | |
216 has changed, the file must have been modified. If the modification | |
217 time has changed, but the size has not, only then does Mercurial need | |
218 to read the actual contents of the file to see if they've changed. | |
219 Storing these few extra pieces of information dramatically reduces the | |
220 amount of data that Mercurial needs to read, which yields large | |
221 performance improvements compared to other revision control systems. | |
222 | |
223 \section{Other interesting design features} | |
224 | |
225 In the sections above, I've tried to highlight some of the most | |
226 important aspects of Mercurial's design, to illustrate that it pays | |
227 careful attention to reliability and performance. However, the | |
228 attention to detail doesn't stop there. There are a number of other | |
229 aspects of Mercurial's construction that I personally find | |
230 interesting. I'll detail a few of them here, separate from the ``big | |
231 ticket'' items above, so that if you're interested, you can gain a | |
232 better idea of the amount of thinking that goes into a well-designed | |
233 system. | |
234 | |
109
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235 \subsection{Clever compression} |
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236 |
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237 When appropriate, Mercurial will store both snapshots and deltas in |
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238 compressed form. It does this by always \emph{trying to} compress a |
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239 snapshot or delta, but only storing the compressed version if it's |
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240 smaller than the uncompressed version. |
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241 |
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242 This means that Mercurial does ``the right thing'' when storing a file |
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243 whose native form is compressed, such as a \texttt{zip} archive or a |
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244 JPEG image. When these types of files are compressed a second time, |
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245 the resulting file is usually bigger than the once-compressed form, |
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246 and so Mercurial will store the plain \texttt{zip} or JPEG. |
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247 |
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248 Deltas between revisions of a compressed file are usually larger than |
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249 snapshots of the file, and Mercurial again does ``the right thing'' in |
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250 these cases. It finds that such a delta exceeds the threshold at |
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251 which it should store a complete snapshot of the file, so it stores |
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252 the snapshot, again saving space compared to a naive delta-only |
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253 approach. |
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254 |
110 | 255 \subsubsection{Network recompression} |
109
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256 |
110 | 257 When storing revisions on disk, Mercurial uses the ``deflate'' |
258 compression algorithm (the same one used by the popular \texttt{zip} | |
259 archive format), which balances good speed with a respectable | |
260 compression ratio. However, when transmitting revision data over a | |
261 network connection, Mercurial uncompresses the compressed revision | |
262 data. | |
109
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263 |
110 | 264 If the connection is over HTTP, Mercurial recompresses the entire |
265 stream of data using a compression algorithm that gives a etter | |
266 compression ratio (the Burrows-Wheeler algorithm from the widely used | |
267 \texttt{bzip2} compression package). This combination of algorithm | |
268 and compression of the entire stream (instead of a revision at a time) | |
269 substantially reduces the number of bytes to be transferred, yielding | |
270 better network performance over almost all kinds of network. | |
109
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271 |
110 | 272 (If the connection is over \command{ssh}, Mercurial \emph{doesn't} |
273 recompress the stream, because \command{ssh} can already do this | |
274 itself.) | |
109
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275 |
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276 \subsection{Read/write ordering and atomicity} |
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277 |
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278 Appending to files isn't the whole story when it comes to guaranteeing |
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279 that a reader won't see a partial write. If you recall |
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280 figure~\ref{fig:concepts:metadata}, revisions in the changelog point to |
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281 revisions in the manifest, and revisions in the manifest point to |
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282 revisions in filelogs. This hierarchy is deliberate. |
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283 |
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284 A writer starts a transaction by writing filelog and manifest data, |
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285 and doesn't write any changelog data until those are finished. A |
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286 reader starts by reading changelog data, then manifest data, followed |
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287 by filelog data. |
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288 |
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289 Since the writer has always finished writing filelog and manifest data |
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290 before it writes to the changelog, a reader will never read a pointer |
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291 to a partially written manifest revision from the changelog, and it will |
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292 never read a pointer to a partially written filelog revision from the |
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293 manifest. |
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294 |
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295 \subsection{Concurrent access} |
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296 |
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297 The read/write ordering and atomicity guarantees mean that Mercurial |
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298 never needs to \emph{lock} a repository when it's reading data, even |
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299 if the repository is being written to while the read is occurring. |
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300 This has a big effect on scalability; you can have an arbitrary number |
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301 of Mercurial processes safely reading data from a repository safely |
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302 all at once, no matter whether it's being written to or not. |
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303 |
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304 The lockless nature of reading means that if you're sharing a |
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305 repository on a multi-user system, you don't need to grant other local |
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306 users permission to \emph{write} to your repository in order for them |
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307 to be able to clone it or pull changes from it; they only need |
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308 \emph{read} permission. (This is \emph{not} a common feature among |
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309 revision control systems, so don't take it for granted! Most require |
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310 readers to be able to lock a repository to access it safely, and this |
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311 requires write permission on at least one directory, which of course |
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312 makes for all kinds of nasty and annoying security and administrative |
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313 problems.) |
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314 |
110 | 315 Mercurial uses locks to ensure that only one process can write to a |
316 repository at a time (the locking mechanism is safe even over | |
317 filesystems that are notoriously hostile to locking, such as NFS). If | |
318 a repository is locked, a writer will wait for a while to retry if the | |
319 repository becomes unlocked, but if the repository remains locked for | |
320 too long, the process attempting to write will time out after a while. | |
321 This means that your daily automated scripts won't get stuck forever | |
322 and pile up if a system crashes unnoticed, for example. (Yes, the | |
323 timeout is configurable, from zero to infinity.) | |
324 | |
325 \subsubsection{Safe dirstate access} | |
326 | |
327 As with revision data, Mercurial doesn't take a lock to read the | |
328 dirstate file; it does acquire a lock to write it. To avoid the | |
329 possibility of reading a partially written copy of the dirstate file, | |
330 Mercurial writes to a file with a unique name in the same directory as | |
331 the dirstate file, then renames the temporary file atomically to | |
332 \filename{dirstate}. The file named \filename{dirstate} is thus | |
333 guaranteed to be complete, not partially written. | |
109
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334 |
111 | 335 \subsection{Avoiding seeks} |
109
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336 |
111 | 337 Critical to Mercurial's performance is the avoidance of seeks of the |
338 disk head, since any seek is far more expensive than even a | |
339 comparatively large read operation. | |
340 | |
341 This is why, for example, the dirstate is stored in a single file. If | |
342 there were a dirstate file per directory that Mercurial tracked, the | |
343 disk would seek once per directory. Instead, Mercurial reads the | |
344 entire single dirstate file in one step. | |
345 | |
346 Mercurial also uses a ``copy on write'' scheme when cloning a | |
347 repository on local storage. Instead of copying every revlog file | |
348 from the old repository into the new repository, it makes a ``hard | |
349 link'', which is a shorthand way to say ``these two names point to the | |
350 same file''. When Mercurial is about to write to one of a revlog's | |
351 files, it checks to see if the number of names pointing at the file is | |
352 greater than one. If it is, more than one repository is using the | |
353 file, so Mercurial makes a new copy of the file that is private to | |
354 this repository. | |
355 | |
356 A few revision control developers have pointed out that this idea of | |
357 making a complete private copy of a file is not very efficient in its | |
358 use of storage. While this is true, storage is cheap, and this method | |
359 gives the highest performance while deferring most book-keeping to the | |
360 operating system. An alternative scheme would most likely reduce | |
361 performance and increase the complexity of the software, each of which | |
362 is much more important to the ``feel'' of day-to-day use. | |
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