Re: [PATCH gitk 0/4] gitk support for git log -L

Paul Mackerras [off-list ref] writes:

Hi Thomas,

On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 03:17:41PM +0200, Thomas Rast wrote:

quoted

Jens Lehmann [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

Am 29.07.2013 21:37, schrieb Thomas Rast:

quoted

Thomas Rast [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

Thomas Rast [off-list ref] writes:

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Now that git log -L has hit master, I figure it's time to discuss the
corresponding change to gitk.

[...]

One thing I worry about is having gitk storing in memory not just the
history graph but also all the diffs (assuming I have understood
correctly what you're doing).  Gitk's memory consumption is already
pretty large.  However, I can't see an alternative at this point.

I don't think there is one.  log -L is pretty much an "all or nothing"
thing at this point.  I suppose if we really found that the diffs are
regularly too big to be manageable for gitk, we could invent a porcelain
mode where 'log -L' just prints the detected commits and corresponding
line ranges, and then have a new option to diff-tree to let it again
filter that range.

But note that ordinary 'git log -L' also buffers the entire set of diffs
within less.  The memory consumption of gitk to hold the same diffs in
memory should be only a small factor of what less uses in the same
scenario.  Furthermore, users will typically ask for a small region of
code (one function, or some such), so the diffs themselves are usually
quite small, nowhere near the size of the full commit diffs.

quoted

Unfortunately it's turning out to be harder than I hoped.  gitk runs the
arguments through git-rev-parse, which only knows that -n gets an
unstuck argument.  Consequently, gitk accepts an unstuck -n but only
stuck forms of -S and -G.

Excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by "stuck" vs. "unstuck"?

Whether the option value is a separate argument in argv, or directly
stuck to the option.

stuck:   gitk -L:foo:main.c
unstuck: gitk -L :foo:main.c

Existing gitk chokes on 'gitk -S foo', but works with 'git -Sfoo'.

-- 
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch