git objects-cache

A manual fetch cache for your git objects

⚠️ This is a footgun. If you don't like to shoot yourself in the feet, then don't use this footgun ⚠️

Therefore "this project destroyed 3 weeks of my work 😭" is not a valid issue. You've been warned.

Usage

usage: git objects-cache [-h] [-q] [-v] [-f] {add,remove} ...

A manual fetch cache for your git objects

positional arguments:
  {add,remove}
    add          add (or update) a remote
    remove       remove a remote

options:
  -h, --help     show this help message and exit
  -q, --quiet    decrement verbosity level
  -v, --verbose  increment verbosity level
  -f, --fast     don't check/update remotes before fetching

Config

(this file is created on first run if needed)

~/.config/git-objects-cache/config.toml, eg.:

[git-objects-cache]
repo = "~/.cache/git-objects-cache"

[remotes]
jrl-cmakemodules = "https://github.com/jrl-umi3218/jrl-cmakemodules"
example-robot-data = "https://github.com/gepetto/example-robot-data"
pinocchio = "https://github.com/stack-of-tasks/pinocchio"
rosdistro = "https://github.com/ros/rosdistro/"

Idea

This create a big bare git repo just for cache. In there, you can put one remote per project you want available in that cache, and git fetch --all --no-tags --prune as often as you want.

Then it create a init template with that repo in objects/info/alternates.

ℹ️ For that a git config --global init.templateDir will be run !

So next time you clone something, objects that are already fetched in that cache don't need to be downloaded again.

Example

1. Install this, eg.

   $ uv tool install git+https://github.com/nim65s/git-objects-cache

2. git now has a objects-cache subcommand. It initialize its configuration and a cache on first run. In that first run you can already provide the url of a repo you want to cache:

   $ git objects-cache -v add https://github.com/gepetto/example-robot-data

   INFO:git-objects-cache:init...
   INFO:git-objects-cache:creating '~/.config/git-objects-cache' directory
   INFO:git-objects-cache:creating '~/.config/git-objects-cache/config.toml' file
   INFO:git-objects-cache:creating '~/.cache/git-objects-cache' repo
   Initialized empty Git repository in ~/.cache/git-objects-cache/
   INFO:git-objects-cache:creating '~/.config/git-objects-cache/template' template
   INFO:git-objects-cache:adding remote 'example-robot-data' to 'https://github.com/gepetto/example-robot-data'
   INFO:git-objects-cache:sync remotes with config file...
   INFO:git-objects-cache:adding 'example-robot-data' remote to 'https://github.com/gepetto/example-robot-data'
   INFO:git-objects-cache:updating cache...
   remote: Enumerating objects: 5241, done.
   remote: Counting objects: 100% (1274/1274), done.
   remote: Compressing objects: 100% (307/307), done.
   remote: Total 5241 (delta 1103), reused 968 (delta 967), pack-reused 3967 (from 3)
   Receiving objects: 100% (5241/5241), 196.75 MiB | 14.79 MiB/s, done.
   Resolving deltas: 100% (2393/2393), done.
   From https://github.com/gepetto/example-robot-data
    * [new branch]      devel                    -> example-robot-data/devel
    * [new branch]      master                   -> example-robot-data/master
    * [new branch]      update_flake_lock_action -> example-robot-data/update_flake_lock_action
   

3. Your next git clone of that repo is basically free 🎉 (compare the numbers in the Receiving objects lines):

   $ git clone https://github.com/gepetto/example-robot-data

   Cloning into 'example-robot-data'...
   remote: Enumerating objects: 43, done.
   remote: Total 43 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 43 (from 2)
   Receiving objects: 100% (43/43), 32.81 KiB | 1.17 MiB/s, done.
   Updating files: 100% (1084/1084), done.
   

4. Maintain your ~/.config/git-objects-cache/config.toml as you want ($EDITOR or git objects-cache {add,delete}), and fetch updates to your cache when you want (git objects-cache)

Why

In cases you want to cache, because eg.

• some tools just want to git clone again and again same stuff
• dozens of projects have the same submodule

If you believe those are wrong problems, yes, this is known, thanks.