v0.9.0 - Payload Mode: a 131 GiB Tree Through Seafile Without Going Through Git, and the Snapshot Tool Installs with the Package

What's Changed in v0.9.0

The snapshot tool (git seafile-snapshot) can now carry a tree that is mostly large,
immutable data. Files above a threshold, or that do not compress, bypass git: each is
hashed and stored on the server under its SHA-256, and the snapshot is a manifest.
A 131 GiB tree (633 payload files, 124.6 GB) was snapshotted in 38 minutes against a
real Seafile server and restored byte-exact, verified file by file.

Upgrading from 0.8.8

• The snapshot tool ships in the wheel: git-seafile-snapshot (so git seafile-snapshot)
  and git-remote-seafile snapshot. python tools/seafile_snapshot.py still works from a checkout.
• Payload mode is on by default (auto: files of 64 MiB or more, or 4 MiB or more that do not compress) for snapshots that push to a seafile:// remote. A tree with no such file is snapshotted exactly as in 0.8.8. --no-payload turns it off and the vault remembers that.
• An existing vault with large files in git changes on its next run: they leave the git tree and are uploaded as payload objects (one full pass; stored twice on the server, since the old blobs stay in the history). Older snapshots restore as before; newer ones need the payload, and 0.8.8 cannot restore them completely. Run once with --no-payload to keep a vault as it was.

Added

• Payload mode (--payload-min-size [SIZE|auto]): large files stored by hash under
  <path>/payload/objects/, a manifest in the vault commit, parallel uploads, a
  per-machine hash cache, and a verified --restore. The setting is remembered by the vault.
• --payload-gc (two-phase retention, --payload-keep N for expiry), --payload-verify
  (audit by download and hash), --payload-view (a browsable directory of real names
  by server-side copy), --payload-rehash.
• --no-payload, a .seafile-payload/README.txt in every payload vault, and a size line for the
  payload store after an upload.
• Safeguards (PAYLOAD.md D13): each snapshot commit records the tool's version and a run warns when it
  builds on a newer tool's snapshot; --payload-delete needs --vault (or --payload-no-vault) and stops
  with --payload-accept-loss when the remote's history was rewritten or --payload-keep would expire
  snapshots (a tag is a pin); a restore that would not fit the disk is refused before downloading; an
  upload over the quota or into a library this machine syncs is warned about first; --payload-verify
  leaves a marker that the gc report shows.
• The specification, with two rounds of independent review, is PAYLOAD.md.

Changed

• SeafileClient.delete_entry forgets the directories under a deleted path.
• --help groups the payload options and states each default.

Fixed

• --restore --ref <rev> failed against any remote whose HEAD is the vault branch.

The full list, with measurements, is in CHANGELOG.md.

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Full Changelog: v0.8.8...v0.9.0