Hello, I have completed my microproject under the guidance of Eric, After going through the code and previous mailing lists. I have drafted my Proposal. Still going through the code as of now and figuring things out. Would be great to have your suggestions on my proposal, so that i can improve it before submitting it. Also have written the proposal in markdown for easier formatting. Doesn't look pretty on plain text. Thanks Karthik
Git configuration API improvements Abstract Currently git_config() has a few issues which need to be addressed: Reads and parses the configuration files each time. Values cannot be unset,only can be set to false which has different implications. Repeated setting and un-setting of value in a particular new header, leaves trails. This project is to fix these problems while also retaining backward compatibility wherever git_config() is called, by implementing a cache for the config's in a tree data structure, which provides for easier modification. About Me Name : Karthik Nayak Email : karthik....@gmail.com College : BMS Institute of Technology Studying : Engineering In Computer Science IRC : nayak94 Phone : 91-XXXX-XXX-XXX Country : India Interests : Guitar, Photography, Craft. Github : KarthikNayak Technical Experience Have been Learning about the Linux Kernel and its implementation on the android platform. Released also on XDA-Dev for the phones LG P500 and Xperia SP. Working on a Library in C on various Sorting Techniques. Contributed to the Open-Source Lab Manual for Colleges under VTU. Active Member of Gnu/Linux Users Group in College and Free Software Movement of Karnataka. Why i Picked Git This is my first attempt at GSOC and as I began going through the list of organisations, what struck me is that I haven't really used any of the software's of most of the listed organisations. That's when I realized why not contribute to something I use on a daily basis, this way I wont be contributing only because I want to take part in GSOC, rather I'd contribute because I would love to be a part of something I use on a regular basis and would be able to contribute to the project even after GSOC. Proposal Ideas Page : Git configuration API improvements The Following improvements have to be made to how configs are handled in git : Read all the config files once and store them in an appropriate data structure. I suggest the use of an tree data structure to store the cache of the config files. I think tree data structure is a better choice over a hash - key data structure as a tree data structure although has a lower time efficiency than a hash - key data structure while traversing for a config request. A tree data structure can more optimal for further improvements like the problem with setting and unsetting of configs can be easily handled as when a node under a particular header is deleted the header can check if it has no children nodes and on being true can delete the header from the config file. Change git_config() to iterate through the pre-read values in memory rather than re-reading the configuration files. This function should remain backwards-compatible with the old implementation so that callers don't have to all be rewritten at once. Now whenever git_config() is called within a single invocation of git it can traverse the tree data structure already created and get the particular config. This needs to maintain backward compatibility. So the Basic functioning of functions like git_config() and so on would change the API should remain the same for the user invoking these calls. Add new API functions that allow the cache to be inquired easily and efficiently. Rewrite callers to use the new API wherever possible. Now that the base data structure and underlying changes have been made for the data structure to work have been made, we can now add various new API functions to assist the usage of the data structure. And also rewrite callers to use the new API's made available Issues to be addressed Headers and comments left are all configs under a header is deleted. whenever we set and unset configs under a particular header it leaves garbage value behind, for example : git config pull.rebase true git config --unset pull.rebase git config pull.rebase true git config --unset pull.rebase would result in : [pull] [pull] And further changes made appear under the last header. The issue also gives rise to comments being stranded within a header. Possible Solution : Make sure that the header is deleted whenever the last config under it is deleted. Also delete comments within a header and comments made above a particular config when a config is removed and comments made above a header when the whole header is being removed. How to invalidate the cache correctly in the case that the configuration is changed while git is executing. If config is being changed while git is currently running then the changes need to be considered. Possible Solution : A simple solution would be to discard the whole cache made and when an invocation is made the cache, is rebuilt again. Else we can find a way to update only the changed config although this would be a harder implementation. Timeline Before Coding Starts Week 1 : Discuss the flow of course with the mentor. Week 2-3 : Discuss the adequate Data Structure for caching config values. Week 4 : Discuss on changing of git_config() to correspond to the new Data Structure. Coding Starts Week 1-2 : Submit Code for a new data structure. This will cache the config after its been read the first and this is stored as per to provide backward compatibility. Week 3-5 : Make git_config() iterate over the new data structure when it is called, and make sure it is backward compatible, until changes have been made to the calling functions. Mid Term Evaluation Week 6-11 : Add new API functions to allow integration and allow to retrieve configuration as per the data type (string, bool, int ... etc). Week 11-12 : Small changes and cleaning up and fix for duplication of Config Header after config being deleted. Week 13 : Final Cleanup and Mentor suggested final touches to be made. Pen Down Date Submission of Code to GSOC -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majord...@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
