view tests/test-repo-compengines.t @ 33207:895ecec31c70

revlog: add an experimental option to mitigated delta issues (issue5480)

The general delta heuristic to select a delta do not scale with the number of
branch. The delta base is frequently too far away to be able to reuse a chain
according to the "distance" criteria. This leads to insertion of larger delta (or
even full text) that themselves push the bases for the next delta further away
leading to more large deltas and full texts. This full text and frequent
recomputation throw Mercurial performance in disarray.

For example of a slightly large repository

  280 000 files (2 150 000 versions)
  430 000 changesets (10 000 topological heads)

Number below compares repository with and without the distance criteria:

manifest size:
    with:    21.4 GB
    without:  0.3 GB

store size:
    with:    28.7 GB
    without   7.4 GB

bundle last 15 00 revisions:
    with:    800 seconds
             971 MB
    without:  50 seconds
              73 MB

unbundle time (of the last 15K revisions):
    with:    1150 seconds (~19 minutes)
    without:   35 seconds

Similar issues has been observed in other repositories.


Adding a new option or "feature" on stable is uncommon. However, given that this
issues is making Mercurial practically unusable, I'm exceptionally targeting
this patch for stable.

What is actually needed is a full rework of the delta building and reading
logic. However, that will be a longer process and churn not suitable for stable.

In the meantime, we introduces a quick and dirty mitigation of this in the
'experimental' config space. The new option introduces a way to set the maximum
amount of memory usable to store a diff in memory. This extend the ability for
Mercurial to create chains without removing all safe guard regarding memory
access. The option should be phased out when core has a more proper solution
available.

Setting the limit to '0' remove all limits, setting it to '-1' use the default
limit (textsize x 4).

A new repository uses zlib storage, which doesn't need a requirement

  $ hg init default
  $ cd default
  $ cat .hg/requires
  dotencode
  fncache
  generaldelta
  revlogv1
  store

  $ touch foo
  $ hg -q commit -A -m 'initial commit with a lot of repeated repeated repeated text to trigger compression'
  $ hg debugrevlog -c | grep 0x78
      0x78 (x)  :   1 (100.00%)
      0x78 (x)  : 110 (100.00%)

  $ cd ..

Unknown compression engine to format.compression aborts

  $ hg --config experimental.format.compression=unknown init unknown
  abort: compression engine unknown defined by experimental.format.compression not available
  (run "hg debuginstall" to list available compression engines)
  [255]

A requirement specifying an unknown compression engine results in bail

  $ hg init unknownrequirement
  $ cd unknownrequirement
  $ echo exp-compression-unknown >> .hg/requires
  $ hg log
  abort: repository requires features unknown to this Mercurial: exp-compression-unknown!
  (see https://mercurial-scm.org/wiki/MissingRequirement for more information)
  [255]

  $ cd ..

#if zstd

  $ hg --config experimental.format.compression=zstd init zstd
  $ cd zstd
  $ cat .hg/requires
  dotencode
  exp-compression-zstd
  fncache
  generaldelta
  revlogv1
  store

  $ touch foo
  $ hg -q commit -A -m 'initial commit with a lot of repeated repeated repeated text'

  $ hg debugrevlog -c | grep 0x28
      0x28      :  1 (100.00%)
      0x28      : 98 (100.00%)

  $ cd ..

Specifying a new format.compression on an existing repo won't introduce data
with that engine or a requirement

  $ cd default
  $ touch bar
  $ hg --config experimental.format.compression=zstd -q commit -A -m 'add bar with a lot of repeated repeated repeated text'

  $ cat .hg/requires
  dotencode
  fncache
  generaldelta
  revlogv1
  store

  $ hg debugrevlog -c | grep 0x78
      0x78 (x)  :   2 (100.00%)
      0x78 (x)  : 199 (100.00%)

#endif