clone: support remote shallow repository

Cloning from a shallow repository does not follow the "8 steps for new
.git/shallow" because if it does we need to get through step 6 for all
refs. That means commit walking down to the bottom.

Instead the rule to create .git/shallow is simpler and, more
importantly, cheap: if a shallow commit is found in the pack, it's
probably used (i.e. reachable from some refs), so we add it. Others
are dropped.

One may notice this method seems flawed by the word "probably". A
shallow commit may not be reachable from any refs at all if it's
attached to an object island (a group of objects that are not
reachable by any refs).

If that object island is not complete, a new fetch request may send
more objects to connect it to some ref. At that time, because we
incorrectly installed the shallow commit in this island, the user will
not see anything after that commit (fsck is still ok). This is not
desired.

Given that object islands are rare (C Git never sends such islands for
security reasons) and do not really harm the repository integrity, a
tradeoff is made to surprise the user occasionally but work faster
everyday.

A new option --strict could be added later that follows exactly the 8
steps. "git prune" can also learn to remove dangling objects _and_ the
shallow commits that are attached to them from .git/shallow.

Signed-off-by: Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy <pclouds@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 6 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/transport.h b/transport.h
index b3679bbdc7..59842d4994 100644
--- a/transport.h
+++ b/transport.h
@@ -35,6 +35,12 @@ struct transport {
 	 */
 	unsigned cannot_reuse : 1;
 
+	/*
+	 * A hint from caller that it will be performing a clone, not
+	 * normal fetch. IOW the repository is guaranteed empty.
+	 */
+	unsigned cloning : 1;
+
 	/**
 	 * Returns 0 if successful, positive if the option is not
 	 * recognized or is inapplicable, and negative if the option