Highlights from Git 2.48

Git 2.48 introduces a range of new features and improvements, with contributions from over 93 developers, including 35 new contributors. This release enhances performance by optimizing the SHA-1 checksum computations for large repositories, resulting in a 10-13% improvement in cloning and fetching operations. The update also integrates the --remerge-diff option into the range-diff command, allowing users to review changes in merge commits more effectively. Efforts to eliminate memory leaks have advanced, enabling Git to run its test suite with leak checking, while a new build system, Meson, is introduced as an alternative to GNU Make, providing easier use and cross-platform support. Additionally, Git has begun documenting deprecated features in anticipation of Git 3.0, expanded the reftable subsystem to enhance performance and reliability, and improved handling of remote repository default branches and partial clones.