Why and how we rearchitected Git object database maintenance for scale

Gitaly, the service that manages Git repository access in GitLab, has implemented new strategies for maintaining repositories more efficiently, especially important for large monorepos. Traditional methods of repository maintenance, such as compressing loose objects into a single packfile, were resource-intensive and often inefficient. By leveraging recent Git updates, Gitaly has adopted geometric repacking and cruft packs to address these inefficiencies. Geometric repacking, introduced in Git v2.32.0, allows multiple packfiles to be merged without rewriting them all into one, maintaining a geometric sequence to limit packfile numbers. Cruft packs, from Git v2.37.0, enable storage of objects pending deletion in a compressed form, tracking their access times without needing them to remain as loose objects. These innovations have significantly reduced the time spent on repository maintenance, notably cutting repacking times by 20% globally and by 80% in large repositories, and can be manually enabled in GitLab 15.11 or later by adjusting feature flags.

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