The usual way to do a full repack (and what is done by
git-gc) is to run "repack -Ad --unpack-unreachable=<when>",
which will loosen any unreachable objects newer than
"<when>", and drop any older ones.
This is a safer alternative to "repack -ad", because
"<when>" becomes a grace period during which we will not
drop any new objects that are about to be referenced.
However, it isn't perfectly safe. It's always possible that
a process is about to reference an old object. Even if that
process were to take care to update the timestamp on the
object, there is no atomicity with a simultaneously running
"repack" process.
So while unlikely, there is a small race wherein we may drop
an object that is in the process of being referenced. If you
do automated repacking on a large number of active
repositories, you may hit it eventually, and the result is a
corrupted repository.
It would be nice to fix that race in the long run, but it's
complicated. In the meantime, there is a much simpler
strategy for automated repository maintenance: do not drop
objects at all. We already have a "--keep-unreachable"
option in pack-objects; we just need to plumb it through
from git-repack.
Note that this _isn't_ plumbed through from git-gc, so at
this point it's strictly a tool for people doing their own
advanced repository maintenance strategy.
Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>