The 'git rev-list --maximal-only' option filters the output to only
independent commits. A commit is independent if it is not reachable from
other listed commits. Currently this is implemented by doing a full
revision walk and marking parents with CHILD_VISITED to skip non-maximal
commits.
The 'git merge-base --independent' command computes the same result
using reduce_heads(), which uses the more efficient remove_redundant()
algorithm. This is significantly faster because it avoids walking the
entire commit graph.
Add a fast path in rev-list that detects when --maximal-only is the only
interesting option and all input commits are positive (no revision
ranges). In this case, use reduce_heads() directly instead of doing a
full revision walk.
In order to preserve the rest of the output filtering, this computation
is done opportunistically in a new prepare_maximal_independent() method
when possible. If successful, it populates revs->commits with the list
of independent commits and set revs->no_walk to prevent any other walk
from occurring. This allows us to have any custom output be handled
using the existing output code hidden inside
traverse_commit_list_filtered(). A new test is added to demonstrate that
this output is preserved.
The fast path is only used when no other flags complicate the walk or
output format: no UNINTERESTING commits, no limiting options (max-count,
age filters, path filters, grep filters), no output formatting beyond
plain OIDs, and no object listing flags.
Running the p6011 performance test for my copy of git.git, I see the
following improvement with this change: