hgext/largefiles/design.txt

= largefiles - manage large binary files =
This extension is based off of Greg Ward's bfiles extension which can be found
at http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/BfilesExtension.

== The largefile store ==

largefile stores are, in the typical use case, centralized servers that have
every past revision of a given binary file.  Each largefile is identified by
its sha1 hash, and all interactions with the store take one of the following
forms.

-Download a bfile with this hash
-Upload a bfile with this hash
-Check if the store has a bfile with this hash

largefiles stores can take one of two forms:

-Directories on a network file share
-Mercurial wireproto servers, either via ssh or http (hgweb)

== The Local Repository ==

The local repository has a largefile cache in .hg/largefiles which holds a
subset of the largefiles needed. On a clone only the largefiles at tip are
downloaded. When largefiles are downloaded from the central store, a copy is
saved in this store.

== The Global Cache ==

largefiles in a local repository cache are hardlinked to files in the global
cache. Before a file is downloaded we check if it is in the global cache.

== Implementation Details ==

Each largefile has a standin which is in .hglf. The standin is tracked by
Mercurial.  The standin contains the SHA1 hash of the largefile. When a
largefile is added/removed/copied/renamed/etc the same operation is applied to
the standin. Thus the history of the standin is the history of the largefile.

For performance reasons, the contents of a standin are only updated before a
commit.  Standins are added/removed/copied/renamed from add/remove/copy/rename
Mercurial commands but their contents will not be updated. The contents of a
standin will always be the hash of the largefile as of the last commit. To
support some commands (revert) some standins are temporarily updated but will
be changed back after the command is finished.

A Mercurial dirstate object tracks the state of the largefiles. The dirstate
uses the last modified time and current size to detect if a file has changed
(without reading the entire contents of the file).