[PATCH v3] checkout: optimize "git checkout -b <new_branch>"

[Ben Peart <Ben.Peart@microsoft.com>]

From: Ben Peart <Ben.Peart@microsoft.com>

Skip merging the commit, updating the index and working directory if and
only if we are creating a new branch via "git checkout -b <new_branch>."
Any other checkout options will still go through the former code path.

If sparse_checkout is on, require the user to manually opt in to this
optimzed behavior by setting the config setting checkout.optimizeNewBranch
to true as we will no longer update the skip-worktree bit in the index, nor
add/remove files in the working directory to reflect the current sparse
checkout settings.

For comparison, running "git checkout -b <new_branch>" on a large repo takes:

14.6 seconds - without this patch
0.3 seconds - with this patch

Signed-off-by: Ben Peart <Ben.Peart@microsoft.com>
---

The biggest change in this version is that I have added the logic to call
show_local_changes() on the optimized path.  Since this can be expensive on
large repos (see below) this behavior is turned off if the user sets the
"checkout.optimizeNewBranch" setting.

$ git checkout -b newbranch
read-cache.c:2006       performance: 0.517875500 s: read cache .git/index
name-hash.c:605         performance: 0.277765000 s: initialize name hash
preload-index.c:111     performance: 0.019401300 s: preload index
diff-lib.c:527          performance: 3.807563700 s: diff-index
Switched to a new branch 'newbranch'
trace.c:420             performance: 5.044219600 s: git command: c:git checkout -b newbranch


$ git checkout -b newbranch1
Switched to a new branch 'newbranch1'
trace.c:420             performance: 0.332873600 s: git command: c:git checkout -b newbranch111

Notes:
    Base Ref: master
    Web-Diff: https://github.com/benpeart/git/commit/aebe02c966
    Checkout: git fetch https://github.com/benpeart/git checkout-b-v3 && git checkout aebe02c966
    
    ### Patches

 Documentation/config.txt         |   8 +++
 builtin/checkout.c               | 120 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 t/t1090-sparse-checkout-scope.sh |  14 ++++
 3 files changed, 138 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index fd8d27e761..2298ecd753 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -1135,6 +1135,14 @@ and by linkgit:git-worktree[1] when 'git worktree add' refers to a
 remote branch. This setting might be used for other checkout-like
 commands or functionality in the future.
 
+checkout.optimizeNewBranch
+	Optimizes the performance of "git checkout -b <new_branch>" when
+	using sparse-checkout.  When set to true, git will not update the
+	repo based on the current sparse-checkout settings.  This means it
+	will not update the skip-worktree bit in the index nor add/remove
+	files in the working directory to reflect the current sparse checkout
+	settings nor will it show the local changes.
+
 clean.requireForce::
 	A boolean to make git-clean do nothing unless given -f,
 	-i or -n.   Defaults to true.
diff --git a/builtin/checkout.c b/builtin/checkout.c
index cb6bb76312..26b1a5053a 100644
--- a/builtin/checkout.c
+++ b/builtin/checkout.c
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@
 #include "submodule.h"
 #include "advice.h"
 
+static int checkout_optimize_new_branch;
+
 static const char * const checkout_usage[] = {
 	N_("git checkout [<options>] <branch>"),
 	N_("git checkout [<options>] [<branch>] -- <file>..."),
@@ -42,6 +44,10 @@ struct checkout_opts {
 	int ignore_skipworktree;
 	int ignore_other_worktrees;
 	int show_progress;
+	/*
+	 * If new checkout options are added, skip_merge_working_tree
+	 * should be updated accordingly.
+	 */
 
 	const char *new_branch;
 	const char *new_branch_force;
@@ -472,6 +478,98 @@ static void setup_branch_path(struct branch_info *branch)
 	branch->path = strbuf_detach(&buf, NULL);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Skip merging the trees, updating the index and working directory if and
+ * only if we are creating a new branch via "git checkout -b <new_branch>."
+ */
+static int skip_merge_working_tree(const struct checkout_opts *opts,
+	const struct branch_info *old_branch_info,
+	const struct branch_info *new_branch_info)
+{
+	/*
+	 * Do the merge if sparse checkout is on and the user has not opted in
+	 * to the optimized behavior
+	 */
+	if (core_apply_sparse_checkout && !checkout_optimize_new_branch)
+		return 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * We must do the merge if we are actually moving to a new commit.
+	 */
+	if (!old_branch_info->commit || !new_branch_info->commit ||
+		oidcmp(&old_branch_info->commit->object.oid, &new_branch_info->commit->object.oid))
+		return 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * opts->patch_mode cannot be used with switching branches so is
+	 * not tested here
+	 */
+
+	/*
+	 * opts->quiet only impacts output so doesn't require a merge
+	 */
+
+	/*
+	 * Honor the explicit request for a three-way merge or to throw away
+	 * local changes
+	 */
+	if (opts->merge || opts->force)
+		return 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * --detach is documented as "updating the index and the files in the
+	 * working tree" but this optimization skips those steps so fall through
+	 * to the regular code path.
+	 */
+	if (opts->force_detach)
+		return 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * opts->writeout_stage cannot be used with switching branches so is
+	 * not tested here
+	 */
+
+	/*
+	 * Honor the explicit ignore requests
+	 */
+	if (!opts->overwrite_ignore || opts->ignore_skipworktree ||
+		opts->ignore_other_worktrees)
+		return 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * opts->show_progress only impacts output so doesn't require a merge
+	 */
+
+	/*
+	 * If we aren't creating a new branch any changes or updates will
+	 * happen in the existing branch.  Since that could only be updating
+	 * the index and working directory, we don't want to skip those steps
+	 * or we've defeated any purpose in running the command.
+	 */
+	if (!opts->new_branch)
+		return 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * new_branch_force is defined to "create/reset and checkout a branch"
+	 * so needs to go through the merge to do the reset
+	 */
+	if (opts->new_branch_force)
+		return 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * A new orphaned branch requrires the index and the working tree to be
+	 * adjusted to <start_point>
+	 */
+	if (opts->new_orphan_branch)
+		return 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * Remaining variables are not checkout options but used to track state
+	 */
+
+	return 1;
+}
+
 static int merge_working_tree(const struct checkout_opts *opts,
 			      struct branch_info *old_branch_info,
 			      struct branch_info *new_branch_info,
@@ -846,10 +944,19 @@ static int switch_branches(const struct checkout_opts *opts,
 		parse_commit_or_die(new_branch_info->commit);
 	}
 
-	ret = merge_working_tree(opts, &old_branch_info, new_branch_info, &writeout_error);
-	if (ret) {
-		free(path_to_free);
-		return ret;
+	/* optimize the "checkout -b <new_branch> path */
+	if (skip_merge_working_tree(opts, &old_branch_info, new_branch_info)) {
+		if (!checkout_optimize_new_branch && !opts->quiet) {
+			if (read_cache_preload(NULL) < 0)
+				return error(_("index file corrupt"));
+			show_local_changes(&new_branch_info->commit->object, &opts->diff_options);
+		}
+	} else {
+		ret = merge_working_tree(opts, &old_branch_info, new_branch_info, &writeout_error);
+		if (ret) {
+			free(path_to_free);
+			return ret;
+		}
 	}
 
 	if (!opts->quiet && !old_branch_info.path && old_branch_info.commit && new_branch_info->commit != old_branch_info.commit)
@@ -864,6 +971,11 @@ static int switch_branches(const struct checkout_opts *opts,
 
 static int git_checkout_config(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
 {
+	if (!strcmp(var, "checkout.optimizenewbranch")) {
+		checkout_optimize_new_branch = git_config_bool(var, value);
+		return 0;
+	}
+
 	if (!strcmp(var, "diff.ignoresubmodules")) {
 		struct checkout_opts *opts = cb;
 		handle_ignore_submodules_arg(&opts->diff_options, value);
diff --git a/t/t1090-sparse-checkout-scope.sh b/t/t1090-sparse-checkout-scope.sh
index 1f61eb3e88..25d7c700f6 100755
--- a/t/t1090-sparse-checkout-scope.sh
+++ b/t/t1090-sparse-checkout-scope.sh
@@ -31,6 +31,20 @@ test_expect_success 'perform sparse checkout of master' '
 	test_path_is_file c
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'checkout -b checkout.optimizeNewBranch interaction' '
+	cp .git/info/sparse-checkout .git/info/sparse-checkout.bak &&
+	test_when_finished "
+		mv -f .git/info/sparse-checkout.bak .git/info/sparse-checkout
+		git checkout master
+	" &&
+	echo "/b" >>.git/info/sparse-checkout &&
+	test "$(git ls-files -t b)" = "S b" &&
+	git -c checkout.optimizeNewBranch=true checkout -b fast &&
+	test "$(git ls-files -t b)" = "S b" &&
+	git checkout -b slow &&
+	test "$(git ls-files -t b)" = "H b"
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'merge feature branch into sparse checkout of master' '
 	git merge feature &&
 	test_path_is_file a &&

base-commit: 63749b2dea5d1501ff85bab7b8a7f64911d21dea
-- 
2.18.0.windows.1