How to skip "Loose Object" popup when running 'git gui'

Question

When I run 'git gui' I get a popup that says

This repository currently has approximately 1500 loose objects.

It then suggests compressing the database. I've done this before, and it reduces the loose objects to about 250, but that doesn't suppress the popup. Compressing again doesn't change the number of loose objects.

Our current workflow requires significant use of 'rebase' as we are transitioning from Perforce, and Perforce is still the canonical SCM. Once Git is the canonical SCM, we will do regular merges, and the loose objects problem should be greatly mitigated.

In the mean time, I'd really like to make this 'helpful' popup go away.

Answer 1

When "Loose Object" popup I know it's time to run git's garbage collector:

git gc

After that the popup goes away.

Update: (due to T.E.D.'s suggestion)

I extracted the below routine from git/share/git-gui/lib/database.tcl
You can modify it to meet your needs.

proc hint_gc {} {
    set object_limit 8
    if {[is_Windows]} {
     set object_limit 1
    }

    set objects_current [llength [glob \
     -directory [gitdir objects 42] \
     -nocomplain \
     -tails \
     -- \
     *]]

    if {$objects_current >= $object_limit} {
     set objects_current [expr {$objects_current * 256}]
     set object_limit    [expr {$object_limit    * 256}]
     if {[ask_popup \
      [mc "This repository currently has approximately %i loose objects.

To maintain optimal performance it is strongly recommended that you compress the database when more than %i loose objects exist.

Compress the database now?" $objects_current $object_limit]] eq yes} {
      do_gc
     }
    }
}

Answer 2

Hmmmm....I don't see a command-line argument for that in the docs.

I suppose you could always pull down its source, take out the code for the dialog, and rebuild.

Answer 3

The problem of "git gc" not removing all loose objects has been reported before (late 2008, ""git gc" doesn't seem to remove loose objects any more"

git gc only removes loose objects older than two weeks, if you really want to remove them now, run git prune.
But make sure no other git process can be active when you run it, or it could possibly step on something.

"git gc" will unpack objects that have become unreachable and were currently in packs.
As a result, the amount of disk space used by a git repository can actually go up dramatically after a "git gc" operation, which could be surprising for someone who is running close to full on their filesystem, deletes a number of branches from a tracking repository, and then does a "git gc" may get a very unpleasant surprise.

[Example:] Old branches are reserved via a tag such as next-20081204. If you update the your local copy of the linux-next repository every day, you will accumulate a large number of these old branch tags.
If you then delete a whole series of them, and run git-gc, the operation will take quite a while, and the number of blocks and inodes used will grow significantly.

They will disappear after a "git prune", but when I do this housekeeping operation, I've often wished for a --yes-I-know-what-I-am-doing-and-it's-unsafe-but-just-drop-the-unreachable-objects-cause-this-is-just-a-tracking-repository option to "git gc".

So in your case, would a "git prune" be helpful?

(possibly with using "now" in the gc.pruneexpire config variable, needed for the above behavior to happen).

---

You also have (from the same thread):

repack -a -d -l

Notice the lowercase 'a'.

git-gc calls repack with uppercase 'A' which is what causes the unreachable objects to be unpacked. Little 'a', is for people who know what they are doing, and want git to just drop unreachable objects.