Implement packed-file reading in git-fs-db.

[tsgautier]

trying out the read method, I find I can read a new object entry that exists as an unpacked object in the .git/objects directory.

but I get an ENOENT on an object hash that does not exist in the .git/objects directory if I try to read an older file that I am pretty sure is sitting in a packed object file.

just wondering if that's on the todo list - if so I'll just drop my experiments for now until it's supported - or maybe you need some help there I could try to support it?

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[creationix]

Yes it's on the TODO list, but not scheduled yet. Which of the 4 schedules milestones do you feel this fits in?

Keep in mind that I won't have packfile writing of any kind in milestone 1, but perhaps reading of existing git repos could fit in there. I just don't want to block the other work on something most people won't need.

[tsgautier]

I haven't looked at the milestones. Where can I find them? For me it's a showstopper because I want to read files out of a git repo, and for any arbitrary git repo that pretty much means reading from pack files is a requirement.

I don't need to write to them, so for my use case, it's ok to do read first and then write.

[tsgautier]

Ah, yes, I see, I found the milestones. Well, for me, I would prefer to have the ability to read data from a git repository in the first milestone, but that's my use case. Not sure specifically what use cases you are targeting.

On a practical note, proving that you can read data before trying to write to it seems like a logical way to divide and conquer and has the side benefit of addressing my use case first ;-)

[chrisdickinson]

@tsgautier if you're looking for a simple read-only interface to git repos containing pack files in node, you might try git-fs-repo in the meantime until this feature is in js-git.

@creationix this seems like it might be a milestone 1 goal, as it'll be a pretty common use case.

[creationix]

Ok, I'll tack it to the end of my milestone 1 tasks. I'm hoping to get that milestone done this week before I travel to StrangeLoop, but it's getting pretty close. Maybe I'll finish at the conference or while traveling.

[tsgautier]

@chrisdickinson thanks for the tip. I'll take a look. @creationix sounds good. Looking forward to it. Say hello to Alex Miller for me if you see him at Strange Loop.

[creationix]

Sorry for delaying this issue. I think it will be the last issue in milestone #2 after I complete all the network stuff. With this and the network stuff done, js-git will be feature complete enough to be the backend for things like howtonode.org.