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Cover image for Git 2.38 has changed!
Akash Pattnaik
Akash Pattnaik

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Git 2.38 has changed!

Hey there everyone ๐Ÿ‘‹!

All developers have used git, right? Well, the recent update dated on 13-10-22 [DD-MM-YYYY] has somewhat changed git forever.

๐Ÿชธ Backstory of Git

๐Ÿฒ Git is free and open source software for distributed version control: tracking changes in any set of files, usually used for coordinating work among programmers collaboratively developing source code during software development. It was initially released on 7 April, 2005. Git was developed the same person who built the the great linux kernal.

๐Ÿฆ„ Introduction of Scalar

Scalar has been a side project of microsoft for years now. It is open-source since the very beginning.
๐Ÿ˜Ž Scalar is a tool that helps Git scale to some of the largest Git repositories. It achieves this by enabling some advanced Git features like the following -

  • Partial clone: reduces time to get a working repository by not downloading all Git objects right away.

  • Background prefetch: downloads Git object data from all remotes every hour, reducing the amount of time for foreground git fetch calls.

  • Sparse-checkout: limits the size of your working directory.

  • File system monitor: tracks the recently modified files and eliminates the need for Git to scan the entire worktree.

  • Commit-graph: accelerates commit walks and reachability calculations, speeding up commands like git log.

  • Multi-pack-index: enables fast object lookups across many pack-files.

  • Incremental repack: Repacks the packed Git data into fewer pack-file without disrupting concurrent commands by using the multi-pack-index.

๐Ÿ˜ฎ Git adapts scalar

In the recent update of git (2.38.1), a new executable has been included with the git package - scalar.

It's is going to be intense as we uncover all the commands and their uses in the scalar executable.

Scalar preview

As you can see in the picture given above, scalar becomes a command in the shell just like git did.

๐Ÿงก Using Scalar

๐Ÿ‰ Just for a stater, let's clone a repository using scalar.

Scalar clone preview

You can get to know more about the entire scalar executable and it's history here.

๐Ÿ™ Connect with me

  • Mail - akashpattnaik.github@gamil.com
  • Github - BLUE-DEVIL1134
  • Twitter - akash_am1

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Top comments (1)

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derlin profile image
Lucy Linder โ€ข

Thank you for the update!

Is scalar compatible with any git repo, or do you need to do something specific as is the case for git lfs ?

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