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+GIT bitmap v1 format
+====================
+
+== Pack and multi-pack bitmaps
+
+Bitmaps store reachability information about the set of objects in a packfile,
+or a multi-pack index (MIDX). The former is defined obviously, and the latter is
+defined as the union of objects in packs contained in the MIDX.
+
+A bitmap may belong to either one pack, or the repository's multi-pack index (if
+it exists). A repository may have at most one bitmap.
+
+An object is uniquely described by its bit position within a bitmap:
+
+ - If the bitmap belongs to a packfile, the __n__th bit corresponds to
+ the __n__th object in pack order. For a function `offset` which maps
+ objects to their byte offset within a pack, pack order is defined as
+ follows:
+
+ o1 <= o2 <==> offset(o1) <= offset(o2)
+
+ - If the bitmap belongs to a MIDX, the __n__th bit corresponds to the
+ __n__th object in MIDX order. With an additional function `pack` which
+ maps objects to the pack they were selected from by the MIDX, MIDX order
+ is defined as follows:
+
+ o1 <= o2 <==> pack(o1) <= pack(o2) /\ offset(o1) <= offset(o2)
++
+The ordering between packs is done according to the MIDX's .rev file.
+Notably, the preferred pack sorts ahead of all other packs.
+
+The on-disk representation (described below) of a bitmap is the same regardless
+of whether or not that bitmap belongs to a packfile or a MIDX. The only
+difference is the interpretation of the bits, which is described above.
+
+Certain bitmap extensions are supported (see: Appendix B). No extensions are
+required for bitmaps corresponding to packfiles. For bitmaps that correspond to
+MIDXs, both the bit-cache and rev-cache extensions are required.
+
+== On-disk format
+
+ * A header appears at the beginning:
+
+ 4-byte signature: :: {'B', 'I', 'T', 'M'}
+
+ 2-byte version number (network byte order): ::
+
+ The current implementation only supports version 1
+ of the bitmap index (the same one as JGit).
+
+ 2-byte flags (network byte order): ::
+
+ The following flags are supported:
+
+ ** {empty}
+ BITMAP_OPT_FULL_DAG (0x1) REQUIRED: :::
+
+ This flag must always be present. It implies that the
+ bitmap index has been generated for a packfile or
+ multi-pack index (MIDX) with full closure (i.e. where
+ every single object in the packfile/MIDX can find its
+ parent links inside the same packfile/MIDX). This is a
+ requirement for the bitmap index format, also present in
+ JGit, that greatly reduces the complexity of the
+ implementation.
+
+ ** {empty}
+ BITMAP_OPT_HASH_CACHE (0x4): :::
+
+ If present, the end of the bitmap file contains
+ `N` 32-bit name-hash values, one per object in the
+ pack/MIDX. The format and meaning of the name-hash is
+ described below.
+
+ ** {empty}
+ BITMAP_OPT_LOOKUP_TABLE (0x10): :::
+ If present, the end of the bitmap file contains a table
+ containing a list of `N` <commit_pos, offset, xor_row>
+ triplets. The format and meaning of the table is described
+ below.
++
+NOTE: Unlike the xor_offset used to compress an individual bitmap,
+`xor_row` stores an *absolute* index into the lookup table, not a location
+relative to the current entry.
+
+ 4-byte entry count (network byte order): ::
+ The total count of entries (bitmapped commits) in this bitmap index.
+
+ 20-byte checksum: ::
+ The SHA1 checksum of the pack/MIDX this bitmap index
+ belongs to.
+
+ * 4 EWAH bitmaps that act as type indexes
++
+Type indexes are serialized after the hash cache in the shape
+of four EWAH bitmaps stored consecutively (see Appendix A for
+the serialization format of an EWAH bitmap).
++
+There is a bitmap for each Git object type, stored in the following
+order:
++
+ - Commits
+ - Trees
+ - Blobs
+ - Tags
+
++
+In each bitmap, the `n`th bit is set to true if the `n`th object
+in the packfile or multi-pack index is of that type.
++
+The obvious consequence is that the OR of all 4 bitmaps will result
+in a full set (all bits set), and the AND of all 4 bitmaps will
+result in an empty bitmap (no bits set).
+
+ * N entries with compressed bitmaps, one for each indexed commit
++
+Where `N` is the total number of entries in this bitmap index.
+Each entry contains the following:
+
+ ** {empty}
+ 4-byte object position (network byte order): ::
+ The position **in the index for the packfile or
+ multi-pack index** where the bitmap for this commit is
+ found.
+
+ ** {empty}
+ 1-byte XOR-offset: ::
+ The xor offset used to compress this bitmap. For an entry
+ in position `x`, an XOR offset of `y` means that the actual
+ bitmap representing this commit is composed by XORing the
+ bitmap for this entry with the bitmap in entry `x-y` (i.e.
+ the bitmap `y` entries before this one).
++
+NOTE: This compression can be recursive. In order to
+XOR this entry with a previous one, the previous entry needs
+to be decompressed first, and so on.
++
+The hard-limit for this offset is 160 (an entry can only be
+xor'ed against one of the 160 entries preceding it). This
+number is always positive, and hence entries are always xor'ed
+with **previous** bitmaps, not bitmaps that will come afterwards
+in the index.
+
+ ** {empty}
+ 1-byte flags for this bitmap: ::
+ At the moment the only available flag is `0x1`, which hints
+ that this bitmap can be re-used when rebuilding bitmap indexes
+ for the repository.
+
+ ** The compressed bitmap itself, see Appendix A.
+
+ * {empty}
+ TRAILER: ::
+ Trailing checksum of the preceding contents.
+
+== Appendix A: Serialization format for an EWAH bitmap
+
+Ewah bitmaps are serialized in the same protocol as the JAVAEWAH
+library, making them backwards compatible with the JGit
+implementation:
+
+ - 4-byte number of bits of the resulting UNCOMPRESSED bitmap
+
+ - 4-byte number of words of the COMPRESSED bitmap, when stored
+
+ - N x 8-byte words, as specified by the previous field
++
+This is the actual content of the compressed bitmap.
+
+ - 4-byte position of the current RLW for the compressed
+ bitmap
+
+All words are stored in network byte order for their corresponding
+sizes.
+
+The compressed bitmap is stored in a form of run-length encoding, as
+follows. It consists of a concatenation of an arbitrary number of
+chunks. Each chunk consists of one or more 64-bit words
+
+ H L_1 L_2 L_3 .... L_M
+
+H is called RLW (run length word). It consists of (from lower to higher
+order bits):
+
+ - 1 bit: the repeated bit B
+
+ - 32 bits: repetition count K (unsigned)
+
+ - 31 bits: literal word count M (unsigned)
+
+The bitstream represented by the above chunk is then:
+
+ - K repetitions of B
+
+ - The bits stored in `L_1` through `L_M`. Within a word, bits at
+ lower order come earlier in the stream than those at higher
+ order.
+
+The next word after `L_M` (if any) must again be a RLW, for the next
+chunk. For efficient appending to the bitstream, the EWAH stores a
+pointer to the last RLW in the stream.
+
+
+== Appendix B: Optional Bitmap Sections
+
+These sections may or may not be present in the `.bitmap` file; their
+presence is indicated by the header flags section described above.
+
+Name-hash cache
+---------------
+
+If the BITMAP_OPT_HASH_CACHE flag is set, the end of the bitmap contains
+a cache of 32-bit values, one per object in the pack/MIDX. The value at
+position `i` is the hash of the pathname at which the `i`th object
+(counting in index or multi-pack index order) in the pack/MIDX can be found.
+This can be fed into the delta heuristics to compare objects with similar
+pathnames.
+
+The hash algorithm used is:
+
+ hash = 0;
+ while ((c = *name++))
+ if (!isspace(c))
+ hash = (hash >> 2) + (c << 24);
+
+Note that this hashing scheme is tied to the BITMAP_OPT_HASH_CACHE flag.
+If implementations want to choose a different hashing scheme, they are
+free to do so, but MUST allocate a new header flag (because comparing
+hashes made under two different schemes would be pointless).
+
+Commit lookup table
+-------------------
+
+If the BITMAP_OPT_LOOKUP_TABLE flag is set, the last `N * (4 + 8 + 4)`
+bytes (preceding the name-hash cache and trailing hash) of the `.bitmap`
+file contains a lookup table specifying the information needed to get
+the desired bitmap from the entries without parsing previous unnecessary
+bitmaps.
+
+For a `.bitmap` containing `nr_entries` reachability bitmaps, the table
+contains a list of `nr_entries` <commit_pos, offset, xor_row> triplets
+(sorted in the ascending order of `commit_pos`). The content of the i'th
+triplet is -
+
+ * {empty}
+ commit_pos (4 byte integer, network byte order): ::
+ It stores the object position of a commit (in the midx or pack
+ index).
+
+ * {empty}
+ offset (8 byte integer, network byte order): ::
+ The offset from which that commit's bitmap can be read.
+
+ * {empty}
+ xor_row (4 byte integer, network byte order): ::
+ The position of the triplet whose bitmap is used to compress
+ this one, or `0xffffffff` if no such bitmap exists.