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+git-maintenance(1)
+==================
+
+NAME
+----
+git-maintenance - Run tasks to optimize Git repository data
+
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+[verse]
+'git maintenance' run [<options>]
+'git maintenance' start [--scheduler=<scheduler>]
+'git maintenance' (stop|register|unregister) [<options>]
+
+
+DESCRIPTION
+-----------
+Run tasks to optimize Git repository data, speeding up other Git commands
+and reducing storage requirements for the repository.
+
+Git commands that add repository data, such as `git add` or `git fetch`,
+are optimized for a responsive user experience. These commands do not take
+time to optimize the Git data, since such optimizations scale with the full
+size of the repository while these user commands each perform a relatively
+small action.
+
+The `git maintenance` command provides flexibility for how to optimize the
+Git repository.
+
+SUBCOMMANDS
+-----------
+
+run::
+ Run one or more maintenance tasks. If one or more `--task` options
+ are specified, then those tasks are run in that order. Otherwise,
+ the tasks are determined by which `maintenance.<task>.enabled`
+ config options are true. By default, only `maintenance.gc.enabled`
+ is true.
+
+start::
+ Start running maintenance on the current repository. This performs
+ the same config updates as the `register` subcommand, then updates
+ the background scheduler to run `git maintenance run --scheduled`
+ on an hourly basis.
+
+stop::
+ Halt the background maintenance schedule. The current repository
+ is not removed from the list of maintained repositories, in case
+ the background maintenance is restarted later.
+
+register::
+ Initialize Git config values so any scheduled maintenance will start
+ running on this repository. This adds the repository to the
+ `maintenance.repo` config variable in the current user's global config,
+ or the config specified by --config-file option, and enables some
+ recommended configuration values for `maintenance.<task>.schedule`. The
+ tasks that are enabled are safe for running in the background without
+ disrupting foreground processes.
++
+The `register` subcommand will also set the `maintenance.strategy` config
+value to `incremental`, if this value is not previously set. The
+`incremental` strategy uses the following schedule for each maintenance
+task:
++
+--
+* `gc`: disabled.
+* `commit-graph`: hourly.
+* `prefetch`: hourly.
+* `loose-objects`: daily.
+* `incremental-repack`: daily.
+--
++
+`git maintenance register` will also disable foreground maintenance by
+setting `maintenance.auto = false` in the current repository. This config
+setting will remain after a `git maintenance unregister` command.
+
+unregister::
+ Remove the current repository from background maintenance. This
+ only removes the repository from the configured list. It does not
+ stop the background maintenance processes from running.
++
+The `unregister` subcommand will report an error if the current repository
+is not already registered. Use the `--force` option to return success even
+when the current repository is not registered.
+
+TASKS
+-----
+
+commit-graph::
+ The `commit-graph` job updates the `commit-graph` files incrementally,
+ then verifies that the written data is correct. The incremental
+ write is safe to run alongside concurrent Git processes since it
+ will not expire `.graph` files that were in the previous
+ `commit-graph-chain` file. They will be deleted by a later run based
+ on the expiration delay.
+
+prefetch::
+ The `prefetch` task updates the object directory with the latest
+ objects from all registered remotes. For each remote, a `git fetch`
+ command is run. The configured refspec is modified to place all
+ requested refs within `refs/prefetch/`. Also, tags are not updated.
++
+This is done to avoid disrupting the remote-tracking branches. The end users
+expect these refs to stay unmoved unless they initiate a fetch. With prefetch
+task, however, the objects necessary to complete a later real fetch would
+already be obtained, so the real fetch would go faster. In the ideal case,
+it will just become an update to a bunch of remote-tracking branches without
+any object transfer.
+
+gc::
+ Clean up unnecessary files and optimize the local repository. "GC"
+ stands for "garbage collection," but this task performs many
+ smaller tasks. This task can be expensive for large repositories,
+ as it repacks all Git objects into a single pack-file. It can also
+ be disruptive in some situations, as it deletes stale data. See
+ linkgit:git-gc[1] for more details on garbage collection in Git.
+
+loose-objects::
+ The `loose-objects` job cleans up loose objects and places them into
+ pack-files. In order to prevent race conditions with concurrent Git
+ commands, it follows a two-step process. First, it deletes any loose
+ objects that already exist in a pack-file; concurrent Git processes
+ will examine the pack-file for the object data instead of the loose
+ object. Second, it creates a new pack-file (starting with "loose-")
+ containing a batch of loose objects. The batch size is limited to 50
+ thousand objects to prevent the job from taking too long on a
+ repository with many loose objects. The `gc` task writes unreachable
+ objects as loose objects to be cleaned up by a later step only if
+ they are not re-added to a pack-file; for this reason it is not
+ advisable to enable both the `loose-objects` and `gc` tasks at the
+ same time.
+
+incremental-repack::
+ The `incremental-repack` job repacks the object directory
+ using the `multi-pack-index` feature. In order to prevent race
+ conditions with concurrent Git commands, it follows a two-step
+ process. First, it calls `git multi-pack-index expire` to delete
+ pack-files unreferenced by the `multi-pack-index` file. Second, it
+ calls `git multi-pack-index repack` to select several small
+ pack-files and repack them into a bigger one, and then update the
+ `multi-pack-index` entries that refer to the small pack-files to
+ refer to the new pack-file. This prepares those small pack-files
+ for deletion upon the next run of `git multi-pack-index expire`.
+ The selection of the small pack-files is such that the expected
+ size of the big pack-file is at least the batch size; see the
+ `--batch-size` option for the `repack` subcommand in
+ linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1]. The default batch-size is zero,
+ which is a special case that attempts to repack all pack-files
+ into a single pack-file.
+
+pack-refs::
+ The `pack-refs` task collects the loose reference files and
+ collects them into a single file. This speeds up operations that
+ need to iterate across many references. See linkgit:git-pack-refs[1]
+ for more information.
+
+OPTIONS
+-------
+--auto::
+ When combined with the `run` subcommand, run maintenance tasks
+ only if certain thresholds are met. For example, the `gc` task
+ runs when the number of loose objects exceeds the number stored
+ in the `gc.auto` config setting, or when the number of pack-files
+ exceeds the `gc.autoPackLimit` config setting. Not compatible with
+ the `--schedule` option.
+
+--schedule::
+ When combined with the `run` subcommand, run maintenance tasks
+ only if certain time conditions are met, as specified by the
+ `maintenance.<task>.schedule` config value for each `<task>`.
+ This config value specifies a number of seconds since the last
+ time that task ran, according to the `maintenance.<task>.lastRun`
+ config value. The tasks that are tested are those provided by
+ the `--task=<task>` option(s) or those with
+ `maintenance.<task>.enabled` set to true.
+
+--quiet::
+ Do not report progress or other information over `stderr`.
+
+--task=<task>::
+ If this option is specified one or more times, then only run the
+ specified tasks in the specified order. If no `--task=<task>`
+ arguments are specified, then only the tasks with
+ `maintenance.<task>.enabled` configured as `true` are considered.
+ See the 'TASKS' section for the list of accepted `<task>` values.
+
+--scheduler=auto|crontab|systemd-timer|launchctl|schtasks::
+ When combined with the `start` subcommand, specify the scheduler
+ for running the hourly, daily and weekly executions of
+ `git maintenance run`.
+ Possible values for `<scheduler>` are `auto`, `crontab`
+ (POSIX), `systemd-timer` (Linux), `launchctl` (macOS), and
+ `schtasks` (Windows). When `auto` is specified, the
+ appropriate platform-specific scheduler is used; on Linux,
+ `systemd-timer` is used if available, otherwise
+ `crontab`. Default is `auto`.
+
+
+TROUBLESHOOTING
+---------------
+The `git maintenance` command is designed to simplify the repository
+maintenance patterns while minimizing user wait time during Git commands.
+A variety of configuration options are available to allow customizing this
+process. The default maintenance options focus on operations that complete
+quickly, even on large repositories.
+
+Users may find some cases where scheduled maintenance tasks do not run as
+frequently as intended. Each `git maintenance run` command takes a lock on
+the repository's object database, and this prevents other concurrent
+`git maintenance run` commands from running on the same repository. Without
+this safeguard, competing processes could leave the repository in an
+unpredictable state.
+
+The background maintenance schedule runs `git maintenance run` processes
+on an hourly basis. Each run executes the "hourly" tasks. At midnight,
+that process also executes the "daily" tasks. At midnight on the first day
+of the week, that process also executes the "weekly" tasks. A single
+process iterates over each registered repository, performing the scheduled
+tasks for that frequency. Depending on the number of registered
+repositories and their sizes, this process may take longer than an hour.
+In this case, multiple `git maintenance run` commands may run on the same
+repository at the same time, colliding on the object database lock. This
+results in one of the two tasks not running.
+
+If you find that some maintenance windows are taking longer than one hour
+to complete, then consider reducing the complexity of your maintenance
+tasks. For example, the `gc` task is much slower than the
+`incremental-repack` task. However, this comes at a cost of a slightly
+larger object database. Consider moving more expensive tasks to be run
+less frequently.
+
+Expert users may consider scheduling their own maintenance tasks using a
+different schedule than is available through `git maintenance start` and
+Git configuration options. These users should be aware of the object
+database lock and how concurrent `git maintenance run` commands behave.
+Further, the `git gc` command should not be combined with
+`git maintenance run` commands. `git gc` modifies the object database
+but does not take the lock in the same way as `git maintenance run`. If
+possible, use `git maintenance run --task=gc` instead of `git gc`.
+
+The following sections describe the mechanisms put in place to run
+background maintenance by `git maintenance start` and how to customize
+them.
+
+BACKGROUND MAINTENANCE ON POSIX SYSTEMS
+---------------------------------------
+
+The standard mechanism for scheduling background tasks on POSIX systems
+is cron(8). This tool executes commands based on a given schedule. The
+current list of user-scheduled tasks can be found by running `crontab -l`.
+The schedule written by `git maintenance start` is similar to this:
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+# BEGIN GIT MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE
+# The following schedule was created by Git
+# Any edits made in this region might be
+# replaced in the future by a Git command.
+
+0 1-23 * * * "/<path>/git" --exec-path="/<path>" for-each-repo --config=maintenance.repo maintenance run --schedule=hourly
+0 0 * * 1-6 "/<path>/git" --exec-path="/<path>" for-each-repo --config=maintenance.repo maintenance run --schedule=daily
+0 0 * * 0 "/<path>/git" --exec-path="/<path>" for-each-repo --config=maintenance.repo maintenance run --schedule=weekly
+
+# END GIT MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The comments are used as a region to mark the schedule as written by Git.
+Any modifications within this region will be completely deleted by
+`git maintenance stop` or overwritten by `git maintenance start`.
+
+The `crontab` entry specifies the full path of the `git` executable to
+ensure that the executed `git` command is the same one with which
+`git maintenance start` was issued independent of `PATH`. If the same user
+runs `git maintenance start` with multiple Git executables, then only the
+latest executable is used.
+
+These commands use `git for-each-repo --config=maintenance.repo` to run
+`git maintenance run --schedule=<frequency>` on each repository listed in
+the multi-valued `maintenance.repo` config option. These are typically
+loaded from the user-specific global config. The `git maintenance` process
+then determines which maintenance tasks are configured to run on each
+repository with each `<frequency>` using the `maintenance.<task>.schedule`
+config options. These values are loaded from the global or repository
+config values.
+
+If the config values are insufficient to achieve your desired background
+maintenance schedule, then you can create your own schedule. If you run
+`crontab -e`, then an editor will load with your user-specific `cron`
+schedule. In that editor, you can add your own schedule lines. You could
+start by adapting the default schedule listed earlier, or you could read
+the crontab(5) documentation for advanced scheduling techniques. Please
+do use the full path and `--exec-path` techniques from the default
+schedule to ensure you are executing the correct binaries in your
+schedule.
+
+
+BACKGROUND MAINTENANCE ON LINUX SYSTEMD SYSTEMS
+-----------------------------------------------
+
+While Linux supports `cron`, depending on the distribution, `cron` may
+be an optional package not necessarily installed. On modern Linux
+distributions, systemd timers are superseding it.
+
+If user systemd timers are available, they will be used as a replacement
+of `cron`.
+
+In this case, `git maintenance start` will create user systemd timer units
+and start the timers. The current list of user-scheduled tasks can be found
+by running `systemctl --user list-timers`. The timers written by `git
+maintenance start` are similar to this:
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+$ systemctl --user list-timers
+NEXT LEFT LAST PASSED UNIT ACTIVATES
+Thu 2021-04-29 19:00:00 CEST 42min left Thu 2021-04-29 18:00:11 CEST 17min ago git-maintenance@hourly.timer git-maintenance@hourly.service
+Fri 2021-04-30 00:00:00 CEST 5h 42min left Thu 2021-04-29 00:00:11 CEST 18h ago git-maintenance@daily.timer git-maintenance@daily.service
+Mon 2021-05-03 00:00:00 CEST 3 days left Mon 2021-04-26 00:00:11 CEST 3 days ago git-maintenance@weekly.timer git-maintenance@weekly.service
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+One timer is registered for each `--schedule=<frequency>` option.
+
+The definition of the systemd units can be inspected in the following files:
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+~/.config/systemd/user/git-maintenance@.timer
+~/.config/systemd/user/git-maintenance@.service
+~/.config/systemd/user/timers.target.wants/git-maintenance@hourly.timer
+~/.config/systemd/user/timers.target.wants/git-maintenance@daily.timer
+~/.config/systemd/user/timers.target.wants/git-maintenance@weekly.timer
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+`git maintenance start` will overwrite these files and start the timer
+again with `systemctl --user`, so any customization should be done by
+creating a drop-in file, i.e. a `.conf` suffixed file in the
+`~/.config/systemd/user/git-maintenance@.service.d` directory.
+
+`git maintenance stop` will stop the user systemd timers and delete
+the above mentioned files.
+
+For more details, see `systemd.timer(5)`.
+
+
+BACKGROUND MAINTENANCE ON MACOS SYSTEMS
+---------------------------------------
+
+While macOS technically supports `cron`, using `crontab -e` requires
+elevated privileges and the executed process does not have a full user
+context. Without a full user context, Git and its credential helpers
+cannot access stored credentials, so some maintenance tasks are not
+functional.
+
+Instead, `git maintenance start` interacts with the `launchctl` tool,
+which is the recommended way to schedule timed jobs in macOS. Scheduling
+maintenance through `git maintenance (start|stop)` requires some
+`launchctl` features available only in macOS 10.11 or later.
+
+Your user-specific scheduled tasks are stored as XML-formatted `.plist`
+files in `~/Library/LaunchAgents/`. You can see the currently-registered
+tasks using the following command:
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+$ ls ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.git-scm.git*
+org.git-scm.git.daily.plist
+org.git-scm.git.hourly.plist
+org.git-scm.git.weekly.plist
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+One task is registered for each `--schedule=<frequency>` option. To
+inspect how the XML format describes each schedule, open one of these
+`.plist` files in an editor and inspect the `<array>` element following
+the `<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>` element.
+
+`git maintenance start` will overwrite these files and register the
+tasks again with `launchctl`, so any customizations should be done by
+creating your own `.plist` files with distinct names. Similarly, the
+`git maintenance stop` command will unregister the tasks with `launchctl`
+and delete the `.plist` files.
+
+To create more advanced customizations to your background tasks, see
+launchctl.plist(5) for more information.
+
+
+BACKGROUND MAINTENANCE ON WINDOWS SYSTEMS
+-----------------------------------------
+
+Windows does not support `cron` and instead has its own system for
+scheduling background tasks. The `git maintenance start` command uses
+the `schtasks` command to submit tasks to this system. You can inspect
+all background tasks using the Task Scheduler application. The tasks
+added by Git have names of the form `Git Maintenance (<frequency>)`.
+The Task Scheduler GUI has ways to inspect these tasks, but you can also
+export the tasks to XML files and view the details there.
+
+Note that since Git is a console application, these background tasks
+create a console window visible to the current user. This can be changed
+manually by selecting the "Run whether user is logged in or not" option
+in Task Scheduler. This change requires a password input, which is why
+`git maintenance start` does not select it by default.
+
+If you want to customize the background tasks, please rename the tasks
+so future calls to `git maintenance (start|stop)` do not overwrite your
+custom tasks.
+
+CONFIGURATION
+-------------
+
+include::includes/cmd-config-section-all.txt[]
+
+include::config/maintenance.txt[]
+
+
+GIT
+---
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite