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Scalar: A set of tools and extensions for Git to allow very large monorepos to run on Git without a virtualization layer

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A highly extensible Git implementation in pure Go.

Quick Overview

Scalar is an open-source project by Microsoft that aims to improve Git performance for large repositories. It focuses on optimizing Git operations for monorepos and other large-scale projects, addressing common challenges faced by developers working with extensive codebases.

Pros

  • Significantly improves Git performance for large repositories
  • Seamlessly integrates with existing Git workflows and tools
  • Reduces disk space usage through intelligent file management
  • Supports both Windows and macOS platforms

Cons

  • Limited support for Linux (currently in development)
  • May require additional setup and configuration compared to standard Git
  • Some advanced Git features might not be fully supported or optimized
  • Learning curve for teams transitioning from traditional Git workflows

Getting Started

To get started with Scalar, follow these steps:

  1. Install Scalar:

    winget install --id Microsoft.Scalar
    
  2. Clone a repository using Scalar:

    scalar clone <repository-url> <local-path>
    
  3. Use Git commands as usual within the Scalar-managed repository:

    cd <local-path>
    git status
    git pull
    git commit -m "Your commit message"
    git push
    

For more detailed instructions and advanced usage, refer to the official Scalar documentation.

Competitor Comparisons

8,585

A fork of Git containing Windows-specific patches.

Pros of Git for Windows

  • Widely adopted and well-established Git implementation for Windows
  • Includes a full suite of Git tools and utilities
  • Supports both command-line and GUI interfaces

Cons of Git for Windows

  • Can be slower for large repositories or complex operations
  • May require more manual configuration for optimal performance
  • Limited built-in support for handling extremely large files

Code Comparison

Git for Windows:

git clone https://github.com/example/repo.git
cd repo
git checkout -b new-feature
git add .
git commit -m "Add new feature"

Scalar:

scalar clone https://github.com/example/repo.git
cd repo
git checkout -b new-feature
git add .
git commit -m "Add new feature"

Key Differences

  • Scalar focuses on improving performance for large repositories
  • Git for Windows provides a more traditional Git experience
  • Scalar integrates with existing Git workflows but optimizes certain operations

Use Cases

  • Git for Windows: Suitable for most Windows users and general Git operations
  • Scalar: Ideal for large monorepos or projects with extensive history

Performance

  • Scalar generally offers better performance for large repositories
  • Git for Windows may require additional configuration for optimal performance in large projects
9,898

A cross-platform, linkable library implementation of Git that you can use in your application.

Pros of libgit2

  • Mature and widely-used library with extensive language bindings
  • Highly performant and memory-efficient implementation
  • Flexible API allowing fine-grained control over Git operations

Cons of libgit2

  • Requires more low-level knowledge of Git internals
  • Less focus on large repository performance optimizations
  • May require additional work to implement high-level Git workflows

Code Comparison

Scalar (C#):

using Microsoft.Git.CredentialManager;
using Scalar.Commands;

var credentialManager = new CredentialManager();
var cloneCommand = new CloneCommand(credentialManager);
cloneCommand.Execute(repoUrl, localPath);

libgit2 (C):

#include <git2.h>

git_repository *repo = NULL;
git_clone_options clone_opts = GIT_CLONE_OPTIONS_INIT;
int error = git_clone(&repo, url, local_path, &clone_opts);
git_repository_free(repo);

Summary

Scalar focuses on optimizing Git for large repositories, offering improved performance for specific scenarios. libgit2 provides a more general-purpose Git implementation with broader language support and flexibility. Scalar may be preferable for large-scale projects, while libgit2 is suitable for a wide range of Git-related applications and custom Git tooling.

Git Extensions is a standalone UI tool for managing git repositories. It also integrates with Windows Explorer and Microsoft Visual Studio (2015/2017/2019).

Pros of Git Extensions

  • User-friendly GUI for Git operations, making it accessible for beginners
  • Extensive feature set, including visual diff tools and repository management
  • Cross-platform support (Windows, macOS, Linux)

Cons of Git Extensions

  • Larger installation footprint compared to Scalar's lightweight approach
  • May have a steeper learning curve for users new to Git concepts
  • Performance might be slower for very large repositories

Code Comparison

Git Extensions (C#):

public class GitCommands
{
    public static string Init(string path)
    {
        return RunGitCmd("init", path);
    }
}

Scalar (C++):

int Scalar::Init(const char* enlistment_root)
{
    return RunGitCommand("init", enlistment_root);
}

While both projects interact with Git, Git Extensions focuses on providing a comprehensive GUI wrapper, whereas Scalar aims to optimize Git for large repositories through its Virtual File System (VFS) approach. Git Extensions offers more visual tools and a broader feature set, while Scalar prioritizes performance and efficiency for specific use cases involving massive codebases.

55,342

simple terminal UI for git commands

Pros of Lazygit

  • User-friendly terminal UI for Git operations
  • Supports multiple platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows)
  • Actively maintained with frequent updates

Cons of Lazygit

  • Limited to Git operations, not optimized for large repositories
  • May require learning new keyboard shortcuts

Code Comparison

Lazygit (Go):

func (gui *Gui) handleCommitConfirm(g *gocui.Gui, v *gocui.View) error {
    message := gui.trimmedContent(v)
    if message == "" {
        return gui.createErrorPanel(gui.Tr.NoCommitMessageErr)
    }
    return gui.handleCommitSubmit(message)
}

Scalar (C#):

public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    try
    {
        ReturnCode returnCode = Program.Execute(args);
        Environment.Exit((int)returnCode);
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        Console.Error.WriteLine(e.ToString());
        Environment.Exit((int)ReturnCode.GenericError);
    }
}

Summary

Lazygit is a terminal-based Git client focusing on user-friendly interactions, while Scalar is designed to optimize Git for large repositories. Lazygit offers a more intuitive interface for common Git operations, but may not be as efficient for massive codebases. Scalar, on the other hand, excels in handling large repositories but lacks the user-friendly terminal UI of Lazygit. The choice between the two depends on the specific needs of the project and the user's preferences.

A pure JavaScript implementation of git for node and browsers!

Pros of isomorphic-git

  • Platform-independent: Works in browsers, Node.js, and other JavaScript environments
  • Pure JavaScript implementation: No native dependencies required
  • Extensive API: Supports a wide range of Git operations

Cons of isomorphic-git

  • Performance: May be slower for large repositories compared to native Git implementations
  • Limited support for some advanced Git features
  • Larger bundle size due to pure JavaScript implementation

Code Comparison

isomorphic-git:

import { clone } from 'isomorphic-git'
import http from 'isomorphic-git/http/web'

await clone({
  fs,
  http,
  dir: '/path/to/repo',
  url: 'https://github.com/example/repo.git'
})

Scalar:

using Microsoft.Git.CredentialManager;

var credentialManager = new CredentialManager();
var credentials = await credentialManager.GetCredentialsAsync(remoteUrl);

ScalarClone.Run(sourceUrl, targetPath, credentials);

Key Differences

  • Language: isomorphic-git is JavaScript-based, while Scalar is primarily C#
  • Focus: isomorphic-git aims for cross-platform JavaScript Git operations, Scalar focuses on large repository performance
  • Integration: isomorphic-git is easily integrated into web applications, Scalar is more suited for desktop environments
  • Performance: Scalar is optimized for large repositories, while isomorphic-git may struggle with very large repos
6,305

A highly extensible Git implementation in pure Go.

Pros of go-git

  • Pure Go implementation, offering better portability and easier integration in Go projects
  • Supports a wide range of Git operations, including clone, push, pull, and branch management
  • Active development with frequent updates and contributions from the community

Cons of go-git

  • May have slower performance for large repositories compared to native Git implementations
  • Limited support for some advanced Git features and protocols
  • Potential compatibility issues with certain Git workflows or edge cases

Code Comparison

go-git:

r, err := git.PlainClone("/path/to/repo", false, &git.CloneOptions{
    URL:      "https://github.com/go-git/go-git",
    Progress: os.Stdout,
})

Scalar:

var enlistment = await Scalar.EnlistmentFactory.CreateNewEnlistmentAsync(
    "https://github.com/microsoft/scalar",
    "/path/to/repo",
    new ScalarVerbController());

Summary

go-git is a pure Go implementation of Git, offering portability and easy integration for Go projects. It supports a wide range of Git operations but may have performance limitations for large repositories. Scalar, on the other hand, is focused on improving Git performance for large repositories and is more tightly integrated with the native Git implementation. The choice between the two depends on specific project requirements, language preferences, and performance needs.

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README

Scalar

What is Scalar?

Scalar is a tool that helps Git scale to some of the largest Git repositories. It achieves this by enabling some advanced Git features, such as:

  • 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.

As new versions of Git are released, we update the list of features that Scalar automatically configures. This reduces your effort to keep your repositories as efficient as possible.

Scalar has moved!

Through significant effort from our team, we have successfully transitioned Scalar from a modified version of VFS for Git into a thin shell around core Git features. The Scalar executable has now been ported to be included in the microsoft/git fork. Please visit that fork for all of your Scalar needs:

Why did Scalar move?

Scalar started as a modification of VFS for Git to create a working solution with a robust test suite in a short amount of time. The goal was to depend more on features that exist within Git itself instead of creating new functionality within this project. Since the start, we have focused on this goal with efforts such as improving sparse-checkout performance in Git, implementing background maintenance in Git, and integrating the GVFS protocol into microsoft/git which allowed us to drop the Scalar.Mount process. All of these changes reduced the size of the code in Scalar itself until it could be replaced with a small command-line interface.

Additional benefits to this change include making our release and installation mechanism much simpler. Users now only need to install one tool, not multiple, to take advantage of all of the benefits.

What remains in this repository?

We are keeping the microsoft/scalar repository available since we have linked to it and want to make sure those links continue to work. We added pointers in several places to navigate readers to the microsoft/git repository for the latest versions.

We also have a large set of functional tests that verify that Scalar enlistments continue to work in a variety of advanced Git scenarios. These tests are incredibly helpful as we advance features in microsoft/git, so those tests remain in this repository. We run them as part of pull request validation in microsoft/git, so no changes are made there without passing this suite of tests.

What if I already installed Scalar and want the new version?

We are working to ensure that users on the .NET version of Scalar have a painless experience while changing to the new version.

  • On Windows, users can install microsoft/git and the installer will remove the .NET version and update any registered enlistments to work with the new version.

  • On macOS, users should run brew uninstall --cask scalar or brew uninstall --cask scalar-azrepos depending on their version and then run brew install --cask microsoft-git to get the new version. At the moment, users on macOS will need to re-run scalar register on their enlistments to ensure they are registered for future upgrades.

  • On Linux, there is no established uninstall mechanism, but the .NET version can be removed via sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/scalar/. Installing the new version will overwrite the scalar binary in /usr/local/bin. At the moment, users on Linux will need to re-run scalar register on their enlistments to ensure they are registered for future upgrades.

You can check if the new Scalar version is installed correctly by running scalar version which should have the same output as git version.

License

The Scalar source code in this repo is available under the MIT license. See License.md.

Code of Conduct

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.