tmp-objdir: introduce API for temporary object directories

Once objects are added to the object database by a process,
they cannot easily be deleted, as we don't know what other
processes may have started referencing them. We have to
clean them up with git-gc, which will apply the usual
reachability and grace-period checks.

This patch provides an alternative: it helps callers create
a temporary directory inside the object directory, and a
temporary environment which can be passed to sub-programs to
ask them to write there (the original object directory
remains accessible as an alternate of the temporary one).

See tmp-objdir.h for details on the API.

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 54 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/tmp-objdir.h b/tmp-objdir.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b1e45b4c75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tmp-objdir.h
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+#ifndef TMP_OBJDIR_H
+#define TMP_OBJDIR_H
+
+/*
+ * This API allows you to create a temporary object directory, advertise it to
+ * sub-processes via GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY and GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES,
+ * and then either migrate its object into the main object directory, or remove
+ * it. The library handles unexpected signal/exit death by cleaning up the
+ * temporary directory.
+ *
+ * Example:
+ *
+ *	struct tmp_objdir *t = tmp_objdir_create();
+ *	if (!run_command_v_opt_cd_env(cmd, 0, NULL, tmp_objdir_env(t)) &&
+ *	    !tmp_objdir_migrate(t))
+ *		printf("success!\n");
+ *	else
+ *		die("failed...tmp_objdir will clean up for us");
+ *
+ */
+
+struct tmp_objdir;
+
+/*
+ * Create a new temporary object directory; returns NULL on failure.
+ */
+struct tmp_objdir *tmp_objdir_create(void);
+
+/*
+ * Return a list of environment strings, suitable for use with
+ * child_process.env, that can be passed to child programs to make use of the
+ * temporary object directory.
+ */
+const char **tmp_objdir_env(const struct tmp_objdir *);
+
+/*
+ * Finalize a temporary object directory by migrating its objects into the main
+ * object database, removing the temporary directory, and freeing any
+ * associated resources.
+ */
+int tmp_objdir_migrate(struct tmp_objdir *);
+
+/*
+ * Destroy a temporary object directory, discarding any objects it contains.
+ */
+int tmp_objdir_destroy(struct tmp_objdir *);
+
+/*
+ * Add the temporary object directory as an alternate object store in the
+ * current process.
+ */
+void tmp_objdir_add_as_alternate(const struct tmp_objdir *);
+
+#endif /* TMP_OBJDIR_H */