Git v2.51 released

The Git distributed version-controlsystem has released version 2.51, with "506 non-merge commits sincev2.50.1, contributed by 91 people, 21 of which are new faces". Itbrings multiple new features, some of which are highlighted in a poston the GitHub blog. It includes some performance improvements for multi-pack indexes(MIDXs), a way to import and export stash entries so they can be migratedmore easily, and smaller pack files:

Git 2.51 takes the spirit of that change and goes a step further by introducing a new way to collect objects when repacking, called "path walk". Instead of walking objects in revision order with Git emitting objects with their corresponding path names along the way, the path walk approach emits all objects from a given path at the same time. This approach avoids the name-hash heuristic altogether and can look for deltas within groups of objects that are known to be at the same path.

As a result, Git can generate packs using the path walk approach that are often significantly smaller than even those generated with the new name hash function described above. Its timings are competitive even with generating packs using the existing revision order traversal.