cvsserver: add comments about database schema/usage

No functionality changes, but these comments should make it easier to
understand how it works.

Signed-off-by: Matthew Ogilvie <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <[email protected]>

Author: Matthew Ogilvie

git-cvsserver.perl

@@ -2129,6 +2129,10 @@ sub statecleanup
     $state->{entries} = {};
 }
 
+# Return working directory revision int "X" from CVS revision "1.X" out
+# of the the working directory "entries" state, for the given filename.
+# Return negative "X" to represent the file is scheduled for removal
+# when it is committed.
 sub revparse
 {
     my $filename = shift;
@@ -2901,6 +2905,16 @@ sub new
     }
 
     # Construct the revision table if required
+    # The revision table stores an entry for each file, each time that file
+    # changes.
+    #   numberOfRecords = O( numCommits * averageNumChangedFilesPerCommit )
+    # This is not sufficient to support "-r {commithash}" for any
+    # files except files that were modified by that commit (also,
+    # some places in the code ignore/effectively strip out -r in
+    # some cases, before it gets passed to getmeta()).
+    # The "filehash" field typically has a git blob hash, but can also
+    # be set to "dead" to indicate that the given version of the file
+    # should not exist in the sandbox.
     unless ( $self->{tables}{$self->tablename("revision")} )
     {
         my $tablename = $self->tablename("revision");
@@ -2928,6 +2942,15 @@ sub new
     }
 
     # Construct the head table if required
+    # The head table (along with the "last_commit" entry in the property
+    # table) is the persisted working state of the "sub update" subroutine.
+    # All of it's data is read entirely first, and completely recreated
+    # last, every time "sub update" runs.
+    # This is also used by "sub getmeta" when it is asked for the latest
+    # version of a file (as opposed to some specific version).
+    # Another way of thinking about it is as a single slice out of
+    # "revisions", giving just the most recent revision information for
+    # each file.
     unless ( $self->{tables}{$self->tablename("head")} )
     {
         my $tablename = $self->tablename("head");
@@ -2950,6 +2973,7 @@ sub new
     }
 
     # Construct the properties table if required
+    #  - "last_commit" - Used by "sub update".
     unless ( $self->{tables}{$self->tablename("properties")} )
     {
         my $tablename = $self->tablename("properties");
@@ -2962,6 +2986,11 @@ sub new
     }
 
     # Construct the commitmsgs table if required
+    # The commitmsgs table is only used for merge commits, since
+    # "sub update" will only keep one branch of parents.  Shortlogs
+    # for ignored commits (i.e. not on the chosen branch) will be used
+    # to construct a replacement "collapsed" merge commit message,
+    # which will be stored in this table.  See also "sub commitmessage".
     unless ( $self->{tables}{$self->tablename("commitmsgs")} )
     {
         my $tablename = $self->tablename("commitmsgs");
@@ -2993,6 +3022,14 @@ sub tablename
 
 =head2 update
 
+Bring the database up to date with the latest changes from
+the git repository.
+
+Internal working state is read out of the "head" table and the
+"last_commit" property, then it updates "revisions" based on that, and
+finally it writes the new internal state back to the "head" table
+so it can be used as a starting point the next time update is called.
+
 =cut
 sub update
 {
@@ -3106,17 +3143,18 @@ sub update
                 next;
             } elsif (@{$commit->{parents}} > 1) {
                 # it is a merge commit, for each parent that is
-                # not $lastpicked, see if we can get a log
+                # not $lastpicked (not given a CVS revision number),
+                # see if we can get a log
                 # from the merge-base to that parent to put it
                 # in the message as a merge summary.
                 my @parents = @{$commit->{parents}};
                 foreach my $parent (@parents) {
-                    # git-merge-base can potentially (but rarely) throw
-                    # several candidate merge bases. let's assume
-                    # that the first one is the best one.
                     if ($parent eq $lastpicked) {
                         next;
                     }
+                    # git-merge-base can potentially (but rarely) throw
+                    # several candidate merge bases. let's assume
+                    # that the first one is the best one.
 		    my $base = eval {
 			    safe_pipe_capture('git', 'merge-base',
 						 $lastpicked, $parent);