Mercurial vs. Git – Repository size (was: Mercurial media coverage: Phoronix)

[Stanimir Stamenkov]

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 11:46:52 +0100, /Marcus Harnisch/:

> Rafaël's FOSDEM (and linux.conf.au?) presentation has received some 
> media coverage.
> 
> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Mercurial-More-Rust-2021

While Mercurial may excel at some performance scenarios and is actively 
improving on it, I wonder if there are efforts to improve on repository 
sizes as it seems to me it is one of the main reasons Git gets chosen 
over Mercurial (if we ignore the fact Git just have wider adoption, 
integration, and richer tooling available).

For example, I see this given as one of the main reasons for OpenJDK 
moving from Mercurial to Git <https://openjdk.java.net/jeps/357#Motivation>:

> There are three primary reasons for migrating to Git:
> 
>  1. Size of version control system metadata
> 
> Initial prototypes of converted repositories show a significant 
> reduction in the size of the version control metadata. For example, the 
> .git directory of the jdk/jdk repository is approximately 300 MB with 
> Git and the .hg directory is around 1.2 GB with Mercurial, depending on 
> the Mercurial version being used.

-- 
Stanimir