Sets · gmeta

Sets are unordered collections of unique string members.

Unlike lists:

order does not matter
you cannot have duplicate values

Examples:

labels
code owners
capabilities or feature flags

Serialized tree shape

For a set key, store members under:

[base]/<key segments>/__set

Where __set is a tree of the values where the tree entry name is the SHA1 of the value.

Example:

path/src/metrics/__target__/owners/__set

So the __set entry might look something like this:

❯ git cat-file -p meta/local:path/src/metrics/__target__/owners/__set
100644 blob 0dd8[...]4b1b2a    0dd8[...]4b1b2a
100644 blob 1296[...]a463c7    1296[...]a463c7

Notice that the tree entry blob sha is the same as the tree entry name.

Member tombstones

If a member is removed from the set, write:

[base]/<key segments>/__tombstones/<member-sha>

with contents of the deleted entry as the tree entry value.

Whole-key tombstones

If the entire set key is removed, also support:

[base]/__tombstones/<key segments>/__deleted

This deletes the logical collection itself, not just one member. The tree of __deleted should be what __set was when it was deleted.