Running garbage collection manually

When using Git on a regular basis, you might notice that some commands sometimes trigger Git to perform garbage collection and pack loose objects into a pack file (Git's objects storage). The garbage collection and packing of loose objects can also be triggered manually by executing the git gc command. Triggering git gc is useful if you have a lot of loose objects. A loose object can, for example, be a blob or a tree or a commit. As we saw in Chapter 1, Navigating Git, blob-, tree-, and commit objects are added to Git's database when we add files and create commits. These objects will first be stored as loose objects in Git's object storage as single files inside the .git/objects folder. Eventually, or by manual request, Git packs the loose objects into pack files that can reduce disk usage. A lot of loose objects can happen after adding a lot of files to Git, for example, when starting a new project or after frequent adds and commits. Running the garbage...