For SHA-256, we currently have support for OpenSSL and libgcrypt because
these two libraries contain optimized implementations that can take
advantage of native processor instructions. However, OpenSSL is not
suitable for linking against for Linux distros due to licensing
incompatibilities with the GPLv2, and libgcrypt has been less favored by
cryptographers due to some security-related implementation issues,
which, while not affecting our use of hash algorithms, has affected its
reputation.
Let's add another option that's compatible with the GPLv2, which is
Nettle. This is an option which is generally better than libgcrypt
because on many distros GnuTLS (which uses Nettle) is used for HTTPS and
therefore as a practical matter it will be available on most systems.
As a result, prefer it over libgcrypt and our built-in implementation.
Nettle also has recently gained support for Intel's SHA-NI instructions,
which compare very favorably to other implementations, as well as
assembly implementations for when SHA-NI is not available.
A git gc on git.git sees a 12% performance improvement with Nettle over
our block SHA-256 implementation due to general assembly improvements.
With SHA-NI, the performance of raw SHA-256 on a 2 GiB file goes from
7.296 seconds with block SHA-256 to 1.523 seconds with Nettle.
Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
For all of our SHA-1 implementations and most of our SHA-256
implementations, the hash context we use is a real struct. For these
implementations, it's possible to copy a hash context by making a copy
of the struct.
However, for our libgcrypt implementation, our hash context is a
pointer. Consequently, copying it does not lead to an independent hash
context like we intended.
Fortunately, however, libgcrypt provides us with a handy function to
copy hash contexts. Let's add a cloning function to the hash algorithm
API, and use it in the one place we need to make a hash context copy.
With this change, our libgcrypt SHA-256 implementation is fully
functional with all of our other hash implementations.
Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Generally, one gets better performance out of cryptographic routines
written in assembly than C, and this is also true for SHA-256. In
addition, most Linux distributions cannot distribute Git linked against
OpenSSL for licensing reasons.
Most systems with GnuPG will also have libgcrypt, since it is a
dependency of GnuPG. libgcrypt is also faster than the SHA1DC
implementation for messages of a few KiB and larger.
For comparison, on a Core i7-6600U, this implementation processes 16 KiB
chunks at 355 MiB/s while SHA1DC processes equivalent chunks at 337
MiB/s.
In addition, libgcrypt is licensed under the LGPL 2.1, which is
compatible with the GPL. Add an implementation of SHA-256 that uses
libgcrypt.
Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
SHA-1 is weak and we need to transition to a new hash function. For
some time, we have referred to this new function as NewHash. Recently,
we decided to pick SHA-256 as NewHash. The reasons behind the choice of
SHA-256 are outlined in the thread starting at [1] and in the commit
history for the hash function transition document.
Add a basic implementation of SHA-256 based off libtomcrypt, which is in
the public domain. Optimize it and restructure it to meet our coding
standards. Pull in the update and final functions from the SHA-1 block
implementation, as we know these function correctly with all compilers.
This implementation is slower than SHA-1, but more performant
implementations will be introduced in future commits.
Wire up SHA-256 in the list of hash algorithms, and add a test that the
algorithm works correctly.
Note that with this patch, it is still not possible to switch to using
SHA-256 in Git. Additional patches are needed to prepare the code to
handle a larger hash algorithm and further test fixes are needed.
[1] https://public-inbox.org/git/20180609224913.GC38834@genre.crustytoothpaste.net/
Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
brian m. carlson