What is the design trade-off between aggressive git pruning and retaining recent unreachable work

Git Object Storage Behavior

Git stores all objects content-addressably, meaning objects persist even when unreferenced by any branch or tag.

Pruning Constraints

The git gc command prunes stale objects, but a default grace period protects recent unreachable data from immediate deletion.

This creates a tension between disk space optimization and the risk of losing recently moved or rebased, yet uncommitted, work.

• What is the precise mechanism that enforces the grace period on unreachable objects?
• Does the gc.pruneExpire setting override the safety net for objects within the default timeframe?