Fixes https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/35780
Collab schema migration PR:
https://github.com/zed-industries/cloud/pull/3422
The corresponding database schema migration has been created in the
Cloud repo and applied to the production database.
Before, Zed scanned each and every entry in the tree down from the
directory it was opened in, except gitignored files and scan exclusions.
The approach is unchanged, if Zed detects it was open inside a git
repository: e.g. the directory open in Zed contains `.git` directory.
For the rest of the projects, 2 optimizations are made:
* Limit the depth of file scan traversal.
Now, `file_scan_depth` (default `5`) restricts Zed from traversing any
directory that has same number or more segments in its file path.
Such directories behave similar to gitignored directories: their
contents is not available in file finder, project search and project
panel, but can be lazily traversed when the directory is expanded (e.g.
project panel expands it or a nested file is open by path via terminal,
etc.)
To indicate that to the users, a status entry is shown firs time the
limitation is hit in the project:
<img width="858" height="133" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7da6cfbb-98b4-4cc3-bf2a-8902a9597a15"
/>
* During the scan, any git repositories that are not direct children of
the directory open in Zed (depth >= 2), are traversed and indexed
normally, but their git metadata is never fetched eagerly.
Only when Zed opens a buffer from that repo the git metadata is fetched
and applied.
All that combined now uses a way more moderate amount of CPU and RAM
when opening `~`:
<img width="1717" height="368" alt="Screenshot 2026-08-13 at 17 43 53"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ec83e2a9-f7cc-452b-8eb7-af158284ca4e"
/>
File scan inclusions and exclusions are considered still for such
projects.
Set `file_scan_depth` to `0` to enable old behavior.
The setting is supported in the project settings, so custom values can
be set based on the project's structure.
---
Release Notes:
- Fixed Zed using a lot of memory and CPU in large, non-git-tracked,
directory trees
Adds option to always search/scan symlinks for more thorough coverage of
#41887 issue
This is a significant rewrite and more thoroughly reviewed and tested
version of the old PR here:
https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/pull/46344
The "never" option was removed from the old PR, since "expanded" is now
the default. Perhaps "never" can be added as an option later if there's
demand for it. Adding that option may resolve#48890 for instance.
Self-Review Checklist:
- [x] I've reviewed my own diff for quality, security, and reliability
- [x] Unsafe blocks (if any) have justifying comments
- [x] The content is consistent with the [UI/UX
checklist](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#uiux-checklist)
- [x] Tests cover the new/changed behavior
- [x] Performance impact has been considered and is acceptable
(significant impact with "always" option, but "expanded" is default)
Release Notes:
- Add option choose between including expanded symlinks or include all
symlinks in project search (#41887)
---------
Co-authored-by: Eric Holk <eric@zed.dev>
Zed reloads a lot of data about a git repository any time any file
changes inside of the `.git` directory, with the exception of a few
known paths that we know do not warrant a reload, such as `index.lock`
and `COMMIT_MESSAGE`. Previously, we ignored FS events for those files,
but we used a specific path that only worked for the main worktree. This
caused a lot of unnecessary reloads when using linked worktrees. Now we
ignore those files in a general way, by their filename, so that the
optimization applies to linked worktrees as well.
@cole-miller Noticed this bug.
Release Notes:
- Fixed unnecessary reloading of Git state that could occur when editing
in linked worktrees.
Kirill Bulatov