Thank you Maro. I've never understood why static linking and easy compilation, not to mention being concerned with file sizes, upsets certain people when mentioned on mailing lists and forums. But it always does.
I feel stupid that I did not realise this. I am a big fan of crunched binaries, actually. That guy at U of Maryland who introduced it to BSD in the early 90's is a software hero in my book. For Linux fans, I guess your hero would be Bruce Perens or whoever was behind Busybox.
Anyway I've learned something more about git from admitting my error. Thank you HN!
Yes. It's not the benchmark, but it's a benchmark.