diff --git a/opengrok-indexer/pom.xml b/opengrok-indexer/pom.xml
index e9b521790fb..4425dc9a097 100644
--- a/opengrok-indexer/pom.xml
+++ b/opengrok-indexer/pom.xml
@@ -215,6 +215,11 @@ Portions Copyright (c) 2020-2020, Lubos Kosco <tarzanek@gmail.com>.
             <artifactId>micrometer-registry-statsd</artifactId>
             <version>${micrometer.version}</version>
         </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.jetbrains</groupId>
+            <artifactId>annotations</artifactId>
+            <version>20.1.0</version>
+        </dependency>
     </dependencies>
 
     <build>
diff --git a/opengrok-indexer/src/main/java/org/opengrok/indexer/history/FileHistoryCache.java b/opengrok-indexer/src/main/java/org/opengrok/indexer/history/FileHistoryCache.java
index ddd461db506..d70c28500ac 100644
--- a/opengrok-indexer/src/main/java/org/opengrok/indexer/history/FileHistoryCache.java
+++ b/opengrok-indexer/src/main/java/org/opengrok/indexer/history/FileHistoryCache.java
@@ -102,38 +102,32 @@ private void doFileHistory(String filename, List<HistoryEntry> historyEntries,
             Repository repository, File srcFile, File root, boolean renamed)
             throws HistoryException {
 
-        History hist = null;
+        File file = new File(root, filename);
+        // Only store directory history for the top-level directory.
+        if (file.isDirectory() && !filename.equals(repository.getDirectoryName())) {
+            LOGGER.log(Level.FINE, "Not storing history cache for {0}: not top level directory", file);
+            return;
+        }
 
         /*
          * If the file was renamed (in the changesets that are being indexed),
          * its history is not stored in the historyEntries so it needs to be acquired
          * directly from the repository.
-         * This ensures that complete history of the file (across renames)
-         * will be saved.
+         * This ensures that complete history of the file (across renames) will be saved.
          */
+        History hist;
         if (renamed) {
             hist = repository.getHistory(srcFile);
+        } else {
+            hist = new History(historyEntries);
         }
 
-        File file = new File(root, filename);
-
-        if (hist == null) {
-            hist = new History();
-
-            // File based history cache does not store files for individual
-            // changesets so strip them unless it is history for the repository.
-            for (HistoryEntry ent : historyEntries) {
-                if (file.isDirectory() && filename.equals(repository.getDirectoryName())) {
-                    ent.stripTags();
-                } else {
-                    ent.strip();
-                }
-            }
-
-            // add all history entries
-            hist.setHistoryEntries(historyEntries);
-        } else {
-            for (HistoryEntry ent : hist.getHistoryEntries()) {
+        // File based history cache does not store files for individual
+        // changesets so strip them unless it is history for the repository.
+        for (HistoryEntry ent : hist.getHistoryEntries()) {
+            if (file.isDirectory()) {
+                ent.stripTags();
+            } else {
                 ent.strip();
             }
         }
@@ -143,10 +137,7 @@ private void doFileHistory(String filename, List<HistoryEntry> historyEntries,
             repository.assignTagsInHistory(hist);
         }
 
-        // Only store directory history for the top-level.
-        if (!file.isDirectory() || filename.equals(repository.getDirectoryName())) {
-            storeFile(hist, file, repository, !renamed);
-        }
+        storeFile(hist, file, repository, !renamed);
     }
 
     private boolean isRenamedFile(String filename, Repository repository, History history)
@@ -462,15 +453,8 @@ public void store(History history, Repository repository)
                     list = new ArrayList<>();
                     map.put(s, list);
                 }
-                /*
-                 * We need to do deep copy in order to have different tags
-                 * per each commit.
-                 */
-                if (env.isTagsEnabled() && repository.hasFileBasedTags()) {
-                    list.add(new HistoryEntry(e));
-                } else {
-                    list.add(e);
-                }
+
+                list.add(e);
             }
         }
 
diff --git a/opengrok-indexer/src/main/java/org/opengrok/indexer/history/Repository.java b/opengrok-indexer/src/main/java/org/opengrok/indexer/history/Repository.java
index 34ae50492c0..b40b78b312e 100644
--- a/opengrok-indexer/src/main/java/org/opengrok/indexer/history/Repository.java
+++ b/opengrok-indexer/src/main/java/org/opengrok/indexer/history/Repository.java
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@
 import org.opengrok.indexer.util.BufferSink;
 import org.opengrok.indexer.util.Executor;
 
+import org.jetbrains.annotations.NotNull;
+
 /**
  * An interface for an external repository.
  *
@@ -95,6 +97,7 @@ public abstract class Repository extends RepositoryInfo {
      *
      * @return {@code true} if the repository can get history for directories
      */
+    @NotNull
     abstract boolean hasHistoryForDirectories();
 
     /**
@@ -276,24 +279,25 @@ TreeSet<TagEntry> getTagList() {
      * tags to changesets which actually exist in the history of given file.
      * Must be implemented repository-specific.
      *
-     * @see getTagList
-     * @param hist History we want to assign tags to.
+     * @see #getTagList
+     * @param hist History object we want to assign tags to.
      */
     void assignTagsInHistory(History hist) {
         if (hist == null) {
             return;
         }
+
         if (this.getTagList() == null) {
             throw new IllegalStateException("getTagList() is null");
         }
+
         Iterator<TagEntry> it = this.getTagList().descendingIterator();
         TagEntry lastTagEntry = null;
-        // Go through all commits of given file
         for (HistoryEntry ent : hist.getHistoryEntries()) {
             // Assign all tags created since the last revision
-            // Revision in this HistoryEntry must be already specified!
-            // TODO is there better way to do this? We need to "repeat"
-            // last element returned by call to next()
+            // Revision in this HistoryEntry must be already specified !
+            // TODO: is there better way to do this? We need to "repeat"
+            //   last element returned by call to next()
             while (lastTagEntry != null || it.hasNext()) {
                 if (lastTagEntry == null) {
                     lastTagEntry = it.next();