GIT

The original developer of Linux has built another versioning system in order to help his linux kernel maintenance job. This tool is git. The Karlsruher Linux User Group has a presentation summing up the features of this distributed versioning system which I am going to use. Git repositories seem also to be smaller in size than their equivalent repositories under CVS or SVN. The presentation gives an example for gcc, which is 450 MB with git while 11GB using SVN. One of the important feature is that this system is distributed. Only few commands are needed, and help is available: > git command -h gives a short help while > git command --help gives a manual page Initialisation is performed using the following commands: > git config --global user.name "Your Name" > git config --global user.email your@e.mail Initalisation of a new repository is performed using: > git init in the location of the repository (i.e. > cd intherepositorydirectory beforehand) To clone an existing repository: > git clone giturl [dir] where giturl is the url of the repository (with http, git, ssh, user@host:repository, dir are acceptable as protocols). See git clone --help for the possibilities. Optimisations are even possibles using hardlinks and softlinks or reuse existing informations. To prepare commits, useful commands: status and diff. I don't need to explain why they are here for. To add elements to the repository, the add command is necessary which also adds directories recursively. changes are added with git-add. Commits are performed using the command: > git commit -m ’message’ Of course, it is possible to tell which files should be commited. This is done by using -- filenames at the end of the commandline. Also take a look at git commit -a -m ’message’. There is also a menu controlled used. for this use: > git commit --interactive -m ’message’ To check the code out, use: > git checkout [-m] -b newbranch [head] you can also list the branches, using git branch, or change branch: > git checkout branch or delete branches: git branch -d name. There is also the possibility to add remote repositories using: > git remote add name giturl where name is the name of the remote repository and giturl the url of the remote repository. you can fetch the changes using: > git fetch [name] [refspec] where name is the name of the remote repository and refspec is the mapping: +srcbranch:dstbranch you can merge changes using > git pull [name] [refspec] There is also > git merge but its use is infrequent. Other features are the publication of changes using mails or using the git server. There are also commands for the maintenance: > git fsck makes concistency checks on the repository and > git gc compresses the repository. Some other features exist like: signed tags, find bugs semi automatically, ...