* Re: git guidance
[not found] <20071127235237.GF15227@1wt.eu>
@ 2007-11-28 12:49 ` Al Boldi
2007-11-28 13:45 ` Rogan Dawes
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-11-28 12:49 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: linux-kernel; +Cc: git
Willy Tarreau wrote:
> It should not turn into an endless thread led by people who want to
> redefine GIT's roadmap, but experience sharing helps a lot with GIT.
Well, now that you mentioned it, if there is one thing I dislike, it's for
version control to start mutilating your sources. Version Control should be
completely transparent. GIT isn't.
Thanks!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-11-28 12:49 ` Al Boldi
@ 2007-11-28 13:45 ` Rogan Dawes
2007-11-28 15:46 ` Johannes Schindelin
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Rogan Dawes @ 2007-11-28 13:45 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi; +Cc: linux-kernel, git
Al Boldi wrote:
> Willy Tarreau wrote:
>> It should not turn into an endless thread led by people who want to
>> redefine GIT's roadmap, but experience sharing helps a lot with GIT.
>
> Well, now that you mentioned it, if there is one thing I dislike, it's for
> version control to start mutilating your sources. Version Control should be
> completely transparent. GIT isn't.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Al
>
Care to explain? Git is quite happy handling arbitrary binary content,
so I find it difficult to believe that it is changing your source code
in strange ways.
Rogan
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-11-28 13:45 ` Rogan Dawes
@ 2007-11-28 15:46 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-11-28 17:14 ` Al Boldi
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Johannes Schindelin @ 2007-11-28 15:46 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Rogan Dawes; +Cc: Al Boldi, git
Hi,
On Wed, 28 Nov 2007, Rogan Dawes wrote:
> Al Boldi wrote:
>
> > Willy Tarreau wrote:
> >
> > > It should not turn into an endless thread led by people who want to
> > > redefine GIT's roadmap, but experience sharing helps a lot with GIT.
> >
> > Well, now that you mentioned it, if there is one thing I dislike, it's
> > for version control to start mutilating your sources. Version Control
> > should be completely transparent. GIT isn't.
>
> Care to explain? Git is quite happy handling arbitrary binary content,
> so I find it difficult to believe that it is changing your source code
> in strange ways.
It is nice of you to ask him to explain: Unless this handwaving claim is
substantiated, it is quite hard to argue with.
Ciao,
Dscho
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-11-28 15:46 ` Johannes Schindelin
@ 2007-11-28 17:14 ` Al Boldi
2007-11-28 18:14 ` Johannes Schindelin
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-11-28 17:14 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Johannes Schindelin, Rogan Dawes; +Cc: git, linux-kernel
Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> Hi,
Hi!
git@vger sometimes bounces, so let's leave lkml as backup.
> On Wed, 28 Nov 2007, Rogan Dawes wrote:
> > Al Boldi wrote:
> > > Willy Tarreau wrote:
> > > > It should not turn into an endless thread led by people who want to
> > > > redefine GIT's roadmap, but experience sharing helps a lot with GIT.
> > >
> > > Well, now that you mentioned it, if there is one thing I dislike, it's
> > > for version control to start mutilating your sources. Version Control
> > > should be completely transparent. GIT isn't.
> >
> > Care to explain? Git is quite happy handling arbitrary binary content,
> > so I find it difficult to believe that it is changing your source code
> > in strange ways.
>
> It is nice of you to ask him to explain: Unless this handwaving claim is
> substantiated, it is quite hard to argue with.
Sure, the problem with GIT is that it stores the sources inside a backend
container that is only accessible via GIT; iow, you can't retrieve your
sources directly / transparently.
One way to achieve transparency could be to allow mounting GIT on a dir-mount
point. And just use that dir normally, while GIT manages all the rest in
the background.
Thanks!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-11-28 17:14 ` Al Boldi
@ 2007-11-28 18:14 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-11-28 18:30 ` Al Boldi
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Johannes Schindelin @ 2007-11-28 18:14 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi; +Cc: Rogan Dawes, git, linux-kernel
Hi,
On Wed, 28 Nov 2007, Al Boldi wrote:
> git@vger sometimes bounces, so let's leave lkml as backup.
Fair enough.
> Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> > On Wed, 28 Nov 2007, Rogan Dawes wrote:
> > > Al Boldi wrote:
> > > > Willy Tarreau wrote:
> > > > > It should not turn into an endless thread led by people who want
> > > > > to redefine GIT's roadmap, but experience sharing helps a lot
> > > > > with GIT.
> > > >
> > > > Well, now that you mentioned it, if there is one thing I dislike,
> > > > it's for version control to start mutilating your sources.
> > > > Version Control should be completely transparent. GIT isn't.
> > >
> > > Care to explain? Git is quite happy handling arbitrary binary
> > > content, so I find it difficult to believe that it is changing your
> > > source code in strange ways.
> >
> > It is nice of you to ask him to explain: Unless this handwaving claim
> > is substantiated, it is quite hard to argue with.
>
> Sure, the problem with GIT is that it stores the sources inside a
> backend container that is only accessible via GIT; iow, you can't
> retrieve your sources directly / transparently.
That is a very funny way to define a "transparent SCM". Are you
complaining about SQL servers being "not transparent"?
By that definition, no SCM, not even CVS, is transparent. Nothing short
of unpacked directories of all versions (wasting a lot of disk space)
would.
IOW the issue you raised is a non-issue.
Ciao,
Dscho
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-11-28 18:14 ` Johannes Schindelin
@ 2007-11-28 18:30 ` Al Boldi
2007-11-28 18:41 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-11-29 5:27 ` Al Boldi
0 siblings, 2 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-11-28 18:30 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Johannes Schindelin; +Cc: Rogan Dawes, git, linux-kernel
Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> By that definition, no SCM, not even CVS, is transparent. Nothing short
> of unpacked directories of all versions (wasting a lot of disk space)
> would.
Who said anything about unpacking?
I'm talking about GIT transparently serving a Virtual Version Control dir to
be mounted on the client.
Thanks!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-11-28 18:30 ` Al Boldi
@ 2007-11-28 18:41 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-11-29 5:27 ` Al Boldi
1 sibling, 0 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Jakub Narebski @ 2007-11-28 18:41 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: git; +Cc: linux-kernel
Al Boldi wrote:
> Johannes Schindelin wrote:
>> By that definition, no SCM, not even CVS, is transparent. Nothing short
>> of unpacked directories of all versions (wasting a lot of disk space)
>> would.
>
> Who said anything about unpacking?
>
> I'm talking about GIT transparently serving a Virtual Version Control dir to
> be mounted on the client.
Are you talking about something like (in alpha IIRC) gitfs?
http://www.sfgoth.com/~mitch/linux/gitfs/
Besides, you can always use "git show <revision>:<file>". For example
gitweb (and I think other web interfaces) can show any version of a file
or a directory, accessing only repository.
--
Jakub Narebski
Warsaw, Poland
ShadeHawk on #git
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-11-28 18:30 ` Al Boldi
2007-11-28 18:41 ` Jakub Narebski
@ 2007-11-29 5:27 ` Al Boldi
2007-11-29 12:57 ` Kyle Moffett
1 sibling, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-11-29 5:27 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: linux-kernel; +Cc: git
Jakub Narebski wrote:
> Al Boldi wrote:
> > Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> >> By that definition, no SCM, not even CVS, is transparent. Nothing
> >> short of unpacked directories of all versions (wasting a lot of disk
> >> space) would.
> >
> > Who said anything about unpacking?
> >
> > I'm talking about GIT transparently serving a Virtual Version Control
> > dir to be mounted on the client.
>
> Are you talking about something like (in alpha IIRC) gitfs?
>
> http://www.sfgoth.com/~mitch/linux/gitfs/
This looks like a good start.
> Besides, you can always use "git show <revision>:<file>". For example
> gitweb (and I think other web interfaces) can show any version of a file
> or a directory, accessing only repository.
Sure, browsing is the easy part, but Version Control starts when things
become writable.
Thanks for the link!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-11-29 5:27 ` Al Boldi
@ 2007-11-29 12:57 ` Kyle Moffett
0 siblings, 0 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Kyle Moffett @ 2007-11-29 12:57 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi; +Cc: linux-kernel, git
On Nov 29, 2007, at 00:27:04, Al Boldi wrote:
> Jakub Narebski wrote:
>> Besides, you can always use "git show <revision>:<file>". For
>> example gitweb (and I think other web interfaces) can show any
>> version of a file or a directory, accessing only repository.
>
> Sure, browsing is the easy part, but Version Control starts when
> things become writable.
But... git history is very inherently completely immutable once
created... that's the only way you can index everything with a simple
SHA-1. If you want to write to the "git filesystem" by adding new
commits then you need to use the appropriate commands, same as every
other VCS on the planet.
Cheers,
Kyle Moffett
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
@ 2007-11-29 15:52 Jing Xue
2007-11-29 16:19 ` Linus Torvalds
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Jing Xue @ 2007-11-29 15:52 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi; +Cc: linux-kernel, git
Quoting Al Boldi <a1426z@gawab.com>:
> Sure, browsing is the easy part, but Version Control starts when things
> become writable.
But how is that supposed to work? What happens when you make some
changes to a file and save it? Do you want the "git file system" to
commit it right aways or wait until you to issue a "commit" command?
The first behavior would obviously be wrong, and the second would make
the "file system" not operationally transparent anyways. Right?
By the way, the only SCM I have worked with that tries to mount its
repository (or a view on top of it) as a file system is ClearCase with
its dynamic views. And, between the buggy file system implementation,
the intrusion on workflow, and the lack of scalability, at least in
the organization I worked for, it turned out to be a horrible,
horrible, horrible idea.
Cheers.
--
Jing Xue
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-11-29 15:52 git guidance Jing Xue
@ 2007-11-29 16:19 ` Linus Torvalds
2007-12-01 6:50 ` Al Boldi
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Linus Torvalds @ 2007-11-29 16:19 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Jing Xue; +Cc: Al Boldi, linux-kernel, git
On Thu, 29 Nov 2007, Jing Xue wrote:
>
> By the way, the only SCM I have worked with that tries to mount its
> repository (or a view on top of it) as a file system is ClearCase with
> its dynamic views. And, between the buggy file system implementation,
> the intrusion on workflow, and the lack of scalability, at least in
> the organization I worked for, it turned out to be a horrible,
> horrible, horrible idea.
Doing a read-only mount setup tends to be pretty easy, but it's largely
pointless except for specialty uses. Ie it's obviously not useful for
actual *development*, but it can be useful for some other cases.
For example, a read-only revctrl filesystem can be a _very_ useful thing
for test-farms, where you may have hundreds of clients that run tests on
possibly different versions at the same time. In situations like that, the
read-only mount can actually often be done as a user-space NFS server on
some machine.
The advantage is that you don't need to export close to infinite amounts
of versions from a "real" filesystem, or make the clients have their own
copies. And if you do it as a user-space NFS server (or samba, for that
matter), it's even portable, unlike many other approaches. The read-only
part also makes 99% of all the complexity go away, and it turns out to be
a fairly easy exercise to do.
So I don't think the filesystem approach is _wrong_ per se. But yes, doing
it read-write is almost invariably a big mistake. On operatign systems
that support a "union mount" approach, it's likely much better to have a
read-only revctl thing, and then over-mount a regular filesystem on top of
it.
Trying to make it read-write from the revctl engine standpoint is almost
certainly totally insane.
Linus
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-11-29 16:19 ` Linus Torvalds
@ 2007-12-01 6:50 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-04 22:21 ` Phillip Susi
2007-12-08 6:33 ` Martin Langhoff
0 siblings, 2 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-12-01 6:50 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue; +Cc: linux-kernel, git
Jing Xue wrote:
> Quoting Al Boldi <a1426z@gawab.com>:
> > Sure, browsing is the easy part, but Version Control starts when things
> > become writable.
>
> But how is that supposed to work? What happens when you make some
> changes to a file and save it? Do you want the "git file system" to
> commit it right aways or wait until you to issue a "commit" command?
> The first behavior would obviously be wrong, and the second would make
> the "file system" not operationally transparent anyways. Right?
Not sure what you mean by operationally transparent? It would be transparent
for the updating client, and the rest of the git-users would need to wait
for the commit from the updating client; which is ok, as this transparency
is not meant to change the server-side git-update semantic.
Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Thu, 29 Nov 2007, Jing Xue wrote:
> > By the way, the only SCM I have worked with that tries to mount its
> > repository (or a view on top of it) as a file system is ClearCase with
> > its dynamic views. And, between the buggy file system implementation,
> > the intrusion on workflow, and the lack of scalability, at least in
> > the organization I worked for, it turned out to be a horrible,
> > horrible, horrible idea.
Judging an idea, based on a flawed implementation, doesn't prove that the
idea itself is flawed.
And...
> Doing a read-only mount setup tends to be pretty easy, but it's largely
> pointless except for specialty uses. Ie it's obviously not useful for
> actual *development*, but it can be useful for some other cases.
>
> For example, a read-only revctrl filesystem can be a _very_ useful thing
> for test-farms, where you may have hundreds of clients that run tests on
> possibly different versions at the same time. In situations like that, the
> read-only mount can actually often be done as a user-space NFS server on
> some machine.
>
> The advantage is that you don't need to export close to infinite amounts
> of versions from a "real" filesystem, or make the clients have their own
> copies. And if you do it as a user-space NFS server (or samba, for that
> matter), it's even portable, unlike many other approaches. The read-only
> part also makes 99% of all the complexity go away, and it turns out to be
> a fairly easy exercise to do.
>
> So I don't think the filesystem approach is _wrong_ per se. But yes, doing
> it read-write is almost invariably a big mistake. On operatign systems
> that support a "union mount" approach, it's likely much better to have a
> read-only revctl thing, and then over-mount a regular filesystem on top of
> it.
You could probably do that, or you could instead use cp -al. Both would
require some hacks to allow some basic version control.
> Trying to make it read-write from the revctl engine standpoint is almost
> certainly totally insane.
Sure, you wouldn't want to change the git-engine update semantics, as that
sits on the server and handles all users. But what the git model is
currently missing is a client manager. Right now, this is being worked
around by replicating the git tree on the client, which still doesn't
provide the required transparency.
IOW, git currently only implements the server-side use-case, but fails to
deliver on the client-side. By introducing a git-client manager that
handles the transparency needs of a single user, it should be possible to
clearly isolate update semantics for both the client and the server, each
handling their specific use-case.
Thanks!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-01 6:50 ` Al Boldi
@ 2007-12-04 22:21 ` Phillip Susi
2007-12-07 17:35 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-08 6:33 ` Martin Langhoff
1 sibling, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Phillip Susi @ 2007-12-04 22:21 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi; +Cc: Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
Al Boldi wrote:
> Judging an idea, based on a flawed implementation, doesn't prove that the
> idea itself is flawed.
It isn't the implementation that is flawed, it is the idea. The entire
point of a change control system is that you explicitly define change
sets and add comments to the set. The filesystem was designed to allow
changes to be made willy-nilly. If your goal is to perform change
control only with filesystem semantics, then you have a non starter as
their goals are opposing. Requiring an explicit command command is
hardly burdensome, and otherwise, a git tree is perfectly transparent to
non git aware tools.
> Sure, you wouldn't want to change the git-engine update semantics, as that
> sits on the server and handles all users. But what the git model is
> currently missing is a client manager. Right now, this is being worked
> around by replicating the git tree on the client, which still doesn't
> provide the required transparency.
It isn't missing a client manager, it was explicitly designed to not
have one, at least not as a distinct entity from a server, because it
does not use a client/server architecture. This is very much by design,
not a work around.
What transparency are you requiring here? You can transparently read
your git tree with all non git aware tools, what other meaning of
transparency is there?
> IOW, git currently only implements the server-side use-case, but fails to
> deliver on the client-side. By introducing a git-client manager that
> handles the transparency needs of a single user, it should be possible to
> clearly isolate update semantics for both the client and the server, each
> handling their specific use-case.
Any talk of client or server makes no sense since git does not use a
client/server model. If you wish to use a centralized repository, then
git can be set up to transparently push/pull to/from said repository if
you wish via hooks or cron jobs.
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 17:35 ` Al Boldi
@ 2007-12-06 18:24 ` Andreas Ericsson
2007-12-07 18:55 ` Al Boldi
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Andreas Ericsson @ 2007-12-06 18:24 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi; +Cc: Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
Al Boldi wrote:
> Phillip Susi wrote:
>> Al Boldi wrote:
>>> IOW, git currently only implements the server-side use-case, but fails
>>> to deliver on the client-side. By introducing a git-client manager that
>>> handles the transparency needs of a single user, it should be possible
>>> to clearly isolate update semantics for both the client and the server,
>>> each handling their specific use-case.
>> Any talk of client or server makes no sense since git does not use a
>> client/server model.
>
> Whether git uses the client/server model or not does not matter; what matters
> is that there are two distinct use-cases at work here: one on the
> server/repository, and the other on the client.
>
Git is distributed. The repository is everywhere. No server is actually needed.
Many use one anyway since it can be convenient. It's not, however, necessary.
>> If you wish to use a centralized repository, then
>> git can be set up to transparently push/pull to/from said repository if
>> you wish via hooks or cron jobs.
>
> Again, this only handles the interface to/from the server/repository, but
> once you pulled the sources, it leaves you without Version Control on the
> client.
>
No, that's CVS, SVN and other centralized scm's. With git you have perfect
version control on each peer. That's the entire idea behind "fully
distributed".
> By pulling the sources into a git-client manager mounted on some dir, it
> should be possible to let the developer work naturally/transparently in a
> readable/writeable manner, and only require his input when reverting locally
> or committing to the server/repository.
>
How is that different from what every SCM, including git, is doing today? The
user needs to tell the scm when it's time to take a snapshot of the current
state. Git is distributed though, so committing is usually not the same as
publishing. Is that lack of a single command to commit and publish what's
nagging you? If it's not, I completely fail to see what you're getting at,
unless you've only ever looked at repositories without a worktree attached,
or you think that git should work like an editor's "undo" functionality,
which would be quite insane.
--
Andreas Ericsson andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225 Fax: +46 8-230231
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 18:55 ` Al Boldi
@ 2007-12-06 20:22 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-12-07 4:37 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-06 21:46 ` Phillip Susi
1 sibling, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Johannes Schindelin @ 2007-12-06 20:22 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi
Cc: Andreas Ericsson, Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue,
linux-kernel, git
Hi,
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007, Al Boldi wrote:
> Andreas Ericsson wrote:
> > Al Boldi wrote:
> >
> > > By pulling the sources into a git-client manager mounted on some
> > > dir, it should be possible to let the developer work
> > > naturally/transparently in a readable/writeable manner, and only
> > > require his input when reverting locally or committing to the
> > > server/repository.
> >
> > How is that different from what every SCM, including git, is doing
> > today? The user needs to tell the scm when it's time to take a
> > snapshot of the current state. Git is distributed though, so
> > committing is usually not the same as publishing. Is that lack of a
> > single command to commit and publish what's nagging you? If it's not,
> > I completely fail to see what you're getting at, unless you've only
> > ever looked at repositories without a worktree attached, or you think
> > that git should work like an editor's "undo" functionality, which
> > would be quite insane.
>
> You need to re-read the thread.
I don't know why you write that, and then say thanks. Clearly, what you
wrote originally, and what Andreas pointed out, were quite obvious
indicators that git already does what you suggest.
You _do_ work "transparently" (whatever you understand by that overused
term) in the working directory, unimpeded by git.
And whenever it is time to revert or commit, you cry for help, invoking
git.
So either you succeeded in making yourself misunderstood, or Andreas had
quite the obvious and correct comment for you.
Not that diffcult,
Dscho
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 18:55 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-06 20:22 ` Johannes Schindelin
@ 2007-12-06 21:46 ` Phillip Susi
1 sibling, 0 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Phillip Susi @ 2007-12-06 21:46 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi; +Cc: Andreas Ericsson, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
Al Boldi wrote:
> When you read server, don't read it as localized; a server can be
> distributed. What distinguishes a server from an engine is that it has to
> handle a multi-user use-case. How that is implemented, locally or remotely
> or distributed, is another issue.
And again, git handles both use cases, so what's your point?
> As explained before in this thread, replicating the git tree on the client
> still doesn't provide the required transparency.
It has been pointed out to you that it DOES. Either that or nobody else
understands your nebulous use of "transparency" so maybe you should
define it like we've been asking you. Furthermore, the comment you
replied to said nothing about transparency, nor did your comment it was
in reply to; rather it was pointing out the fact that your statement
that the git can not perform version control on the client is patently
false.
>> How is that different from what every SCM, including git, is doing today?
>> The user needs to tell the scm when it's time to take a snapshot of the
>> current state. Git is distributed though, so committing is usually not the
>> same as publishing. Is that lack of a single command to commit and publish
>> what's nagging you? If it's not, I completely fail to see what you're
>> getting at, unless you've only ever looked at repositories without a
>> worktree attached, or you think that git should work like an editor's
>> "undo" functionality, which would be quite insane.
>
> You need to re-read the thread.
Perhaps you should. We have been trying to get you to explain how you
think git isn't "transparent" while at the same time pointing out how we
think it is. You have failed to demonstrate any evidence to back up
your claims, all of which have been shown to be false.
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-06 20:22 ` Johannes Schindelin
@ 2007-12-07 4:37 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-07 8:40 ` Andreas Ericsson
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-12-07 4:37 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Johannes Schindelin
Cc: Andreas Ericsson, Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue,
linux-kernel, git
Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> Hi,
Hi
> On Fri, 7 Dec 2007, Al Boldi wrote:
> > You need to re-read the thread.
>
> I don't know why you write that, and then say thanks. Clearly, what you
> wrote originally, and what Andreas pointed out, were quite obvious
> indicators that git already does what you suggest.
>
> You _do_ work "transparently" (whatever you understand by that overused
> term) in the working directory, unimpeded by git.
If you go back in the thread, you may find a link to a gitfs client that
somebody kindly posted. This client pretty much defines the transparency
I'm talking about. The only problem is that it's read-only.
To make it really useful, it has to support versioning locally, disconnected
from the server repository. One way to implement this, could be by
committing every update unconditionally to an on-the-fly created git
repository private to the gitfs client.
With this transparently created private scratch repository it should then be
possible for the same gitfs to re-expose the locally created commits, all
without any direct user-intervention.
Later, this same scratch repository could then be managed by the normal
git-management tools/commands to ultimately update the backend git
repositories.
BTW: Sorry for my previous posts that contained the wrong date; it seems
that hibernation sometimes advances the date by a full 24h. Has anybody
noticed this as well?
Thanks!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 4:37 ` Al Boldi
@ 2007-12-07 8:40 ` Andreas Ericsson
2007-12-07 10:53 ` Al Boldi
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Andreas Ericsson @ 2007-12-07 8:40 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi
Cc: Johannes Schindelin, Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue,
linux-kernel, git
Al Boldi wrote:
> Johannes Schindelin wrote:
>> Hi,
>
> Hi
>
>> On Fri, 7 Dec 2007, Al Boldi wrote:
>>> You need to re-read the thread.
>> I don't know why you write that, and then say thanks. Clearly, what you
>> wrote originally, and what Andreas pointed out, were quite obvious
>> indicators that git already does what you suggest.
>>
>> You _do_ work "transparently" (whatever you understand by that overused
>> term) in the working directory, unimpeded by git.
>
> If you go back in the thread, you may find a link to a gitfs client that
> somebody kindly posted. This client pretty much defines the transparency
> I'm talking about. The only problem is that it's read-only.
>
> To make it really useful, it has to support versioning locally, disconnected
> from the server repository. One way to implement this, could be by
> committing every update unconditionally to an on-the-fly created git
> repository private to the gitfs client.
>
Earlier you said that you need to be able to tell git when you want to make
a commit, which means pretty much any old filesystem could serve as gitfs.
Now you're saying you want every single update to be committed, which would
make it mimic an editor's undo functionality. I still don't get what it is
you really want.
> With this transparently created private scratch repository it should then be
> possible for the same gitfs to re-expose the locally created commits, all
> without any direct user-intervention.
>
> Later, this same scratch repository could then be managed by the normal
> git-management tools/commands to ultimately update the backend git
> repositories.
>
That's exactly what's happening today. I imagine whoever wrote the gitfs
thing did so to facilitate testing, or as some form of intellectual
masturbation.
So, to get to the bottom of this, which of the following workflows is it you
want git to support?
### WORKFLOW A ###
edit, edit, edit
edit, edit, edit
edit, edit, edit
Oops I made a mistake and need to hop back to "current - 12".
edit, edit, edit
edit, edit, edit
publish everything, similar to just tarring up your workdir and sending out
### END WORKFLOW A ###
### WORKFLOW B ###
edit, edit, edit
ok this looks good, I want to save a checkpoint here
edit, edit, edit
looks good again. next checkpoint
edit, edit, edit
oh crap, back to checkpoint 2
edit, edit, edit
ooh, that's better. save a checkpoint and publish those checkpoints
### END WORKFLOW B ###
If you could just answer that question and stop writing "transparent" or
any synonym thereof six times in each email, we can possibly help you.
As it stands now though, nobody is very interested because you haven't
explained how you want this "transparency" of yours to work in an every
day scenario.
--
Andreas Ericsson andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225 Fax: +46 8-230231
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 8:40 ` Andreas Ericsson
@ 2007-12-07 10:53 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-07 11:47 ` Jakub Narebski
` (3 more replies)
0 siblings, 4 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-12-07 10:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Andreas Ericsson
Cc: Johannes Schindelin, Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue,
linux-kernel, git
Andreas Ericsson wrote:
> So, to get to the bottom of this, which of the following workflows is it
> you want git to support?
>
> ### WORKFLOW A ###
> edit, edit, edit
> edit, edit, edit
> edit, edit, edit
> Oops I made a mistake and need to hop back to "current - 12".
> edit, edit, edit
> edit, edit, edit
> publish everything, similar to just tarring up your workdir and sending
> out ### END WORKFLOW A ###
>
> ### WORKFLOW B ###
> edit, edit, edit
> ok this looks good, I want to save a checkpoint here
> edit, edit, edit
> looks good again. next checkpoint
> edit, edit, edit
> oh crap, back to checkpoint 2
> edit, edit, edit
> ooh, that's better. save a checkpoint and publish those checkpoints
> ### END WORKFLOW B ###
### WORKFLOW C ###
for every save on a gitfs mounted dir, do an implied checkpoint, commit, or
publish (should be adjustable), on its privately created on-the-fly
repository.
### END WORKFLOW C ###
For example:
echo "// last comment on this file" >> /gitfs.mounted/file
should do an implied checkpoint, and make these checkpoints immediately
visible under some checkpoint branch of the gitfs mounted dir.
Note, this way the developer gets version control without even noticing, and
works completely transparent to any kind of application.
Thanks!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 10:53 ` Al Boldi
@ 2007-12-07 11:47 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-12-07 19:04 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-07 12:30 ` Andreas Ericsson
` (2 subsequent siblings)
3 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Jakub Narebski @ 2007-12-07 11:47 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi
Cc: Andreas Ericsson, Johannes Schindelin, Phillip Susi,
Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
Al Boldi <a1426z@gawab.com> writes:
> Andreas Ericsson wrote:
>> So, to get to the bottom of this, which of the following workflows is it
>> you want git to support?
>>
>> ### WORKFLOW A ###
>> edit, edit, edit
>> edit, edit, edit
>> edit, edit, edit
>> Oops I made a mistake and need to hop back to "current - 12".
>> edit, edit, edit
>> edit, edit, edit
>> publish everything, similar to just tarring up your workdir and sending
>> out ### END WORKFLOW A ###
>>
>> ### WORKFLOW B ###
>> edit, edit, edit
>> ok this looks good, I want to save a checkpoint here
>> edit, edit, edit
>> looks good again. next checkpoint
>> edit, edit, edit
>> oh crap, back to checkpoint 2
>> edit, edit, edit
>> ooh, that's better. save a checkpoint and publish those checkpoints
>> ### END WORKFLOW B ###
>
> ### WORKFLOW C ###
> for every save on a gitfs mounted dir, do an implied checkpoint, commit, or
> publish (should be adjustable), on its privately created on-the-fly
> repository.
> ### END WORKFLOW C ###
It looks like it is WORKFLOW A (with the fact that each ',' is file
save stated explicitely rather than implicitely).
> For example:
>
> echo "// last comment on this file" >> /gitfs.mounted/file
>
> should do an implied checkpoint, and make these checkpoints immediately
> visible under some checkpoint branch of the gitfs mounted dir.
>
> Note, this way the developer gets version control without even noticing, and
> works completely transparent to any kind of application.
Why not use versioning filesystem for that, for example ext3cow
(which looks suprisingly git-like, when you take into account that
for ext3cow history is linear and centralized, so one can use date
or sequential number to name commits).
See GitLinks page on Git Wiki, "Other links" section:
http://www.ext3cow.com/
Version control system is all about WORKFLOW B, where programmer
controls when it is time to commit (and in private repository he/she
can then rewrite history to arrive at "Perfect patch series"[*1*]);
something that for example CVS failed at, requiring programmer to do
a merge if upstream has any changes when trying to commit.
[*1*] I have lost link to post at LKML about rewriting history to
arrive at perfect patch _series_. IIRC I have found it first
time on this mailing list. I would be grateful for sending this
link if you have it. TIA.
--
Jakub Narebski
ShadeHawk on #git
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 10:53 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-07 11:47 ` Jakub Narebski
@ 2007-12-07 12:30 ` Andreas Ericsson
2007-12-07 21:17 ` david
2007-12-07 22:00 ` Björn Steinbrink
3 siblings, 0 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Andreas Ericsson @ 2007-12-07 12:30 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi
Cc: Johannes Schindelin, Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue,
linux-kernel, git
Al Boldi wrote:
> Andreas Ericsson wrote:
>> So, to get to the bottom of this, which of the following workflows is it
>> you want git to support?
>>
>> ### WORKFLOW A ###
>> edit, edit, edit
>> edit, edit, edit
>> edit, edit, edit
>> Oops I made a mistake and need to hop back to "current - 12".
>> edit, edit, edit
>> edit, edit, edit
>> publish everything, similar to just tarring up your workdir and sending
>> out ### END WORKFLOW A ###
>>
>> ### WORKFLOW B ###
>> edit, edit, edit
>> ok this looks good, I want to save a checkpoint here
>> edit, edit, edit
>> looks good again. next checkpoint
>> edit, edit, edit
>> oh crap, back to checkpoint 2
>> edit, edit, edit
>> ooh, that's better. save a checkpoint and publish those checkpoints
>> ### END WORKFLOW B ###
>
> ### WORKFLOW C ###
> for every save on a gitfs mounted dir, do an implied checkpoint, commit, or
> publish (should be adjustable), on its privately created on-the-fly
> repository.
> ### END WORKFLOW C ###
>
So you *do* want an editor's undo function, but for an entire filesystem.
That's a handy thing to have every now and then, but it's not what git
(or any other scm) does.
> For example:
>
> echo "// last comment on this file" >> /gitfs.mounted/file
>
> should do an implied checkpoint, and make these checkpoints immediately
> visible under some checkpoint branch of the gitfs mounted dir.
>
> Note, this way the developer gets version control without even noticing, and
> works completely transparent to any kind of application.
>
One other thing that's fairly important to note is that this can never
ever handle changesets, since each write() of each file will be a commit
on its own. It's so far from what git does that I think you'd be better
off just implementing it from scratch, or looking at a versioned fs, like
Jakub suggested in his reply.
You're also neglecting one very important aspect of what an SCM provides
if you go down this road, namely project history. You basically have two
choices with this "implicit save on each edit":
* force the user to supply a commit message for each and every edit
* ignore commit messages altogether
Obviously, forcing a commit message each time is the only way to get some
sort of proper history to look at after it's done, but it's also such an
appalling nuisance that I doubt *anyone* will actually like that, and since
changesets aren't supported, you'll have "implement xniz api, commit 1 of X"
messages. Cumbersome, stupid, and not very useful.
Ignoring commit messages altogether means you ignore the entire history,
and the SCM then becomes a filesystem-wide "undo" cache. This could
ofcourse work, but it's something akin to building a nuclear powerplant
to power a single lightbulb.
--
Andreas Ericsson andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225 Fax: +46 8-230231
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-04 22:21 ` Phillip Susi
@ 2007-12-07 17:35 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-06 18:24 ` Andreas Ericsson
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-12-07 17:35 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Phillip Susi; +Cc: Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
Phillip Susi wrote:
> Al Boldi wrote:
> > IOW, git currently only implements the server-side use-case, but fails
> > to deliver on the client-side. By introducing a git-client manager that
> > handles the transparency needs of a single user, it should be possible
> > to clearly isolate update semantics for both the client and the server,
> > each handling their specific use-case.
>
> Any talk of client or server makes no sense since git does not use a
> client/server model.
Whether git uses the client/server model or not does not matter; what matters
is that there are two distinct use-cases at work here: one on the
server/repository, and the other on the client.
> If you wish to use a centralized repository, then
> git can be set up to transparently push/pull to/from said repository if
> you wish via hooks or cron jobs.
Again, this only handles the interface to/from the server/repository, but
once you pulled the sources, it leaves you without Version Control on the
client.
By pulling the sources into a git-client manager mounted on some dir, it
should be possible to let the developer work naturally/transparently in a
readable/writeable manner, and only require his input when reverting locally
or committing to the server/repository.
Thanks!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-06 18:24 ` Andreas Ericsson
@ 2007-12-07 18:55 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-06 20:22 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-12-06 21:46 ` Phillip Susi
0 siblings, 2 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-12-07 18:55 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Andreas Ericsson
Cc: Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
Andreas Ericsson wrote:
> Al Boldi wrote:
> > Phillip Susi wrote:
> >> Al Boldi wrote:
> >>> IOW, git currently only implements the server-side use-case, but fails
> >>> to deliver on the client-side. By introducing a git-client manager
> >>> that handles the transparency needs of a single user, it should be
> >>> possible to clearly isolate update semantics for both the client and
> >>> the server, each handling their specific use-case.
> >>
> >> Any talk of client or server makes no sense since git does not use a
> >> client/server model.
> >
> > Whether git uses the client/server model or not does not matter; what
> > matters is that there are two distinct use-cases at work here: one on
> > the server/repository, and the other on the client.
>
> Git is distributed. The repository is everywhere. No server is actually
> needed. Many use one anyway since it can be convenient. It's not, however,
> necessary.
When you read server, don't read it as localized; a server can be
distributed. What distinguishes a server from an engine is that it has to
handle a multi-user use-case. How that is implemented, locally or remotely
or distributed, is another issue.
> >> If you wish to use a centralized repository, then
> >> git can be set up to transparently push/pull to/from said repository if
> >> you wish via hooks or cron jobs.
> >
> > Again, this only handles the interface to/from the server/repository,
> > but once you pulled the sources, it leaves you without Version Control
> > on the client.
>
> No, that's CVS, SVN and other centralized scm's. With git you have perfect
> version control on each peer. That's the entire idea behind "fully
> distributed".
As explained before in this thread, replicating the git tree on the client
still doesn't provide the required transparency.
> > By pulling the sources into a git-client manager mounted on some dir, it
> > should be possible to let the developer work naturally/transparently in
> > a readable/writeable manner, and only require his input when reverting
> > locally or committing to the server/repository.
>
> How is that different from what every SCM, including git, is doing today?
> The user needs to tell the scm when it's time to take a snapshot of the
> current state. Git is distributed though, so committing is usually not the
> same as publishing. Is that lack of a single command to commit and publish
> what's nagging you? If it's not, I completely fail to see what you're
> getting at, unless you've only ever looked at repositories without a
> worktree attached, or you think that git should work like an editor's
> "undo" functionality, which would be quite insane.
You need to re-read the thread.
Thanks!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 11:47 ` Jakub Narebski
@ 2007-12-07 19:04 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-07 19:36 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-12-08 11:13 ` Johannes Schindelin
0 siblings, 2 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-12-07 19:04 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Jakub Narebski
Cc: Andreas Ericsson, Johannes Schindelin, Phillip Susi,
Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
Jakub Narebski wrote:
> Al Boldi <a1426z@gawab.com> writes:
> > For example:
> >
> > echo "// last comment on this file" >> /gitfs.mounted/file
> >
> > should do an implied checkpoint, and make these checkpoints immediately
> > visible under some checkpoint branch of the gitfs mounted dir.
> >
> > Note, this way the developer gets version control without even noticing,
> > and works completely transparent to any kind of application.
>
> Why not use versioning filesystem for that, for example ext3cow
> (which looks suprisingly git-like, when you take into account that
> for ext3cow history is linear and centralized, so one can use date
> or sequential number to name commits).
>
> See GitLinks page on Git Wiki, "Other links" section:
> http://www.ext3cow.com/
Sure, Linus mentioned the cow idea before in this thread, but you would still
need a few hacks to get some basic Version Control features.
> Version control system is all about WORKFLOW B, where programmer
> controls when it is time to commit (and in private repository he/she
> can then rewrite history to arrive at "Perfect patch series"[*1*]);
> something that for example CVS failed at, requiring programmer to do
> a merge if upstream has any changes when trying to commit.
Because WORKFLOW C is transparent, it won't affect other workflows. So you
could still use your normal WORKFLOW B in addition to WORKFLOW C, gaining an
additional level of version control detail at no extra cost other than the
git-engine scratch repository overhead.
BTW, is git efficient enough to handle WORKFLOW C?
Thanks!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 19:04 ` Al Boldi
@ 2007-12-07 19:36 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-12-07 22:07 ` Luke Lu
2007-12-08 4:56 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-08 11:13 ` Johannes Schindelin
1 sibling, 2 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Valdis.Kletnieks @ 2007-12-07 19:36 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi
Cc: Jakub Narebski, Andreas Ericsson, Johannes Schindelin,
Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 505 bytes --]
On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:04:48 +0300, Al Boldi said:
> Because WORKFLOW C is transparent, it won't affect other workflows. So you
> could still use your normal WORKFLOW B in addition to WORKFLOW C, gaining an
> additional level of version control detail at no extra cost other than the
> git-engine scratch repository overhead.
>
> BTW, is git efficient enough to handle WORKFLOW C?
Imagine the number of commits a 'make clean; make' will do in a kernel tree, as
it commits all those .o files... :)
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 10:53 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-07 11:47 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-12-07 12:30 ` Andreas Ericsson
@ 2007-12-07 21:17 ` david
2007-12-07 22:00 ` Björn Steinbrink
3 siblings, 0 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: david @ 2007-12-07 21:17 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi
Cc: Andreas Ericsson, Johannes Schindelin, Phillip Susi,
Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007, Al Boldi wrote:
> Andreas Ericsson wrote:
>> So, to get to the bottom of this, which of the following workflows is it
>> you want git to support?
>>
>> ### WORKFLOW A ###
>> edit, edit, edit
>> edit, edit, edit
>> edit, edit, edit
>> Oops I made a mistake and need to hop back to "current - 12".
>> edit, edit, edit
>> edit, edit, edit
>> publish everything, similar to just tarring up your workdir and sending
>> out ### END WORKFLOW A ###
>>
>> ### WORKFLOW B ###
>> edit, edit, edit
>> ok this looks good, I want to save a checkpoint here
>> edit, edit, edit
>> looks good again. next checkpoint
>> edit, edit, edit
>> oh crap, back to checkpoint 2
>> edit, edit, edit
>> ooh, that's better. save a checkpoint and publish those checkpoints
>> ### END WORKFLOW B ###
>
> ### WORKFLOW C ###
> for every save on a gitfs mounted dir, do an implied checkpoint, commit, or
> publish (should be adjustable), on its privately created on-the-fly
> repository.
> ### END WORKFLOW C ###
>
> For example:
>
> echo "// last comment on this file" >> /gitfs.mounted/file
>
> should do an implied checkpoint, and make these checkpoints immediately
> visible under some checkpoint branch of the gitfs mounted dir.
>
> Note, this way the developer gets version control without even noticing, and
> works completely transparent to any kind of application.
so if you have a script that does
echo "mail header" >tmpfile
echo "subject: >>tmpfile
echo >>tmpfile
echo "body" >>tmpfile
you want to have four seperate commits
what if you have a perl script
open outfile ">tmpfile";
print outfile "mail header\n";
print outfile "subject:\n\n";
print outfile "body\n";
close ourfile;
how many seperate commits do you think should take place?
what if $|=1 (unbuffered output, so that each print statement becomes
visable to other programs immediatly)?
what if the file is changed via mmap? should each byte/word written to
memory be a commit? or when the mmap is closed? or when the kernel happens
to flush the page to disk?
'recording every change to a filesystem' is a very incomplete definition
of a goal.
David Lang
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 10:53 ` Al Boldi
` (2 preceding siblings ...)
2007-12-07 21:17 ` david
@ 2007-12-07 22:00 ` Björn Steinbrink
2009-08-28 12:30 ` inotify-commit, was " Johannes Schindelin
3 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Björn Steinbrink @ 2007-12-07 22:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi
Cc: Andreas Ericsson, Johannes Schindelin, Phillip Susi,
Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 3930 bytes --]
On 2007.12.07 13:53:11 +0300, Al Boldi wrote:
> Andreas Ericsson wrote:
> > So, to get to the bottom of this, which of the following workflows is it
> > you want git to support?
> >
> > ### WORKFLOW A ###
> > edit, edit, edit
> > edit, edit, edit
> > edit, edit, edit
> > Oops I made a mistake and need to hop back to "current - 12".
> > edit, edit, edit
> > edit, edit, edit
> > publish everything, similar to just tarring up your workdir and sending
> > out ### END WORKFLOW A ###
> >
> > ### WORKFLOW B ###
> > edit, edit, edit
> > ok this looks good, I want to save a checkpoint here
> > edit, edit, edit
> > looks good again. next checkpoint
> > edit, edit, edit
> > oh crap, back to checkpoint 2
> > edit, edit, edit
> > ooh, that's better. save a checkpoint and publish those checkpoints
> > ### END WORKFLOW B ###
>
> ### WORKFLOW C ###
> for every save on a gitfs mounted dir, do an implied checkpoint, commit, or
> publish (should be adjustable), on its privately created on-the-fly
> repository.
> ### END WORKFLOW C ###
>
> For example:
>
> echo "// last comment on this file" >> /gitfs.mounted/file
>
> should do an implied checkpoint, and make these checkpoints immediately
> visible under some checkpoint branch of the gitfs mounted dir.
>
> Note, this way the developer gets version control without even noticing, and
> works completely transparent to any kind of application.
Ouch... That looks worse than "plain" per-file versioning. Not only do
you per definition get "broken" commits if there's a change that affects
two dependent files, you also get an insane amount of commits just for
testing stuff, or fixing bugs.
And unless you use some kind of union-fs on top (or keep ignored files
in special unversioned area in your gitfs, which seems somewhat ugly),
you'll probably also have to track lots of files in the working
directory that are generated, unless you want to re-generate them after
each reboot. And that leads to even more absolutely useless revisions.
Just thinking of my vim .swp files (which I definitely don't want to
loose on a crash/power outtage/pkill -9 .<ENTER> dammit) makes me scream
because of the gazillion of commits they will produce (and no, I don't
want them in some special out of tree directory).
Plus, I have vim setup to _replace_ files on write, so that I can more
easily use hard-linked copies with changing all copies at once _unless_
I explicitly want to, meaning that I'd get full remove/add commits,
which are absolutely useless. And trying to detect such patterns
(rename, then write the changed file with the old name and then delete
the renamed file) is probably not worth the trouble, because you
coincidently might _want_ to have just these three steps recorded when
you happen to perform them manually. And if you go for heuristics,
you'll complain each time you get a false-positive/negative.
That said, out of pure curiousness I came up with the attached script
which just uses inotifywait to watch a directory and issue git commands
on certain events. It is extremely stupid, but seems to work. And at
least it hasn't got the drawbacks of a real gitfs regarding the need to
have a "separate" non-versioned storage area for the working directory,
because it simply uses the existing working directory wherever that
might be stored. It doesn't use GIT_DIR/WORK_DIR yet, but hey, should be
easy to add...
Feel free to mess with that thing, hey, maybe you even like it and
extend it to match your proposed workflow even more. I for sure won't
use or even extend it, so you're likely on your own there.
Side-note: Writing that script probably took less time than writing this
email and probably less time than was wasted on this topic. Makes me
want to use today's preferred "Code talks, b...s... walks" statement,
but I'll refrain from that... Just because I lack the credibility to say
that, and the script attached is quite crappy ;-)
Björn
[-- Attachment #2: git-watch --]
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#!/bin/bash
inotifywait -m -r --exclude ^\./\.git/.* -e close_write -e move -e create -e delete . 2>/dev/null |
while read FILE_PATH EVENT FILE_NAME
do
FILE_NAME="$FILE_PATH$FILE_NAME"
FILE_NAME=${FILE_NAME#./}
# git doesn't care about directories
if [ -d "$FILE_NAME" ]
then
continue
fi
case "$EVENT" in
*CLOSE_WRITE*)
ACTION=change
;;
*MOVED_TO*)
ACTION=create
;;
*MODIFY*)
ACTION=change
;;
*DELETE*)
ACTION=delete
;;
*MOVED_FROM*)
ACTION=delete
;;
*CREATE*)
ACTION=create
;;
*)
continue
;;
esac
case $ACTION in
create)
git add "$FILE_NAME"
git commit -m "$FILE_NAME created"
;;
delete)
git rm --cached "$FILE_NAME"
git commit -m "$FILE_NAME removed"
;;
change)
git add "$FILE_NAME"
git commit -m "$FILE_NAME changed"
;;
esac
done
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 19:36 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
@ 2007-12-07 22:07 ` Luke Lu
2007-12-08 4:56 ` Al Boldi
1 sibling, 0 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Luke Lu @ 2007-12-07 22:07 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Valdis.Kletnieks
Cc: Al Boldi, Jakub Narebski, Andreas Ericsson, Johannes Schindelin,
Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
On Dec 7, 2007, at 11:36 AM, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:
> On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:04:48 +0300, Al Boldi said:
>
>> Because WORKFLOW C is transparent, it won't affect other
>> workflows. So you
>> could still use your normal WORKFLOW B in addition to WORKFLOW C,
>> gaining an
>> additional level of version control detail at no extra cost other
>> than the
>> git-engine scratch repository overhead.
>>
>> BTW, is git efficient enough to handle WORKFLOW C?
>
> Imagine the number of commits a 'make clean; make' will do in a
> kernel tree, as
> it commits all those .o files... :)
My guess is that Al is not really a developer (product management/
marketing?), what he has in mind is probably not an SCM but a backup
system a la Mac's time machine or Netapp's snapshots that also
support disconnected commits. I think that git could be a suitable
engine for such systems, after a few tweaks to avoid compressing
already compressed blobs like jpeg, mp3 and mpeg etc.
__Luke
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 19:36 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-12-07 22:07 ` Luke Lu
@ 2007-12-08 4:56 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-08 5:16 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
1 sibling, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-12-08 4:56 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Valdis.Kletnieks
Cc: Jakub Narebski, Andreas Ericsson, Johannes Schindelin,
Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:
> On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:04:48 +0300, Al Boldi said:
> > Because WORKFLOW C is transparent, it won't affect other workflows. So
> > you could still use your normal WORKFLOW B in addition to WORKFLOW C,
> > gaining an additional level of version control detail at no extra cost
> > other than the git-engine scratch repository overhead.
> >
> > BTW, is git efficient enough to handle WORKFLOW C?
>
> Imagine the number of commits a 'make clean; make' will do in a kernel
> tree, as it commits all those .o files... :)
.o files???
It probably goes without saying, that gitfs should have some basic
configuration file to setup its transparent behaviour, and which would most
probably contain an include / exclude file-filter mask, and probably other
basic configuration options. But this is really secondary to the
implementation, and the question remains whether git is efficient enough.
IOW, how big is the git commit overhead as compared to a normal copy?
Thanks!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-08 4:56 ` Al Boldi
@ 2007-12-08 5:16 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-12-08 10:41 ` Al Boldi
0 siblings, 1 reply; 34+ messages in thread
From: Valdis.Kletnieks @ 2007-12-08 5:16 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi
Cc: Jakub Narebski, Andreas Ericsson, Johannes Schindelin,
Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
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On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 07:56:21 +0300, Al Boldi said:
> It probably goes without saying, that gitfs should have some basic
> configuration file to setup its transparent behaviour
But then it's not *truly* transparent, is it?
And that leaves another question - if you make a config file that excludes
all the .o files - then what's backing the .o files? Those data blocks need
to be *someplace*. Maybe you can do something ugly like use unionfs to
combine your gitfs with something else to store the other files...
But at that point, you're probably better off just creating a properly
designed versioning filesystem.
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-01 6:50 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-04 22:21 ` Phillip Susi
@ 2007-12-08 6:33 ` Martin Langhoff
1 sibling, 0 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Martin Langhoff @ 2007-12-08 6:33 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi; +Cc: Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
On Dec 1, 2007 7:50 PM, Al Boldi <a1426z@gawab.com> wrote:
> Not sure what you mean by operationally transparent? It would be transparent
> for the updating client, and the rest of the git-users would need to wait
> for the commit from the updating client; which is ok, as this transparency
> is not meant to change the server-side git-update semantic.
I guess what he means is that when your write to the file -- from your
editor -- it can't be considered a commit. During an editing session
you might write a dozen times, only to commit it once you are happy
(that it compiles, passes tests, etc).
> Sure, you wouldn't want to change the git-engine update semantics, as that
> sits on the server and handles all users. But what the git model is
> currently missing is a client manager. Right now, this is being worked
> around by replicating the git tree on the client, which still doesn't
> provide the required transparency.
If you want a dumb-ish client CVS-style, you can try git-cvsserver.
But the git model is definitely superior -- "replicating the tree on
the client" is not a workaround but a central strategy.
Have you used git and other DSCMs much? From your writing, it sounds
like you may have misunderstood how some of the principles of git work
out in practice.
cheers,
m
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-08 5:16 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
@ 2007-12-08 10:41 ` Al Boldi
0 siblings, 0 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Al Boldi @ 2007-12-08 10:41 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Valdis.Kletnieks
Cc: Jakub Narebski, Andreas Ericsson, Johannes Schindelin,
Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds, Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:
> On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 07:56:21 +0300, Al Boldi said:
> > It probably goes without saying, that gitfs should have some basic
> > configuration file to setup its transparent behaviour
>
> But then it's not *truly* transparent, is it?
Don't mistake transparency with some form of auto-heuristic. Transparency
only means that it inserts functionality without impeding your normal
workflow.
> And that leaves another question - if you make a config file that excludes
> all the .o files - then what's backing the .o files? Those data blocks
> need to be *someplace*. Maybe you can do something ugly like use unionfs
> to combine your gitfs with something else to store the other files...
Or any number of other possible implementation scenarios...
> But at that point, you're probably better off just creating a properly
> designed versioning filesystem.
But gitfs is not about designing a versioning filesystem, it's about
designing a transparent interface into git to handle an SCM use-case.
Thanks!
--
Al
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 19:04 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-07 19:36 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
@ 2007-12-08 11:13 ` Johannes Schindelin
1 sibling, 0 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Johannes Schindelin @ 2007-12-08 11:13 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Al Boldi
Cc: Jakub Narebski, Andreas Ericsson, Phillip Susi, Linus Torvalds,
Jing Xue, linux-kernel, git
Hi,
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007, Al Boldi wrote:
> Jakub Narebski wrote:
>
> > Version control system is all about WORKFLOW B, where programmer
> > controls when it is time to commit (and in private repository he/she
> > can then rewrite history to arrive at "Perfect patch series"[*1*]);
> > something that for example CVS failed at, requiring programmer to do a
> > merge if upstream has any changes when trying to commit.
>
> Because WORKFLOW C is transparent, it won't affect other workflows. So
> you could still use your normal WORKFLOW B in addition to WORKFLOW C,
> gaining an additional level of version control detail at no extra cost
> other than the git-engine scratch repository overhead.
>
> BTW, is git efficient enough to handle WORKFLOW C?
The question is not if git is efficient enough to handle workflow C, but
if that worflow is efficient enough to help anybody.
Guess what takes me the longest time when committing? The commit message.
But it is really helpful, so there is a _point_ in writing one, and there
is a _point_ in committing when I do it: it is a point in time where I
expect the tree to be in a good shape, to be compilable, and to solve a
specific problem which I describe in the commit message.
So I absolutely hate this "transparency". Git _is_ transparent; it does
not affect any of my other tools; they still work very well
thankyouverymuch.
What your version of "transparency" would do: destroy bisectability, make
an absolute gibberish of the history, and more!
Nobody could read the output of "git log" and form an understanding what
was done. Nobody could read the commit message for a certain "git blame"d
line that she tries to make sense of.
IOW you would revert the whole meaning of the term Source Code Management.
Hth,
Dscho
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
* inotify-commit, was Re: git guidance
2007-12-07 22:00 ` Björn Steinbrink
@ 2009-08-28 12:30 ` Johannes Schindelin
0 siblings, 0 replies; 34+ messages in thread
From: Johannes Schindelin @ 2009-08-28 12:30 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Björn Steinbrink; +Cc: git
[-- Attachment #1: Type: TEXT/PLAIN, Size: 2440 bytes --]
Hi,
[long Cc: list culled, as they probably forgot about this thread]
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007, Björn Steinbrink wrote:
> That said, out of pure curiousness I came up with the attached script
> which just uses inotifywait to watch a directory and issue git commands
> on certain events. It is extremely stupid, but seems to work. And at
> least it hasn't got the drawbacks of a real gitfs regarding the need to
> have a "separate" non-versioned storage area for the working directory,
> because it simply uses the existing working directory wherever that
> might be stored. It doesn't use GIT_DIR/WORK_DIR yet, but hey, should be
> easy to add...
>
> Feel free to mess with that thing, hey, maybe you even like it and
> extend it to match your proposed workflow even more. I for sure won't
> use or even extend it, so you're likely on your own there.
>
> Side-note: Writing that script probably took less time than writing this
> email and probably less time than was wasted on this topic. Makes me
> want to use today's preferred "Code talks, b...s... walks" statement,
> but I'll refrain from that... Just because I lack the credibility to say
> that, and the script attached is quite crappy ;-)
I could not agree more with the statement.
As it happens, I have a very delicate setup that we tested in a test
environment as much as possible, but now we have to deploy it and I want
to be able to rewind very quickly to a known-good state.
So I adjusted your script a little. It now reads like this:
-- snip --
#!/bin/sh
# Originally by Bjoern Steinbrink, simplified by Johannes Schindelin
inotifywait -m -r --exclude ^\./\.git/.* \
-e close_write -e move -e create -e delete . 2>/dev/null |
while read FILE_PATH EVENT FILE_NAME
do
FILE_NAME="$FILE_PATH$FILE_NAME"
FILE_NAME=${FILE_NAME#./}
# git doesn't care about directories
test -d "$FILE_NAME" && continue
case "$EVENT" in
*MOVED_TO*|*CREATE*)
git add "$FILE_NAME"
git commit -m "$FILE_NAME created"
;;
*CLOSE_WRITE*|*MODIFY*)
git add "$FILE_NAME"
git commit -m "$FILE_NAME changed"
;;
*DELETE*|*MOVED_FROM*)
git rm --cached "$FILE_NAME"
git commit -m "$FILE_NAME removed"
;;
esac
done
-- snap --
Thanks for your original script!
Ciao,
Dscho
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 34+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2009-08-28 12:34 UTC | newest]
Thread overview: 34+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2007-11-29 15:52 git guidance Jing Xue
2007-11-29 16:19 ` Linus Torvalds
2007-12-01 6:50 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-04 22:21 ` Phillip Susi
2007-12-07 17:35 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-06 18:24 ` Andreas Ericsson
2007-12-07 18:55 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-06 20:22 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-12-07 4:37 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-07 8:40 ` Andreas Ericsson
2007-12-07 10:53 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-07 11:47 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-12-07 19:04 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-07 19:36 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-12-07 22:07 ` Luke Lu
2007-12-08 4:56 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-08 5:16 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-12-08 10:41 ` Al Boldi
2007-12-08 11:13 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-12-07 12:30 ` Andreas Ericsson
2007-12-07 21:17 ` david
2007-12-07 22:00 ` Björn Steinbrink
2009-08-28 12:30 ` inotify-commit, was " Johannes Schindelin
2007-12-06 21:46 ` Phillip Susi
2007-12-08 6:33 ` Martin Langhoff
[not found] <20071127235237.GF15227@1wt.eu>
2007-11-28 12:49 ` Al Boldi
2007-11-28 13:45 ` Rogan Dawes
2007-11-28 15:46 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-11-28 17:14 ` Al Boldi
2007-11-28 18:14 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-11-28 18:30 ` Al Boldi
2007-11-28 18:41 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-11-29 5:27 ` Al Boldi
2007-11-29 12:57 ` Kyle Moffett
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