7 ms·

Uses of git

190 points by sundar22in 15y ago

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
iambot 15y ago
I've come across a project before that used GitHub's gist API as a document store for client side apps. Can't for the life of me find it again, Don't suppose anyone else has come across this use and can remember the url (or has it bookmarked)
rplnt 15y ago
The sentence about Torvalds might be a bit of a stretch. The approach (distributed version control) wasn't new when he created git. Also, what is with that changing of selection color? :)
- sundar22in 15y ago
  Its true that Linus did not invent distributed version control (he did not invent OS either), but git did change the world of version control systems similar to his other creation Linux. Thanks for observation, i did not notice the selection color was pink :)
- kristianc 15y ago
  HTML5 Boilerplate uses the same selection color, so its feasible that that was used as a starting point.
eiji 15y ago
Allowed uses of git? Maybe someone can shed some light on that aspect, and the webpage should too. Every time when I see "GNU GPL" I just turn around and think it's not worth the trouble.
- bradleyland 15y ago
  I'm not seeing the term "allowed" on the page. Maybe it was edited since you posted. I'm thinking that if it was used, it was probably a result of English being a second-language or something similar. I don't understand how the GNU GPL license would impact your usage of git. Do you intend to include git with your application? I think the intent of this article is to show you the different ways you can implement git to solve a variety of problems. The GNU GPL license is largely irrelevant to end-users of software.
- sundar22in 15y ago
  Intention of the post is to show various ways in which we can use git and they are allowed uses too. For e.g. MySQL uses GNU GPL too, you can use it in your poject and use it for any purpose.
  - throwaway191 15y ago
    git is such a beautifully elegant concept and execution... it's so simple that i still often find myself grappling with exactly what the heck a particular command does and when it should be used. i personally always get a small giddy thrill when i see such a wide spectrum of applications from a simple underlying concept... just like these. and each application alone is cool! DB, wiki, dropbox-clone... very, very cool stuff when considering the implications of integration on /that/ level. but apparently this isn't a universal sentiment, given some of the comments on this thread (that i am genuinely surprised at, given what i would think is the typical "curious/hacker" mentality of the crowd here).
- scott_s 15y ago
  I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the implications of GPLed software. If you incorporate GPLed software into your own software - that is, copy the source code - then your work is considered a derived work and is also under the GPL. Software that is LGPLed can be linked to without making your application under the GPL itself. This includes things like glibc. (The "L" in "LGPL" used to stand for "Library" but now it means "Lesser.") Finally, if you use GPL software to produce your own works, there is no effect. So using git to manage your own source has no impact. Same with using gcc to compile your source.
  - sundar22in 15y ago
    Good explanation!
  - drothlis 15y ago
    I thought that the grand-parent comment referred to sentences such as this from the article: "Git can be used as a database for your application." If you intend to distribute your application, even though you're not copying the git source code directly, nor linking your application directly against a git library, the GPL is rather ambiguous. "Pipes, sockets and command-line arguments are communication mechanisms normally used between two separate programs. So when they are used for communication, the modules normally are separate programs. But if the semantics of the communication are intimate enough, exchanging complex internal data structures, that too could be a basis to consider the two parts as combined into a larger program." -- http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html#MereAggregation http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html#Me...
  - obtu 15y ago
    Minor correction: the LGPL relaxes the reciprocity requirement for code that uses the LGPL code; linking isn't the only example, imports in dynamic languages is another.
    - icebraining 15y ago
      The GPL doesn't have a reciprocity requirement; it's a pay-it-forward system.
___Calv_Dee___ 15y ago
Fantastic post on the beauty of git. The Using git for for deployment article seems like a great micro-intro to git. Nice one!
human_error 15y ago
There's also Blogofile, static blog generator for Python lovers.
- sundar22in 15y ago
  Thanks for the info. I love python.
  - peterhajas 15y ago
    Hyde is another great one, I use it for my personal site.
HerrMonnezza 15y ago
IkiWiki (Perl-based) is another wiki backed by git (or svn, or bzr, or other VCSes), and has also other nice features like static website and blog generation. [1]: http://ikiwiki.info/ http://ikiwiki.info/
- sundar22in 15y ago
  Thanks for the link. Updated the post with your suggestion! Hope its useful for others as well.
jamesgeck0 15y ago
How well does Git handle being used for syncing arbitrary files? I'd been led to believe that storing large binary blobs in it was a Bad Thing (tm).
- gigq 15y ago
  It's not ideal. It will end up storing two copies of the data files, one in the .git folder as a blob and one for the regular file in the checkout. There are projects (http://git-annex.branchable.com/ http://git-annex.branchable.com/ and https://github.com/schacon/git-media https://github.com/schacon/git-media) to try and get around this issue but then you are not really using git to manage the files directly anymore.
ap22213 15y ago
Distributed version control is such a wonderful thing. And, I love how github has become a pseudo-wiki - letting individuals change information, knowledge and not just code. Naturally, HTML/HTTP is graph-like, but unfortunately it has converged over time into a few homogeneous master branches, owned and controlled by a few. I hope that techniques like DVCS with its branching, forking, and merging of information, can create better Wikipedias.
- drothlis 15y ago
  Have you seen Ward Cunningham's "federated wiki"? http://wardcunningham.github.com/ http://wardcunningham.github.com/
Keithamus 15y ago
On the "git as a backup tool", the author missed a tool which looks quite interesting, called Bup (https://github.com/apenwarr/bup https://github.com/apenwarr/bup) which is based on git's toolchain. It is still immature but worth looking at.
- sundar22in 15y ago
  Thanks, Your suggestion is updated in the post.
SonicSoul 15y ago
excuse my ignorance.. but it is interesting to me that we see blog posts about how to find different uses for git. what makes git so great that we (or people writing such articles) try to retrofit it into tools that already have more mature alternatives dedicated solely to doing that one thing really well. it's some form of marketing i don't fully understand.
- sundar22in 15y ago
  I see your point, and its not a marketing imho. In some cases i agree that there are mature alternatives, but what if you dont want or cannot use them. For e.g. Dropbox is a great file storage/sync service. But you may not be able to use it inside an enterprise and store office/confidential documents. I think its essential to know and understand various ways in which a tool can be used. So that you can apply it to solve/simplify a problem. Its not a marketing.
- amirmc 15y ago
  Isn't this what 'hacking' is (at least partially) about? Despite the existence of 'solutions', there are lots of interesting things people can do with git and it's probably fun to explore them. edit: I'm not sure why you consider it 'marketing' either.
  - sundar22in 15y ago
    I agree with the comment. Its hacking and not marketing!!
  - SonicSoul 15y ago
    yep, i understand your point, and i do see the hacking angle. and i also see a bit of zealotism. I would be very curious to learn what benefits could be gained from hacking git to do something like a wiki (other than being able to say that you're using git for wiki). And i'm not cynical here, genuinely curious..
    - icebraining 15y ago
      Well, you gain a bunch of features for free, like distributed storage, signed edits, etc. Also, I already know how to use Git, which saves me time over having to learn a whole new set of commands to use some other wiki software. And frankly, is it really different from using someone else's library or module?
amirmc 15y ago
There's also git-annex http://git-annex.branchable.com/ http://git-annex.branchable.com/
- icebraining 15y ago
  Came here to mention that. Having a simple way of managing where the various copies of my files are stored is great.
- bostonvaulter2 15y ago
  That looks very interesting. I also really like how the front page shows the use-cases plainly
- emmelaich 15y ago
  Another use case for git-annex (and hence git) would be host intrusion detection a-la aide, or tripwire. You'd have to add metadata tracking to make it worthwhile though.
mixonic 15y ago
Shameless alpha-testers-wanted plug: I'm launching a website authoring collaboration tool based around Git. Let me know if you're a git fanatic who needs to build fairly simple sites from time to time, and maybe you can try it out and give me some feedback! Figured this wasn't completely off-topic, as I'm building Yet-Another-Use-For-Git :-) matt.beale@madhatted.com
- sundar22in 15y ago
  Please don't spam the discussion.
- alinajaf 15y ago
  This sounds awesome, thanks for mentioning it here. Mail sent.
- bostonvaulter2 15y ago
  Does the website use Jekyll?
  - mixonic 15y ago
    Jekyll is part of what is going on, yes. But not the whole ball game by any measure!
alexchamberlain 15y ago
The blog states that git can be used as a database with version control. Does anyone know of a more optimised (document-oriented) database with version control? If not, is there an interest for one?
- throwaway191 15y ago
  Could you elaborate on what you mean by "document oriented db with version control"? Couch stores revision identifiers with every document ID, though old versions are subject to deletion whenever DB compaction occurs...
  - alexchamberlain 15y ago
    Essentially, objects have the ability to be rolled back, forward etc. Support for messages attached to commits and transactional commits would be nice! An extensible user collection would also be nice, so app users are database users and vice versa.
- ericsink 15y ago
  Veracity has a database feature which might be what you are envisioning. (Disclosure: I am one of the developers of Veracity). But I would not describe it as document-oriented. It versions a collection of records with fields in the same way that regular version control manages a collection of directories and files, with support for history and changesets and push and pull.
- prostoalex 15y ago
  CouchDB? http://couchdb.apache.org/docs/intro.html http://couchdb.apache.org/docs/intro.html
  - alexchamberlain 15y ago
    As pointed out below, versions can be garbaged by an efficient Database administrator.
- kijin 15y ago
franklovecchio 15y ago
I use Gists as user-data files for EC2 deployments. Works amazingly well.
- sundar22in 15y ago
  Interesting, could you please elaborate on this use of git. It will be helpful. Thanks.
  - franklovecchio 15y ago
    Sure. I'm actually working on a bootstrap project which uses Gists and Node.js to spin up a scaling infrastructure: https://github.com/franklovecchio/yc-bootstrap https://github.com/franklovecchio/yc-bootstrap. Instead of using CloudFormation, which I loathe, or Puppet/Chef (which have a learning curve and infrastructure for latter), I use standard bash libraries (see yc-bootstrap/gists/) and "extend" them to spin up instances -- see the README under "Gisting": (https://github.com/franklovecchio/yc-bootstrap/blob/master/README.markdown https://github.com/franklovecchio/yc-bootstrap/blob/master/R...). That example is what the user-data file would be.
    - sundar22in 15y ago
      Thanks! +1
gwern 15y ago
> Github and Bitbucket provide a wiki backed by git. Colloboration tools such as wikis can be run by using git. And Gitit: http://gitit.net/ http://gitit.net/
- sundar22in 15y ago
  Thanks for this suggestion. Post updated. +1
enjalot 15y ago
We are (ab)using git in some fun ways. Our designers use branches we setup with git flow to develop and manage assets. We deploy from develop and master branches to dev and production servers. We also use the github api to allow the dynamic loading of the assets from the head of any one of the branches for internal testing. I've been pleasantly surprised how well the designers have taken to the workflow, and its great to take advantage of the flexibility of git especially when we don't have the time to roll our own backend to cover all those bases.
- franklovecchio 15y ago
  I do the same thing for testing branches and continuous deployment on EC2! +1.
chunkyslink 15y ago
I asked the community this question a few months back - small discussion here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2732149 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2732149
ComputerGuru 15y ago
I'm surprised no one has mentioned it before, not that it's revolutionary or amazing, but just so damn helpful: Turn your /etc/ into a git repository. It'll save you hours on end of maintenance and debugging in the long run, especially when you update packages and find that your configurations have been overwritten or lost.
- gerrit 15y ago
  You should check out etckeeper, a package that does exactly that. Additionally it will hook into apt-get and similar system tools and automate Some of the revisioning
  - Terretta 15y ago
    Ubuntu's page about it: https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/C/etckeeper.html https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/C/etckeeper.html Example of using etckeeper with Git on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS: http://evilrouters.net/2011/02/18/using-etckeeper-with-git-on-ubuntu/ http://evilrouters.net/2011/02/18/using-etckeeper-with-git-o...

190 points by sundar22in 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

I've come across a project before that used GitHub's gist API as a document store for client side apps. Can't for the life of me find it again, Don't suppose anyone else has come across this use and can remember the url (or has it bookmarked)

rplnt 15y ago

The sentence about Torvalds might be a bit of a stretch. The approach (distributed version control) wasn't new when he created git. Also, what is with that changing of selection color? :)

sundar22in 15y ago
Its true that Linus did not invent distributed version control (he did not invent OS either), but git did change the world of version control systems similar to his other creation Linux. Thanks for observation, i did not notice the selection color was pink :)
kristianc 15y ago
HTML5 Boilerplate uses the same selection color, so its feasible that that was used as a starting point.

eiji 15y ago

Allowed uses of git? Maybe someone can shed some light on that aspect, and the webpage should too. Every time when I see "GNU GPL" I just turn around and think it's not worth the trouble.

bradleyland 15y ago
I'm not seeing the term "allowed" on the page. Maybe it was edited since you posted. I'm thinking that if it was used, it was probably a result of English being a second-language or something similar. I don't understand how the GNU GPL license would impact your usage of git. Do you intend to include git with your application? I think the intent of this article is to show you the different ways you can implement git to solve a variety of problems. The GNU GPL license is largely irrelevant to end-users of software.
sundar22in 15y ago
Intention of the post is to show various ways in which we can use git and they are allowed uses too. For e.g. MySQL uses GNU GPL too, you can use it in your poject and use it for any purpose.
- throwaway191 15y ago
  git is such a beautifully elegant concept and execution... it's so simple that i still often find myself grappling with exactly what the heck a particular command does and when it should be used. i personally always get a small giddy thrill when i see such a wide spectrum of applications from a simple underlying concept... just like these. and each application alone is cool! DB, wiki, dropbox-clone... very, very cool stuff when considering the implications of integration on /that/ level. but apparently this isn't a universal sentiment, given some of the comments on this thread (that i am genuinely surprised at, given what i would think is the typical "curious/hacker" mentality of the crowd here).
scott_s 15y ago
I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the implications of GPLed software. If you incorporate GPLed software into your own software - that is, copy the source code - then your work is considered a derived work and is also under the GPL. Software that is LGPLed can be linked to without making your application under the GPL itself. This includes things like glibc. (The "L" in "LGPL" used to stand for "Library" but now it means "Lesser.") Finally, if you use GPL software to produce your own works, there is no effect. So using git to manage your own source has no impact. Same with using gcc to compile your source.
- sundar22in 15y ago
  Good explanation!
- drothlis 15y ago
  I thought that the grand-parent comment referred to sentences such as this from the article: "Git can be used as a database for your application." If you intend to distribute your application, even though you're not copying the git source code directly, nor linking your application directly against a git library, the GPL is rather ambiguous. "Pipes, sockets and command-line arguments are communication mechanisms normally used between two separate programs. So when they are used for communication, the modules normally are separate programs. But if the semantics of the communication are intimate enough, exchanging complex internal data structures, that too could be a basis to consider the two parts as combined into a larger program." -- http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html#MereAggregation http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html#Me...
- obtu 15y ago
  Minor correction: the LGPL relaxes the reciprocity requirement for code that uses the LGPL code; linking isn't the only example, imports in dynamic languages is another.
  - icebraining 15y ago
    The GPL doesn't have a reciprocity requirement; it's a pay-it-forward system.

___Calv_Dee___ 15y ago

Fantastic post on the beauty of git. The Using git for for deployment article seems like a great micro-intro to git. Nice one!

human_error 15y ago

There's also Blogofile, static blog generator for Python lovers.

sundar22in 15y ago
Thanks for the info. I love python.
- peterhajas 15y ago
  Hyde is another great one, I use it for my personal site.

HerrMonnezza 15y ago

IkiWiki (Perl-based) is another wiki backed by git (or svn, or bzr, or other VCSes), and has also other nice features like static website and blog generation. [1]: http://ikiwiki.info/ http://ikiwiki.info/

sundar22in 15y ago
Thanks for the link. Updated the post with your suggestion! Hope its useful for others as well.

jamesgeck0 15y ago

How well does Git handle being used for syncing arbitrary files? I'd been led to believe that storing large binary blobs in it was a Bad Thing (tm).

gigq 15y ago
It's not ideal. It will end up storing two copies of the data files, one in the .git folder as a blob and one for the regular file in the checkout. There are projects (http://git-annex.branchable.com/ http://git-annex.branchable.com/ and https://github.com/schacon/git-media https://github.com/schacon/git-media) to try and get around this issue but then you are not really using git to manage the files directly anymore.

ap22213 15y ago

Distributed version control is such a wonderful thing. And, I love how github has become a pseudo-wiki - letting individuals change information, knowledge and not just code. Naturally, HTML/HTTP is graph-like, but unfortunately it has converged over time into a few homogeneous master branches, owned and controlled by a few. I hope that techniques like DVCS with its branching, forking, and merging of information, can create better Wikipedias.

drothlis 15y ago
Have you seen Ward Cunningham's "federated wiki"? http://wardcunningham.github.com/ http://wardcunningham.github.com/

Keithamus 15y ago

On the "git as a backup tool", the author missed a tool which looks quite interesting, called Bup (https://github.com/apenwarr/bup https://github.com/apenwarr/bup) which is based on git's toolchain. It is still immature but worth looking at.

sundar22in 15y ago
Thanks, Your suggestion is updated in the post.

SonicSoul 15y ago

excuse my ignorance.. but it is interesting to me that we see blog posts about how to find different uses for git. what makes git so great that we (or people writing such articles) try to retrofit it into tools that already have more mature alternatives dedicated solely to doing that one thing really well. it's some form of marketing i don't fully understand.

sundar22in 15y ago
I see your point, and its not a marketing imho. In some cases i agree that there are mature alternatives, but what if you dont want or cannot use them. For e.g. Dropbox is a great file storage/sync service. But you may not be able to use it inside an enterprise and store office/confidential documents. I think its essential to know and understand various ways in which a tool can be used. So that you can apply it to solve/simplify a problem. Its not a marketing.
amirmc 15y ago
Isn't this what 'hacking' is (at least partially) about? Despite the existence of 'solutions', there are lots of interesting things people can do with git and it's probably fun to explore them. edit: I'm not sure why you consider it 'marketing' either.
- sundar22in 15y ago
  I agree with the comment. Its hacking and not marketing!!
- SonicSoul 15y ago
  yep, i understand your point, and i do see the hacking angle. and i also see a bit of zealotism. I would be very curious to learn what benefits could be gained from hacking git to do something like a wiki (other than being able to say that you're using git for wiki). And i'm not cynical here, genuinely curious..
  - icebraining 15y ago
    Well, you gain a bunch of features for free, like distributed storage, signed edits, etc. Also, I already know how to use Git, which saves me time over having to learn a whole new set of commands to use some other wiki software. And frankly, is it really different from using someone else's library or module?

amirmc 15y ago

There's also git-annex http://git-annex.branchable.com/ http://git-annex.branchable.com/

icebraining 15y ago
Came here to mention that. Having a simple way of managing where the various copies of my files are stored is great.
bostonvaulter2 15y ago
That looks very interesting. I also really like how the front page shows the use-cases plainly
emmelaich 15y ago
Another use case for git-annex (and hence git) would be host intrusion detection a-la aide, or tripwire. You'd have to add metadata tracking to make it worthwhile though.

mixonic 15y ago

Shameless alpha-testers-wanted plug: I'm launching a website authoring collaboration tool based around Git. Let me know if you're a git fanatic who needs to build fairly simple sites from time to time, and maybe you can try it out and give me some feedback! Figured this wasn't completely off-topic, as I'm building Yet-Another-Use-For-Git :-) matt.beale@madhatted.com

sundar22in 15y ago
Please don't spam the discussion.
alinajaf 15y ago
This sounds awesome, thanks for mentioning it here. Mail sent.
bostonvaulter2 15y ago
Does the website use Jekyll?
- mixonic 15y ago
  Jekyll is part of what is going on, yes. But not the whole ball game by any measure!

alexchamberlain 15y ago

The blog states that git can be used as a database with version control. Does anyone know of a more optimised (document-oriented) database with version control? If not, is there an interest for one?

throwaway191 15y ago
Could you elaborate on what you mean by "document oriented db with version control"? Couch stores revision identifiers with every document ID, though old versions are subject to deletion whenever DB compaction occurs...
- alexchamberlain 15y ago
  Essentially, objects have the ability to be rolled back, forward etc. Support for messages attached to commits and transactional commits would be nice! An extensible user collection would also be nice, so app users are database users and vice versa.
ericsink 15y ago
Veracity has a database feature which might be what you are envisioning. (Disclosure: I am one of the developers of Veracity). But I would not describe it as document-oriented. It versions a collection of records with fields in the same way that regular version control manages a collection of directories and files, with support for history and changesets and push and pull.
prostoalex 15y ago
CouchDB? http://couchdb.apache.org/docs/intro.html http://couchdb.apache.org/docs/intro.html
- alexchamberlain 15y ago
  As pointed out below, versions can be garbaged by an efficient Database administrator.
kijin 15y ago

franklovecchio 15y ago

I use Gists as user-data files for EC2 deployments. Works amazingly well.

sundar22in 15y ago
Interesting, could you please elaborate on this use of git. It will be helpful. Thanks.
- franklovecchio 15y ago
  Sure. I'm actually working on a bootstrap project which uses Gists and Node.js to spin up a scaling infrastructure: https://github.com/franklovecchio/yc-bootstrap https://github.com/franklovecchio/yc-bootstrap. Instead of using CloudFormation, which I loathe, or Puppet/Chef (which have a learning curve and infrastructure for latter), I use standard bash libraries (see yc-bootstrap/gists/) and "extend" them to spin up instances -- see the README under "Gisting": (https://github.com/franklovecchio/yc-bootstrap/blob/master/README.markdown https://github.com/franklovecchio/yc-bootstrap/blob/master/R...). That example is what the user-data file would be.
  - sundar22in 15y ago
    Thanks! +1

gwern 15y ago

> Github and Bitbucket provide a wiki backed by git. Colloboration tools such as wikis can be run by using git. And Gitit: http://gitit.net/ http://gitit.net/

sundar22in 15y ago
Thanks for this suggestion. Post updated. +1

enjalot 15y ago

We are (ab)using git in some fun ways. Our designers use branches we setup with git flow to develop and manage assets. We deploy from develop and master branches to dev and production servers. We also use the github api to allow the dynamic loading of the assets from the head of any one of the branches for internal testing. I've been pleasantly surprised how well the designers have taken to the workflow, and its great to take advantage of the flexibility of git especially when we don't have the time to roll our own backend to cover all those bases.

franklovecchio 15y ago
I do the same thing for testing branches and continuous deployment on EC2! +1.

chunkyslink 15y ago

I asked the community this question a few months back - small discussion here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2732149 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2732149

ComputerGuru 15y ago

I'm surprised no one has mentioned it before, not that it's revolutionary or amazing, but just so damn helpful: Turn your /etc/ into a git repository. It'll save you hours on end of maintenance and debugging in the long run, especially when you update packages and find that your configurations have been overwritten or lost.

gerrit 15y ago
You should check out etckeeper, a package that does exactly that. Additionally it will hook into apt-get and similar system tools and automate Some of the revisioning
- Terretta 15y ago
  Ubuntu's page about it: https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/C/etckeeper.html https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/C/etckeeper.html Example of using etckeeper with Git on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS: http://evilrouters.net/2011/02/18/using-etckeeper-with-git-on-ubuntu/ http://evilrouters.net/2011/02/18/using-etckeeper-with-git-o...