Why pick Git?

[ link: why-pick-git | tags: git | updated: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:37:00 ]

Someone on the Git LinkedIn group asked "why pick Git?". I started writing a response on LinkedIn but quickly realized I had more to say on the topic than I'd care to leave behind closed doors of LinkedIn.

If you already use Git, none of the stuff I talk about below will surprise you. But if this sparks your interest see my Git talk.

Why distributed?

Git is distributed which brings a lot to the table. Particularly, I see four major wins with distributed revision control (like Git) over centralized revision control (like svn):

  • non-intrusive micro-commits

    Being distributed means that everyone in the team can now work on a feature or bug in complete isolation, if they so chose, until their part is ready to share. That's the non intrusive part.

    In addition users are now free to commit any amount of work, even if it's not finished. This means that developers can try things out and then back them out if they didn't work out without sharing those experiments.

  • detached operation

    In a distributed revision control system, each developer has all the repository meta data. This means that they can continue to work on a train, or a plane, or with a broken VPN connection. They only need to be connected when they want to sync up with the other developers or to share their changes.

  • no single point of failure

    While most projects will elect a single repository to be the main integration point, that is only a social distinction not a technical one.

    Developers can share commits between one another without talking to the server. If the server is not around for some reason, those developers can continue to be productive.

  • backups are trivial

    Everyone participating in the development is now maintaining a backup.

Why not centralized?

It's worth while to dispel the so called benefit of centralized development. I often hear concerns that distributed makes it easy for developers to horde their work. This is particularly scary in the corporate setting. Years of interaction with other developers have taught me that the revision control tool does not solve this phenomenon of hoarding, and I believe that centralized development can actually make it worse.

Before revision control systems became distributed people that liked to hoard their work (or just didn't or couldn't work on a public branch) would develop in their working copies for weeks, polishing their changes, and then finally committing their work. Because they were not (all) careless individuals, they would often keep multiple complete copies of their work as they progressed through stages; these snapshots ware essentially revisions of their work. Distributed revision control systems gives these people the ability to commit their work to a private repository.

It is true that some centralized systems can be setup to allow any user to create a branch. However, this usually leads to a very messy branch namespace. Being distributed means that the private branches, that developers create for their own purposes, do not have to pollute the namsepace on the shared server.

Why Git?

There are many distribute revision control systems, why pick Git?

  • massive mind share

    Git has a huge development community. Everyone benefits because of the brilliant people that run the show. And this is just going to improve as more and more projects switch to Git.

    I personally am often astounded to find out that thing I wished Git had, Git actually already had... I just didn't know about them yet.

    Which brings us to ...

  • very complete tool set

    Not only do all the Git commands do a lot for you (like letting you commit parts of files via interactive add or rearange your existing commits), but Git also comes with tools like gitk, rebase, cherry pick, bisect, reflog, and so forth. Some of which have been partially imitated in other revision control systems.

    Again, with new projects converting to Git this will improve as the new comers come with new ideas and requirements.

  • Git has cheap branches

    In Git branching is really cheap. This opens up the field to new types of "workflows" that were previously not possible. It is very common amongst Git users to have multiple threads of development on the go at a time; say for example:

    • one per bug being fixed,
    • one per new feature being developed,
    • several integration branches when importing work from others,
    • one master integration branch,
    • and branches for public releases.

    But there is more...

  • multi-HEAD development

    Once you start working on multiple branches you will find that you will be exchanging work between them often. Having all branches accessible in the same working tree is often quite useful, and since it was a foundation of Git, Git makes it quite easy to use. As a matter of fact you can store completely unrelated branches (like your source code and project web page) in the same repository.

A list like this can never be complete, but hopefully it gives you something to think about when choosing your revision control system.

Bart's Blog

/why-pick-git

About

I am an embedded Linux software developer and consultant operating under Jukie Networks Inc in Ottawa, Canada.

RSS Feed - Full Content

RSS Feed - Full Content

ipv6 ready

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional

Created with Vim

Created with Perl




Tags

abiword adam android apt asm ata audio bacula bash bios board-game boot bug busybox bzr c code conference debian debug desktop devel disk dns dpkg dream email embedded find firefox font fs fun g1 gdb geode git git scm git-find git-graft go google gpg grub hardware html hw inkscape ion3 ipsec ipv6 ipv6summit.ca irc irssi joke kdb kernel klips kqemu kvm laptop lastfm ldap lighttpd linux lua lvm mail make mercurial meta mindblown mmc mouse-free mp3 mpd music mutt neovim net nexusone nfs nvim oclug ogre ols oom OOo openswan opteron osx ottawa perl photography power pxe qemu raid redhat rogers ruby sata sbc scm screen script scsi security sheeva shell skype spam squid ssd ssh suse svn tags talk thinkpad ubuntu uml unix urxvt usb uzbl vi video vim vimgit virt vpn vserver web weechat wifi wind wmii wmiirc-lua work x x86 x86emu xen xen-box-setup xfs xterm zsh

Posts

[ 20240214132102 ]
new git learnings

[ 20240203164450 ]
new vim config

[ 20181212145129 ]
improving find -exec efficiency

[ 20130409092758 ]
automount mmcblk devices

[ 20130316190507 ]
tunnelbroker vs IRC

[ 20110616180255 ]
HDD -> SDD

[ 20110517204617 ]
how to manually create a 6in4 tunnel

[ 20110501202915 ]
Presentation slides published!

[ 20110320190458 ]
What is IPv6, and why should I care?

[ 20110309230106 ]
Ottawa IPv6 Summit 2011

[ 20110309225149 ]
I am now an IPv6 Sage

[ 20101214145558 ]
It's a Holiday Miracle

[ 20101103095130 ]
ipv6 on your desktop in 2 steps

[ 20101020113026 ]
growing a live LVM volume

[ 20100915175649 ]
distributing DNS list through radvd

[ 20100908173402 ]
Canadian ipv6 drought

[ 20100903190623 ]
ipv6 certification

[ 20100723192259 ]
m4a to mp3

[ 20100723134522 ]
git 1.7.2 is out

[ 20100523092001 ]
console=ttyS0 with grub2

[ 20100426162644 ]
How many times is my function used within an executable?

[ 20100412100135 ]
vmlinux on Ubuntu

[ 20100328152951 ]
where your WIND coverage ends

[ 20100326113354 ]
Nexus One live in Ottawa on WIND Mobile

[ 20100311133411 ]
the WIND excitement

[ 20100302160743 ]
sata hotswap pico-HOWTO

[ 20100227093435 ]
serving http content out of a git repo

[ 20100225104049 ]
pimped out zsh prompt

[ 20100221184126 ]
live termcasting of your terminal over telnet

[ 20100215083725 ]
Debian on UBIFS upgrade on SheevaPlug

[ 20100214205532 ]
nexus one

[ 20100130150527 ]
skype on Debian Linux (64bit)

[ 20100125191021 ]
I am so peeved at Rogers

[ 20091205130455 ]
running really nice

[ 20091120225902 ]
notmuch for vim

[ 20091113102221 ]
squid and apt

[ 20091104195344 ]
using WIP branches to save every edit

[ 20091104194146 ]
using git workflows to avoid loosing intermediate changes

[ 20091019183503 ]
reflections on ACM Reflections

[ 20091013174248 ]
bacula rejected Hello command

[ 20091007235046 ]
pimping out git log

[ 20091002094400 ]
virtualization primer

[ 20090922110756 ]
adding an external encrypted volume under Debian

[ 20090905112529 ]
the dreaded process of rooting Rogers Dream

[ 20090830174551 ]
Cyanogen's recipe for Cupcake/Donut-like pastry

[ 20090827100232 ]
simpler android rooting

[ 20090821095427 ]
androids don't like water

[ 20090820215358 ]
prettier function tracing

[ 20090816151854 ]
Baking a cupcake

[ 20090814131559 ]
Hello Android!

[ 20090813100025 ]
sim unlocking a G1

[ 20090731185522 ]
rooting the droid

[ 20090727210307 ]
getting into android

[ 20090714094340 ]
importing an old project into git

[ 20090702113222 ]
Why pick Git?

[ 20090628131255 ]
select loop for X events

[ 20090625181315 ]
portable printf

[ 20090623225800 ]
switching to uzbl

[ 20090622223147 ]
Linux Symposium

[ 20090622214023 ]
bringing git-format-patch to bzr

[ 20090612215638 ]
nfs local caching with fscache and cachefilesd on Lenny

[ 20090610202041 ]
Scott Chacon smacks git around

[ 20090610150039 ]
how would you read a file into an array of lines

[ 20090609215141 ]
libguestfs

[ 20090609000208 ]
tiding up the PATH

[ 20090608232531 ]
only showing relevant messages in mutt by default

[ 20090608010405 ]
git-vim hacking

[ 20090530223801 ]
mark-yank-urls: fix bug allowing shell to interpret the url

[ 20090509212648 ]
wmiirc-lua v0.2.8 release

[ 20090509113125 ]
wmiirc-lua moving to github

[ 20090504101605 ]
two terminals one PWD

[ 20090501172645 ]
splitting files out of a commit

[ 20090409155905 ]
git workflow: git amend

[ 20090401112030 ]
how old are these files in git?

[ 20090330181138 ]
sles 11 on kvm

[ 20090323194942 ]
android true type font

[ 20090322203939 ]
popen with stdin, stdout, and stderr

[ 20090320214228 ]
shrinking URLs

[ 20090304004744 ]
readlater

[ 20081112150409 ]
splitting patches with git

[ 20081011081638 ]
creating busybox symlinks

[ 20081002215121 ]
wmiirc-lua v0.2.5 release

[ 20080916155113 ]
git-svn strangeness

[ 20080915112959 ]
installing git man pages quickly

[ 20080913112345 ]
wmiirc-lua v0.2.4 release

[ 20080825100454 ]
Kernel Walkthroughs - booting

[ 20080813210205 ]
Linux Kernel Booting

[ 20080719211329 ]
printable OLS/2008 schedule

[ 20080715214447 ]
wmiirc-lua updates

[ 20080713194704 ]
Git Screencast

[ 20080713143429 ]
four steps to reproducible Debian installs

[ 20080705150651 ]
USB2.0 enclosure benchmark

[ 20080703230924 ]
Linux Kernel Walkthroughs posted

[ 20080702113602 ]
Introducing the Ottawa Ruby folks to Git

[ 20080628160732 ]
Authenticating Linux against OSX LDAP directory

[ 20080627142123 ]
Canada Day Events 2008

[ 20080613162541 ]
Linux Kernel Walkthroughs

[ 20080510083828 ]
is my usb device connected to a fast port?

[ 20080509111534 ]
show more git info on zsh prompt

[ 20080430104202 ]
git-vim

[ 20080412100337 ]
color your word

[ 20080404105620 ]
show current git branch on zsh prompt (2)

[ 20080303200359 ]
how to track multiple svn branches in git

[ 20080301134220 ]
fixing X for GeodeLX

[ 20080108002540 ]
kvm nfs hang

[ 20080107160836 ]
screen -c relative path bug

[ 20080105132854 ]
WeeChat spell suggestions

[ 20071219221358 ]
show current git branch in zsh

[ 20071217141037 ]
wmiirc-lua kitchen sink repository

[ 20071212100316 ]
protecting sshd from OOM killer

[ 20071204234232 ]
wmiirc-lua v0.2.1 remembers a bit more

[ 20071013205336 ]
wmiirc-lua v0.2 has suspend and raw modes

[ 20070929112345 ]
wmiirc-lua debianization

[ 20070924104140 ]
zsh tip of the day - global aliases

[ 20070915094213 ]
wmiirc-lua v0.1.1

[ 20070913130838 ]
comparing two directories

[ 20070909204125 ]
git-rebase --interactive

[ 20070908115905 ]
zsh tab completion awesomeness

[ 20070902000736 ]
wmiirc in lua

[ 20070831150306 ]
debugging with -dbg libraries

[ 20070831142646 ]
svn status like output in git

[ 20070829141847 ]
Git Cheat Sheet

[ 20070821142038 ]
switching to abiword

[ 20070811105746 ]
forwarding ssh and X through screen

[ 20070807112531 ]
git-svnup

[ 20070724082355 ]
reducing power consumption

[ 20070722123734 ]
Makefile template

[ 20070722002649 ]
less, colourful

[ 20070719162359 ]
irssi docs

[ 20070716114553 ]
qemu eats up /dev/shm

[ 20070710214512 ]
git-clean in svn land

[ 20070705113139 ]
ipw2200 not working

[ 20070627191916 ]
git slides updated

[ 20070618220649 ]
unpopular debian packages on my system

[ 20070611125852 ]
git-svn with multiple branches

[ 20070517085321 ]
Linus on Git at Google

[ 20070510134551 ]
vim modelines insecure

[ 20070504205042 ]
bios disassembler

[ 20070504124124 ]
dd hex arguments

[ 20070503013555 ]
urxvt mouseless url yanking

[ 20070502211941 ]
gitdiff.vba v2

[ 20070419234350 ]
india

[ 20070418155857 ]
zsh fun

[ 20070418143632 ]
pipe to pastey.net

[ 20070418094151 ]
vimgrep alias

[ 20070416202545 ]
mouse-free

[ 20070406141850 ]
ATA messages via SCSI layer

[ 20070330221019 ]
GITDiff vim plugin

[ 20070329011735 ]
git presentation for OCLUG

[ 20070328123631 ]
fixing vim's [[ and ]] for bad code

[ 20070316092236 ]
pxeboot and nfsroot with debian

[ 20070312134706 ]
etc snapshots with git

[ 20070307004041 ]
remote power switch

[ 20070222215355 ]
klips-less openswan git tree

[ 20070221041316 ]
git caching for v1.5.x

[ 20070218002214 ]
klips loses zlib

[ 20070209172606 ]
vim and linux CodingStyle

[ 20070207205427 ]
my kqemu install

[ 20070204100100 ]
leaner meaner openswan

[ 20070115111917 ]
wmii+ruby xlock action

[ 20070112131252 ]
cloning xterms in wmii+ruby

[ 20070102010551 ]
wmii+ruby talk for OCLUG

[ 20061228220641 ]
dump and restore

[ 20061218100219 ]
C style

[ 20061101002027 ]
fetching all git branches from remote

[ 20061028111607 ]
local caching for git repos

[ 20061020145437 ]
automatic version creation with git

[ 20061018213306 ]
wmii w/ ruby wmiirc

[ 20061018201907 ]
small fonts

[ 20061007151802 ]
google-codesearch from vim

[ 20060928020813 ]
shell commands

[ 20060920093957 ]
letting screen apps use the ssh-agent

[ 20060908223613 ]
mpdscribble stream support

[ 20060907125149 ]
glGo on ubuntu/dapper amd64

[ 20060906163240 ]
lbdb and mutt

[ 20060902145643 ]
vim tutorial

[ 20060902135722 ]
fixing your terminal

[ 20060828124713 ]
apt-get pdiffs

[ 20060824224842 ]
256 colour xterms

[ 20060824152658 ]
dynamic IPcomp

[ 20060824145428 ]
inkscape++

[ 20060818150516 ]
tags/cscope for system headers

[ 20060805131557 ]
opteron 170, part 4

[ 20060805101941 ]
opteron 170, part 3

[ 20060803233234 ]
opteron 170, part 2

[ 20060802210126 ]
opteron 170

[ 20060729144129 ]
OLS keysigning / 2006

[ 20060728105500 ]
git-find findings

[ 20060727162941 ]
starting on git-find

[ 20060727113632 ]
git-graft and git-find brainstorm

[ 20060726224531 ]
pretty function tracing

[ 20060713174723 ]
uml and multiple network segments

[ 20060707182236 ]
lastfm artist and title to clipboard

[ 20060706162256 ]
reverting a git changeset

[ 20060629212003 ]
user #3

[ 20060628083456 ]
firefox crashes with form input

[ 20060621151402 ]
git vs hg

[ 20060612222204 ]
ldap account management

[ 20060612194523 ]
stupid ldap

[ 20060608092157 ]
rpm hell is right

[ 20060605095726 ]
OpenSSH VPNs

[ 20060604114317 ]
Lenovo lost a customer

[ 20060601234010 ]
generating html colourized sourcecode

[ 20060601211716 ]
ion3 greatness and acting on X selections

[ 20060526085644 ]
software RAID10 performance

[ 20060525234148 ]
learning to love git

[ 20060524121638 ]
recent vim7 articles

[ 20060516095748 ]
bootstrapping debian on my sbc

[ 20060428145140 ]
entropy injection

[ 20060423140628 ]
Adam

[ 20060414202507 ]
converting mp3s to CD

[ 20060413232836 ]
secure apt-get

[ 20060412194423 ]
xen domain0 on debian

[ 20060410220525 ]
LVM2 on RAID1 mirror

[ 20060410102824 ]
building a RHEL4 kernel w/ kdb support

[ 20060407230939 ]
xen on debian

[ 20060407230818 ]
Upgraded look

[ 20060330131334 ]
Flattered by a copy

[ 20060328165153 ]
vim7 from source

[ 20060308123539 ]
Perl, Catalyst, CPAN, and Debian

[ 20060308123302 ]
last.fm

[ 20060128124841 ]
carcassonne and zombies

[ 20060120135931 ]
Election Humour

[ 20050925130002 ]
ldap on debian

[ 20050528190034 ]
Error while mapping shared library sections

[ 20050124130158 ]
IRC over email gateway

[ 20050110225522 ]
brute force attacks sshd?

[ 20050108095026 ]
LDAP authentication (part 1)

[ 20041124130146 ]
sawfish workspace themes

[ 20041113082651 ]
Mini-DV to divx using mencoder

[ 20041004084525 ]
notes on vserver

[ 20040922104334 ]
fast kernel logging

[ 20040803104122 ]
Digital Rebel for sale... GONE

[ 20040714202912 ]
OpenOffice resources

[ 20040603175746 ]
photo editing

[ 20040601082817 ]
WRT54G

[ 20040503205227 ]
Digital Rebel

[ 20040420200136 ]
Open Office templates

[ 20040326082602 ]
bash vi editing mode

[ 20040315204142 ]
debian install CDs

[ 20040312155542 ]
change of jobs

[ 20040308091554 ]
spamassasin extras

[ 20040305163216 ]
cool debian tools

[ 20040305155708 ]
first post!





Bart Trojanowski
http://www.jukie.net/~bart
bart@jukie.net